Friedrich zu Solms-Baruth (1886–1951)

Friedrich Hermann Heinrich Christian Hans Prince of Solms-Baruth (born March 25, 1886 in Klitschdorf Castle , Province of Silesia , † September 12, 1951 in Windhoek , South West Africa ) was a German nobleman during the German Empire . During the Nazi era, he was in early contact with the Kreisau Circle and the monarchist-Christian resistance fighters operating there, as well as with some of the organizers of the attack on July 20, 1944 .

family

Friedrich III. zu Solms-Baruth was the fourth of five children of Prince Friedrich II. zu Solms-Baruth (1853–1920) and Ida Louise, nee. Countess von Hochberg , Baroness zu Fürstenstein from the house of the Princes of Pless (1863–1938).

Klitschdorf Castle , Lower Silesia

On April 16, 1888, his grandfather was born by Emperor Friedrich III. (99-day emperor) raised to the hereditary prince status for himself and his firstborn son . His father was Imperial Commissioner for voluntary nursing in the field and in this position belonged to the Great General Staff in an advisory position. Friedrich II. Prince of Solms-Baruth was also chief treasurer of Kaiser Wilhelm II and owned a palace in Berlin. The ancestral seat of the princes and counts of Solms-Baruth was Baruth Castle , but the main residence was the Lower Silesian Klitschdorf Castle, acquired in 1767 .

Friedrich married Princess Adelheid of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg on August 1, 1914 in the Potsdam Church of Peace and through her sister Victoria was related by marriage to the controversial Duke Carl Eduard of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha , the last ruling Duke of Coburg-Gotha, who later joined the National Socialists and became President of the German Red Cross. His son and heir Friedrich Josias married Friedrich's niece Viktoria Luise Countess zu Solms-Baruth in 1942.

Life

Friedrich III. Prince zu Solms-Baruth belonged to the internal circle of knowledge ( Kreisau circle ) of the resistance fighters from July 20, 1944. He made his forester's house Wunder and Kasel Castle near Golßen available for the preparations for the assassination attempt. However, his opposition to the NSDAP began much earlier.

He had been brought up in a Christian-humanistic sense and knew exactly the reports of his father, who was the imperial commissioner for voluntary nursing in the field. On August 1, 1914, Friedrich III married. to Solms in Potsdam Adelheid of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (1889–1964). Exactly on this day Wilhelm II announced his declaration of war and the mobilization. His father now went to war with his adjutant Dietloff von Hake (builder of the Hakeburg ), because he was a member of the great general staff. Friedrich III. took over the management of the property for his father from 1914 to 1918. When Friedrich II. Zu Solms-Baruth died on December 31, 1920, Friedrich III. finally the management and was head of the house Solms-Baruth and needle legally prince as heir to the Erstgeburtstitels . Through the stories and reports of his father, Friedrich, who was already inclined to liberal views, became a pacifist and opponent of the war. His main interest was agriculture and forestry, as well as the horse breeding that he intensively built up in Klitschdorf, Lower Silesia. He found his recurring intermittent fever disease, which haunted him at regular intervals until his death in 1951, as a stressful circumstance.

In 1933 a relative, Count zu Solms-Wildenfels, left the NSDAP shortly after he joined in 1933. The Zwickau Nazi leadership disinherited the insurgent and his first-born son and had him admitted to the Großschweidnitz sanatorium and nursing home as a drinker and in some places unreasonable for flimsy reasons .

So in 1933 Solms left the administration of his rule Baruth with Golßen and Kasel-Golzig in the province of Brandenburg to his brother Count Hans Georg Eduard (1893–1971). According to the latest findings, Krüden Castle in the Altmark was added in 1938 . Prince Solms lived with his family alternately on his estates in Baruth / Mark and Klitschdorf. In addition to Solms-Baruth, the Yorck von Wartenburg family and the von Moltke family on Kreisau were among the largest landowners in Silesia .

The Klitschdorf possessions of Friedrich zu Solms-Baruth bordered the Neuhammer military training area in the Wehrauer Heide. It was precisely on this border that an SS commando set up main camp 308 for Soviet prisoners of war . The prisoners had to work as forest workers for the SS and the Wehrmacht . Without informing Solms in Klitschdorf about this, the SS penetrated his forest holdings with around 80 prisoners and set up a supposed sub-camp there. This fact did not go unnoticed by the forest workers, and thus also Solms himself. It was reported that the SS would drag weak prisoners into the thicket and shoot them. Others would starve or die of thirst. One evening a forest worker and the butcher Heinrich Hirche sneaked to that camp and slipped bread, meat and potatoes to the prisoners. The three SS guards let themselves be persuaded by Hirche and bribed with an extra portion of game meat. When Hirche and the forest worker left for Klitschdorf, they believed the matter was over. But that was a mistake. The next morning, SS men appeared at the Klitschdorf estate and looked for the forest worker. But he probably had a bad premonition and was gone. Fleischer Hirche was shot dead in front of his house without warning because of alleged degradation of military strength. Solms found out about this incident within a few minutes and went to the NSDAP district leadership in Bunzlau, where he vehemently complained about the incident to district leader Fritz Lehmann. He announced to the NSDAP man that he would complain about the murder and about the prison camp in Berlin. So Baruth stated: The killing or starving prisoners of war (including Soviet ones) was a clear breach of the Geneva Convention . He would not be able to tolerate that in his possessions.

Princely coat of arms Solms-Baruth

With this incident began the tragedy surrounding Friedrich zu Solms-Baruth. Lehmann reported the appearance of Solms to his superior Karl Hanke , the head of the NSDAP in Lower Silesia . For his part, Hanke appeared in front of Klitschdorf Castle just a few days later and tried to convince Solms of the necessity of the SS's tough approach. But Hanke's attempt ended with the demand to remove Solm's said prison camp from his property and also to ensure that the Soviet prisoners of war get enough food. With the remark: “On my property, dear Mr. Hanke, I am still the master and patron” he dismissed Hanke. He shouted after him indignantly: “Neither the SS nor the NSDAP can come here and just shoot people. In addition, I will contact the President of the German Red Cross , my brother-in-law and report the incident! ”For Hanke, that was a blow, especially since since 1933 they had tried several times to persuade Solms to join the NSDAP. Not only was the illegal sub-camp in his forest demolished, but also main camp 308, which in mid-1942 contained almost 30,000 Soviet prisoners of war, was relocated.

In Baruth at the same time there was the problem that the Wehrmacht leadership wanted to expropriate his forest area near Wünsdorf without replacement. This has only been prevented so far through the skilful policy of the forest administration and some lawyers. After the incident in Klitschdorf, however, the NSDAP and police chief Heinrich Himmler should no longer give up. Since the end of 1943, the NSDAP district leader Fritz Lehmann from Bunzlau spied around the Solm estates. At this time Solms-Baruth had contact with Helmuth James Graf von Moltke on Kreisau and knew of the intention to wrest power from Hitler . Nevertheless, district leader Lehmann still tried to convince Solms of the NSDAP and the German national community.

Baruth Castle (in the 19th century)

Solms now felt harassed and threw the intrusive man from his property several times. Although there was no proof against Solms-Baruth in hand, serious problems arose in early 1944 because Solms claimed that "Hitler's war was long lost". He was summoned to the Gestapo office in Bunzlau several times for discussions . After all, he had to leave his possessions in Klitschdorf and renounce his administration. So formally he was already expropriated by the NSDAP. Friedrich III. to Solms-Baruth went to Baruth, where he likewise did not have the right to look after the administration of his possessions. He was later no longer allowed to enter it on personal instructions from Himmler.

One day after the unsuccessful assassination attempt on July 20, 1944 , Solms-Baruth was arrested and taken to the Gestapo prison at 8 Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse. After several nightly interrogations, Solms collapsed and was transferred to the Potsdam Gestapo prison. After further investigations, they wanted to bring him to the People's Court . But this has not yet happened due to a lack of evidence. For a short time, his Brandenburg possessions were managed by his neighbor Hans Wichard von Rochow- Stülpe at his own request , according to documents from the Brandenburg State Main Archives. According to the family, Solms-Baruth signed an “authorization of disposal” in prison in March 1945, with which he ceded his 17,300 hectares of land directly to Himmler.

The end of the war came faster than expected and by a tricky and lucky circumstance Solms-Baruth was released from prison in Potsdam. From Potsdam he made his way in poor health to Schleswig-Holstein to the Vogelsang estate , where his relatives lived. Eventually the family went to South West Africa , where Friedrich zu Solms-Baruth died in 1951.

Due to the seizure by the National Socialists, his son Friedrich (1926-2006) received partial areas of 3680 hectares in Baruth in 2003 through a settlement with the Federal Ministry of Finance, which were under the authority of the BVVG (Bodenverwertungs-und -verwaltungs GmbH). He instituted restitution proceedings on the remaining areas under the authority of the federal government. After his death in 2006, his heir, Frederick Solms-Baruth, is conducting the proceedings, which are now pending on appeal at the Federal Constitutional Court.

progeny

Friedrich zu Solms-Baruth and Princess Adelheid had five children:

• Friederike Luise Countess zu Solms-Baruth (born October 10, 1916 in Baruth; † January 10, 1989 in Salzburg )
• Feodora Countess zu Solms-Baruth (born April 5, 1920 in Baruth; † March 23, 2006 in Vienna )
• Rose Countess zu Solms-Baruth (born May 15, 1925 in Baruth; † October 14, 2008)
• Prince Friedrich zu Solms-Baruth (born December 22, 1926 in Baruth; † January 28, 2006 in South Africa )
• Caroline Mathilde Countess zu Solms-Baruth (born April 15, 1929 in Klitschdorf ; † January 21, 2016)

Web links

• Princely house of Solms-Baruth receives land back
• Princely house of Solms-Baruth does not get land back

Individual evidence

1. ↑ https://www.wallstreet-online.de/nachricht/11616793-buero-solms-baruth-enkel-widerstandskaempfers-hitler-erweitert-restitutionsklage