Confidential report from Thomas J. Kiernan to Seán Murphy (Dublin)
(D/19) (Secret) (Copy)

Dr. Walter M. Weber,¹ an official of the German Foreign Office, volunteered the following information to me concerning the late Mr. Frank Ryan.

When Mr. Ryan arrived in Berlin, he contacted Dr. Weber, who at that time had charge of Irish business in the Foreign Office. From the time Dr. Weber first met Mr. Ryan, the latter was a sick man, his locomotion control being affected so that he walked with difficulty, his arms and hands shaking, and his oral muscular control so badly affected that he was barely able to articulate. He was, Dr. Weber stated, in an advanced stage of syphilis, contracted in Spain. From the time of his arrival in Berlin, Mr. Ryan was treated in the Charité by one of the most distinguished physicians of that institution. He was looked after by a German woman friend, who was employed in Berlin as a pharmaceutical chemist.² Dr. Weber thinks she was in love with Mr. Ryan and she was ‘his shadow’ until his death in Dresden. She asked Dr. Weber to help to get Mr. Ryan out of Berlin, which was being bombed at the time. Arrangements were made with a sanatorium in Dresden and a private compartment was booked on the train from Berlin to Dresden.

Mr. Ryan was, from the time of his arrival in Berlin, in such a state of illness that, although he was not aware of the nature of his illness, he entrusted a parcel to Dr. Weber to be forwarded in the event of his death, for his mother through the German Embassy in Madrid and the Irish Minister in Madrid. This parcel contained a gold watch. Dr. Weber locked it in a safe in his room in the Foreign Office and it was destroyed in a bomb raid. Another smaller parcel was forwarded to the Embassy in Spain.

Dr. Weber was shown medical reports by the Berlin doctor. He attended the funeral in Dresden. There was a Mass – Dr. Weber is a Catholic – and the coffin was draped with the Irish tricolour. The Clissmanns and some other Irish friends attended the funeral.

The Irish Chargé d’Affaires ad. int., Mr. Cremin, approached Dr. Weber and said that his Government had asked him to try to obtain some information concerning Mr. Ryan. Dr. Weber told Mr. Cremin that he had never heard of Mr. Ryan and he knew nothing about him. Dr. Weber was aware that the code used by Mr. Cremin for telegrams to Dublin was opened by the Foreign Office and also by the SS, so that any telegram sent might just as well have been sent in clear. He was afraid, therefore, to have any conversation with Mr. Cremin regarding Mr. Ryan as he knew that anything reported would be known to the SS.

I do not think that there is anything new in this report. Dr. Weber took me aside at a supper party in the Ethiopian Legation and began by enquiring as to where Mr. Cremin is now posted. He gradually worked on towards talking of Mr. Ryan and seemed anxious to get the story off his chest, making it appear very serious that the above should be known, but asking me to treat it still as confidential, and he hoped we had a better coding system. He is about 55 and is at present in charge of Middle East business in the Foreign Office in Bonn.