TIM WILLASEY-WILSEY – THE SPY AND THE DEVIL. THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE MI6 AGENT WHO PENETRATED HITLER’S INNER CIRCLE. CHAIRED BY SAVILIAN MIKE ADLEM.

Three images: the son of a Russian colonel playing at the family estate in Lithuania. A British officer serving with the Royal Flying Corps on the Western Front during the Great War. A faux journalist discussing ‘madmen’s dreams’ in flawless German with Adolf Hitler in a cramped Munich office. All three are of the same person.

This is the forgotten tale of MI6’s top spy in Nazi Germany and his bid to stop the Second World War. In the world of espionage, where the accounts of renowned spies often dominate the narrative, this is a rare gem – an untold story of an unknown spy.

One of the most closely guarded secrets in MI6 was that they had a secret agent (Baron Wilhelm de Ropp) in regular contact with Adolf Hitler throughout the 1930s.

Bill de Ropp (as he was known to his numerous British friends) was an enthusiastic member of the Savile from 1916 to 1952. He would give his Nazi interlocutors the impression that the Savile was the beating heart of the British establishment and he made beneficial use of the club and its members during his spying career.

Tim Willasey-Wilsey is Visiting Professor of War Studies at King’s College London and served for 27 years in the Foreign Office. Tim will describe the complexities involved in uncovering the life story of a secret agent and the effects which his reporting had on British foreign policy, particularly in the days before the Munich Agreement in September 1938. Bill de Ropp also reported on German war plans, German aviation factories and on attitudes towards the Jews. He and his wife  lived in constant danger of arrest, torture and execution by the Gestapo and SS.

On 8 May 2025 eighty years will have passed since the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany to the Allies in 1945. To mark this significant anniversary Bonnier Books UK has publish The Spy and the Devil.

Following a short career in the police, Mike Adlem worked for major banks and consulting firms investigating financial crime.  He spent 15 years in the Middle East and two years in Zurich, where he led a team as part of the Volcker Commission, looking for the assts of the victims of Nazi persecution at a major Swiss bank.  Now retired, he lives in the Marche region of Italy and spends his time researching: Roman and early medieval archaeology, Romanesque churches and all aspects of WWII and Cold War espionage.