The Madam and the Spymaster: The Secret History of the Most Famous Brothel in Wartime Berlin

This extraordinary story of a high-class Berlin brothel--taken over by the Nazi secret service--is one of the last untold tales of World War II.

There is no book in English about the wartime Berlin 'salon' run by Kitty Schmidt under the secret control of Reinhard Heydrich, one of the architects of the Final Solution.

"Salon Kitty" was the most notorious brothel in the decadent Berlin of the Weimar Republic - the city of "Cabaret." But after the Nazis took power, it became something more dangerous: a spying centre with every room wired for sound, staffed by female agents specially selected by the SS to coax secrets from their VIP clients.

Masterminded by Reinhard Heydrich, the spymaster whom Hitler himself called "the man with the iron heart," the exclusive establishment turned listening post was patronised by the Nazi leaders themselves, not knowing that hidden ears were listening.

The Madam and the Spymaster reveals the sensational true story of this forgotten part of espionage history. The deep research undertaken by Nigel Jones, Urs Brunner and Dr Julia Schrammel sheds new light on Nazi methods of control and coercion, and the way sex was abused for their own perverse purposes.

Author: Urs Brunner, Nigel Jones, Julia Schrammel
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Published: 07/04/2023
Pages: 320
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.20w x 1.20d
ISBN: 9781639364299


Review Citation(s):
Booklist 06/21/2023
Library Journal 06/16/2023 pg. 1

About the Author
Urs Brenner studied History, Politics, and Literature at the University of Zurich and the American University of Cairo. She currently works as a freelance journalist.

Historian and journalist Nigel Jones is the author of eight books. An authority on the poets of the Great War and the rise of Nazism and Fascism between the world wars, he has also guided historical tours of the Western Front, Germany, and Italy for several years. A former deputy editor of History Today and a founding editor of BBC History magazine, he writes and reviews regularly for these and other national newspapers and magazines, and frequently appears in historical documentaries.

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Dr. Julia Schrammel is an Austrian journalist who studied at the University of Salzburg and works with several media companies.