Ludwig Gehre

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Ludwig Gehre (born October 5, 1895 in Düsseldorf ; † April 9, 1945 in Flossenbürg concentration camp ) was a German officer . As a resistance fighter , he was involved in the preparations for an assassination attempt against Hitler .

Political career

Ludwig Gehre was a career officer in the First World War . In 1919 he joined the Epp Freikorps . At this time he got to know the later SA chief of staff , Ernst Röhm , who was then chief of staff of the Freikorps Epp. Also in 1919 Gehre joined the DAP , where he was given membership number 539. He belonged to this party, which became the NSDAP the following year , before Adolf Hitler ( membership number 555). Gehre left the party after several clashes with Hitler, but maintained excellent connections with the Munich party headquarters and with the National Socialist leadership until 1944.

In the early 1930s Gehre was in the leadership of the voluntary labor service. At that time he was considered a liaison between Walther Stennes , the leader of the Berlin SA, and Wilhelm Faupel .

In 1933, Gehre worked for a few months in the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda on the recommendation of Franz Seldte , but left as an employee there in July 1933. In the following years he maintained contacts within the " Ehrhardt Brigade in the Association of the SS ". In addition, it maintained connections to circles that fought the Weimar Republic and helped shape National Socialism, but then turned against the regime "after years of disillusionment".

Contact man of the conspirators

Before the start of the Second World War, Gehre was a captain in the Foreign Office / Defense at the High Command of the Wehrmacht under Admiral Canaris . A group was formed there in 1938 that wanted to eliminate the National Socialist regime and prevent the war against the Western powers. Ludwig Gehre also belonged to this circle around Ludwig Beck , Wilhelm Canaris, Hans von Dohnanyi , Hans Oster and Dietrich Bonhoeffer . The personal participation of Gehres in talks about overturn plans in September 1938, as reported by witnesses, has not been fully clarified.

When the military opposition members around Henning von Tresckow made preparations for an assassination attempt on Hitler in March 1943, Gehre was informed. Helmuth James Graf von Moltke was arrested in January 1944, and Gehre was arrested by the Gestapo in March 1944 . However, he was able to escape during the transport and went into hiding. In June 1944 he found shelter in Kleinmachnow with Auguste and Ludwig Münz.

Earlier, Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg had instructed his co-conspirators to break off all contact with Gehre because he was being monitored. Gehre was very hurt by this. The failed arrest of Gehres terrified the conspirators: Gehre was better informed than Hans von Dohnanyi or Hans Oster and knew about a wide range of contacts and knew the storage locations of the secret file depot. Allegedly, Gehre told several conspirators by phone that if he were arrested he could be made to speak to the Gestapo and thus betray the conspiracy. With this threat he wanted to put Stauffenberg under pressure to finally start the attempted coup.

arrest

After the failed assassination attempt on July 20, 1944 , the search for Gehre was intensified. However, he and his wife Hanna Gehre were able to hide for several weeks; For a few days both found shelter with Bernhard Lösener . The brothers Hans and Otto John arranged for additional accommodation . Ludwig Gehre was finally recognized by a purser and his hiding place in a ruined villa was revealed. On November 2, 1944, Hanna Gehre was fatally hit while exchanging fire with the Gestapo. Ludwig Gehre tried to kill himself with a shot in the temple, but was arrested with serious injuries.

Memorial stone at the place of execution in the Flossenbürg concentration camp

The severely injured hearing was not up to the subsequent intensified interrogation: he is said to have given numerous incriminating references.

death

After the building of the Reich Security Main Office on Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse in Berlin was destroyed on February 3, 1945 , Gehre was taken to the Buchenwald concentration camp with Bonhoeffer . From there he was integrated into a transport of SS special prisoners, sent to the Flossenbürg concentration camp on April 5 and hanged there on April 9, 1945 due to an SS court trial chaired by Otto Thorbeck together with Dietrich Bonhoeffer .

Those involved in this pseudo-legal stand trial were convicted of aiding and abetting murder after the war. Otto Thorbeck was acquitted in an appeal procedure before the Federal Court of Justice.

The judgment of the court court against Bonhoeffer was overturned in a formal procedure before the Berlin district court in August 1996. In these proceedings it turned out that the judgment of the court martial, which Gehre had also stood before, could already be considered null and void based on Bavarian law of May 28, 1946.

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Susanne Meinl: National Socialists against Hitler - the national revolutionary opposition around Friedrich Wilhelm Heinz. Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-88680-613-8 , p. 172 f.
  2. ^ Susanne Meinl: National Socialists against Hitler. P. 286.
  3. ^ Susanne Meinl: National Socialists against Hitler. P. 285.
  4. ↑ Johannes Tuchel: ... and the rope was waiting for all of them . Writings from the German Resistance Memorial Center. Series A. Volume 7. Berlin 2014. ISBN 978-3-86732-178-5 . P. 276f.
  5. ↑ a b c Susanne Meinl: National Socialists against Hitler , p. 331.
  6. ↑ Otto John: Wrong and too late. July 20, 1944. Munich 1984, p. 41.
  7. ↑ Another sequence of escape is shown in the verdict against the judges of the court martial: The SS court martial: The execution of Pastor Bonhoeffer, Admiral Canaris and Judge from Cohnanyi ( Memento from April 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). In: Justice and Nazi crimes. The German criminal proceedings for Nazi homicide crimes. Compiled by Christiaan F. Rüter and DW de Mildt at the Institute for Criminal Law at the University of Amsterdam .
  8. ↑ Gerd R. Ueberschär : For another Germany . Frankfurt / M 2006, ISBN 3-596-13934-1 , p. 308, note 21. (fiTb 13934)
personal data
SURNAME Go, Ludwig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer and resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH October 5, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Dusseldorf
DATE OF DEATH April 9, 1945
Place of death Flossenbürg concentration camp