High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Reinhard Gehlen (3 April 1902 ? 8 June 1979) was a General in the German Army during World War II, who served as chief of intelligence-gathering on the Eastern Front. After WWII, he was recruited by the United States military to set up a spy ring directed against the Soviet Union (known as the Gehlen Organisation), and eventually became head of the West German intelligence apparatus. He served as the first President of the Federal Intelligence Service until 1968. Gehlen is considered one of the most legendary Cold War spymasters.