Karl Michel (business lawyer)

Karl Michel (born June 10, 1909 in Altona ; † December 1, 1980 in Meerbusch ) was a German lawyer , author and officer in the Wehrmacht who, according to his own account, was involved as a marginal figure in the preparation of the assassination attempt of July 20, 1944 .

Life

Until 1939

Karl Michel was born as the son of Karl and his wife Irma Hess, a Swiss woman , in the then still independent town of Altona. Nothing is known about Michel's education, in particular subjects, locations and duration. He later traded as a lawyer and doctor of law . In Switzerland he also appeared as Dr. phil. on.

According to his own statements made to the Swiss police authorities after 1945, Michel was politically active against the National Socialist Student Union during his student days as the “last freely elected chairman of the German student body” . In August 1933 he was forcibly "transferred" to the SS as an official of the Reich Labor Ministry , and at the same time he would have become a member of the NSDAP . In July 1936 he was expelled from the SS and the NSDAP “because of opposition” and at the same time he was denied qualification as a civil servant. For fear of arrest or reprisals by the SS, he joined the Reichswehr in March 1935 .

These self-reports do not stand up to an examination. According to a self-written curriculum vitae that Michel submitted to the SS Race and Settlement Office (RuSHA) for marriage approval in 1934 , he had already joined the Nazi student union in 1929, where he was head of the Reich for a year . According to this résumé, he first joined the SA in 1931 and was a member of the SS from October 1931, where, according to his own statements, he worked as an intelligence service in the security service of the Reichsführer SS . Until November 1933 he had carried out actions “together with the Secret State Police ”. Then he was at the "news storm" of SS Section III (Berlin). According to the NSDAP membership file in the Berlin Federal Archives , he had also become a party member as a “working student ” on November 1, 1931 (membership number 691.042). There seems to have been no exclusion from the SS and NSDAP in 1936: The RuSHA corresponded in January 1938 with the " SS-Hauptscharführer " Michel. And a NSDAP questionnaire for party members as of July 1, 1939 still identifies him as a NSDAP member.

Second World War

In August 1939, Charles Michel was that in 1935 his military service was completed, again convened as a lieutenant of the department News of the 23rd Infantry Division in Potsdam allocated. With this unit he took part in the attack on Poland in 1939 . Then he was transferred to the division staff, where he worked as an orderly officer (O3) to the Ic of the division. According to his own statements, promoted to first lieutenant in 1941, he was wounded in the attack on the Soviet Union in February 1942. After his recovery, he joined the staff of the newly formed Greater Germany Division as an officer .

In the course of 1942, Michel was assigned to organize the anti-Soviet volunteer associations formed from prisoners of war and members of national minorities and was initially subordinate to the Ic officer of the Army Group, Don Colonel Wessel Freytag von Loringhoven . There he was involved, together with a group of the military intelligence service , in the establishment of a volunteer association of 5000 Kalmyks . In December 1942 he came into business contact with Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg through Loringhoven . This is said to have ensured that Michel was intelligence officer for Lieutenant General Heinz Hellmich (1890-1944), who was "Inspector of the Eastern Troops" at the Army High Command until December 1943 . On September 1, 1944, Michel became a captain . His own admission he was after end of the war in the General Staff - Foreign Armies East for voluntary organizations, in particular the Russian Liberation Army , in charge.

In Switzerland 1945–1947

On April 23, 1945, Michel illegally crossed the border into Switzerland , where he first visited his mother's brother, the well-known specialist in surgery and orthopedics and Lieutenant Colonel in the Swiss Army, Paul Deus, but was arrested a little later and interned in the Weesen officers' camp. In Switzerland, Michel worked for the Swiss Army Intelligence Service, to which he made available the knowledge he had acquired in the Wehrmacht, in particular about the Soviet Union. When he, like all other German military internees, who were considered politically charged, threatened to be returned to Germany, he tried to use this activity as an informant to prevent his threatened deportation.

When he was first questioned, Michel posed as an “animal breeder” and “earth biologist”, which contradicted his other biographical information. Michel, who gave Berlin-Nikolassee as his place of residence, stated that before 1933 he had already "worked in the field of health care for some time". He also claimed that he owned an agricultural property in the East German territories assigned to Poland on which he had set up "experimental breeding". With reference to this alleged scientific activity, he succeeded in taking “leave” from internment and moving freely in Switzerland. To this end, he submitted several letters of recommendation from Swiss scientists and companies confirming his “research”. The factual correctness of this letter appears questionable. There is no evidence of any scientific work by Michel for either the prewar period or the Swiss years.

In Switzerland, Michel came into contact to that of the Oxford Group emerged movement Moral Re-Armament , Moral Re-Armament ' , an interdenominational revival movement . He also used this connection to extend his residence permit. Nevertheless, Michel had to leave Switzerland on October 8, 1947 and first traveled to Frankfurt am Main in the American zone of occupation .

Connection to Stauffenberg

In 1946/47 Michel published three novel-like books which, according to Michel, were based on autobiographical experience. In It began on Don (1946) he describes the experiences of a young lieutenant who succeeds in escaping from a Russian encirclement with his unit by recruiting Soviet prisoners of war . In his book Ost und West (1947), Michel claims that Stauffenberg saw the Russian voluntary organizations as allies and wanted to use them for his overturn plans. He describes himself as “Stauffenberg's confidante” and speaks of his “fateful entanglement in the events of July 20th”, but without elaborating on this “entanglement”. In his drama Stauffenberg (1947) , which is also allegedly based on "personal experience" , Michel claims, as one critic put it, the "absolute anti-fascism of the Wehrmacht".

In a 1946 report, Carl Zuckmayer assigned Michel to the Kreisau district , possibly mistaking him for Lieutenant Colonel Karl Michel of the same name . The Swiss authorities, on the other hand, had doubts as early as 1947 that Michel had more than just business contact with Stauffenberg. His books have no evidential value in this regard. Numerous historians have also expressed serious concerns about Michel's book East and West . Hans Rothfels considers Michel's representations largely a "romantic story", the German-American historian Peter Hoffmann at least "imaginative", Alexander Dallin describes it as "extremely implausible", the Swiss historian Christian Müller as "scientifically completely useless". And John Wheeler-Bennett accuses Michel of "feeling blissful and mental semi-darkness". There is no evidence that Michel was actually involved in the assassination attempt on July 20, 1944.

From 1948

Mazifer head (right)

Little is known about Michel's professional activity in the post-war period. In 1948 , Michel , who worked as an editor for the magazine Das Ufer , was appointed editor-in-chief of the magazine Occidental Talks . The paper was to become the publication organ of the short-lived “Union of Active Forces Against Nazism for a Living West” (“Occident Union”) founded in 1945 by the right-wing conservative manufacturer and former resistance fighter Paul-Joseph Stuermer (1885–?), For which Michel supposedly acted as "Secretary General". The plan was not implemented. At the same time, Michel appeared as a proponent of German rearmament .

According to the few sources, Michel then worked as a business lawyer and in-house counsel and as a "mediator" in business transactions. From 1956 managing director of the Capitol-Filmtheater in Heidelberg , in the mid-1950s he was involved in an attempt to set up a chain of so-called “troop cinemas” in Germany, which were supposed to offer soldiers films with a “tendency towards military strength”. The company failed due to a lack of funding. In the 1970s he worked in the gemstone trade and in 1975 was briefly president of the Frankfurt Diamond Exchange, a bankrupt company. How he ultimately raised the considerable funds with which he acquired his property, which was scattered all over the world, including the Maziferchopf mountain near Sargans , remains unknown.

Michel was married several times and had eight children, both legitimate and illegitimate. In 1973, through his fourth marriage to Sabine von Radowitz, b. von und zu Putbus (1919–2009), marrying into the German nobility . Michel died in the Rhenish Büderich , a district of Meerbusch, of the long-term consequences of a bicycle accident that he suffered on his orange plantation in Florida . He was buried in Aachen .

Publications

• It started on the Don. Haupt, Bern 1946.
• East and West. The reputation of Stauffenberg. Thomas-Verlag, Zurich 1947.
• Stauffenberg. Historical drama. Thomas-Verlag, Zurich 1947.

literature

• Andrea Blunschi: The wife of the village doctor and the Wehrmacht officer. A search for clues. Chronos, Zurich 2010, ISBN 978-3-0340-1001-6 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Refugee dossier "Michel Karl". Vol. 3136, 1945-1947. In: Swiss Federal Archives . (BAR) E 4264, 1985/196, Az. N-43685; quoted in: Andrea Blunschi: The wife of the village doctor and the Wehrmacht officer. Zurich 2010, p. 72f.
2. ↑ Andrea Blunschi: The wife of the village doctor and the Wehrmacht officer. Zurich 2010, pp. 83, 85.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Refugee dossier "Michel Karl". Vol. 3136, 1945-1947. In: BAR E 4264, 1985/196, Az. N-43685; quoted in: Andrea Blunschi: The wife of the village doctor and the Wehrmacht officer. Zurich 2010, pp. 127–129.
4. ↑ ^{a b c} documents of the BA and the WAst , quoted in in: Andrea Blunschi: The wife of the village doctor and the Wehrmacht officer. Zurich 2010, pp. 130–133.
5. ^ Peter Hoffmann : Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg and his brothers. Stuttgart 1992, p. 255; Ders .: Stauffenberg. A Family History, 1905-1944. 2nd ed. Montreal 2003, p. 155 (Hoffmann interviewed Michel in 1979).
6. ↑ Gerald Reitlinger : A house built on sand. Hitler's policy of violence in Russia 1941–1944. Hamburg 1962, p. 384; Wilfried Strik-Strikfeldt: Against Stalin and Hitler. Mainz 1970, pp. 170-182; Jürgen Thorwald : Who you want to spoil. Stuttgart 1952, on p. 128 Michel confused with the lieutenant colonel Karl Michel of the same name .
7. ↑ Andrea Blunschi: The wife of the village doctor and the Wehrmacht officer. Zurich 2010, pp. 75f., 135–140.
8. ↑ Andrea Blunschi: The wife of the village doctor and the Wehrmacht officer. Zurich 2010, pp. 81–86; 104, 141.
9. ↑ Andrea Blunschi: The wife of the village doctor and the Wehrmacht officer. Zurich 2010, pp. 136, 149–152.
10. ↑ Andrea Blunschi: The wife of the village doctor and the Wehrmacht officer. Zurich 2010, p. 123.
11. ^ Karl Michel: Stauffenberg. Historical drama. Zurich 1947, p. 1; Andreas Dörner: "The future is forgetful." The anti-fascist resistance in German literature after 1945. In: Hans Wagener (Ed.): Contemporary literature and the Third Reich. Stuttgart 1977, p. 55.
12. ^ Carl Zuckmayer: Germany report for the War Department of the United States of America. (first 1946). Göttingen 2005, p. 250, mixes Michel's life with that of Lieutenant Colonel Karl Michel in his portrayal .
13. ↑ Andrea Blunschi: The wife of the village doctor and the Wehrmacht officer. Zurich 2010, p. 135.
14. ^ Hans Rothfels: The German opposition to Hitler. An appreciation. Frankfurt / M. 1961, p. 410; Peter Hoffmann: Resistance, Coup, Assassination. Munich 1969, p. 747; Alexander Dallin: German rule in Russia, 1941-1945. A study of occupation policies. New York 1957, p. 544 note 1; Christian Müller: Colonel i. G. Stauffenberg. Düsseldorf 1971, p. 545; John Wheeler-Bennett: The Nemesis of Power. The German Army in Politics, 1918–1945. Düsseldorf 1954.
15. ↑ Sabine Hilgenstock: The story of the BUNTEN (1948–1988). The development of an illustrated weekly magazine with a chronicle of this type of magazine. (European university publications. Vol. 33.) Frankfurt a. M. 1993. pp. 51f .; Jürgen Klöckler: Occident - Alpine - Alemannia. France and the reorganization discussion in southwest Germany 1945–1947. Munich 1998, p. 98f.
16. ↑ Andrea Blunschi: The wife of the village doctor and the Wehrmacht officer. Zurich 2010, p. 209.
17. ↑ Andrea Blunschi: The wife of the village doctor and the Wehrmacht officer. Zurich 2010, p. 213f .; s. a. Kino-Wiki-Article Heidelberg Capitol-Filmtheater ( Memento of the original from October 29, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on June 16, 2010).
18. ↑ Diamond Exchange: At the very top the Russian. In: Der Spiegel . No. 49 v. December 1, 1975, pp. 79-83; Andrea Blunschi: The wife of the village doctor and the Wehrmacht officer. Zurich 2010, pp. 203–207; Joachim Holtz: End with remorse. In: The time . No. 14 v. April 1, 1977, p. 19 ( PDF ).
19. ↑ ^{a b} Andrea Blunschi: The wife of the village doctor and the Wehrmacht officer. Zurich 2010, pp. 200–205.
20. ^ Genealogical handbook of the nobility. Noble houses XXX. Volume 145. Limburg ad Lahn 2008, p. 342.