Nikolaus Graf von Üxküll-Gyllenband
Nikolaus Graf von Üxküll-Gyllenband (born February 14, 1877 in Güns , Kingdom of Hungary , † September 14, 1944 in Berlin-Plötzensee ) was a German merchant, colonel zV and resistance fighter of July 20, 1944 .
Life
Nikolaus Graf von Üxküll-Gyllenband came from the German-Baltic noble family Uexküll . He was the youngest of six children of Alfred Richard August Graf Üxküll-Gyllenband (* 1838, † 1877) and his wife Valerie geb. Countess von Hohenthal (* 1841, † 1878). His older siblings included the later DRK superior Alexandrine Countess von Üxküll-Gyllenband , Caroline, the mother of the resistance fighters and brothers Berthold and Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg , and Albertine, the mother of Caesar von Hofacker , who also played a central role in the had taken over military resistance against Hitler .
Shortly after Nikolaus' birth, the terminally ill father died and the mother, a granddaughter of Field Marshal August Graf Neidhardt von Gneisenau , did not experience the first birthday of her youngest child. The children grew up as orphans at the Stuttgart court, where aunt Olga Countess von Üxküll-Gyllenband (known as "Osch") was the court lady of the Württemberg queen. She devoted herself exclusively to raising children and did not marry.
Count Nikolaus attended grammar school in Stuttgart and, following family tradition, joined the Austrian military in 1895 as a flagjunker.
In 1908, "Nux", the Count's nickname, married Ida Freiin von Pfaffenhofen-Chledowsky. They had three children: Alexander Reichsgraf von Üxküll-Gyllenband (* 1909, † 1999), Elisabeth Reichsgräfin von Üxküll-Gyllenband, married. von Handel (* 1911, † 1980), and Olga Reichsgräfin von Üxküll-Gyllenband, married. von Saucken (* 1920, † 2014).
At the beginning of the First World War Nikolaus Graf von Üxküll-Gyllenband was assigned to the General Cavalry Inspector Karl Georg Graf Huyn as a captain in the Austro-Hungarian General Staff Corps . In October 1917 there was a six-month transfer as a representative of the Austrian military attaché in Constantinople . As a lieutenant colonel in the general staff, he left the army in 1918 and returned to Germany.
In the 1920s he built up a completely new life as a merchant for a Polish timber merchant and was head of the Tiele-Winckler property management in Berlin from 1923 to 1934. With effect from May 1, 1933, Üxküll joined the NSDAP . In 1934, Count Üxküll-Gyllenband began historical studies with Walter Elze at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Berlin and in August 1937 was employed as a consultant in the Reich Commissioner for Pricing . He held this position until 1941. At the beginning he was positive about the ideas of National Socialism , but the way they were carried out contradicted his understanding of decency, honor and tradition. In 1941 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht . As an old uncle, he passed on his concerns and scruples to his godchild Claus and his brother Berthold Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg . As early as 1939 he wanted to win both brothers over to the resistance. To the friend of the Stauffenberg brothers, Theodor Pfizer , Üxküll said during the French campaign that Hitler should be arrested and brought to justice.
In 1942, Üxküll was deployed southeast of Leningrad, in the Volkhov region (the Tschudowo basin ), to capture the soldiers there and organize them into combat units. Efforts were made to fortify and defend Chudovo. At the beginning of 1943 he took action against the shooting of civilians in Priluki / Ukraine. On February 29, 1944, Nikolaus von Üxküll-Gyllenband retired as a colonel from active military service.
After his nephew Claus was seriously wounded in Africa, he looked after him. At the end of 1943 he was initiated into the overturn plans. Due to his knowledge of the Danube Monarchy , he was intended as a liaison officer between the Army High Command and the Prague General Command ( Military District Bohemia-Moravia).
He learned of the assassination attempt on Hitler on July 20, 1944 in Lautlingen , where he was living with his wife Ida in the Stauffenberg Castle at that time. On the night of 22./23. In July the Gestapo arrested him there and took him together with Claus Stauffenberg's wife Nina Schenk Countess von Stauffenberg to the prison in Rottweil . Nikolaus Graf von Üxküll-Gyllenband was then brought to Berlin and imprisoned there.
On September 13, the main hearing took place under the chairmanship of Roland Freisler before the People's Court . At the same time Heinrich Graf zu Dohna-Schlobitten , Michael Graf von Matuschka and Chaplain Hermann Josef Wehrle were indicted.
All of the accused were sentenced to death on September 14th and hanged in Plötzensee .
See also
literature
- Peter Hoffmann : Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg and his brothers. DVA, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-421-06533-0 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Bengt von zur Mühlen (Ed.): The defendants of July 20 before the People's Court. Chronos Film GmbH, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-931054-06-3 , pp. 256-258 (minutes of the negotiation).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Üxküll-Gyllenband, Nikolaus Graf von |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Resistance fighters |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 14, 1877 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Güns |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 14, 1944 |
| Place of death | Berlin-Plötzensee |