Wannsee Institut

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Wannsee Institut was a research group in Nazi Germany that studied the Soviet Union’s politics and economy. It began as a private foundation in Wannsee, near Berlin, and in 1936 Reinhard Heydrich made it part of the Security Service (SS). It operated as the Institute for Research of Antiquity and was housed in the former mansion of the Oppenheim family. Staff were drawn from the University of Berlin, often with Baltic backgrounds. The first director was Michael Achmeteli, followed by Austrian professor Hans Koch. In 1942, due to Allied bombing, the institute moved to Schloss Plankenwart near Graz, Austria. Around that time, it worked with a group planning Operation Zeppelin, which aimed to recruit Soviet POWs for espionage and sabotage behind Soviet lines. After the war, surviving materials were sent to the Gehlen Organization, the intelligence agency in the American-occupied zone of Germany.