Exact origins of the term are not clear. Its first identified appearance was in a secret telegram sent to Berlin by the German charge d’affaires in Alicante, Hans-Hermann Völckers dated September 30, 1936. He referred to an unidentified "supposed statement by Franco" which "is being circulated" (apparently in the Republican zone or in the Republican-held Levantine zone). In the statement, Franco allegedly claimed that there were four Nationalist columns approaching Madrid and the fifth column waited to rise from the inside. However, the telegram was part of the secret German diplomatic correspondence and was discovered long after the Civil War.