Johannes Clemens

{{Short description|German intelligence officer (1902–1976)}}

Johannes "Hans" Max Clemens (February 9, 1902 – September 9, 1976) was a German functionary of respectively the SS, Sicherheitsdienst (SD, Security Service) was primarily the intelligence service of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. Clemens was also known as the Tiger of Como while serving as a captain in the SS. During the war, he participated in the Ardeatine massacre. Clemens, together with other SS officers, including Herbert Kappler, Karl Hass, Carl-Theodor Schütz, and Erich Priebke, formed the first firing squad, which shot the first 12 victims. After the war, however, Clemens was acquitted of involvement by an Italian military court. He was released and returned to West Germany in 1949.[http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/intelligence-agency-s-murky-past-the-nazi-criminals-who-became-german-spooks-a-745640.html Intelligence Agency's Murky Past: The Nazi Criminals Who Became German Spooks]Staron, Fosse Ardeatine, S. 171

Clemens joined the Gehlen Organization and with Heinz Felfe, started feeding information to the Soviets.{{Cite book |last=Richelson |first=Jeffery T. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s2aN5ETA_GQC&q=moles+in+the+Gehlen+org,&pg=PA273 |title=A Century of Spies: Intelligence in the Twentieth Century |date=1997-07-17 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-976173-9 |language=en}} Before this work was discovered, he worked with the successor of the Gehlen Org, the Bundesnachrichtendienst, the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), the foreign intelligence agency of the modern German government, under the control of the Chancellor's Office.{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/FELFE%2C%20HEINZ%20%20%20VOL.%203_0001.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170123214433/https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/FELFE%2C%20HEINZ%20%20%20VOL.%203_0001.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 23, 2017| date=14 December 1961|work= CIA documents declassified 2005 |publisher=Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room, Central Intelligence Agency, Langley, VA|title=Testimonial statements by Erwin Tiebel|accessdate=18 June 2018}}

Clemens was part of a group of Soviet spies who were put on trial in 1963. His co-defendants were Heinz Felfe and Erwin Tiebel.{{cite news | title = Trial of 3 as Soviet Spies Opens in West Germany | work = The New York Times | date = July 9, 1963 |url=https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP70-00058R000200090037-0.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170123102752/https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP70-00058R000200090037-0.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 23, 2017 |via=cia.gov }} Clemens and Felfe admitted to having transmitted great amounts of secret information to the Soviets, including 15,000 classified documents.{{Cite book |last=West |first=Nigel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1-Sc_FtXhJoC&q=Hans+Clemens+trial+convicted,&pg=PA41 |title=Historical Dictionary of International Intelligence |date=2006-06-26 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0-8108-6493-1 |language=en}} All three were convicted, with Clemens receiving a 10-year sentence for espionage. He was released from prison on health grounds in 1968.{{cite news | title = Bonn Double Agents Betrayed 95 to Reds | work = The New York Times | date = July 24, 1963}}