History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

Gustav Steinhauer was the German spymaster before and during the First World War. He had worked for the Pinkerton Detective Agency in Chicago and had been the Kaiser’s bodyguard when he visited London in 1901 for Queen Victoria’s funeral. In disguise, Steinhauer travelled to England several times to set up a spy network before the War.  Gustav Steinhauer in Naval Uniform He recruited three German hairdressers, Karl Gustav Ernst, Wilhelm Kronauer and Otto Kruger, who acted as intermediaries to receive and forward letters from his agents. Ernst had a shop at 402a Caledonian Road, Kronauer was at 31 Fortune Green Road (near today’s famous Nautilus fish restaurant in West Hampstead), and Kruger was at 334 Kilburn High Road. During the Kaiser’s visit to England in May 1910 to attend the funeral of King Edward VII, Special Branch followed a senior German officer to Ernst’s shop where he stayed overnight. This was suspicious, so a Home Office Warrant (HOW) was issued, and the GPO intercep...

Newspaper photo of Kusel and Linda Behr Kusel Behr and his brother Samuel were partners in a very successful company of egg importers called Behr & Mathew in Southwark. They imported millions of frozen eggs from their factory in Shanghai for use in food products across Europe. They had other factories in Berlin, Paris and Hamburg. In 1920 the Behr brothers bought out the Mathew’s family interests. The Behr family had originated in Lithuania. Kusel had married Linda in 1909 and they had four children. Kusel and Linda travelled extensively and lived in America, South Africa and for seven years in Shanghai. They had come from Shanghai to London in May 1923 and later bought No.368 Finchley Road. This was a large house called Lyndale Hall, opposite Lyndale Avenue just north of the Hendon Way. Today this has been replaced by a block of flats. 1954 OS Map  Up until 1923 Kusel had generally been in good health, but at the end of December that year he had a bad attack of bronchitis and ...