Elsbeth Schragmüller (7 August 1887, Schlüsselburg near Petershagen, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire — 24 February 1940, Munich, Nazi Germany), also known as Fräulein Doktor and Mademoiselle Docteur, as well as Fair Lady, La Baronne and Mlle. Schwartz, was a German university professor-turned-spymaster for Abteilung III b in German-occupied Belgium during World War I. Early life Schragmüller was the eldest of four children born to Prussian Army officer and bailiff Carl Anton Schragmüller and his wife Valesca Cramer von Clausbruch. Her younger brother was the future Sturmabteilung (SA) police chief of Magdeburg, Konrad Schragmüller. Schragmüller spent her childhood first in Schlüsselburg and then in Münster with her grandmother, who educated her. From 1909 to 1914, she studied political science at Albert-Ludwigs-Universität in Freiburg. She finished her studies in 1913 and was one of the first women in Germany to acquire a university degree. After her studies, she worked for the Berlin Lette-Verein as a lecturer in civic education. First World War After the outbreak of the First World War, Schragmüller moved to occupied Belgium, where the German governor general, Field Marshal Colmar von der Goltz, assigned her to Section VII, wherein she opened and assessed private letters in search of coded messages to the Allies. She later switched to intelligence collection and worked, after a short training period, in Lille for the General Staff's counterintelligence wing, Abteilung IIIb. In 1915, Colonel Walter Nicolai, the head of Abteilung IIIb, promoted her to spymaster of the Kriegsnachrichtenstelle Antwerpen. When the war ended, Schragmüller held the rank of Oberleutnant in the Imperial German Army and had been awarded the Iron Cross First Class. Later life After the armistice in 1918, Schragmüller resumed her academic career and became the first female assistant chair at Freiburg University. A few years later, she moved with her family to Munich. Soon afterward, her father and her brother Konrad, a senior SA officer, were shot during the Night of the Long Knives. Soon, she ended her career abruptly for unknown reasons. Death Schragmüller died in 1940 at the age of 52 of bone tuberculosis in her Munich apartment. Legacy Her activities were the subject of various urban legends during the First World War, but since she was neither captured nor unmasked during her lifetime, much of her life story remains obscure and speculative, and it is unclear to what extent the various fictional treatments of her life story