The Brandenburg Division was generally subordinated to the army groups in individual commands and operated throughout Eastern Europe, in northern Africa, Afghanistan, the Middle East, and in the Caucasus.

The unit was the brainchild of Hauptmann (captain) Theodor von Hippel, who, after having his idea rejected by the Reichswehr, approached Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, commander of the German Intelligence Service, the Abwehr.

800 (800th Special Duties Construction Training Battalion); but its later more widely known epithet, "the Brandenburgers", stemmed from the name of the unit's first permanent quarters.

[6] Brandenburg units were deployed as small commando outfits to penetrate enemy territory and conduct both sabotage and anti-sabotage operations.

Others wore Arab garments to conduct surveillance on Allied warships traversing the Strait of Gibraltar ahead of the Wehrmacht deployment in North Africa.

[8] Correspondingly, Department II of the Abwehr, under which the Brandenburgers were subsumed, had a distinct sub-component for army, navy, and air force operations.

Colonel Erwin von Lahousen (and the defense groups of military districts VIII and XVII) from within Department II of the Abwehr, put together small K-Trupps (fighting squads), which consisted of Polish-speaking Silesians and ethnic Germans, whose job was to occupy key positions and hold them until the arrival of regular Wehrmacht units.

[11] Eventually, the early guiding principle that required members of the Division Brandenburg to be volunteers ended with their increasing use and integration with the regular army.

[19] After its formation, the soldiers of the new special unit were initially employed to protect the Romanian oil fields and later chrome ore supplies from Turkey.

[23] During the spring 1940 invasions of Belgium and the Netherlands, the Brandenburg units proved essential in seizing "vital points ahead of Guderian's panzers.

"[25] For their exploits in Belgium and the Netherlands, the Brandenburgers were among the most decorated units of the invading German armies, which earned them the admiration of Abwehr Chief, Wilhelm Canaris.

[26] On 27 May 1940, chief-of-staff of the High Command of the German armed forces Wilhelm Keitel wrote to Canaris that the Brandenburgers had "fought outstandingly well" which was further validated when Hitler presented Iron Cross commendations to 75% of the 600 men who participated.

[30] On 6 April 1941, during Operation Marita, the Brandenburgers managed to take the strategically important bridge over the Vardar and also secured the gorge on the River Danube which forms part of the boundary between Serbia and Romania, known as the Iron Gates.

[31] Additional operations were demanded of the Brandenburgers during the opening phase for the June 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union, as they were the first to sweep across the border, destroying power facilities, cutting communication lines, spreading disinformation, and activating "sleeper" agents.

[33] From June 1942 through February 1943, the Brandenburgers carried out commando operations against Allied supply lines in North Africa by way of clandestine missions in Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia.

[35] On 26 December 1942, the men of the Parachute Company of the Brandenburg Regiment were transported by gliders in an operation to destroy bridges and supply routes used by the British in North Africa.

[43] While some survivors surrendered to the British in Schleswig-Holstein in May, others enlisted in the French Foreign Legion and fought in the First Indochina War where their skills proved an asset.

[41][f] The Bergmann battalion (meaning "miner") was a military unit of the German Abwehr during World War II, composed of five German-officered companies of volunteers from the Caucasus region of the Soviet Union.

Subordinated to the German commando battalion Brandenburgers and placed under the command of Oberleutnant Theodor Oberländer, the unit received training at Neuhammer and Mittenwald (Bavaria) with the Gebirgsjäger.

At the end of 1942, Bergmann conducted a successful sortie through the Soviet lines, bringing with them some 300 Red Army defectors, and covered the German retreat from the Caucasus.

[48] They were formed on 25 February 1941 by the head of the Abwehr Wilhelm Franz Canaris, which sanctioned the creation of the "Ukrainian Legion" under German command.