About the book: 2004 / Walter Hagen's real name is Wilhelm Hoettl. An Austrian by birth, a native of Vienna, Hoettl ended up in Nazi foreign (political) intelligence after the annexation of Austria in 1938. By May 1945, Hoettl headed a department in one of the foreign intelligence departments of the RSHA (Reich Security Main Directorate) and reported directly to Walter Schellenberg. Hoettl ended the war with the rank of Obersturmbannführer, which corresponded to the rank of army lieutenant colonel. He settles in the small town of Bad Aussee, not far from the Dead Mountains. In his book, Hoettl reveals a little-studied and practically unknown to the general reader secret operation of the RSHA - the production and sale by the Germans of counterfeit English pounds sterling. Hoettl’s book is interesting not only because of the story about the technical aspects of production and sale counterfeit currency by the Nazis, but also the author’s personal observations and impressions of his work in the Main Directorate of Imperial Security of the Third Reich.