Gotthilf Bronisch

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Gotthilf Paul Bronisch (born October 29, 1900 in Züllichau , † June 19, 1982 in Manhattan , New York City ) was a German lawyer . Because of the threat of reprisals from the National Socialists that threatened him and his wife, he emigrated to the USA in 1935 and was Goerdeler's closest confidante to the German resistance group against National Socialism in the USA.

Life

Studies and career entry

Bronisch, son of a superintendent, studied law at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen from 1920 and became a member of the Corps Hannovera . He completed his studies in Berlin. After graduating as Dr. jur. at the University of Göttingen, he was trainee lawyer in Schneidemühl in 1928 .

He then became an administrative lawyer in the municipal administration of Berlin , where he was promoted to senior magistrate in 1931. During this activity he made contact with the Mayor of Leipzig , Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, through the German Association of Cities .

Emigration and Resistance in the USA

In the course of the National Socialist " seizure of power " in Germany, Bronisch decided in 1935, together with his wife Lieselotte Lindeck , who came from a respected Jewish family in Mannheim , to emigrate to the United States and practiced as a lawyer in New York City. As such, he was one of Goerdeler's important contacts in the United States and his personal confidante. Similar to Reinhold Schairer, who emigrated to London in 1933 , he represented Goerdeler's interests on the other side of the Atlantic. Bronisch, together with the economist from the Episcopal Church of the United States of America, Spencer Miller and partly also with Reinhold Schairer, arranged for Goerdeler meetings with high-ranking interlocutors in the USA and was in contact with other active resistance against Adolf Hitler such as B. Robert Bosch . It is believed that Bronisch used the code name "Edgar" in correspondence with Goerdeler.

Bronisch and Miller themselves also tried actively to prevent the USA from swinging into the London policy of appeasement . In addition to Goerdeler, Bronisch advocated early military intervention against the Nazi regime. When the Blomberg-Fritsch crisis made the intervention of the US military expected by Goerdeler and Bronisch seem hopeless, Bronisch commented on the resignation of the American generals with sharp words:

“I can't help but get the impression that beginners planned and acted who wanted to think too honestly and act too honestly. Gentlemen like manners have always been inappropriate in revolutions. "

The circle around Goerdeler and Bosch, however, remained convinced of Goerdeler's plans to convince the decision-makers of the US military to intervene against Hitler. In the following years, Bronisch continued to commit himself to making Goerdeler's plans heard and did important diplomatic preparatory work for decisive discussions with high-ranking personalities in American politics.

On the occasion of his Bosch-supported trip through North America in 1937/38, Goerdeler deposited his political will with Bronisch for safekeeping with the order to publish it when he died. During the Second World War, Bronisch was also Vice President of the German emigrant organization Loyal Americans of German Descent in the USA.

Life after the war

From 1953 Bronisch worked with Centrico Inc. in Northvale , New Jersey , a subsidiary of a West German machine manufacturer. He was also active as a consultant in the shipping sector and was a research fellow in research at the University of Chicago and the University of Pennsylvania . He retired in 1980 and lived in Manhattan , New York City until the end .

Fonts

  • The relationship between the right of the promise recipient and the right of the third party in contracts in favor of third parties. Legal and political dissertation at the University of Göttingen , Schneidemühl, 1924
  • Fritz Morstein Marx, Roger H. Wells, Gotthilf Bronisch: The new local government of Germany. National Municipal Review, Volume 25, Issue 9, September 1936, pp. 511-519

literature

  • Wilhelm Joppich (ed.): Blue Book of the Corps Hannovera. Volume 2: 1900–2002 Göttingen 2002
  • Joachim Scholtyseck : Robert Bosch and the liberal resistance against Hitler 1933 to 1945. Munich 1999
  • Klemens von Klemperer : German Resistance Against Hitler - The Search for Allies Abroad, 1938–1945. Oxford University Press, 1994
  • Golf P. Bronisch Dies at 81; Shipping and Marketing Aide , New York Times obituary , June 25, 1982
  • Marine Engineering / Log , Volume 87, Simmons-Boardman, 1982, p. 16
  • STATES & CITIES , Time Magazine , December 2, 1935

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gerhard Ritter : Carl Goerdeler and the German resistance movement. German Taschenbuch Verl., 1954, p. 483 .; Carl Goerdeler: Political writings and letters from Carl Friedrich Goerdeler , Volume 1, Saur, 2003, p. 645.
  2. ↑ Klemens von Klemperer: German resistance against Hitler. 1994, p. 78
  3. ↑ See: Joachim Scholtyseck: Robert Bosch and the liberal resistance against Hitler 1933 to 1945. CH Beck, 1999, p. 235
  4. ↑ Scholtyseck: Robert Bosch and the liberal resistance against Hitler 1933 to 1945, p. 229 ff.
  5. ↑ a b c d obituary of the New York Times June 25, 1982
personal data
SURNAME Bronisch, Gotthilf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bronisch, Gotthilf Paul (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH October 29, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Züllichau
DATE OF DEATH June 19, 1982
Place of death New York City