Fact always has potential to be stranger than fiction – and the story of a Nazi professor living in the Donegal Gaeltacht is a prime example.
It sounds like the stuff of hammed-up wartime fiction, so unlikely it stretches credibility beyond its limits.
But a new documentary is set to tell the story of how a rumoured spy settled in the small village of Teileann – with a picture of Hitler himself hanging on his wall.
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And his true motives for being in the Donegal Gaeltacht in 1937 in the run up to the Second World War sparked theories that reached into realms far beyond just gathering folklore.
It’s believed he may even have been using the unlikely setting as a base to make a blueprint for an invasion of Ireland.
In TG4’s Nazi sa Ghaeltacht, veteran investigative journalist Kevin Magee has uncovered the real double life of Irish language scholar Dr Ludwig Mühlhausen.
In the one-hour documentary, made by Macha Media, Kevin follows 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 Two.
The documentary 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.
Kevin had heard stories of a Nazi spy who operated in Teileann in South Donegal ever since he himself started visiting the area over 40 years ago.
Mühlhausen had gone there to perfect his Irish but the locals were always suspicious of the German’s real reasons for visiting.
Mühlhausen made no secret of the fact he was a committed Nazi and openly expressed his despair at how the locals weren’t enterprising, lacked German efficiency and didn’t exploit the land and sea around them as he thought they should.
Kevin said: “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.
“Piece by piece I was able to pull this remarkable story together. When I began my journey, I had no idea I would discover just how committed Mühlhausen was to the entire Nazi project.
“The plot reads like a World War Two thriller, except this story is for real.
“One of the first things he did in Teileann after he’d found somewhere to stay was hang a large picture of Hitler on his bedroom wall.
“He took photographs everywhere he went and measured the depth of Teileann Bay by dropping lead weights into the tide.
“Locals later speculated he was scouting the place out as a potential landing site for Nazi U-boats.”
Two years after his visit, the same local people who had facilitated his stay in Teileann were amazed to hear him broadcasting Nazi propaganda in Irish from a radio station in Berlin.
He urged the Irish to keep their neutrality, reminding them of atrocities the English had carried out.
In the hour-long documentary Kevin brings an untold piece of Donegal history to life hearing from historians, local people in Teileann, and military experts.
Even at the end, with the Nazis defeated and Mühlhausen in a prisoner of war camp, he made one last desperate plea for help.
All the plot twists and turns will be revealed in Nazi sa Ghaeltacht on Wednesday 22 June on TG4 at 9.30pm.
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