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John Werner Kluge
| John Werner Kluge | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 21 September 1914 Chemnitz, Germany |
| Died | 7 September 2010 Charlottesville, Virginia |
| Nativity | Germany |
| Religion | Protestant |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch |  United States Army |
| ASN | 01577435 |
| Rank | Colonel |
| Rank at Ritchie | Second Lieutenant |
| Camp Ritchie | Class 7 (15 April – 12 June 1943) |
| Section | 8 |
{{Needs source}}, or explain disagreements on talk. Baseline import notes: About the data.
John Werner Kluge (21 September 1914–7 September 2010) was a Chemnitz-born U.S. Army officer who trained at Camp Ritchie with Class 7 and commanded the Military Intelligence Research Section (MIRS) at P.O. Box 1142. After the war he built Metromedia and became one of America’s best-known media entrepreneurs.
Biography
John Werner Kluge was born on 21 September 1914 in Chemnitz, Germany. He came to the United States at eight through Ellis Island, grew up in Detroit learning English from scratch, and graduated from Columbia University in 1937 with a degree in economics. He became a U.S. Citizen the same year. German birth and fluent German later made him useful to Army intelligence.
He volunteered before Pearl Harbor, expecting a year in uniform. After the United States entered the war he stayed for about four and a half years. On 7 December 1941 he was with an air-defense unit in the Los Angeles area. He went through Officer Candidate School and came out a second lieutenant—though a first sergeant once called him, jokingly, the laziest man on the post.
A false accusation that he was a German spy helped push him toward a harsh posting: eight months in the Aleutians as assistant transportation officer at Dutch Harbor, coordinating troop-ship arrivals and logistics. The War Department investigated and cleared him. He remembered the islands mainly as cold, and he tangled with superiors, including a deputy commander who threatened to bust him to “private, no class.”
Back from Alaska he trained at Camp Ritchie with Class 7—German order of battle and weapons (including the 88 and tanks), document work, field maneuvers (he once sat on a nest of copperheads), and intelligence analysis. David Rockefeller was among his classmates. Roster notes also tie him to Class 5 order-of-battle / MIRS work. After Ritchie he spent a short stretch at the Pentagon, where he met figures such as contractor John McShain, who had built the building.
Kluge was then sent to P.O. Box 1142 at Fort Hunt. He kept quiet about the place for decades and said he never talked about it until researchers reached him after declassification. There he commanded the Military Intelligence Research Section—about twenty men, many of them young German-Jewish refugees who gained citizenship through service, among them Paul Fairbrook. MIRS sorted tens of thousands of captured German documents for the Army’s “Red Book” order-of-battle reference and for planning before major operations, including D-Day.
Though the section’s main job was documents, Kluge also dealt with high-ranking German prisoners—softening them up over bridge or drives around Washington, or using pressure such as a staged “Russian officer” to suggest Siberia. He said results improved the following week. The post used hidden microphones in trees, planted misinformation, and even foreign press (Rommel’s daughter’s wedding coverage, for example) to unsettle generals into thinking American spies were everywhere. He recalled odd finds in the document haul: a drunk German sergeant talking Panzer movements in a brothel, a colonel’s bizarre romantic diary, stolen Reichstag telephone directories used to bluff prisoners about intercepted calls. British liaison included Major Eric Burley; Kluge later noted the shadow cast by Guy Burgess once the Soviet spy case became known.
He helped stand up MIRS from almost nothing—even lifting light fixtures and desks from the Pentagon to furnish the place—and reported to Colonel Lovell at the Pentagon rather than to the on-site post commander, whom he dismissed as a “housekeeper.” He lived in Washington and drove out to 1142 each day.
After the war Kluge built Metromedia and became a major figure in American broadcasting and outdoor advertising. He married four times and had homes that included Virginia; he died in Charlottesville on 7 September 2010, at 95.
Research notes
- Also Class 5 OB / MIRS (roster).
- Commanded MIRS at P.O. Box 1142 (NPS oral history).
- Metromedia founder; philanthropist.
Technical record
| Field | Imported value |
|---|---|
| Approx Age at Death | 96 |
| Class_ASN | 577435 |
| Class_Name | KLUGE, John W. |
| match_method | asn_partial_name_exact |
| row_source | both |
Timeline
- 21 September 1914 — Born in Chemnitz, Germany.
- 1922 — Immigrated via Ellis Island; grew up in Detroit.
- 1937 — Graduated Columbia University (economics); became a U.S. citizen.
- Pre–Pearl Harbor — Volunteered for the U.S. Army.
- 7 December 1941 — Serving with air defense near Los Angeles.
- c. 1942 — Officer Candidate School; commissioned second lieutenant.
- c. 1942–1943 — Eight months in the Aleutians (assistant transportation officer, Dutch Harbor); cleared after a false German-spy accusation.
- Class 7 — Camp Ritchie intelligence training (also noted Class 5 OB / MIRS).
- Brief Pentagon assignment.
- P.O. Box 1142 — Commanded MIRS (~20 men); Red Book document exploitation; high-value prisoner interviews; British liaison.
- Postwar — Founder and chairman of Metromedia.
- 7 September 2010 — Died in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Sources
- NPS Fort Hunt Oral History — John W. Kluge interview transcript (MIRS commander at P.O. Box 1142; formerly published on the NPS Fort Hunt oral-history exhibit)
- Wikipedia: John Kluge
- Camp Ritchie Museum, Inc. (The Ritchie History Museum), Classes 1–31 roster data
- Dan Gross research spreadsheets, including original Excel timeline/roster work, combined with other research and records
- NARA World War II Army enlistment records (where a NARA ASN is present)
- 1940 U.S. Census (where a census match is present)
- Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2017-09-03 (1 post)
- Dan Gross, Timeline of John W. Kluge for Camp Ritchie (private research document; 2 source documents reviewed)
- Dan Gross, Timeline of Kluge, John W. for Camp Ritchie (private research files; selected non-private narrative findings; 2 source files: JOHN W. KLUGE - 18.doc, JOHN W. KLUGE.doc)