Alexander zu Dohna-Schlobitten (1899–1997)

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Prince Wilhelm Hermann Alexander zu Dohna-Schlobitten (born December 11, 1899 in Potsdam , † October 29, 1997 in Basel ) was a German landowner, officer and author.

Life

Alexander, Prince of Dohna-Schlobitten with mother (Marie Mathilde née Princess zu Solms-Hohensolms-Lich) and siblings, 1906; from left Ursula Anna, Alexander, Victor-Adalbert, Agnes and Christof

Alexander zu Dohna-Schlobitten spent his childhood in Potsdam, at Gut Behlenhof and later at Schlobitten Castle in the town of the same name in East Prussia , the ancestral home of his family. During the First World War he and his siblings were evacuated to Darmstadt to the Grand Duke of Hesse, Ernst-Ludwig , who was related to him through his mother Marie Mathilde Princess zu Solms-Hohensolms-Lich, due to the danger of the Russian invasion . After completing school in Darmstadt, he spent two years in Davos, where he passed his secondary school diploma in 1918. He was then accepted as an ensign in the regiment of the Gardes du Corps . He spent the remainder of the war near Kursk . After the end of the war and the death of his father Richard Emil (1872–1918), the now Prince zu Dohna received practical training in forestry and agriculture.

From 1924 to 1945, Dohna managed the East Prussian estates Schlobitten and Prökelwitz. In 1926 he married Countess Freda Antoinette von Arnim-Muskau . The marriage produced six children: Sophie Mathildie (* 1927), Richard (1929–1939), Friedrich (* 1933), Alexandra (1934-2020), Ludwig (* 1937) and Johanna (* 1943).

The ruins of Prince Dohna's former residence, Schlobitten Castle

He was open to the beginning of National Socialist rule, he became acquainted with Heinrich Himmler and Hermann Göring through his former classmate Karl Wolff and even joined the SS as a candidate. In the course of the 1930s, however, he increasingly distanced himself from Nazi politics, especially under the influence of Kurt von Plettenberg and his uncle Heinrich Graf zu Dohna-Schlobitten , both of whom later belonged to the active resistance.

At the beginning of the Second World War he was reactivated as a reserve officer and took part in the attack on Poland and later in the war against Russia. With the rank of Rittmeister of the Reserve, he was one of the last to be flown out of the Stalingrad pocket on January 18, 1943 , to deliver secret papers from Colonel General Paulus to the Army High Command . Shortly before, he became aware of the concrete plans of the military resistance to want to eliminate Hitler, but did not take an active part in the preparations.

During his deployment on the Italian front, Dohna was expelled from the Wehrmacht in May 1944 for disobedience and political unreliability because he had previously refused to forward an order to shoot the German commander in chief in Italy, Field Marshal Albert Kesselring . This order ordered the execution of a captured 15-man American commando. Dohna justified his refusal by referring to the Geneva Convention , since the Americans voluntarily and uniformed went into German captivity after the execution of their mission had failed and the German troops were alarmed. In his opinion, therefore, they should be treated as prisoners of war and in no way as saboteurs . “I pointed out that they were regular soldiers, all dressed in battle suits; the two officers wore their badges according to the regulations. ”His superior, General of the Infantry Anton Dostler , who as a higher-ranking officer, unlike Dohna, was aware of a secret instruction from Hitler , the so-called command order, then personally forwarded Kesselring's instruction and the prisoners were executed . Dostler was tried by the Americans after the end of the war and executed on December 1, 1945.

In 1945, Dohna organized the largest closed refugee trek from East Prussia: On January 22, 1945, the carefully prepared trek of the Schlobitten and Prökelwitz visits to the west set off under his leadership. After nine weeks and numerous detours, the Dohna trek via West Prussia, Pomerania, Mecklenburg and Lower Saxony covered around 1500 kilometers and was disbanded on March 20, 1945 in what was then the county of Hoya near Bremen . 330 people, 140 horses (including 31 Trakehner broodmares) and 38 wagons arrived there. At first Dohna lived with his family from 1945 to 1948 in Thedinghausen . In 1946 he was co-founder of the Göttingen working group .

In 1948 he moved to Switzerland . He immediately received a Swiss passport there, as the Dohnas had had hereditary citizenship rights in Bern since 1657. After working for ten years as a manager at Hoffmann-La Roche in Grenzach , Dohna started his own business. From 1961 to 1979 he ran a quick chemical cleaning facility in Lörrach and moved privately from Grenzach to Basel .

He had been a member of the Corps Borussia Bonn since 1922 .

Services

Alexander zu Dohna-Schlobitten was able to save a significant part of the inventory of Schlobitten Castle shortly before the end of the war , before it was destroyed by arson after it was occupied by the Red Army . The collection Dohna- Schlobitten shows until 2019 in Berlin Schönhausen Palace art works of all kinds in their grown over centuries context. Thematically structured rooms highlight valuable focal points of the Schlobitten inventory: Valuable holdings in the library, the treasures of the silver collection and the art collection. The collection will then be shown in Doberlug Castle .

By rescuing 31 Trakehner broodmares from his Schlobitten estate, Dohna made a contribution to the new start of this important horse breeding in West Germany after the war.

Realizing that the former German eastern territories were finally lost due to the injustice of National Socialism, Dohna made a total of eleven trips to Poland in the 1970s and 80s to ask the Polish people for forgiveness and to build new bridges. With advice, money and contributions in kind, he supported Polish efforts to at least partially restore the largely destroyed cultural monuments of East Prussia.

Works

  • The Dohna Castle Schlobitten in East Prussia. With Carl Grommelt a. Christine von Mertens, Lothar Graf zu Dohna and Christian Krollmann. W. Kohlhammer. Stuttgart, 1965.
  • Memories of an old East Prussia. Siedler, Berlin 1989, ISBN 978-3-88680-330-9 .

Web links

Commons : Alexander zu Dohna-Schlobitten  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Schlobitten Castle
  2. ^ Friedrich Heinrich Bolko Alexander 4th Prince, Burgrave and Count of Dohna-Schlobitten
  3. ↑ Editor: Farewell to Alexandra Countess Dohna. In: ReiterInfos. April 28, 2020, accessed on April 28, 2020 (German).
  4. ↑ Alexander Fürst Dohna-Schlobitten: Memories of an old East Prussian. ISBN 3-8003-3115-2 , pp. 196-201.
  5. ↑ Memories. Pp. 169-173.
  6. ↑ Memories. P. 249.
  7. ↑ Memories. P. 257.
  8. ^ Richard Raiber: Anatomy of perjury: Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, Via Rasella, and the Ginny Mission , p. 158.
  9. ↑ Memories. Pp. 279-313.
  10. ↑ Kösener Corpslisten 1996, 16 , 977.
  11. ↑ Memories. Pp. 314-328.
  12. ↑ (LR picture series): The Dohna-Schlobitten Collection. In: Lausitzer Rundschau. Lusatian history, April 14, 2017 ; accessed on April 14, 2018.
  13. ↑ Bodo Baumert: Doberlug Castle gets a unique East Prussian collection (interview with Babette Weber). In: Lausitzer Rundschau. Finsterwalde edition, December 27, 2017 ; accessed on April 14, 2018.
  14. ↑ Memories. Pp. 349-355.
personal data
SURNAME Dohna-Schlobitten, Alexander too
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dohna-Schlobitten, Wilhelm Hermann Alexander zu (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German landowner, officer and author
DATE OF BIRTH December 11, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Potsdam
DATE OF DEATH October 29, 1997
Place of death Basel