Arnd Freiherr von Wedekind

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Arnd von Wedekind and his fiancée around 1942

Arnd Freiherr von Wedekind (born June 3, 1919 in Derschlag , † September 3, 1943 in Berlin-Plötzensee ) was a German student who was in resistance to the Nazi regime .

Life

Arnd Freiherr von Wedekind belonged to the Wedekind family to Horst and was a great-grandson of the doctor Georg Freiherr von Wedekind . He grew up in a Christian home. After graduating from the Kaiserin-Friedrich-Gymnasium in Bad Homburg and completing the labor service , he wanted to pursue an officer career like his father and grandfather, who had last served as major and general . He volunteered for the Wehrmacht , but soon had to say goodbye due to a serious illness. He then began studying medicine in Frankfurt am Main in 1939 . In addition to studying Russian history and culture, he was also interested . He learned the Russian language and came into contact with Russian doctors and forced laborers . At several meetings in this group he complained about the political situation in Germany. He expressed his disgust for the crimes emanating from Germany and outraged the treatment of the slave laborers . Therefore, the expected military defeat of Germany is even to be welcomed.

He was denounced in the summer of 1943 by interpreters and others working undercover for the Gestapo . The arrest on July 26, 1943 was followed by pre- trial detention and at the end of this, on September 1, 1943, the main hearing before the People's Court with Roland Freisler as President. On this day Arnd Freiherr von Wedekind was sentenced to death; the execution in Berlin-Plötzensee took place two days later.

Commemoration

Stumbling block for Arnd von Wedekind in Frankfurt am Main

In memory of Arnd Freiherr von Wedekind, the artist Gunter Demnig laid a “ stumbling block ” in Zimmerweg 4 in Frankfurt am Main .

literature

  • Udo Benzenhöfer , Monika Birkenfeld: Opposition in the Nazi era: The case of the Frankfurt medical student Arnd von Wedekind (1919–1943) , Münster / Ulm 2010, ISBN 978-3-86281-009-3
  • Barbara Bromberger: Down with Hitler! Frankfurt workers' movement in the resistance against fascism 1933–1945 . Edited by Barbara Bromberger and the Association for Frankfurter Arbeitergeschichte, Frankfurt 2004, pp. 132, 174, 287
  • Karl-Heinz Jahnke: Decisions - Youth in Resistance 1933–45 , Frankfurt am Main 1970, p. 92 ff.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Theodor Szymanski: Kaiserin-Friedrich-Schule: 400 years of high school in Bad Homburg vdH , Bad Homburg 1950, p. 79, serial no. 369 with first name Arno instead of Arnd
personal data
SURNAME Wedekind, Arnd Freiherr von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German resistance fighters under National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH June 3, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH The punch
DATE OF DEATH September 3, 1943
Place of death Berlin