Carl Friedrich Goerdeler

Carl Friedrich Goerdeler (1925)

Carl Friedrich Goerdeler (born July 31, 1884 in Schneidemühl , Province of Posen ; † February 2, 1945 in Berlin-Plötzensee ) was a German lawyer , politician ( DNVP ) and resistance fighter against National Socialism . Goerdeler was one of the leading civil figures of the resistance movement and was to take over the office of Reich Chancellor after a successful assassination attempt on July 20, 1944 , in whose planning he played a major role .

Goerdeler came from a Prussian civil servant family. He had been a local politician from 1911 and Lord Mayor of Leipzig from 1930 to 1937 . Goerdeler was spiritually oriented towards the Prussian tradition and economically liberal value conservatism . In the 1920s, the administrative specialist was discussed several times as Reich Chancellor before he assumed the office of Reich Commissioner for Price Monitoring in 1931/32 and 1934/35 .

The transfer of power to the NSDAP early 1933 Rated Goerdeler initially positive. Out of his conservative worldview, however, he refused to become a member of the party from the start, and by 1936 he developed into a staunch opponent of the Nazi regime. When the Nazis removed the Leipzig monument to the composer Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy due to his Jewish origin in a night-and-fog action in November 1936 , Goerdeler demonstratively resigned from the office of Lord Mayor of Leipzig . In the following years he traveled through the countries of the Western powers in order before the Nazis to warn and advise the Allied Governments.

With the beginning of the Second World War , a conservative group of civil resistance developed around Goerdeler , who wanted to bring about the end of Nazi rule. This so-called “Goerdeler Circle” was an intellectual center of the opposition to Hitler and had numerous contacts with other resistance groups, in particular with the military resistance around Ludwig Beck . After the unsuccessful attempt on July 20, Goerdeler was denounced in August 1944 , sentenced to death by the “ People's Court ” and executed on February 2, 1945 in Berlin-Plötzensee .

Life

Origin and childhood

Home of the Goerdeler family on the market square of Schneidemühl, around 1890

Carl Friedrich Goerdeler was born as the third son of Julius Goerdeler and his wife Adelheid, born Roloff, in Schneidemühl, Kolmar i. Poznan , born. His family belonged to the Prussian elite of civil servants on both his father's and mother's side. His great-grandfather, Christian Goerdeler, originally from Lüchow , was already a senior auditor at the time of Friedrich Wilhelm III. worked in Berlin. His grandfather, Dietrich Wilhelm Goerdeler, worked at the Hamm Higher Regional Court in the province of Westphalia . Since his transfer to the Marienwerder Court of Appeal in the province of West Prussia in 1852 , the family had close ties to rural East Elbe . The father Julius Goerdeler, who was still born in Hamm, grew up in Marienwerder and married the daughter of the appellate judge there, Carl Roloff, after he returned from the Franco-German War in 1870/71 as a reserve officer . From this marriage four sons (Gustav, Franz, Carl and Fritz ) and one daughter (Else) were born. There are detailed sources about Goerdeler's youth based on the memories of his youth, which he wrote shortly before his arrest in 1944.

After the birth of the third son Carl Friedrich, Julius Goerdeler gave up his work as a lawyer in Schneidemühl and took the opportunity to work as a magistrate and at the same time as managing director of the agricultural bank “New West Prussian Landscape ”. Up to the age of six, Carl Friedrich Goerdeler grew up in the small country town of Schneidemühl before his father was transferred to nearby Marienwerder in 1890 and the family moved there. Little changed in the family's environment, however: their lifestyle was bourgeois and characterized by provincial simplicity and a closeness to nature. His father led the family in a patriarchal and authoritarian manner, compensated for by the mother's “lovely dignity” and liveliness. The great family cohesion and in particular the gender-specific distribution of roles determined Goerdeler's later views on the family as the most important pillar of society - he himself called this the "basic experience" of his childhood and youth. In addition, there was the “spirit of old Prussian-conservative civil servants”: Goerdeler was educated in Prussian virtues and a conservative attitude loyal to the king. Political discussions also took place frequently in the family home, especially since the father had moved into the Prussian state parliament in 1899 for the Free Conservative Party .

From 1891 Goerdeler attended the Marienwerder high school , where his father had already graduated from high school. Even if he was not one of the best students, in retrospect he judged his school days as “excellent”. At the humanistic grammar school he acquired a bourgeois, aesthetic-historical education. Especially the culture of ancient Greece and the Frederician- Protestant tradition were in the foreground. On March 22, 1902, Carl Friedrich Goerdeler successfully passed the school leaving examination there. Then, following the fashion of the turn of the century, he signed up for officer training with the Imperial Navy . He only spent a few months as a student at the Naval Academy in Kiel , because he was “terribly homesick”. After the brief interlude as a marine, Goerdeler finally decided to continue the family tradition and become a lawyer.

Studied in Tübingen and Königsberg

New auditorium of the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen , in which a plaque commemorates the former Tübingen students who participated on July 20th.

On November 13, 1902 Goerdeler attended the University of Tübingen , the Law on -Studies. His two older brothers had already studied there, and like them, Carl Friedrich also changed university after three semesters: in 1905 he went to the Albertina in Königsberg . The law faculties of these two universities were considered particularly conservative and elitist. In addition to lectures on law, Goerdeler also attended historical lectures, as he was very interested in the history of the 19th century, in particular in the Prussian reforms . This historical interest later shaped his political views.

In Tübingen he joined the “Akademischen Turnerschaft Eberhardina” (today: Old Turnerschaft Eberhardina-Markomannia). In the German Empire , the connections formed the central institutions of student life. The "Eberhardina", to which Goerdeler's brothers also belonged, was a free, colored and compulsory gymnastics association founded in 1884 . One of his fellow students was Eugen Bolz , who, as a central politician, was the Württemberg state president from 1928 to 1933 and later participated in the resistance group of July 20. In the summer semester of 1904 Goerdeler moved to Königsberg and passed his first state examination there on October 31, 1905 with the grade “satisfactory”, which was a creditable grade in the second state examination at the time. A few days later he was appointed trainee lawyer . In Königsberg he met the doctor's daughter Anneliese Ulrich, to whom he became engaged in 1903. He was a member of the Rossitten Association , from which the Aviation Prussia emerged in 1926 .

From November 1, 1905 to September 30, 1906, Carl Friedrich Goerdeler served as a one-year volunteer with the 1st East Prussian Field Artillery Regiment No. 16 . He then began practical training as a trainee lawyer. He completed his preparatory service in Fischhausen , Braunsberg , Königsberg and Marienwerder. In addition to his clerkship Goerdeler has found the time on the consciousness of breach of duty in debt contents and treatment in the literature and the most important German law books of the 19th century to a doctorate . In 1907 he submitted his dissertation to Robert von Hippel at the University of Göttingen . Overall, however, he only received the grade “rite”.

He finished his legal clerkship three years later and passed the second state examination on March 31, 1911 in Berlin. A little later he was appointed court assessor. However, this only meant that he now had the formal requirements for the office of “judicial council” (e.g. district judge or similar); but by no means did it mean acceptance into permanent civil servant status; Rather, the majority of lawyers in the imperial era did not earn their first salary until their mid-forties. So Goerdeler (like others) was induced to find a job elsewhere. Because of his political interests, he decided, like his brother Fritz later, to pursue a career in local politics. In order to be particularly well prepared for this, Carl Friedrich Goerdeler decided, on the advice of the mayor of Königsberg, Siegfried Körte , who was a friend of his parents, to do internships in banking first. For this purpose, he took a year off from the judiciary on April 21, 1911.

From April 24th to September 14th Goerdeler worked at the bank of the "East Prussian Landscape" and then until October 10th in the Königliche Seehlassung , the Prussian state bank, at the Gendarmenmarkt in Berlin. The internship in banking gave him insights into economic interrelationships, which he later found useful in local government. After completing the internship and the legal clerkship, Goerdeler, now a lawyer, was aiming for his first permanent position. In addition, during his internship he married his fiancée Anneliese Ulrich (1888–1961), whom he had met in Königsberg. The marriage produced five children, the sons Ulrich (1913–2000), Christian (1914–1942) and Reinhard (1922–1996) as well as Marianne (1919–2011), the mother of Frieder Meyer-Krahmer , and Benigna.

Local political beginnings in Solingen

On October 15, 1911, Goerdeler joined the Solingen city ​​administration as a court assessor, headed by Mayor August Dicke . In addition to purely administrative work, he first found an insight into local political practice through participation in city council meetings, before he also had the right to attend committee meetings since October 17th. On June 10, 1912 he was permanently employed as a salaried legal assistant. The position of legal assistant had been created to prepare for higher civil servant posts, which is why Lord Mayor Dicke Goerdeler entrusted the management of smaller departments from the start. The city of Solingen represented a contrast to the places of his youth in many ways: It was a modern industrial city, politically a stronghold of social democracy . Thus the conservative Prussian developed a greater openness to other political currents without in any way deviating from his national conservative convictions.

On 17 December 1912 it chose the city council for twelve years in the Office of the Assistant Secretary . Goerdeler had previously considered moving to Halberstadt as a city councilor . Because of his special technical ability, the city council was finally ready to promote him unusually quickly in order to keep him in Solingen in this way. His career advancement was “a great success” for the family, as his wife Anneliese later wrote, especially because a few days after Goerdeler's inauguration, their first child, son Ulrich, was born. The duties as an alderman included the management of the school, social, financial, tax and insurance system as well as the representation of the mayor, which he was actually entrusted with during an absence Dickes. Already in Solingen it became clear what Goerdeler often emphasized in later writings: when comparing the two municipal constitutions, the mayor's and the magistrate's constitution , he clearly preferred the mayor's constitution because it had what he believed to be the most effective administrative structure. At the beginning of the First World War , Goerdeler was finally torn out of the regular activity as an alderman .

Officer in the First World War

Goerdeler as an orderly officer in Belarus, 1916

On July 31, 1914 in Solingen, Carl Friedrich Goerdeler announced the general mobilization from the steps of the town hall. As a reserve officer he had to report to Field Artillery Regiment No. 71 immediately after mobilization . Since August 4, 1914, he was with this regiment on the Eastern Front in East Prussia. Goerdeler was adjutant to the commander of the replacement division with which he took part in the victorious battle of Tannenberg . The Battle of Vilna and the trench war for Smorgon followed . In October 1915 the regiment was disbanded; the soldiers were transferred to Field Artillery Regiment No. 93 . There Goerdeler, meanwhile with the rank of first lieutenant, rose to leader of the 6th battery (equipped with light field howitzers ). He then worked as an orderly officer with various staffs on the Eastern Front, most recently as captain of the reserve at the high command of the 10th Army , which was subordinate to General Erich von Falkenhayn . There, the financial administration in the Upper East area was one of his tasks. Goerdeler served until January 31, 1919 and was awarded the Iron Cross 1st and 2nd class.

From the beginning of the war he fought “with the greatest optimism until the last day”. His patriotic enthusiasm arose from an unconditional agreement with the war aims of the empire. He maintained this attitude until the end of the war, despite the terrible war experiences. Goerdeler's brother Franz died in 1918 near St. Quentin on the Western Front . However, Goerdeler did not share the experiences of the trench warfare in the west .

In addition to the severe disappointment caused by the defeat in the war, Goerdeler was shocked by the political upheavals in the course of the November Revolution in 1918. After his return he fought in street fights in Berlin on March 3rd and 4th, 1919 as a member of the Freikorps against the Spartakusbund . He later saw this critically: In view of the political developments in 1918, the attempt at a revolution was, in retrospect, "a natural matter of course". The changed situation led Goerdeler to a crisis of meaning in 1918/19. So he doubted whether it made any sense to return to the administrative service under these conditions. Ultimately, however, he resumed his work as an alderman in Solingen. Carl Friedrich Goerdeler was opposed to the young Weimar Republic from the very beginning and in the following years also campaigned for the re-establishment of the Hohenzollern Monarchy.

Second mayor of Königsberg

The Kneiphöfische Rathaus in Königsberg, around 1908

In February 1919 Goerdeler joined the young German National People's Party . The DNVP stood on the right in the political spectrum of the Weimar Republic and saw itself as the heir to the conservative parties from the imperial era. In addition, Goerdeler volunteered for the “People's Struggle” against Poland , which the Pan-German Association had proclaimed . For Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, the “ dictate of Versailles ” represented a loss of homeland and a humiliation of Germany. After the National Assembly had voted in favor of the Versailles Treaty, plans for a military conflict with Poland to regain the separated areas had finally failed. Goerdeler drew the consequence from his intensive preoccupation with the topic of the Polish corridor to be active in revanchist and nationalist organizations. This includes, among other things, his membership in the "German East Federation", which saw its task in the creation of a "united front of the East Mark Germans" against "Slavic flooding". For a long time, Goerdeler's increased political commitment since 1919 was not only reactionary-revanchist, but also clearly ethnic. In terms of his ideology, he had increasingly moved from a traditional conservatism of values ​​of the old Prussian stamp to an aggressive, ethnic nationalism; an attitude of mind that Goerdeler later fought against and of which he himself became a victim. At this time Goerdeler was also convinced of the stab in the back legend , which he later referred to as "poison".

Since the Goerdeler family no longer felt at home in Solingen after the end of the First World War and because their thoughts were on their East German homeland, Goerdeler decided to run for the office of Second Mayor of Königsberg. On January 14, 1920, he only just won the election against the Social Democratic candidate. His inauguration took place in the Königsberg city council on February 11, 1920, during which the SPD and USPD parliamentary groups left the hall in protest: Since the liberal mayor Lohmeyer had been elected with their votes, they claimed Goerdeler's post for a leftist. Although Goerdeler affirmed his commitment to the common good, not party interests, in his inaugural speech, his time as second mayor was dominated by violent party disputes. Since 1927, for example, it has not been possible to get the budget through the city council.

Goerdeler saw the self-government of the cities, which went back to the baron von Stein , whom he admired , as the most important local political principle. Since the administrative structures were still disordered after the upheavals of the revolution, Goerdeler succeeded in streamlining the administrative apparatus through reorganization and at the same time giving it more weight in relation to the city council. At the German Association of Cities he campaigned for a uniform German municipal code that would guarantee a strong position for the mayor and at the same time keep party politics “out of the town hall”. According to Goerdeler's conception, this ultimately leads to better results for all sides, although the actual democratic right to have a say is weakened. He later developed similar constitutional plans for the Reich level, where he called for more power for a non-partisan Reich President (or monarch). Since Goerdeler had gained national fame in political circles through his work at the German Association of Cities and received support from the Center Party and the DVP for his local political ideas and his pragmatism , he was discussed several times as Chancellor of the Reich in the 1920s.

When he moved to Leipzig in 1930, SPD representatives also praised his services to the Königsberg city administration; the left parties participated in his solemn farewell: For pragmatic reasons, Goerdeler had grown closer to the Weimar Republic during his time in Königsberg and had particularly positive experiences in working with the Social Democrats.

Lord Mayor of Leipzig

Mayor and price commissioner in the Weimar Republic

Carl Friedrich Goerdeler as Lord Mayor of Leipzig, around 1932

On May 23, 1930, “the unexpected happened”: The conservative Goerdeler became mayor with the votes of the “United Citizens' Block” (DNVP, center and representatives of small conservative parties) and individual votes from both the SPD and NSDAP council factions of the Saxon metropolis of Leipzig . Leipzig was not only of national importance as a trade fair city with 700,000 inhabitants and a pulsating business life, but also as the seat of the Imperial Court , the German Library and high-quality cultural institutions such as the Gewandhaus Orchestra . For Goerdeler this meant a huge leap forward in his career. The family moved from their medium-sized apartment in Königsberg to a representative bourgeois mansion in the Leutzsch district of Leipzig . Immediately after his inauguration, Goerdeler began restructuring the Leipzig city administration towards a lean, clearly hierarchical structure based on the Königsberg model. So he began to amalgamate administrative offices of the same type to form large departments and also to limit the influence of the parties by reducing the number of council members. In addition, since his election as Lord Mayor, he had been a member of the board of the German Association of Cities , which meant that his ideas on local politics gained weight throughout Germany.

Shortly before Goerdeler took over his office, the global economic crisis had set in. The resulting difficult financial situation weighed heavily on his term of office. In addition, the number of unemployed had increased considerably and with them the election results for the extreme parties, especially the NSDAP. At the same time, there were problems with increasing urbanization in Leipzig: large parts of the city were not canalized, and there was also a shortage of living space. Nevertheless, Goerdeler succeeded in largely solving these problems and at the same time eliminating the budget deficit through an iron austerity policy. He countered the housing shortage by intensifying suburban development. Goerdeler also earned the reputation of an expert in public finances, which brought him into contact with Chancellor Heinrich Brüning , who pursued a similar policy at the national level. Brüning headed a presidential cabinet that operated a rigid deflation policy with emergency ordinances . When the first savings had hardly any effect and the political radicalization increased, Brüning looked for a suitable price commissioner who would push through state-decreed price cuts of 10 percent against the resistance of the economy. He chose Goerdeler for this task in 1931. He hesitated at first because such state interventions ran counter to his economically liberal convictions of the "free play of forces". Finally, after a conversation with President Paul von Hindenburg , he decided to take on the task at the same time as the mayor's office.

This was a conscious decision for Brüning's deflationary policy and against the German Nationals, especially against their chairman Alfred Hugenberg , who ran a fundamental opposition to the hated “black-red system”. This fundamental difference ultimately led to Goerdeler's resignation from the DNVP in 1931.

Goerdeler as price commissioner, around 1933

For Brüning, to whom it was clear from Hindenburg's hints from the end of 1931 that he was acting quasi as “Reich Chancellor on call”, Goerdeler was the desired successor in office. After his final resignation, he proposed Hindenburg as a possible successor in his last debate on May 30, 1932. However, since Hindenburg wanted to break with Brüning-style economic policy and bring about a shift to the right in the government, Goerdeler was out of the question for him as the new Chancellor. Goerdeler recognized that the pressing question was how the German Nationals and the Center would deal with the NSDAP. He wrote: “Even after the fall of Brüning, the NSDAP had to be faced with the decision to take on responsibility or not to come to a new election.” This was not about supporting the National Socialist ideology, but Goerdeler saw only two possibilities to stop the rise of the NSDAP: Either to involve it in government responsibility, to “tame” it, or to ban it and “finally bring Hitler and his entire entourage under lock and key”. He did not support Franz von Papen's chancellorship . When the latter offered to join his cabinet as Minister of the Interior or Finance , Goerdeler refused. In the period that followed, he quickly lost influence and was no longer called in as a price commissioner at cabinet meetings. Because of this decision he later made serious accusations that he had missed the chance to at least slow down Hitler's further rise a little.

His demand to take the NSDAP into government responsibility is seen by individual historians as support for National Socialism. Here, documented statements by Goerdeler about a ban on the NSDAP from 1932 and 1933 are ignored. On the other hand, there can be no talk of a consistent rejection of National Socialism from the start, any more than enthusiastic support. In Goerdeler's political views, there was definitely an area of ​​consensus with the NSDAP, which led to Goerdeler's split position and initial cooperation between him and the new rulers.

Takeover of power and the beginnings of National Socialist rule

Goerdeler's place of activity: The New Town Hall in Leipzig

Goerdeler's attitude towards the takeover of power by the NSDAP was ambivalent: On the one hand, his bourgeois nature found the noisy behavior of the National Socialists, their economic ideas and their violence as questionable. In addition to this distance, there were also overlaps between his political ideas and the program of the NSDAP: In particular, the elimination of the “ dictate of Versailles ” and the strengthening of the Reich executive led Goerdeler to see positive aspects of the 1933 seizure of power as a “national revolution” . At this point in time, he could not bring himself to take a position against the political upheavals, although he viewed them critically. Despite his hopes for an early abolition of the Versailles Treaty and an internal political transformation away from a pure “party state”, one cannot speak of euphoric support for the seizure of power. He did not recognize that Germany was being transformed into the party state that Goerdeler had rejected, precisely because of the constant expansion of power by the NSDAP and that its ideals of law, which were based on a deep trust in the Prussian rule of law, were to be shaken to their foundations. Overall, despite statements to the contrary from the Weimar period, he underestimated the rising danger.

On the evening of January 30, 1933, Goerdeler stayed in the town hall late into the night in order to personally prevent the SA from occupying the authority . Unlike in many cities, this project succeeded. In Saxony, Goerdeler was the only Lord Mayor who remained in office even after the seizure of power - at the national level there were only four Lord Mayors who continued to preside over large cities. His brother, Fritz Goerdeler, who held the office of mayor of his hometown Marienwerder until 1933, was forced out of office because he refused to join the NSDAP. Since Carl Friedrich Goerdeler still had great support from the population in the metropolis of Leipzig, the National Socialists could not simply force him out of the town hall. The incident with his brother had heightened his skepticism towards the new rulers. He decided to stay in office in order to strengthen the moderate forces and to advise the National Socialist government in order to continue to serve the common good. To interpret this as active support for Hitler seems shortened.

His skepticism was particularly evident in the so-called “flag conflict”: Goerdeler was not ready to hoist the swastika flag at the Leipzig City Hall and the Imperial Court , which at that time was not the national flag. Instead, Goerdeler flagged the town hall with the Saxon state flag and the city flag of Leipzig , as was the law at the time, and with the Reichsgericht with black-white-red . The SA and SS demanded the unconditional use of the swastika flag and threatened to underpin this with acts of terrorism. The flag crisis was finally defused by a decree by Hindenburg , according to which the swastika flag and the black-white-red flag were to be hoisted together. When the National Socialists staged their alleged connection to Prussian traditions on the day of Potsdam , Goerdeler was not, like most conservatives, enthusiastic about this revival of the “Prussian spirit”. He wrote: “The spirit of Potsdam not only wants to be called, it must also come to life.” With this, Goerdeler, who was moderately impressed with the Nazi propaganda, linked numerous criticisms of the National Socialist government, which he addressed in the summer of 1934 Memorandum to Adolf Hitler formulated: He set the economic policy of the National Socialists, which lowered the unemployment figures through new indebtedness and money creation , in contrast to the thrift of the Great Elector . For Goerdeler it was true: "Economic policy is peace policy." The National Socialist economic ideas, which would ultimately lead to autarky , the detachment from the world market , he considered dangerous and rejected them out of economically liberal conviction, but also because he had already in 1934 military conflicts in the form of Feared economic wars.

But in 1933 Goerdeler became a founding member of the Academy for German Law , of which Hans Frank was president .

Reactions to the persecution of minorities and political opponents

Call by the NSDAP to boycott Jews in front of the entrance to the Tietz department store in Berlin, 1933

An important point of reference for Goerdeler's increasing opposition to National Socialism was the persecution of political opponents and the Jewish minority. By March 1933 alone, more than 1,000 Social Democrats, Socialists and Communists fell victim to the Nazi protective custody practice in Leipzig, who had been transferred to the Colditz , Hainichen and Sachsenburg concentration camps since the end of April . Goerdeler called these processes a “lawless hustle and bustle” that had to be “put to an end”. He also criticized the National Socialist "Jewish policy" from the beginning of the Nazi regime. Out of humanistic and constitutional convictions, he stood up for affected Jewish citizens. First, this concerned primarily the reactions Goerdeler to the displacement of Jews from the cultural life of Leipzig: He tried, albeit in vain, to the whereabouts of Kapellmeister at the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Bruno Walter , and the Director of the Old Theater , Detlef Sierck , who was ousted from office because of his Jewish wife. In the case of the Leipzig law professor Ludwig Ebermayer , Goerdeler's mission was initially successful. In addition, Carl Friedrich Goerdeler expressed his contradiction to the anti-Semitic practice with demonstrative greetings from renowned Jewish intellectuals in the presence of influential National Socialists.

When Jewish shops were boycotted all over Germany on April 1, 1933 during the so-called boycott of Jews, Goerdeler went to the Brühl , the then center of the fur trade in Leipzig, where many Jewish shops were located. There he visited the Jewish shops despite the SA guards stationed in front of the department stores. This unusual occurrence, in which an incumbent mayor opposed the policies of the Nazi regime in this way, also caused a certain sensation across the region; so reported the Frankfurter Zeitung about it. In the subsequent discussion between leading Leipzig National Socialists and Goerdeler, Goerdeler cited above all the damage caused by foreign policy, particularly with regard to Leipzig as a trade fair city , to which such actions led.

The passing of the law to restore the civil service meant the transition from arbitrary anti-Semitic measures to explicitly regulated discrimination against Jews. The law of April 7, 1933 stipulated in its so-called Aryan paragraph that "civil servants of non-Aryan descent [...] are to be retired". This did not apply to Jewish officials who had already been civil servants before August 1, 1914, who took part in the First World War on the German side, or who had a father or son who had died.

Goerdeler did not expressly oppose this law, as a protest would not have been possible without a complete break with the Nazi regime because of the official character of the Aryan paragraph. However, he still wanted to avoid this.

Increasing disillusionment and price commission 1934/1935

Goerdeler as Lord Mayor with the later Nazi Justice Minister Otto Georg Thierack , 1935

Hitler and Goerdeler laying the foundation stone for the Richard-Wagner-Grove designed by Emil Hipp , March 6, 1934

On January 30, 1935, the German Municipal Code (DGO) was enacted, a fundamental reform of municipal constitutional law. The National Socialists used some of Goerdeler's suggestions that he had made in the German Association of Cities . At the same time, the DGO meant the end of local self-government , which for Goerdeler was one of the most important elements of German bureaucracy. The new law eliminated the direct or indirect participation of the population in the formation of internal will and transferred large parts of the urban tasks to the state or to the party. The remaining tasks of the community were passed on to the mayor according to the “ leader principle ”. Although Goerdeler had always called for a similar expansion of power, he rejected the law as a whole. He did not want to forego the participation of the population, and he also complained about the end of self-administration: "Time will teach us whether we can manage in the long run to renounce every act of questioning the competent citizens of a community." He himself was looking for the middle ground between “exaggerated democratic lines of thought” and “ fascist ones that are alien to us ”. For him, however, the DGO meant “killing the idea of ​​self-administration”. This fundamental argument in the area of ​​tension between the affirmation of authoritarian structures with Prussian characteristics and the rejection of National Socialist politics already shows the path that led Goerdeler into the resistance.

On November 5, 1934, Carl Friedrich Goerdeler was appointed to the office of Reich Commissioner for Price Monitoring. His practical experience as price commissioner under Brüning and the advice given to the government in the August 1934 memorandum recommended him for this position. The historian Gerhard Ritter suspects that Hitler, unaware of his actual views, which resulted from an alleged non-compliance with the memorandum of 1934, appointed him price commissioner simply because of his experience. Goerdeler rated this gesture by Hitler as a "ray of hope"; he had not yet given up the illusion that the National Socialists would take a different course in economic policy. Nonetheless, he was reluctant to take office under these political conditions. The desire to have a moderating effect on the government played a major role in his decision. His fear that as a price commissioner he would not be able to avoid confrontation with Nazi politics was confirmed. On Goerdeler's second day as price commissioner, Robert Ley , the head of the German Labor Front , called for powers of attorney for the NSDAP and suggested “hanging up some usurers and hoarders” in order to put an end to the price increases. Goerdeler was appalled and instead gave the state authorities or, in Prussia, the regional presidents the power to lower prices. This step led to differences with Hitler, and Goerdeler lost authority in this area to the Nazi government.

In March 1935, the Nazi regime introduced general conscription and proclaimed the establishment of a German air force . The costs of arming the Wehrmacht made an orderly budget policy impossible for the future. Goerdeler strictly rejected the financing brought into play by Reichsbank President Hjalmar Schacht through the so-called Mefo bills . In June 1935, shortly before the end of Goerdeler's regular term of office as price commissioner, a discussion took place between Goerdeler, Schacht and Hitler, in which the price commissioner demanded extended powers. When these were not granted to him, he made his office available, although Hitler would have liked to see his term extended. Even after further inquiries as to whether he would be available for another high Reich office, for example in connection with the tasks in the field of foreign exchange and raw materials management that Hermann Göring assumed at the beginning of 1936, Goerdeler insisted on his position.

One of the last economic and political cooperation between him and the Nazi regime was a memorandum requested by Göring in August 1936 in which he unequivocally presented his point of view to the National Socialist economic politicians and offered them his support one last time as long as they would rethink: he was one of them It came to the conclusion that the politics he complained about were not negative side effects, but that a complete reorientation was necessary. Göring assessed the memorandum to Hitler as “completely useless”, especially since it collided completely with Hitler's own programmatic memorandum on the four-year plan that was created during this period . Goerdeler's experience as a price commissioner and his insights into economic and arms policy matters of the Nazi regime had led to a direct confrontation with leaders of the NSDAP and further heightened his doubts accumulated in local politics, so that his critical accompaniment of Nazi politics turned into opposition. He had not only fallen out of favor with the leadership, but also wanted to “only get out of the matter with decency”. The resignation from the mayor's post became apparent.

Resignation from the office of Lord Mayor

The Mendelssohn monument, demolished in 1936 , around 1900

The guidelines of the DGO continued to worsen the situation of the local government. Goerdeler criticized the “dreary mechanization and leveling out”, which would prove to be “a misfortune for our fatherland”. He no longer found his work as Lord Mayor interesting and his position influential, but only dulled all processes. Therefore, in the spring of 1936, he considered switching to the private sector. On May 5, 1936, he declared himself ready to enter the service of the Krupp Group . Goerdeler had been in contact with Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach since October 1935 . Since his visit to Villa Hügel on December 4, 1935, Goerdeler worked towards joining the Krupp board of directors. Nevertheless, he wanted to wait for his upcoming re-election to provoke a trial of strength with the Reich Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick . On May 22, 1936, Goerdeler was finally re-elected by the Leipzig City Council, which was instrumentalized by the National Socialists. The decisive factor for the re-election of the non-party NS critic Goerdeler by the National Socialists was that he “had the confidence of our Führer despite his political inadequacy.” The differences between Goerdeler and the NS leadership from the summer of 1935 remained hidden from the National Socialist councilors. The re-elected Goerdeler himself was only waiting for an occasion to resign.

Even before Goerdeler's re-election, the head of the Office for Crafts and Trade of the NSDAP district leadership in Leipzig, Eckert, turned to the Lord Mayor: He demanded the demolition of the “monument to the thoroughbred Jew” Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy that was erected in front of the Gewandhaus . At this point in time there was already a ban on the performance of “non-Aryan compositions” throughout the German Reich, to which the National Socialists also counted Mendelssohn's works. Goerdeler had always campaigned for their performance, and so, for example, the St. Thomas Choir was able to sing Mendelssohn's songs in September 1936 without punishment. After the demolition request, the City Councilor for Culture Hauptmann first checked the legal situation in the case of the monument. Meanwhile, the city council exerted enormous pressure on Goerdeler to get rid of the "Jews in ore". Finally, the city treasurer Koehler suggested replacing the monument with a portrait of another important German musician. Carl Friedrich Goerdeler called this alternative "testable", provided that the monument remains intact until he has made his decision. This gave him time to seek support for his negative stance in government circles. The Reich Propaganda Ministry, of all people, announced that “such iconoclasm” was not wanted. However, this statement was not based on actual support for Goerdeler's position, but was only given with a view to the Olympic Games in Berlin. Joseph Goebbels feared a negative response abroad on this question.

When Carl Friedrich Goerdeler traveled to Scandinavia from November 8th to 13th to a. To give a lecture on the economy, prices and currency in Helsinki on November 10th , the National Socialists took the initiative and removed the Mendelssohn monument on the night of November 9th to 10th. Goerdeler received the news of the demolition on his return trip in Stockholm . After his return, he accused his Nazi deputy Haake of disloyalty; When he noticed that the city council and the government were against him and would not support a re-erection of the monument under any circumstances, he submitted his retirement application on November 25, 1936 . He was immediately on leave. Later, when he reported on his resignation in prison, he wrote: "At that time I made the clear decision not to take responsibility for a cultural outrage." On March 22, 1937, Goerdeler's departure from the service of the city of Leipzig took place.

Foreign trips 1937/1938

"A calm Europe, progressing in organic development towards ever-increasing economic unity, means securing peace and the welfare of the world."

- Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, 1938.

Goerdeler organized meetings in many places in Europe and the USA with politicians and industrialists who came into question as contact persons for him in order to advocate tougher action against Hitler , contrary to a practiced appeasement policy . After the open conflict with the NSDAP, Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach no longer dared to appoint Goerdeler to the Krupp board without consulting Hitler. In March 1937 he informed Goerdeler that Hitler did not want to see a man with Goerdeler's economic and political views in heavy industry. Instead, through Theodor Bäuerle, he came into contact with the circle of opposition democrats in Stuttgart, which had formed around the industrialist Robert Bosch . Bosch pursued the goal of warning the Western European statesmen of the dangerousness of National Socialism. For this reason he signed an employment contract with Goerdeler in 1937, who was now employed as a financial advisor to Bosch. This contractual relationship gave his upcoming extensive travel activities a legal appearance - even Hermann Göring, to whom he called on a visa matter, supported the project without knowing the actual purpose. The same applies to Krupp von Bohlen and Halbach, who financially supported Goerdeler's trips. Up until the beginning of the Second World War, Goerdeler traveled to more than ten European countries, the Middle East and North Africa as well as Canada and the United States. He sent detailed reports about his impressions of the trip to Krupp, Bosch, Göring, Schacht , and also to Generals Werner von Fritsch , Georg Thomas , Franz Halder and Ludwig Beck . He had probably known this since his time as price commissioner in 1935. Goerdeler's trips abroad laid the foundation for the collaboration with Beck, which later formed the core of the conservative resistance.

His first trip took him to Brussels (June 4-16, 1937) and Great Britain (until July 15). In Belgium, he not only made contacts with influential business leaders, but was also given to King Leopold III. and Prime Minister Paul van Zeeland received. The way in which Goerdeler was received, even though he traveled without commission from any authority or party, shows that abroad he was seen as a political figure of high standing and, in a certain way, also as a representative of "another Germany".

His stay in London gave him cause for both criticism and admiration: he viewed the uncertain social policy and the decline in economic strength with concern. In contrast, the English way of life and the political traditions of the United Kingdom, such as British self-government, made a great impression on him. He was surprised by Great Britain's willingness to negotiate (" appeasement "), although the Nazis' Jewish and church policies had severely clouded the relationship. Talks were particularly intense with Foreign Minister Anthony Eden . Later, when the resistance formulated its foreign policy views, Goerdeler remained the Anglophile , while Ludwig Beck primarily focused on an understanding with the " Grande Nation " France.

At the end of July Goerdeler planned an extended trip to South America, but then preferred to go to Paris first . In his report from France, he described the great willingness to communicate, but also the sensitivity due to the participation of German troops in the Spanish Civil War . He managed to establish permanent contacts with the French politician Paul Reynaud . From Boulogne he crossed to Canada in September 1937 . In Ottawa , he spoke of great opportunities for German-Canadian cooperation, since Germany, as an industrial and research nation, is particularly suitable for a partnership with resource-rich Canada. He also spoke to Prime Minister Mackenzie King about this idea .

From January 2, 1938, Goerdeler stayed in the United States , where the emigrated lawyer Gotthilf Bronisch in New York acted as his most important confidante. During his trip to America Goerdeler had written his political will, which he gave to Bronisch with the stipulation that it would be published in the event of his death. He criticized Roosevelt's New Deal policy in detail , while at the same time reporting considerable opportunities for a Washington- London-Berlin axis . If Germany were to be able to solve the European problems through a peaceful understanding with its neighbors and Great Britain, he hoped that this would also lead to transatlantic cooperation. But if the German Reich were to provoke the armed conflict, America would be one of its strongest opponents. In America, too, he met influential men in public life. a. with Secretary of State Cordell Hull , former President Herbert C. Hoover , Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, and industrialist Owen D. Young .

After his return in January 1938, in a long conversation with Generals Beck and Fritsch, he learned of Hitler's war plans, which undermined his hopes for a political understanding. Goerdeler tried to persuade the military to carry out a coup , but this also failed because General Fritsch was deposed two weeks later in the course of the Blomberg-Fritsch crisis . In mid-March, immediately after the annexation of Austria , Goerdeler set out on his second trip to France and England. In the British capital, he gave a lecture on "Economy and Public Administration" at the renowned London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), which was the external pretext for the trip. In addition, his wife and daughter accompanied him to give his stay in London a "familiar touch". In his lecture to the LSE, Goerdeler underlined his economically liberal views and warned against wage regulation and the patronizing welfare state . At the same time he polemicized against the then extremely popular John Maynard Keynes and his ideas of state-influenced economic processes. A meeting with Winston Churchill arranged by Heinrich Brüning did not take place on this trip. In addition to the annexation of Austria, which he watched worriedly, the question of the Sudetenland was on the agenda in talks with the diplomat Robert Vansittart, 1st Baron Vansittart . Goerdeler emphasized that, above all, he considered a clear course towards Nazi Germany to be necessary, and secondarily how the decision of Great Britain would turn out on this issue.

Turning away from the Nazi regime

"It is a fantastic illusion to base a lasting peace on a pact with the devil."

- Carl Friedrich Goerdeler on the Munich Agreement , October 1, 1938.

In 1938 Goerdeler traveled five more times to Great Britain to meet the manager Arthur Primrose Young for talks, some of which lasted several days. The contact was established through Robert Vansittart . The minutes of the conversation resulted in the so-called "X-documents" that reached the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and, via Owen D. Young, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt . The White House was informed in detail about Goerdeler's ideas. In essence, the latter, who was only named "X" in the minutes of the meeting, demanded a decisive appearance at least from France and the USA. Concerning Great Britain he criticized Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain , whom he described as a "stumbling block" for an active stand against National Socialism. He rejected the weak appeasement policy as immoral and extremely dangerous. The "X-Documents" were published by A. P. Young after the end of World War II; they paint a differentiated picture of Goerdeler's views in 1938. Instead of a change of course on the part of the British government, an agreement with the German Reich on the Sudeten question emerged. On September 11th, Goerdeler sent haunting letters to London in which he reported that Hitler was determined to go to war.

When the Munich Agreement between Great Britain and France on the one hand and the German Reich and Italy on the other was concluded on September 30, Goerdeler spoke of the "betrayal of Munich". Deeply concerned, he spoke of a strengthening of the "evil forces" in Germany that this concession would bring to Hitler. Fearing police persecution, he traveled to Switzerland in mid-October 1938.

In the last twelve months before the start of the war, Goerdeler remained committed to a dual strategy aimed at dissuading the Nazi government from its political and economic "vabanque" course through internal and external pressure. In the spring of 1939 Goerdeler made another trip to France. In the summer he traveled to Great Britain, Switzerland and Turkey again. From Turkey, Goerdeler also visited the British, French and Italian possessions in the Middle East and North Africa. As in previous years, he prepared extensive reports about these trips, which he sent to Gustav Krupp von Bohlen and Halbach , Robert Bosch , Hermann Göring , Hjalmar Schacht , Ludwig Beck , Werner von Fritsch , Franz Halder , Georg Thomas as well as the Foreign Office and the Reich Chancellery provided. In these drafts, Goerdeler pleaded for a revision of the Versailles Treaty based on “compensation” and “understanding” with the Western powers. After the annexation of the Sudeten areas, he considered a number of “German demands for life” to be negotiable: “Elimination of the corridor , granting of colonial property, cheap surrender of gold in order to make the German currency fit for the world again.” In return, Germany should give the Western powers binding arms restrictions and to assure an accompanying rapprochement with the world economy. With these proposals, Goerdeler tried to bring an alternative political approach to discussion among various influencing groups and official bodies, which "reduced the risk of a major war without making the slightest compromise from the expansion strategy he had been involved in since 1933/34". In the report of the conversations he had had during his last trip abroad before the war, Goerdeler wrote at the beginning of August 1939: "The borders of 1914 in the east, colonies, gold, access to raw materials, should be available." An indispensable prerequisite for this but is Germany's renouncement of unilateral steps towards Poland, since Great Britain and France could no longer accept a further loss of prestige and influence and would have to take up the fight under these circumstances. But Germany would lose this "major war" because it was not economically prepared for such a conflict and Italy was worthless as an ally.

When Goerdeler realized that these advances could no longer penetrate the center of power, his final, also domestic political departure from the Nazi regime began. More recent research has shown that Goerdeler's constitutional reform proposals from autumn 1938 “were not about a strict rejection of the National Socialist regime, but about suggestions for improving it”. The basic distancing process began at the end of 1938 when Goerdeler ceased his efforts to obtain government office. It was completed in the summer of 1940.

Resistance in war

"The German people must and will free themselves from a system that, under the protection of terror, has committed monstrous crimes and has destroyed the rights, honor and freedom of the German people."

- Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, May 1943.

Carl Goerdeler before the People's Court, 1944

Goerdeler's development was not noticed in the USA: He is on the 400-name " List of Key Nazis " that John Franklin Carter , adviser to US President Franklin D. Roosevelt , wrote in 1942 for the white House put together and also forwarded to the military intelligence service OSS .

In collaboration with the former Army Chief of Staff Ludwig Beck , Goerdeler developed the core of a resistance group against the Nazi government in the following years , starting with the Wednesday Society that had existed in Berlin since 1863 , a group of national and conservative politicians. Social democrats like Wilhelm Leuschner and former functionaries of the Christian trade unions like Jakob Kaiser and Bernhard Letterhaus also joined this group between 1941 and 1943 . Leuschner, Kaiser and Letterhaus had already worked together in 1933 in the so-called leadership group of the trade unions. In Leipzig, the banker Wilhelm Schomburgk and the entrepreneur Walter Cramer became Goerdeler's closest confidants. Goerdeler's regular conversation partners in Berlin were above all Ulrich von Hassell , Paul Lejeune-Jung , Erwin Planck , Johannes Popitz , Josef Wirmer , Max Habermann , Albrecht Haushofer , Carl Langbehn and Jens Jessen . Goerdeler also distributed money and orders to Kurt Megelin from the left-wing socialist Red Shock Troop , who in turn maintained good relations with Wilhelm Leuschner together with his wife Else .

Although this opposition group was "known" in the capital, it was not bothered by the Gestapo until 1944 . The historian Karl Heinz Roth attributes this “upper-class aristocratic immunity”, among other things, to the fact that the political conception of the Goerdeler Group continued to move within the framework of the “alliance between the traditional elites and the Nazi movement” until 1943. In July / August 1943 Goerdeler authorized Johannes Popitz's attempt to win Heinrich Himmler over to the group's concerns. With Claus von Stauffenberg , who represented the younger staff officers who were determined to take part in the coup, Goerdeler did not contact Claus von Stauffenberg until September 1943.

The goal of the resistance for the circle around Goerdeler was the overthrow of Adolf Hitler in order to end the war. Goerdeler personally rejected the killing of Hitler and pleaded for his arrest and a subsequent legal process. The group envisaged Goerdeler as Reich Chancellor for the time after the overthrow. In this capacity he worked out extensive plans for a constitution and lists of ministers, which later became the undoing of many co-conspirators.

Goerdeler's foreign and domestic policy concept was not free from contradictions. Although he assumed from the beginning of 1943 that "the German forces in all areas were approaching the state of being used up", "the use of forces by the opponents was still capable of a considerable increase", he rejected a return to the political pre-war geography and the effortless abandonment of the since 1938 German territorial gains from. Germany was to emerge from the war within the borders of 1914 - i.e. not only including the East Prussian territories lost after 1918, but also Alsace-Lorraine and Northern Schleswig - and Austria and the Sudetenland under the Reich, the Goerdeler also for the time after Hitler a hegemonic position on the continent will remain. The Polish state should, however, be restored and be given access to the Baltic Sea through a “state union with Lithuania”. Goerdeler's central short-term goal was to come to an understanding with the USA and especially with Great Britain, in order to “concentrate all war forces of the German people on the East”; He did not consider a peace treaty with the USSR, but repeatedly offered the British and Americans to take over the armed "security against Russia". In February and May 1943 he consulted with the Swedish architect Raoul Wallenberg and had his second uncle, Marcus Wallenberg jr., Deliver a letter of this kind to Churchill. He made similar advances in the spring of 1944 via Allen Dulles in Switzerland, George Earle in Turkey and once more Wallenberg. In terms of domestic politics, Goerdeler's thinking revolved around ways and means of preventing a feared upheaval “from below”, comparable to the November Revolution, which he assumed “would take on much worse forms than in 1918”. In contrast to Stauffenberg under the influence of Julius Lebers and Adolf Reichwein  , he strictly rejected any at least informal involvement of the KPD in the preparations for the coup and the shaping of the post-war order ; In the last few months before the attempted coup, this “reactionary” attitude undermined Goerdeler's position at Stauffenberg, who recently favored the Social Democrat Leuschner as the future Chancellor of the Reich.

Goerdeler's constitutional plans, the basis of which he first worked out in 1941 in the program publication Das Ziel , can be described as conservative, economically liberal and anti-communist. They were therefore rejected by the younger members of the Kreisau Circle and the socialist resistance. Conversely, for the ultra-conservative wing of the opposition around Johannes Popitz, Ulrich von Hassell and Jens Jessen, who stuck to the perspective of “a 'total' authoritarian state”, Goerdeler's approach contained too far-reaching concessions to the idea of ​​a representative constitution.

However, Goerdeler's constitutional plans only envisaged direct election of members of parliament at the municipal level. The representative bodies at the district, Gau and Reich level should be elected completely or partially indirectly, their resolutions were not binding for the executive - from the mayors upwards - on central issues. Goerdeler envisaged a two-chamber parliament with a Reichstag and a Reichsstandsehaus. Half of the members of the Reichstag should be elected directly, the other half indirectly (by the members of the Gaulandtage). Goerdeler conceived the Reichsstandsehaus as a plenum of the property and educated bourgeoisie: It should consist of the "President and the group leaders of the Reich Chamber of Commerce, the presidents of all other Reich Chambers (doctors, lawyers, artists, etc.), the same number of university rectors , the state governors and up to 30 people whom the state leader must appoint for life because of their services to the German people; the latter must be 50 years old ”. Bills should necessarily pass both chambers; Drafts "with financial implications may only be introduced by one or both houses if the Reich Chancellor has given their prior consent". Goerdeler wanted to put a "Reichsführer" with extensive powers at the head of the state: "To be considered: Hereditary emperors, elected emperors, temporarily elected leaders." Goerdeler's short-term planning for the time after the coup was also not unreservedly supported by the liberal-democratic voices in his wider circle. Goerdeler, for example, refused to liquidate the concentration camps immediately after a successful coup. They should be handed over to the Wehrmacht and the inmates should be judged. The Reich Minister of the Interior should be given the right to order “further detention” of non-criminal - i.e. political - prisoners, “insofar as this is essential for the security of the Reich during the war”. The German Labor Front was to be converted into a comparable organization, for which membership was still compulsory; According to Goerdeler's ideas, its chairman and his deputy could now be elected by the members, but had to be confirmed by the state. This semi-state “German trade union” should also be given responsibility for unemployment insurance and employment offices. The trade unionists in Goerdeler's environment, such as Leuschner and Kaiser, who emerged from the so-called leadership circle, expressly supported this plan. Those laws and regulations that the NSDAP had privileged or merged with the state apparatus were to be annulled after the deposition of the Hitler government, but the party was not to be dissolved or banned. The Hitler Youth was Goerdeler convert one "in educational matters proven general" into a "state youth" led.

After Saul Friedländer , Goerdeler belonged to the ranks of the "conservative enemies of the (National Socialist) regime". One of their joint plans was that in a “future Germany citizenship would only be granted to Jews who could refer to a long line of ancestors in the country; those who came later would have to leave the country ”. In this context Goerdeler propagated the so-called Jewish state in Canada as a “permanent solution” for European Jews after a peace agreement with the Allies. Even if Goerdeler vehemently rejected the emerging extermination policy of the National Socialists in Eastern Europe, “Goerdeler's anti-Semitism [...] did not change anything until the end of his life”. Other research, on the other hand, rejects a one-sided anti-Semitic interpretation and see the real core of Goerdeler's concept in the protective rights that a Jewish state also extends over its citizens. In it he had “entrusted the protection of the Jews to a Jewish state” and thus wanted to place them “in their own hands”.

Arrest and execution

On July 14, 1944, before the assassination attempt on July 20, 1944 , an arrest warrant was issued against Goerdeler. Informed of this by friends, he fled to his West Prussian homeland. There he was recognized and betrayed by the accountant Helene Schwärzel in an inn . Goerdeler was arrested on August 12, 1944. The “ People's Court ” sentenced him to death on September 8, 1944 for treason against the people. His execution was repeatedly postponed in the hope that he would learn the names of other conspirators through torture. Worn down by the conditions of detention, he was brought to a "declaration of allegiance" in which he stated:

“So we have to respect July 20th as a final judgment from God. The Führer is saved from almost certain death. God did not want Germany's existence, for whose sake I wanted to participate and participated, to be bought with a bloody act; he has also entrusted this task to the Führer. "

Apparently in an effort to justify the resistance against the regime, he gave detailed information in interrogations and written reports about the organization, goals and participants of the resistance from trade unions, companies and the church.

On February 2, 1945 Goerdeler was executed by hanging in Plötzensee . His brother Fritz suffered the same fate in Plötzensee less than a month later.

Afterlife and memory

Memorial plaque on the house, Sybelstrasse 2–3, in Berlin-Charlottenburg

Memorial plaque in Limbach-Oberfrohna

Stolperstein in Birkerstraße 5, Solingen

After the end of the Second World War, numerous streets were named after Goerdeler, according to the database of the time based on data from OpenStreetMap 168 in Germany (as of 2018), especially in the old states.

• Goerdelerstraße in Solingen due to his successful work as a municipal official
• Goerdelerring as part of the Leipzig city ring
• Goerdeler memorial in front of the southwest corner of the New City Hall in Leipzig
• Goerdeler memorial plaque on Dr.-Goerdeler-Straße in Limbach-Oberfrohna (since July 2000; removed for repair in May 2020 due to damage)
• Carl-Goerdeler-Ring in Bad Harzburg
• Carl-Goerdeler-Ring in Gifhorn , where Max Habermann was housed in the judicial prison by the Gestapo
• Goerdelerdamm in Berlin since November 2, 1953; a section of the A100 . It runs immediately south of the Plötzensee prison, the place where Goerdeler was executed in 1945.
• Goerdeler Primary School in Berlin (1954 to 2013; renamed the Paula Fürst School)
• Goerdelerhof in Bochum , Altenbochum district, where there is a coherent group of streets named after Nazi resistance fighters
• Goerdelerring in Kiel , in the new development area of ​​the Kiel-Wellsee district , all streets are named after resistance fighters.
• In a quarter of Flensburg , connected streets are named after resistance fighters. Goerdelerstraße is the main axis.
• Goerdelerstraße in the Lechenich district in Erftstadt ; the Patria area. The streets there are mainly named after resistance fighters.
• Goerdelerstraße in Aachen , Bonn , Böblingen , Duisburg , Heilbronn, Karlsruhe in the Oberreut district, Münster in the Aaseestadt district, in Offenbach am Main , in Oldenburg , in Rostock , in Unterhaching , in Fulda , in Erlangen , in Menden (Sauerland) ; in the small town of Werne , near Lünen, an area with street names that are named after various resistance members; Residential area Saarbrücken-Eschberg , in Paderborn with Goerdeler-Gymnasium ; there is also a Goerdelerstrasse in Stuttgart , in Bietigheim-Bissingen , Korntal-Münchingen , Vreden , Wiesbaden and in Wolfsburg
• in Mönchengladbacher district Wickrath and in Pinneberg a Dr. Carl-Goerdeler-Strasse
• Carl-Goerdeler-Strasse in Frankfurt am Main / Dornbusch district , Hamm / Bockum-Hövel district; in Ludwigsburg ; in Bremen in the Vahr district ; Carl-Friedrich-Goerdeler-Strasse in the Garath district in Düsseldorf since the 1960s ; in Speyer / Speyer-West; in Saarland , in the city of Merzig , in the residential area Gipsberg, Zwickau / district Eckersbach , Hemmingen and Bad Homburg vor der Höhe and in Steinhagen (Westphalia) in the district of Gütersloh
• Carl-Friedrich-Goerdeler-Strasse in Soltau
• Carl-Goerdeler-Strasse in Mainz-Gonsenheim
• Goerdeler-Platz in Ludwigshafen am Rhein
• Goerdelerweg in Darmstadt , Göttingen , Olpe , Weinheim and in Esslingen am Neckar
• Karl-Goerdeler-Straße in Radevormwald , Geseke and Georgsmarienhütte
• Goerdeler Park in Duisburg
• Karl-Friedrich-Goerdeler-Straße in Backnang ( Rems-Murr-Kreis ) and in Leverkusen , Alkenrath district (since 1956)
• Friederich-Goerdeler-Strasse in Bergkamen (North Rhine-Westphalia)
• Carl-Friedrich-Goerdeler-Strasse in Steinfurt (North Rhine-Westphalia)
• Goerdelerstrasse in Celle
• Goerdelerring in Marktheidenfeld (Lower Franconia / Bavaria)
• Carl Goerdeler School Jemgum
• Dr.-Goerdeler-Str. in Neustadt / Weinstr.

His son Reinhard Goerdeler was chairman of the board of the Deutsche Treuhand-Gesellschaft and KPMG for many years . His eldest son Ulrich was a member of the state parliament in Lower Saxony for four electoral terms.

Since 1999 is Carl Goerdeler price of urban studies, short- Carl-Goerdeler Prize awarded. The bonus is awarded annually in conjunction with the Carl and Anneliese Goerdeler Foundation.

He is played by Kevin R. McNally in the film Operation Valkyrie - The Stauffenberg Assassination .

A stumbling block in his memory was laid in Solingen .

The asteroid 1987 SQ ₁₀ was named (8268) Goerdeler on April 11, 1998 .

Own writings

• Political testament. Goerdeler's political testament, ed. by Friedrich Krause, New York 1945.

See also

• Personalities of July 20, 1944
• Beck / Goerdeler shadow cabinet

literature

• Wolfgang Benz , Walter H. Pehle (Hrsg.): Lexicon of the German resistance. Frankfurt am Main 2001, ISBN 3-596-15083-3 , pp. 218-222.

• Günter Brakelmann , Manfred Keller (ed.): Zeitansage. July 20, 1944 and the legacy of the German resistance. (= Series of publications of the Evangelical Academic Union of Westphalia ). LIT Verlag, Münster 2005, ISBN 3-8258-8561-5 .

• Sabine Gillmann, Hans Mommsen (ed.): Political writings and letters from Carl Friedrich Goerdelers. KG Saur, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-598-11631-4 .

• Peter Hoffmann : Carl Goerdeler and the Jewish Question 1933-42. Cambridge University Press, 2011, ISBN 978-1-107-00798-7 . In German as:

Peter Hoffmann: Carl Goerdeler against the persecution of the Jews. Böhlau, Cologne a. a. 2013, ISBN 978-3-412-21024-3 .

• Linda von Keyserlingk-Rehbein: Just a "very small clique"? The Nazi investigation via the network of July 20, 1944. Lukas, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86732-303-1 .
• Paul Kluke :  Goerdeler, Carl Friedrich. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 6, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1964, ISBN 3-428-00187-7 , pp. 521-524 ( digitized version ).
• Marianne Meyer-Krahmer : Carl Goerdeler and his way into the resistance. A trip to my father's world. Herder Taschenbuch Verlag, Freiburg 1989, ISBN 3-451-08553-4 .
• Hans Mommsen : The resistance in the Third Reich. In: ders .: On the history of Germany in the 20th century. Democracy, dictatorship, resistance. Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-421-04490-7 , pp. 235-348.
• Klaus-Jürgen Müller: Structure and development of the national-conservative opposition. In: uprising of conscience. The military resistance against Hitler and the Nazi regime in 1933. ed. v. Military History Research Office. revised and expanded. Herford / Bonn 2001, ISBN 3-8132-0708-0 .
• Ines Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. A mayor against the Nazi state. Böhlau, Cologne 1997, ISBN 3-412-05797-5 .
• Gerhard Ritter : Carl Goerdeler and the German resistance movement. 4th edition. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-421-06181-5 .
• Wilhelm Ritter von Schramm (ed.): Beck and Goerdeler. Community Documents for Peace 1941–1944. Gotthold Müller, Munich 1965, DNB 454464037 .
• Daniela Rüther: The resistance of July 20th on the way to the social market economy. The economic policy ideas of the bourgeois opposition to Hitler. Schöningh, Paderborn / Munich / Vienna / Zurich 2002, ISBN 3-506-77529-4 .
• Arthur P. Young: The X Documents. Carl Goerdeler's secret contacts with the British government in 1938/1939. Piper, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-492-03230-3 .

Web links

Commons : Carl Friedrich Goerdeler  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Carl Friedrich Goerdeler in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Carl Friedrich Goerdeler  in the German Digital Library
• Newspaper article about Carl Friedrich Goerdeler in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
• Short biography of the German Resistance Memorial Center
• Markus Würz: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. Tabular curriculum vitae in the LeMO ( DHM and HdG )
• Annual reports for German history , jdgdb.bbaw.de: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler
• Inge Marszolek: Schwärzel, Helene , in: Kurt Groenewold , Alexander Ignor, Arnd Koch (Ed.): Lexicon of Political Criminal Trials , Online, as of March 2015

Individual evidence

1. ^ Markus Würz: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. Tabular curriculum vitae in the LeMO ( DHM and HdG )
2. ↑ ^{a b} Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, p. 43.
3. ↑ Meyer-Krahmer: Carl Goerdeler and his way into the resistance. 1989, p. 12.
4. ↑ Meyer-Krahmer: Carl Goerdeler and his way into the resistance. 1989, p. 17.
5. ^ Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, p. 47.
6. ↑ ^{a b} Ritter: Carl Goerdeler and the German resistance movement. 1984, p. 21.
7. ^ Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, p. 51.
8. ↑ See Hans Dühring : Das Gymnasium Marienwerder. From cathedral school to high school. Wuerzburg 1964.
9. ↑ See Thomas Nipperdey: Deutsche Geschichte 1866–1918. Volume 2. Power state before democracy. Munich 1991, p. 637.
10. ^ Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, p. 55.
11. ↑ See testimony for another Germany. Former Tübingen students as victims of July 20, 1944. In: Volker Schäfer (Hrsg.): Werkschriften des Universitätsarchiv Tübingen. Row 2. Issue 11.
12. ↑ BREATH - History of Eberhardina Tübingen. (No longer available online.) Old Turnerschaft Eberhardina-Markomannia, archived from the original on October 25, 2014 ; accessed on April 3, 2018 . 
13. ^ Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, p. 58.
14. ^ Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, p. 60.
15. ^ Goerdeler: Political Testament. 1945, p. 22.
16. ^ Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, p. 63.
17. ↑ Ritter: Carl Goerdeler and the German resistance movement. 1984, p. 22.
18. ↑ At that time it was similar to all other “assessors”.
19. ↑ Norbert Kampe: Students and the "Jewish question" in the German Empire. The emergence of an academic backing of anti-Semitism. Göttingen 1988, pp. 66-67.
20. ^ Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, p. 65.
21. ↑ Meyer-Krahmer: Carl Goerdeler and his way into the resistance. 1989, p. 37.
22. ^ Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, p. 67.
23. ↑ Meyer-Krahmer: Carl Goerdeler and his way into the resistance. 1989, p. 27.
24. ^ Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, p. 70.
25. ^ Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, p. 71.
26. ↑ ^{a b c} Meyer-Krahmer: Carl Goerdeler and his way into the resistance. 1989, p. 28.
27. ^ Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, p. 72.
28. ^ Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, p. 75.
29. ^ Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, p. 80.
30. ^ ^{A b} Meyer-Krahmer: Carl Goerdeler and his way into the resistance. 1989, p. 29.
31. ^ Max Wolkowicz: German East Federation. In: Lexicon of party history. Volume 2. Leipzig 1984, pp. 221-224.
32. ^ Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, p. 89.
33. ^ Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, p. 96.
34. ↑ Meyer-Krahmer: Carl Goerdeler and his way into the resistance. 1989, p. 34.
35. ^ ^{A b} Meyer-Krahmer: Carl Goerdeler and his way into the resistance. 1989, p. 36.
36. ^ Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, p. 102.
37. ^ Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, p. 101.
38. ^ ^{A b} Meyer-Krahmer: Carl Goerdeler and his way into the resistance. 1989, p. 51.
39. ^ Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, p. 97.
40. ↑ Meyer-Krahmer: Carl Goerdeler and his way into the resistance. 1989, p. 52.
41. ^ Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, pp. 98-99.
42. ^ Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, p. 100.
43. ^ ^{A b} Meyer-Krahmer: Carl Goerdeler and his way into the resistance. 1989, p. 64.
44. ↑ Meyer-Krahmer: Carl Goerdeler and his way into the resistance. 1989, p. 67.
45. ↑ Meyer-Krahmer: Carl Goerdeler and his way into the resistance. 1989, p. 68.
46. ↑ Wolfram Pyta: Hindenburg - rule between Hohenzollern and Hitler. 2009, p. 702.
47. ^ ^{A b} Meyer-Krahmer: Carl Goerdeler and his way into the resistance. 1989, p. 69.
48. ↑ Meyer-Krahmer: Carl Goerdeler and his way into the resistance. 1989, p. 70.
49. ↑ See Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, pp. 103-106.
50. ^ Michael Krüger-Charlé: Carl Goerdeler's attempt. P. 387.
51. ↑ ^{a b} Ritter: Carl Goerdeler and the German resistance movement. 1984, p. 65.
52. ^ Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, p. 107.
53. ^ ^{A b} Meyer-Krahmer: Carl Goerdeler and his way into the resistance. 1989, p. 73.
54. ↑ Meyer-Krahmer: Carl Goerdeler and his way into the resistance. 1989, p. 72.
55. ↑ Horst Matzerath : National Socialism and Local Self-Administration. Stuttgart u. Berlin 1970, p. 80.
56. ↑ Meyer-Krahmer: Carl Goerdeler and his way into the resistance. 1989, p. 76.
57. ↑ See Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, pp. 107-110.
58. ^ Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, pp. 110-111.
59. ^ Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, p. 112.
60. ^ ^{A b} Meyer-Krahmer: Carl Goerdeler and his way into the resistance. 1989, p. 77.
61. ↑ Ritter: Carl Goerdeler and the German resistance movement. 1984, p. 74.
62. ^ Yearbook of the Academy for German Law, 1st year 1933/34. Edited by Hans Frank. (Munich, Berlin, Leipzig: Schweitzer Verlag), p. 253.
63. ↑ ^{a b} Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, p. 125.
64. ^ Klaus Drobisch , Günther Wieland : System of the Nazi concentration camps 1933-1939. Berlin 1993, p. 47.
65. ↑ So with Alfons David , the President of the Court of Honor in the presence of the NSDAP Mayor Haake. Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, p. 128.
66. ^ Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, p. 130.
67. ↑ The Black Book. Facts and documents. Published by the Comité des Délégations Juives, Paris 1934. New edition Frankfurt am Main 1983, p. 317.
68. ^ Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, p. 131.
69. ↑ §3 of the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service.
70. ↑ Hans Mommsen: Officials in the Third Reich. Series of the quarterly books for contemporary history, No. 15. Stuttgart 1966, p. 49 and p. 60.
71. ^ Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, p. 218.
72. ^ Carl Friedrich Goerdeler: The state supervision. P. 296.
73. ^ Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, p. 209.
74. ↑ Ritter: Carl Goerdeler and the German resistance movement. 1984, p. 76.
75. ↑ ^{a b} Ritter: Carl Goerdeler and the German resistance movement. 1984, p. 75.
76. ↑ ^{a b c} Meyer-Krahmer: Carl Goerdeler and his way into the resistance. 1989, p. 78.
77. ^ Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, p. 221.
78. ^ Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, p. 234.
79. ^ ^{A b} Meyer-Krahmer: Carl Goerdeler and his way into the resistance. 1989, p. 81.
80. ^ Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, p. 235.
81. ↑ ^{a b} Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, p. 239.
82. ^ Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, p. 240.
83. ^ Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, p. 242.
84. ↑ ^{a b} Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, p. 258.
85. ^ Fred Prieberg: Music in the Nazi State. Frankfurt 1989, p. 146 ff.
86. ^ Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, p. 260.
87. ↑ Meyer-Krahmer: Carl Goerdeler and his way into the resistance. 1989, p. 89.
88. ^ Reich: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler. 1997, p. 266.
89. ↑ quoted from Ritter: Carl Goerdeler and the German resistance movement. 1984, p. 169.
90. ↑ ^{a b c} Joachim Scholtyseck : Robert Bosch and the liberal resistance against Hitler 1933 to 1945. CH Beck, 1999, p. 229.
91. ↑ Ritter: Carl Goerdeler and the German resistance movement. 1984, p. 157.
92. ↑ See Theodor Heuss : Robert Bosch. 1st edition. Stuttgart / Tübingen 1946.
93. ↑ Ritter: Carl Goerdeler and the German resistance movement. 1984, p. 159.
94. ↑ ^{a b c} Ritter: Carl Goerdeler and the German resistance movement. 1984, p. 160.
95. ^ Schramm: Beck and Goerdeler. 1965, p. 24.
96. ↑ ^{a b} Schramm: Beck and Goerdeler. 1965, p. 26.
97. ↑ Ritter: Carl Goerdeler and the German resistance movement. 1984, p. 161.
98. ^ Goerdeler's first report of July 15, 1937.
99. ↑ ^{a b} Ritter: Carl Goerdeler and the German resistance movement. 1984, p. 164.
100. ↑ Ritter: Carl Goerdeler and the German resistance movement. 1984, pp. 164-165.
101. ↑ Ritter: Carl Goerdeler and the German resistance movement. 1984, p. 167.
102. ↑ Hans Bernd Gisevius : Until the bitter end I. S. 417 ff.
103. ↑ Meyer-Krahmer: Carl Goerdeler and his way into the resistance. 1989, p. 102.
104. ↑ ^{a b} Ritter: Carl Goerdeler and the German resistance movement. 1984, p. 170.
105. ↑ Meyer-Krahmer: Carl Goerdeler and his way into the resistance. 1989, p. 103.
106. ↑ Meyer-Krahmer: Carl Goerdeler and his way into the resistance. 1989, p. 109.
107. ↑ Young: The X Documents. 1989, p. 76.
108. ↑ Young: The X Documents. 1989, p. 84.
109. ↑ Ritter: Carl Goerdeler and the German resistance movement. 1984, p. 204.
110. ↑ See also Sabine Gillmann, Hans Mommsen (Ed.): Political writings and letters by Carl Friedrich Goerdelers. Volume 1, Munich 2003, pp. 477-487.
111. ↑ Quoted from Karl Heinz Roth: July 20, 1944 and its history. In: Karl Heinz Roth, Angelika Ebbinghaus (eds.): Red chapels - Kreisau circles - black chapels. New perspectives on the resistance against the Nazi dictatorship 1938–1945. Hamburg 2004, pp. 16–68, p. 39.
112. ↑ Roth: July 20, 1944 and its history. 2004, p. 40.
113. ↑ Quoted from Kurt Finker: Stauffenberg and July 20. 7th, revised edition. Berlin 1989, p. 69.
114. ↑ See Finker: Stauffenberg and July 20. 1989, p. 68.
115. ↑ See Roth: July 20, 1944 and its history. 2004, p. 41.
116. ^ S. Gillmann, H. Mommsen: Political writings and letters from Carl Friedrich Goerdelers. Volume 2, 2003, p. 649.
117. ↑ See S. Gillmann, H. Mommsen: Politische Schriften und Letters Carl Friedrich Goerdelers. Volume 1, 2003, p. 477.
118. ↑ See S. Gillmann, H. Mommsen: Politische Schriften und Letters Carl Friedrich Goerdelers. Volume 2, 2003, p. 647.
119. ^ Position Paper for the British Government, 19./20. May 1943, quoted from: S. Gillmann, H. Mommsen: Politische Schriften und Letters Carl Friedrich Goerdelers. 2003, p. 945.
120. ↑ Germany, July 1941–1944 List of Key Nazis (December 10, 1942), p. 67, National Archives NARA
121. ↑ Dennis Egginger-Gonzalez: The Red Assault Troop . An early left-wing socialist resistance group against National Socialism. Lukas Verlag, Berlin 2018, pp. 290, 304ff. and 459f.
122. ↑ Roth: July 20, 1944 and its history. 2004, p. 56.
123. ↑ Roth: July 20, 1944 and its history. 2004, p. 55.
124. ↑ Hans Mommsen, on the other hand, assumes that the Gestapo dismissed the criticism of this group as “grumbling” and ignored it. See Hans Mommsen: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler in the resistance against Hitler. In: S. Gillmann, H. Mommsen: Political writings and letters from Carl Friedrich Goerdelers. Volume 1, 2003, pp. XXXVII-LXV, pp. LXII. Roth also refers to Werner Best's statement that the Gestapo basically viewed the bourgeois opposition as "quantité négligeable". See Roth: July 20, 1944 and its prehistory. 2004, p. 55.
125. ↑ See Roth: July 20, 1944 and its history. 2004, p. 67 f.
126. ^ Memorandum of March 26, 1943. Quoted from Wolfgang Schumann et al. a .: Germany in World War II. Volume 3: The fundamental change in the course of the war (November 1942 to September 1943). Berlin 1979, p. 211.
127. ↑ Since autumn 1943 Goerdeler was ready to allow Alsace-Lorraine to be divided along the language border. See the memorandum Der Weg, printed in: Reinhard Opitz (Ed.): European strategies of German capital 1900–1945. 2nd Edition. Bonn 1994, pp. 966-971, p. 967.
128. ↑ See Wolfgang Schumann: u. a .: Germany in World War II. Volume 4: The Failure of the Fascist Defensive Strategy on the German-Soviet Front (August to the end of 1943). Berlin 1981, p. 305.
129. ↑ The way. Quoted in Opitz: European strategies of German capital 1900-1945. 1994, p. 968.
130. ^ Memorandum of March 26, 1943. Quoted from Schumann: Germany in the Second World War. Volume 3, 1979, p. 211.
131. ↑ The way. Quoted in Opitz, Europastrategien, p. 969.
132. ↑ See Schumann: Germany in the Second World War. Volume 3, 1979, p. 406.
133. ↑ See Wolfgang Schumann et al: Germany in the Second World War. Volume 5: The collapse of the defensive strategy of Hitler's fascism on all fronts (January to August 1944). Berlin 1984, p. 517 f.
134. ^ Memorandum of March 26, 1943. Quoted from Schumann: Germany in the Second World War. Volume 3, 1979, p. 211.
135. ^ Rainer Sandvoss: The "other" capital of the Reich. Resistance from the workers' movement in Berlin from 1933 to 1945. Berlin 2007, p. 147.
136. ↑ See Hans Mommsen: Alternative to Hitler. Studies on the history of the German resistance. Munich 2000, p. 305.
137. ↑ Printed in full by S. Gillmann, H. Mommsen: Politische Schriften und Letters Carl Friedrich Goerdelers. Volume 2, 2003, pp. 873-944.
138. ↑ Roth: July 20, 1944 and its history. 2004, p. 58. In a program of this movement written in 1942/43 it says: “The political co-determination right of the incapable of judgment, which was previously demanded solely because of the disrupted social and economic conditions and enforced by the majority, has become superfluous , extinguished. ”Quoted from ibid., p. 65.
139. ↑ ^{a b} Quoted from S. Gillmann, H. Mommsen: Political writings and letters by Carl Friedrich Goerdelers. Volume 2, 2003, p. 942.
140. ↑ Quoted from S. Gillmann, H. Mommsen: Politische Schriften und Briefe Carl Friedrich Goerdelers. Volume 2, 2003, p. 943.
141. ↑ Quoted from Finker: Stauffenberg and July 20. 1989, p. 71.
142. ↑ See Roth: July 20, 1944 and its history. 2004, p. 61.
143. ↑ Quoted from S. Gillmann, H. Mommsen: Politische Schriften und Briefe Carl Friedrich Goerdelers. Volume 2, 2003, p. 918.
144. ↑ Saul Friedländer: The Third Reich and the Jews. Munich 2007 (reviewed special edition), p. 435 - with reference to Joachim Fest: coup d'état. The long way to July 20th. Berlin 2004, 152 ff.
145. ↑ Friedländer: The Third Reich and the Jews. 2007, p. 435.
146. ^ Fritz Kieffer: Carl Friedrich Goerdeler's proposal to found a Jewish state. In: Journal of the Savigny Foundation for Legal History . 125th volume. German Department. 2008, ISSN  0323-4045 , p. 499 f.
147. ^ Search for Goerdeler. In: Time Online , How Often Is Your Street There?
148. ↑ abu: Memorial heavily damaged . In: Blick Westsachsen . May 9, 2020, p. 8 .
149. ↑ Goerdelerdamm. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
150. ^ Karl-Friedrich-Goerdeler-Str. In: Leverkusen street directory.
151. ↑ Dr.-Goerdeler-Strasse in 67433 Neustadt an der Weinstrasse (Rhineland-Palatinate). Retrieved March 12, 2017 . 
152. ^ IAU Minor Planet Center Circ. 31613. In: www.minorplanetcenter.net. Retrieved June 22, 2019 .