Episode

The Rumrich Nazi Spy Case (1938): The FBI’s First Major International Espionage Investigation

Podcast: Spy Craft
Published: Apr 21, 2026
Duration seconds: 367
Processing state: not_requested
Canonical source: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/the-rumrich-nazi-spy-case-1938-the-fbi-s-first-major-international-espionage-investigation--71522707
Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/71522707/podcast_1776782770.mp3
JSON: /v1/public/podcasts/spy-craft-2136940/episodes/the-rumrich-nazi-spy-case-1938-the-fbi-s-first-major-international-espionage-investigation
Markdown: /podcast/spy-craft-2136940/the-rumrich-nazi-spy-case-1938-the-fbi-s-first-major-international-espionage-investigation.md

Actions

POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/spy-craft-2136940/episodes/the-rumrich-nazi-spy-case-1938-the-fbi-s-first-major-international-espionage-investigation/transcription-requests
Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/spy-craft-2136940/the-rumrich-nazi-spy-case-1938-the-fbi-s-first-major-international-espionage-investigation.md
Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

Summary

In this episode, we examine the Rumrich Nazi Spy Case of 1938, the FBI’s first major international espionage investigation. Naturalized U.S. citizen Guenther Rumrich, a former Army deserter recruited by German intelligence, was arrested after impersonating the Secretary of State to obtain blank passports for Nazi agents. The case exposed a broader spy ring, led to four convictions, and established key precedents for U.S. counterintelligence on the eve of World War II.