Baron von Rosen's 1916 Anthrax Mission

Baron von Rosen's Sugar-Coated Anthrax Weapon

By Jamie Bisher

Anthrax--bacillus anthracis--is not new to the warfighter’s arsenal.  

The rotting lesions it causes inspire no less fear in modern man than in medieval folk.  Such biological weapons are frightening because they are cheap to produce and easy to deliver.  But modern tacticians pondering the offensive use of anthrax soon realize the drawbacks of biological weapons.  They are hard to aim, and even harder to control.  These unstable characteristics discourage all but nihilists, lunatics, idiots, or specialists with isolated targets in mind.  The latter have already employed anthrax on the modern battlefield—in the unlikely setting of Finland, against Russians, with German support, at the hands of a Swede--Otto von Rosen.

Anthrax's debut as a modern weapon occurred in 1916.  The warriors—terrorists to their enemies—wielded anthrax in a bitter fight for national liberation, and acquired their toxins from a major power that was in desperate straits.  This scenario sounds familiar a century later. 

Eugen Schauman

Finnish Nationalism Explodes
Finland had been a duchy of the Russian Empire since an 1809 invasion.  On June 16, 1904, Finnish nationalist Eugen Schauman gunned down Russia’s governor-general, Nikolai Ivanovich Bobrikov, on the main staircase of Helsinki’s Senate House.   Schauman promptly shot himself in the heart, but inspired other nationalists through his martyrdom.

Gustaf Mannerheim

Freedom Fighter
Von Rosen joined the Finnish underground, and helped plan bombings and other
violent resistance against the Russians.

Baron von Rosen

Von Rosen's Nefarious Mission
Baron von Rosen recruited agents to establish secret supply routes to nationalist rebels in Russian-occupied Finland.  For cover, he established a trading company that required frequent trips between Stockholm, Kristiania (now Oslo), Copenhagen, and Berlin.

Johannes Søhr

Von Rosen's Capture, Release, and Amazing Baggage
After a harrowing wintertime mission above the  Arctic Circle, Baron von Rosen was captured by Norwegian authorities in 1917, but released before they realized the amazing arsenal camouflaged  among the common items in his baggage. 

Anthrax spores

Epilogue
The Norwegians gave some of Baron von Rosen's tools of sabotage to the U.S. Military Attache in Kristiania after the incident.  A strange invoice accompanied these items to Washington: "Incendiary and Explosive Bombs; Percussion Heads; Poisoned Sugar Lumps; Carborundum Pencils, Cigarettes, etc."  

Copyright 2014, Jamie Bisher.