Wilhelm Canaris, German admiral (b. 1887)
Wilhelm Franz Canaris (1 January 1887 – 9 April 1945) was a German admiral and the chief of the Abwehr (the German military-intelligence service) from 1935 to 1944. Canaris was initially a supporter of Adolf Hitler, and the Nazi regime. However, following the German invasion of Poland in 1939, Canaris turned against Hitler and committed acts of both passive and active resistance during the war.
As the head of the Nazi intelligence agency he was in a key position to participate in Nazi resistance. As the war turned against Germany, Canaris and other military officers expanded their clandestine opposition to the leadership of Nazi Germany. By 1945 his acts of resistance and sabotage against the Nazi regime came to light and Canaris was hastily executed in Flossenbürg concentration camp for high treason as the Allied forces advanced through Southern Germany.