Georg Alexander Hansen

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Stumbling block for Georg Alexander Hansen in Coburg

Georg Alexander Hansen (born July 5, 1904 in Sonnefeld near Coburg, † September 8, 1944 in Berlin-Plötzensee ) was a colonel in the General Staff of the German Wehrmacht and resistance fighter from July 20, 1944 .

Life and professional development

Georg Hansen was born as the fourth child of the ducal chief forest master Theodor Hansen and his wife Ottilie Hansen, née. Mardorf, born. The relationship between the mother and her only son was particularly close throughout their lives. In 1913 the family moved to Mönchröden near Coburg. In Coburg , he attended the Casimirianum high school from 1914 , where he passed his Abitur in 1923. Hans Morgenthau belonged to the Abitur class . During school he met his future wife, Irene Stölzel, from Michelau . A formative experience for him at the time was that Helmuth Johnsen , a former high school student and later brother-in-law who was very active in the Völkische movement , abused him to smuggle arms from Bavaria across the Thuringian border. Hansen's wish was to pursue a legal career. After high school he studied two semesters Law at the University of Erlangen , but had to for financial reasons the study after two terms cancel. Thereupon, much to the delight of his father, he applied for a captain of the reserve in the Reichswehr . He was barracked in Fürth and in 1924 incorporated into the motor vehicle troops, the forerunner of the armored troops, the Reichswehr. In 1926 he was transferred to an ensign and an ensign course in Ohrdruf at the infantry school . The infantry school was moved to Dresden in the same year, where he was promoted to lieutenant in 1927 . Shortly afterwards he took part in an (illegal) motor vehicle training course (actually armored vehicles) in Jüterbog and was thus well prepared for the emerging armored forces of the Wehrmacht. As a result, he was promoted to first lieutenant in the Bavarian Motor Vehicle Department in Fürth in 1931. In the same year he married Irene Stölzel. The marriage had five children.

In 1934 he was transferred to a staff company in Munich. The family moved to Munich, Wotanstrasse 25. On October 1, 1935, he was promoted to captain and in the same year he was assigned to general staff training at the War Academy in Berlin-Moabit . Ludwig Beck was his course director here and Hansen got to know Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg during this time, who completed his training one year under him. Both were united by a love of music, of making music, especially on the cello . During this time, Hansen also completed language training for Czech with an interpreting certificate. In July 1937 he was posted to the Reich Ministry of War in Berlin. In addition, he had received a recommendation from Ludwig Beck for use in the counter-espionage and foreign intelligence department ( foreign armies department ) for the English-speaking area. After a short visit to Czechoslovakia to test his foreign language skills in practice, in October 1937 he had an interview with the head of the "Foreign Armies" department, Colonel Kurt von Tippelskirch . He confirmed his command and suggested a short study trip to England and Scotland for familiarization.

After Hansen's successful graduation from the academy, he was transferred to the counter-espionage and foreign intelligence department of the Reich Ministry of War at the end of 1937. Here he had the first contact with Wilhelm Canaris and Hans Oster . During the internal restructuring carried out in 1938, Hansen moved to the Foreign Army East Department (FHO) under the direction of Rear Admiral Wilhelm Canaris. From 1939 this department was called the Foreign Office / Defense . From September 1, 1939, he took part in the attack on Poland with a specialized unit for a total of three weeks . Shortly beforehand, he and Wilhelm Canaris had obtained information from Foreign Minister Joachim Ribbentrop at Schloss Fuschl about the secret standstill agreement with the Soviet Union (see German-Soviet non-aggression pact ). A new front deployment from May 9, 1940 then took him to the western combat zones of Belgium, France and Holland. After his return, in November 1940 the Foreign / Defense Office was relocated from the Tirpitzufer in Berlin to the “Zeppelin” location - to Zossen . There, Hansen was promoted to major in May 1941 as a group leader in Division I and to lieutenant colonel in July 1942. As early as 1941, Hansen had moved with his family to Rangsdorf near Berlin in order to shorten travel times . From this time on his business trips went primarily to Budapest , Sofia and Saloniki . In 1942 he carried out another official stay in Iraq, disguised as a civilian . In 1943 he was appointed as the successor to Hans Piekenbrock , Head of Department I, Secret Intelligence Service. His tasks here included the intelligence-gathering of information from the areas of Europe South-East. In June 1943, Hansen was promoted to colonel. Wilhelm Canaris finally appointed him personally shortly before his release in February 1944 as his successor as Chief of Defense. Canaris spent the "honorary" period at Lauenstein Castle . From this point on, Hansen often made a stopover on his business trips. In May 1944 he and most of his office were subordinated to the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA). From June 1, 1944, this department was called "Amt Militär". His direct superior was Walter Schellenberg and Hansen was also his deputy.

resistance

Probably under the influence of Beck and also through Hansen's friendly relations with Stauffenberg, since their time together at the War Academy in Berlin, his change to the opponent of National Socialism took place gradually until 1938. The official insight into the crimes committed by the Nazi regime before the beginning of the Second World War, which was not infrequently possible for him due to his work in the military intelligence service, should have finally prompted him to actively resist. Around 1938, Wilhelm Canaris and Colonel Hans Oster then fully informed him about the putsch plans against Adolf Hitler. The situation was still favorable to take this decisive step. But when, after the Wehrmacht marched into Czechoslovakia in autumn 1938, the mood in Germany, fueled by reports of military success, changed in favor of the Hitler regime, the putsch plans were initially put on hold. Again and again in the circle of the initiated in the following years, especially after the attack on Poland in 1939 and then in 1941 after the attack on the Soviet Union, the question was weighed up, when is a favorable moment for their plan? The more crimes the Hitler regime committed during these years, the greater its moral pressure. Only shortly after the surrender in Stalingrad, according to the assessment of the forces around Stauffenberg, were the conditions for the success of the overthrow of Adolf Hitler noticeably positive again. During this time Hansen was one of the most important links within the resistance group around Major General Henning von Tresckow and Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg. From 1943 onwards, Hansen took part in all the planning for the Hitler bombing and in 1944 took part in most of the important preparatory meetings. Hansen organized cars and airplanes as well as protecting the co-conspirators. His house in Rangsdorf often served as a conspiratorial meeting place. After the successful attack, he was supposed to occupy the RSHA and have its SS commanders arrested. It was also planned to let him negotiate a separate peace with the Western powers with General Dwight D. Eisenhower as Beck's plenipotentiary, who was to be the provisional head of state . Due to strong differences of opinion with Stauffenberg about the political plans after the assassination, Hansen decided at short notice against attending in person and went to Michelau on July 18 to baptize his youngest daughter . Although he already knew on July 20, 1944 that Hitler had survived the assassination attempt and that the attempted coup had failed, he returned there on July 21 with the explanation to his wife, "My place is in Berlin". On July 22nd, the Gestapo chief Heinrich Müller ordered him to the RSHA and arrested him after lengthy interrogations in which he had collapsed and everything confessed.

On August 4, formed followed by two days earlier courtyard dishonorable expulsion of Wehrmacht soldiers who had participated in the coup attempt of the armed forces so that so that the Reich Court for the trial was no longer in charge.

Trial and Execution

On one day of the trial, August 10, 1944, Hansen, like Erich Fellgiebel , Alfred Kranzfelder , Fritz-Dietlof Graf von der Schulenburg and Berthold Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, was sentenced to death in the second show trial by the People's Court under its president Roland Freisler . Unlike most of the convicts, he was not put to death on the day of the judgment in the first and subsequent trials, but instead continued to be detained and interrogated. The Gestapo intended to extort further statements through renewed torture and family pressure. Hansen was then killed on September 8, 1944 at 4.45 p.m. in Plötzensee by strangulation with a wire loop, in convict clothing, together with Ulrich von Hassell , Paul Lejeune-Jung , Josef Wirmer , Ulrich Wilhelm Graf Schwerin von Schwanenfeld and Günther Smend .

Kinship liability followed against the Hansen family . The fortune was confiscated, the wife arrested and the five children were taken to a children's home near Bad Sachsa , where it was not allowed to use the family name. The children of other resistance fighters such as the Stauffenbergs and von Witzlebenens were also in the same home . Only at the end of September 1944 were the children allowed to return to their mother, who had meanwhile been released, in Michelau.

The hostility towards the family continued even after the end of the war. Hansen's widow had to fight for her pension as a war widow from the Federal Republic in a court case that lasted years. She had been refused on the grounds that her husband had been dishonorably discharged from the Wehrmacht.

memory

A street in Rangsdorf, a path in Coburg, a stumbling block at the Casimirianum grammar school in Coburg and a memorial plaque at the entrance to the basket-making museum in Michelau are reminiscent of Georg Hansen.

See also

literature

  • Rupert Appeltshauser: In the conflict between the fulfillment of duty and resistance: Comments on Colonel Georg Alexander Hansen and his role in the opposition to Hitler. In: Yearbook of the Coburg State Foundation. Vol. 50 (2005), ISSN  0084-8808 , pp. 221-228.
  • Jürgen Erdmann: My place is in Berlin - Georg Hansen. In: Stefan Nöth (Ed.): Coburg 1056-2006. A journey through 950 years of city and country history. Wikomm-Verlag, Stegaurach, ISBN 3-86652-082-4 .
  • German Resistance Memorial Center, Biographies and Documentations, Berlin 1996–2016.
  • Karsten Hansen: Resistance and Defense. From the life of Colonel i. G. Georg Alexander Hansen . Rangsdorf 2014.
  • Peter Hofmann: Resistance, Coup, Assassination. The fight of the opposition against Hitler . Piper Verlag Munich 1969.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Karsten Hansen, Resistance and Defense. From the life of Colonel i. G. Georg Alexander Hansen, Kulturverein Rangsdorf 2014, p. 10
  2. ↑ July 20, 1944 , German Resistance Memorial Center / Plötzensee, 2003
  3. ↑ Jürgen Erdmann: My place is in Berlin - Georg Hansen. In: Stefan Nöth (Ed.): Coburg 1056-2006. A journey through 950 years of city and country history. Wikomm-Verlag, Stegaurach, ISBN 3-86652-082-4 , p. 309
  4. ↑ Telex from the Reich Minister for Justice of September 8, 1944 to the Fuehrer's headquarters, in: Karsten Hansen, Resistance and Defense. From the life of Colonel i. G. Georg Alexander Hansen, Rangsdorf 2014, p. 64
  5. ↑ 13 - July 20, 1944 , Plötzensee Memorial , 2003
  6. ↑ Till Mayer: My father, the hated hero , Spiegel Online / one day, July 19, 2011

Remarks

  1. ↑ On August 23, 1939, the non-aggression pact between Germany and the Soviet Union was concluded with secret additional protocols that allowed Hitler to attack Poland within a week
personal data
SURNAME Hansen, Georg Alexander
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH July 5, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Sun field
DATE OF DEATH September 8, 1944
Place of death Berlin-Plötzensee