Josef Selmayr

Josef Selmayr (7 July 1905 – 11 November 2005) was a German brigadier general and intelligence officer, who is best known as the first director of the West German Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD) during the Cold War from 1955 to 1964. He is credited with building the organization and is one of the founders of the modern German Intelligence Community, as well as one of the first general officers of the Bundeswehr. He became a professional soldier in the Weimar Republic in 1924 and started his career in intelligence in the Foreign Armies East unit that analysed the Soviet Union during WWII; before his 1955 appointment as director of MAD he worked for the CIA during the early 1950s. He is the father of Gerhard Selmayr and the grandfather of the Secretary-General of the European Commission, Martin Selmayr.