Friedrich Karl Klausing

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Friedrich Karl Klausing (born May 24, 1920 in Munich , † August 8, 1944 in Berlin-Plötzensee ) was a German officer in the Wehrmacht . He was adjutant to Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg and one of the resistance fighters of July 20, 1944 .

Life

Friedrich Karl Klausing, son of the lawyer and university professor Friedrich Klausing belonged to the Protestant scouts, but after 1933 they were incorporated into the Hitler Youth . After graduating from high school in 1938, he was drafted into the Reich Labor Service for six months and joined the Wehrmacht as a professional soldier in autumn 1938 .

He belonged to the prestigious Potsdamer Infantry Regiment 9 in the 23rd Infantry Division . After the beginning of the Second World War , he was first used in Poland and France and took part in the fighting near Stalingrad in the winter of 1942/1943 . There he was seriously wounded and after another wound in July 1943 near Lake Ladoga near Leningrad, he was transferred to the back office of the High Command of the Wehrmacht , where Fritz-Dietlof Graf von der Schulenburg took him to the assassination attempt for the plans of the conspiratorial group around Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg on Adolf Hitler could win.

On July 11, 1944, he accompanied Stauffenberg on the first attempted assassination as his adjutant on Obersalzberg and made sure that a car and an airplane were ready for the escape to Berlin and the execution of Operation Valkyrie . This attempt, however, was canceled, as was a second attempt on July 15, 1944 in the Führer headquarters in Wolfsschanze, during which Klausing accompanied Stauffenberg with the same task. The termination took place because Heinrich Himmler and / or Hermann Göring were not present.

On July 20, 1944, Oberleutnant Werner von Haeften took over the company of Stauffenberg. Captain Klausing stayed in the Berlin Bendlerblock (command of the reserve army) and was jointly responsible for transmitting the "Valkyrie" orders. After the failure of Operation Valkyrie on the night of July 20 to 21, 1944, Klausing was initially able to exchange fire with officers under the command of Colonel General Friedrich Fromm in the Bendlerblock together with some younger officers (Lieutenant Ludwig Freiherr von Hammerstein-Equord , Lieutenant Georg -Sigismund von Oppen ) escaped. However, the next morning he surrendered to the Gestapo .

Friedrich Karl Klausing was sentenced to death in the first show trial of the conspirators by the People's Court on August 8, 1944 , and on the same day in Plötzensee was executed by hanging on Hitler's express orders .

A few days earlier, the Prague house of his father Friedrich Klausing , a dogmatic and ruthless National Socialist, had been searched by the Gestapo. This made it known in Prague that Frederick Charles' son was involved in the July 20 assassination attempt. As a result, the father had to resign from his position as rector of the German University in Prague . He felt exposed by his son's membership in the resistance movement against Hitler and committed suicide on August 5th.

memory

In the literature on the assassination attempt of July 20, 1944, there is also a discussion of the way and personality of Friedrich Karl Klausing. So his Federal President a. D. Richard von Weizsäcker , regimental comrade from Infantry Regiment 9, in an interview with Antje Vollmer and Lars Broder-Keil: "Klausing was too modest, but he was something special." And when asked about Klausing's involvement in specific assassination attempts by Stauffenberg before July 20, 1944, Weizsäcker continues there: "Klausing was made for this by the good Lord. You can't say otherwise."

His memory is also preserved in the German Resistance Memorial Center. The Klausingring was named after him in Berlin. A street was also named after him in Frankfurt am Main, in the “ Am Riedberg ” development area .

See also

literature

  • Antje Vollmer , Lars-Broder Keil Ed .: Stauffenberg's Companions. The fate of the unknown conspirators. Hanser, Munich 2013 ISBN 978-3-446-24156-5 ; TB: dtv, Munich 2015 ISBN 3-423-34859-3 ; Softcover: Federal Agency for Civic Education, Series 1347, Bonn 2013. In it, pp. 27–43: “So don't ask about me anymore, but let me be wiped out”. Friedrich Karl Klausing (1920–1944).
  • Bernd Rüthers : Mirror image of a conspiracy - two farewell letters on July 20, 1944 . In: JuristenZeitung 14 . 2005, ISSN  0022-6882 , p. 689-698 .
  • Peter Steinbach / Johannes Tuchel : Lexicon of Resistance 1933-1945. Publishing house CHBeck . Munich. 1994. pp. 105 f.
  • Hans-Adolf Jacobsen (ed.): Mirror image of a conspiracy. The opposition to Hitler and the coup d'état of July 20, 1944 in the SD reporting. Secret documents from the former Reich Security Main Office . Stuttgart 1984 (2 volumes). ISBN 3-512-00657-4
  • Peter Hoffmann : Resistance, Coup, Assassination. The fight of the opposition against Hitler . Munich 1985 (new edition).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gerd R. Ueberschär : Stauffenberg. July 20, 1944. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3-10-086003-9 , p. 156.
  2. ↑ Klausingring. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
personal data
SURNAME Klausing, Friedrich Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German resistance fighters of July 20, 1944
DATE OF BIRTH May 24, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH August 8, 1944
Place of death Berlin-Plötzensee