British spies hired an astrologer during the Second World War to try to figure out Adolf Hitler's wartime plans, according to documents released by the National Archives.
The declassified documents reveal intelligence officials hired Hungarian astrologer Ludwig von Wohl, who had claimed that Hitler relied heavily on astrological advice.
He said that by figuring out what advice Hitler was receiving, they may be able to figure out his next moves.
The government rented the astrologer a hotel apartment on London's exclusive Park Lane, where he wrote horoscopes for allied and Nazi leaders on paper with the letterhead "Psychological Research Bureau."
He was sent by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who did not believe in astrology, to the U.S. to persuade Americans that the Nazis would lose within months if they entered the war.
But many among Britain's domestic spy agency, MI5, were skeptical of de Wohl.
"I have never liked Louis de Wohl — he strikes me as a charlatan and an imposter," reads the first line in the astrologer's file, appeared to be signed by Dick White, who became the head of MI5 in the 1950s.
Another MI5 officer said, "None of his predictions materialized, except his forecast of Italy's entry to war, which he made at a time when this became quite patent."
His predictions were also quite vague. One in December 1942 read: "The German astrologers must pray that enemy action does not force the Fuehrer into making important decisions within the first eight days of the month [of July], as this would lead to great disaster."
Historians say Hitler paid no attention to astrological forecasts.
