Karl Schulmeister

Karl Ludwig Schulmeister (1770–1853) (also known as Carl Schulmeister or Charles Louis Schulmeister) was an Austrian double agent for France during the reign of Napoleon I.

Schulmeister was born in Baden and raised as a shepherd. His father was a Lutheran minister. Later in life he became a businessman and smuggler and drifted into trading information as well as goods. He was a spy for the Austrian Empire and the Holy Alliance, but was recruited by General Savary to spy for France. His information led to the French capture of Louis-Antoine-Henri de Bourbon and also contributed to the victory at Austerlitz. Schulmeister also acted as a General in Napoleon's army, undertook espionage missions that took him into England and Ireland, and was appointed commissioner of police for Vienna during Napoleon's second occupation in 1809. At the peak of his career, he was director of the French Secret Service, but he ended life as a modest tobacconist in Strasbourg after the Hundred Days ended Napoleon's rule. Several books (in German and in French) have been written about him: