Wolfgang Ebell
Wolfgang Ebell (b. 28 July 1899 in Zabern, Reichsland Elsaß-Lothringen) was a German officer of the Imperial German Army and a medical doctor.
Life
Ebell served in WWI as a Leutnant of the Infanterie-Regiment „Kaiser Friedrich, König von Preußen“ (7. Württembergisches) Nr. 125. 1919 he was discharged and took up his studies of medicine. 1927 he went to Mexico as a salesman for a German corporation, and emigrated to the United States of America in 1930, coming to El Paso County, Texas, where he married (1937) and acquired property. On 28 July 1933, he made and filed a declaration of intention to become a citizen of the United States of America, and on 3 April 1939, an order was entered granting his application and directing issuance of a certificate of naturalization to him. After this he became a member of the German-American Bund.[1]
Espionage
Living in El Paso, Texas, he was found guilty in 1942 of violating the Espionage Act of 1917. He served a prison sentence for the next five years and was later deported back to Germany.[2] He was accused of operating an "underground railroad" assisting spies in crossing the Mexican boarder. Dr. med. Wolfgang Ebell's conviction was part of the Anastase Vonsiatsky, Gerhard Kunze, and Otto Willumeit spy ring.
- On April 3, 1942, the United States revoked Dr. Wolfgang Ebell’s U.S. naturalization. Ebell lived and worked as a doctor in El Paso. According to court documents, Ebell was naturalized on April 3, 1939. Ebell, who was born in Germany on July 28, 1899 and moved to México in 1927. In 1930, Ebell moved to El Paso, Texas where he married. Ebell’s sympathies remained strongly pro-Hitler according to the court records. “Hitler would rule the world,” the court found that Ebell had proclaimed in 1940. In addition to his pro-Hitler public proclamations, Ebell was found to routinely meet with Gerhardt Wilhelm Kunze, the leader of the German-American Bund in El Paso. The court found “great preponderance of evidence” showing that Wolfgang Ebell committed fraud on his application for naturalization and “did not intend to support and defend” the United States and thus, revoked his naturalization. On July 14, 1942, Ebell pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiring to violate the Espionage Act of 1911. Ebell admitted to providing Germany and Japan American secrets. Ebell was imprisoned from 1942 until 1947 and deported to Germany.[3]
Awards and decorations
- Iron Cross (1914), 2nd Class
- Military Merit Medal (Württemberg) for Bravery in Gold (WMVM1/WgM) on 8 November 1918
- Ehrenkreuz für Frontkämpfer