Gerhard von Mende (December 25, 1904 – December 16, 1963) was a Baltic German who was head of the Caucasus division at the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territory, or Ostministerium, in Nazi Germany. He was a scholar on Asiatic and Muslim minorities within the Soviet Union and was considered the pioneer of mobilising them as a fifth column against the Communists, while being one of their staunchest advocates within Nazi Germany and post-war West Germany. Following World War II, he established the Research Service Eastern Europe through financing by the West German foreign office, a company which replicated his activities at the Ostministerium, becoming an intelligence asset for the CIA and BND.

von Mende was born on December 25, 1904, in Riga, Latvia, the son of a banker. Following the invasion by the Soviet Union during the Latvian War of Independence, his father was rounded up with the bourgeoisie and executed.^[1][2] His mother and six siblings would flee to Germany, where he took an interest in studying oppressed minorities in Russia. He studied at Schulpforta from 1920 to 1923,^[3] and at the University of Berlin from 1927 to 1932, focusing on Russian, history, and Turkish.^[3] von Mende would attend the École Nationale des Langues Orientales Vivantes in Paris,^[3] and in 1933 he was awarded a doctorate from the University of Breslau for his writing "Studien zur Kolonization in der Sovietunion."^[3] Later he was awarded a doctorate in Slavic studies from the Wirtschaftshochschule Berlin.^[3] During this time he had become fluent in Russian, Latvian and French, as well as knowledgeable in Turkish and Arabic.^[1]

In 1934 he wrote "Die Völker der Sowjetunion,"^[4] about the struggles of German minorities in the Soviet Union.

After traveling through the Balkans following his studies,^[3] von Mende became a professor at multiple universities, including the University of Berlin in 1935,^[5] University of Posen, and University of Hamburg.^[3] During this time he wrote "Der nationale Kampf der Russlandtürken" in 1936, about the oppression of the Turkish minorities under Soviet rule.

von Mende was an enthusiastic Nazi,^[6] who was Alfred Rosenberg's specialist on minorities in the Soviet Union.^[7] With the outbreak of World War II and subsequent invasion of the East by the Wehrmacht, von Mende was appointed head of the Caucasus division at the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territory, although he kept his university position at the University of Berlin.^[1]

With the war drawing to a close, von Mende worked through the bureaucracy to ensure that as many of the fifth columnists as possible were moved to the West to avoid capture by the Soviet Union, which would result in execution.^[1] Many were left stranded and destitute in Munich, whereby von Mende, faced with little employment prospects of his own with his Nazi past, decided to look after them.^[1] He wrote to the British Army explaining his vast intelligence sources on Soviet people, whereby interest was taken initially by them.^[12][13][14]

von Mende married Karo Espeseth,^[18] a Norwegian author, and had children, including Erling von Mende. von Mende died at his desk in Düsseldorf on December 16, 1963, of a heart attack.^[1]

• Mende, Gerhard von (1933). Studien zur Kolonisation in der Sovetunion [Studies on colonisation in the Soviet Union] (in German). Breslau. OCLC 472801856.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)^[19]
• Mende, G. von (1936). Der nationale Kampf der Russlandtürken: ein Beitrag zur nationalen Frage in der Sovetunion [The national struggle of the Turkish population in Russia] (in German). Berlin. OCLC 474984341.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• von Mende, Gerhard (1944). "Sowjet-Föderalismus" [Soviet federalism]. Zeitschrift für Politik (in German). 34 (5–6): 149–156. ISSN 0044-3360. OCLC 7831301044.
• Mende, Gerhard von (1962). Nationalität und Ideologie [Nationality and Ideology] (in German). OCLC 256032126.