Western politics and society
Which country's intelligence agency did Louis de Wohl work for?
Astrology
Louis de Wohl Wohl Louis de Wohl Deuxième Bureau Astrology
Louis_de_Wohl-Life Wohl-Abstract Louis_de_Wohl-Abstract Deuxième_Bureau-Abstract Astrology-Western_politics_and_society
Wohl was born in Berlin to a poor Catholic family, with a Hungarian father and Austrian mother, both of Jewish descent. When he was only 17 years old, his mother pushed him into an apprenticeship to a banker, from which he was dismissed in 1924, at the age of 21. In 1935, he emigrated to England due to his objections to the Nazi regime. Some sources claim that he there had a wife named Alexandra, who fled to Santiago, Chile, where she claimed to be a Romanian princess and was known as "La Baronessa. "Wohl worked as an astrologer for the British intelligence agency MI5 during World War II. His MI5 file was released in early 2008. He was recruited initially as an informant because he was casting horoscopes for people of interest to MI5, and subsequently retained in that capacity because it was believed that Hitler was influenced strongly by astrology, and hence might be likely to choose 'lucky' astrological dates for major ventures. He prospered, rising to the rank of Captain, although some of his supervisors disapproved of him. During the war, Wohl became increasingly religious, and he had a successful postwar career writing novels that treat of Roman Catholic Church history and the lives of the saints. In 1953, Wohl married Ruth Magdalene Lorch, who was a Lady Commander of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre. He himself held the title of Knight Commander of the Order. Wohl died in Switzerland in 1961, shortly after finishing his final work, "Founded on a Rock". 
Wohl is a Yiddish spelling of Wahl, which corresponds to English ""well"" from German Language "well" or "sure". Also from Polish "elected". Wohl is the surname of:  Saul Wohl, (born 1565), Economist to the Court of Polish King Stephan Bartory 1584, elected King of Poland after Bartory's death (1586)  Brian Wohl (born 1972), American professional wrestler  Dave Wohl, former NBA player and New Jersey Nets head coach  David Wohl, comic book writer and editor  Jeanette Wohl, correspondent and heir of Ludwig Börne  Louis de Wohl (1903 - 1961), Hungarian astrologer and writer  Maurice Wohl (1923 - 2007), British philanthropist  Aleksandar Wohl (born 1963), Australian chess player  Martín Wohl (born 1950), Puerto Rican philanthropist  Daniel Wohl (born 1993), Californian high school basketball star  
Louis de Wohl, earlier Ludwig von Wohl, was a Hungarian-born British Catholic author, and had served as an astrologer notable for his work with MI5 during World War II. Sixteen of his popular pre-war novels were the basis of movies. His later novels are literary hagiographies of notable Roman Catholic saints and of different periods of the Bible. 
The Deuxième Bureau de l'État-major général () was France's external military intelligence agency from 1871 to 1940. It was dissolved together with the Third Republic upon the armistice with Germany. However the term "Deuxième Bureau", like "MI5" or "SMERSH", outlived the original organization as a general label for the country's intelligence service. French military intelligence was composed of two separate bureaus prior to World War II. The Premier Bureau was charged with informing the high command about the state of French, allied, and friendly troops, while the Deuxième Bureau developed intelligence concerning enemy troops. The Deuxième Bureau was celebrated for its cryptanalytical work, but criticized for its involvement in the Dreyfus Affair and its consistent overestimation of German military formations prior to World War II. Its final director was Colonel Louis Rivet. 
Cultural impact. Western politics and society. In the West, political leaders have sometimes consulted astrologers. Louis de Wohl worked as an astrologer for the British intelligence agency MI5, after it was claimed that Hitler used astrology to time his actions. The War Office was "interested to know what Hitler's own astrologers would be telling him from week to week". In fact, de Wohl's predictions were so inaccurate that he was soon labelled a "complete charlatan" and it was later shown that Hitler considered astrology to be "complete nonsense". After John Hinckley's attempted assassination of U.S. President Ronald Reagan, first lady Nancy Reagan commissioned astrologer Joan Quigley to act as the secret White House astrologer. However, Quigley's role ended in 1988 when it became public through the memoirs of former chief of staff, Donald Regan. There was a boom in interest in astrology in the late 1960s. The sociologist Marcello Truzzi described three levels of involvement of "Astrology-believers" to account for its revived popularity in the face of scientific discrediting. He found that most astrology-believers did not claim it was a scientific explanation with predictive power. Instead, those superficially involved, knowing "next to nothing" about astrology's 'mechanics', read newspaper astrology columns, and could benefit from "tension-management of anxieties" and "a cognitive belief-system that transcends science". Those at the second level usually had their horoscopes cast and sought advice and predictions. They were much younger than those at the first level, and could benefit from knowledge of the language of astrology and the resulting ability to belong to a coherent and exclusive group. Those at the third level were highly involved and usually cast horoscopes for themselves. Astrology provided this small minority of astrology-believers with a ""meaningful" view of their universe and them an "understanding" of their place in it." This third group took astrology seriously, possibly as a "sacred canopy", whereas the other two groups took it playfully and irreverently. In 1953, sociologist Theodor W. Adorno conducted a study of the astrology column of a Los Angeles newspaper as part of a project examining mass culture in capitalist society. Adorno believed that popular astrology, as a device, invariably led to statements which encouraged conformity, and that astrologers who went against conformity with statement discouraging performance at work etc. would risk losing their jobs. Adorno concluded that astrology was a large-scale manifestation of systematic irrationalism, where individuals were subtly being led to believe that the author of the column was addressing them directly through the use of flattery and vague generalisations. Adorno drew a parallel with the phrase opium of the people, by Karl Marx, by commenting "occultism is the metaphysic of the dopes". A 2005 Gallup poll and a 2009 survey by the Pew Research Center reported that 25% of U.S. adults believe in astrology.