“The plot reads like a World War II thriller, except this story is for real.”
TG4 will air a documentary next week investigating stories of a Nazi spy who operated in Donegal in the 1930s.
Titled Nazi sa Ghaeltacht, the hour-long programme sees veteran investigative journalist Kevin Magee looking into what Dr Ludwig Mühlhausen, a Nazi party member and German linguist, was really doing in the small village of Teileann in 1937 in the run-up to World War II.
TG4 says the documentary will feature Magee following Mühlhausen’s journey “ostensibly in the Gaeltacht to collect folklore but secretly gathering information which would be exploited by the Third Reich”.
“Professor Mühlhausen perfected his knowledge of the Irish language in the tiny Irish-speaking hamlet of Teileann and used it to broadcast German propaganda into Ireland during World War II,” the synopsis reads.
“In a remarkable journey, Kevin traces the professor’s footsteps back to Berlin and reveals the shocking truth about the German scholar who became the Gaelic Lord Haw-Haw and a decorated SS officer.”
The documentary was inspired by stories Magee had heard of a Nazi spy who operated in Teileann since he himself started visiting the area over 40 years ago.
Like Magee, Mühlhausen had also gone there to perfect his Irish but the locals were always suspicious of the German’s real reasons for visiting.
While in the village, Mühlhausen is said to have made no secret of the fact he was a committed Nazi.
“I wanted to find out if the story of the Nazi in the Gaeltacht was true, so I began investigating, talking to locals, asking questions and examining a whole variety of sources,” Magee said.
“Piece by piece I was able to pull this remarkable story together… The plot reads like a World War II thriller, except this story is for real.”
With the documentary taking Magee from Donegal to Berlin and featuring interviews with historians, Teileann locals and military experts, Nazi sa Ghaeltacht airs on TG4 on Wednesday, 22 June at 9.30pm.
You can watch a teaser for the documentary below.
Clip via TG4
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