Capt W Von Lubbers

Capt von Lubbers worked for the Unterkunfts-Departement (UD):  Billeting Department ; War Ministry's Department UD, aka Accomodation Department, where he was placed in charge of prisoner-of-war propaganda. He held a senior position and appears to have been involved with both the Irish Brigade and with Lenin's "sealed train" in April 1917. Various references to him are as follows

1915 Mar11, From the Secretary of the American YMCA in Berlin to Head Office in New York " On the 6th March we received the endorsement and 11th March we were placed in the kind hands of Captain von Liibbers of the War Office. We start to-morrow to visit prisoners in his com pany. As wired, he suggests that we begin in the prisons in Gottingen and Altengrabow. I will write you later the further results..."

1915 Mar 18. War Ministry to Mr. Christian Phildius, Berlin " I hope you and Mr. H returned safely from your interersting journey. I have this morning at once given my General a detailed report thereon. All with whom I have spoken on the matter are strongly impressed with your activity, so that each had the feeling which was expressed by the exclamation : "If we had only, only known of that earlier!" You may rely upon all possible support on the part of the War Ministry. With many good wishes for you and Mr. H . I remain, yours faithfully, (Signed) Captain W. Von Lubbers.

1915 Mar 21. Casement writes to von Wedel "I had the pleasure yesterday morning of meeting Capt von Lubbers of the War Dept, who called upon me with a friend of mine. I discussed with him some of the matters touched on in my letter to you, and I gather that he will call upon you tomorrow, and that he may go to Limburg this week to assist my efforts. I would beg that you give Capt von Lubbers any help from the Foreign Office that he thinks necessary

1915 May 16 Plunketts diary records. "At dinner with myself, Casement. Capt Boehm and Capt von Lubbers came from the camp (Limburg)."

1915 May 17 Casement writes to von Wedel from Limburg that " I have explained to Capt von Lubber the course I think best to follow. I would beg that you allow no public statement to be made of any kind - even if a company is formed this week - until I have been consulted"

1915 17 May Limburg. Plunkett writes in his diary. "Meeting with Casement, Father B and Capt von Lubbers and Father Nicholson and after that with Casement and Capt Boehm."

1917 May 8. The Alexinsky-Pankratov letter consisted of two parts, the first explanation based upon counter-intelligence and the second largely on censorship intelligence. In the first part of their letter, Alexinsky and Pankratov stated that on May 8, 1917, Ensign Yermolenko a Russian prisoner in Germany, was dispatched behind Russian lines to agitate for a speedy separate peace. German officers Schiditzki and Lubbers told him that peace propaganda was being disseminated by A. Skoropis-Yoltukhovsky, of the Bund for the Liberation of the Ukraine, and by Lenin, who was commissioned to undermine the confidence of the Russian people in the government. Money for this purpose was transmitted through a certain Svendson at the German legation in Stockholm.
The report stated that Yermolenko’s file had been forwarded to the Ministry for examination on April 28, i.e., before Yermolenko crossed back into Russian territory—an indication that Yermolenko may have been a counter-intelligence agent who had originally been dispatched by the Russians to the Germans.
It was impossible to confirm the existence of Captain Schiditzki, who may have been Yermolenko’s interrogator. However, the existence of Captain von Lubbers is substantiated by documentary evidence. He was assigned to the Unterkunfts-Departement of the German War Ministry, where he was placed in charge of prisoner-of-war propaganda. If Yermolenko did talk to Lubbers, he was, indeed, in communication with one of the top men. Although it is improbable that the Germans would have given secret information to a Russian prisoner, they might have acted incautiously if they had believed they were dealing with a prominent leader.

Plunkett in Germany