Kreisau circle

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The Kreisau Circle was a bourgeois resistance group that dealt with plans for a political and social reorganization after the assumed collapse of the Hitler dictatorship during the Nazi era .

Signet of the Kreisau Circle

The group, whose leaders were Helmuth James Graf von Moltke and Peter Graf Yorck von Wartenburg , was formed in 1940. Freya von Moltke organized three meetings with like-minded people in May 1942, October 1942 and June 1943 with the aim of drawing up company plans for a post-war period create. After Moltke's arrest in early 1944, the Kreisau district de facto dissolved, and some Kreisauers joined the group around Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg . After his assassination attempt on Hitler on July 20, 1944 , the Gestapo succeeded in uncovering the work of the group. She named the resistance group after Moltkes Gut Kreisauin Silesia (today Krzyżowa in Poland) "Kreisau Circle" - the term was probably used by Theodor Haubach during his interrogations - and thus coined the name that later found its way into historiography.

Structure and intentions

The Kreisau Circle consisted of an "inner circle" of around 20 people and roughly the same number of people who knew about it and who - and this aspect sets the Kreisau Circle apart from other anti-Nazi resistance groups - came from different social classes. Personalities from the bourgeoisie, the nobility, the labor movement, Catholicism and Protestantism worked together in this circle.
Kreisau's plans for reorganization went far beyond a mere restoration of past conditions - that is, the Weimar Republic or the monarchy  - as the Goerdeler Group was striving for, for example . On the basis of the view that the National Socialist tyranny was the culmination of a historical development away from Christian universalism of the Middle Ages towards the secularized, absolute state, the Kreisau residents sought a fundamental intellectual, social and political reform that placed the individual at the center of all considerations represents. Starting with the individual, the people of Kreisau wanted to create a social order that would enable the individual to self-determination and take on (political) responsibility. The socio-political component of the Kreisau plans was strongly socialist; in terms of foreign policy, they aimed for pan-European integration. For Hans Mommsen , the Kreisau program represented a "[...] comprehensive draft for the future whose boldness and inner stringency have not been surpassed by other political reform concepts of the German resistance against Hitler."

The most important members of the circle

The Kreisau Circle was not a strictly delimitable organization. Its members usually met in smaller groups to discuss individual aspects of the intended reorganization. For safety reasons, these cells often did not know each other, only Moltke and Yorck had an overview of all the work. In addition, the members of the inner circle around the two leading figures consulted experts they knew who otherwise had nothing to do with the Kreisau Circle. In the following, the life pictures of the most important Kreisau people will be briefly outlined in order to make their origin, socialization and worldview understandable.

Helmuth James Graf von Moltke

Helmuth von Moltke, January 1945

Moltke (1907–1945) had a liberal upbringing. His parents were both Christian Science believers . Through his mother Dorothy, who was the daughter of the former Chief Justice of the South African Union James Rose Innes , he felt a lifelong connection to the British Empire. He had studied law and trained as a barrister in England . His pronounced social interest had earned him the nickname "the Red Count". After Hitler's " seizure of power " he helped those persecuted by the Nazi regime as a lawyer in Berlin. At the beginning of the Second World War he was appointed to the War Administration Council of the Abwehr , where he worked as an expert on martial law and international law for compliance with international law and the humane treatment of prisoners.

Peter Graf Yorck von Wartenburg

Peter Graf Yorck von Wartenburg

Peter Yorck (1904–1944), whose family, like that of the Moltkes, produced important personalities in the Prussian state, was brought up in the Christian-humanistic spirit. Like Moltke, he had studied law and developed a strong sense of political and social responsibility based on a conservative attitude. After he was initially open to National Socialism - in contrast to Moltke he had never been able to identify with the Weimar Republic - the politics of violence and the increasing lawlessness in the "Führer State" made him a staunch opponent of it. Since he refused to join the NSDAP , he was no longer promoted to his post in the Reich Ministry of Economics. Yorck, who had taken part in the attack on Poland as a reserve lieutenant , was outraged by the aristocratic attitude at the brutal demeanor of the new German ruling classes. He once called Hitler a "German Dschingiskhan".

Carl-Dietrich von Trotha

Carl-Dietrich von Trotha (1907–1952) was a cousin of Moltke and also grew up in Kreisau. He had also studied law and economics and, like Yorck, worked in the Reich Ministry of Economics. His personality was mainly shaped by the youth movement and the work in popular education with Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy . In the Kreisau district he worked with Einsiedel in the economics work group, which often met in Trotha's apartment. After July 20, 1944, Trotha remained undiscovered. From 1948 he taught at the German University of Politics in Berlin.

During a stay in the USA , he died in a swimming accident in 1952.

Horst von Einsiedel

Horst von Einsiedel (1905–1947) was the son of a Dresden doctor couple. He studied law and political science and had also intensively participated in the popular education work with Rosenstock-Huessy. He had made numerous study trips, including to Norway , Turkey and the USA. Einsiedel rejected National Socialism out of a Christian-Socialist basic attitude (like Trotha, he had studied with the religious socialist Adolf Löwe and was a member of the SPD from 1930 ) and for this reason was forced out of the civil service in the Reich Statistical Office in 1934. In his later work in the Kreisau district, Einsiedel, who advocated state economic control, headed the working group for economic issues. He escaped the wave of arrests after July 20, 1944 and died in 1947 in the Soviet special camp in Sachsenhausen .

Hans Lukaschek

Hans Lukascheck

Hans Lukaschek (1885–1960) came from a Catholic family in Breslau , had a Christian-humanist worldview and was friends with van Husen , whom he later introduced to the Kreisau Circle. He studied law, became district administrator in Upper Silesia in 1919 and in the same year head of German propaganda for the upcoming vote (see also the division of Upper Silesia after the First World War ) on whether Upper Silesia was part of Poland or Germany. After the division, the central politician Lukaschek worked in the mixed commission for Upper Silesia. As President of the Prussian Province of Upper Silesia, he promoted minority policy from 1929 onwards. He was committed to his Silesian homeland, which after the First World War faced considerable structural problems due to the division, the resulting influx of refugees and the backward economy. He clearly rejected National Socialism, after unsuccessful persuasion by Göring , he was ousted from his office in May 1933. In the Kreisau district he later dealt with constitutional issues and kept in contact with the Catholic Church. After the assassination attempt on July 20, 1944, he was arrested and tortured. Because of the mistreatment, he was acquitted by the People's Court. After 1945 Lukaschek was one of the founders of the Thuringian CDU and was Federal Minister for Expellees from 1949 to 1953.

Adam von Trott zu Solz

Adam von Trott, born in Sweden in 1943

The diplomat Adam von Trott zu Solz (1909-1944) came from a family that belonged to the Hessian nobility . He was one of the early opponents of the National Socialist regime and has been demonstrably committed to overthrow it since 1939 at the latest. In close coordination with Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg , he was involved in the attempted coup on July 20, 1944. As an employee in the information department of the Foreign Office , Trott had the opportunity to travel to neutral countries. He traveled several times to Switzerland , Sweden and Turkey , among others , to solicit foreign support for the activities of the German resistance and to pass on memoranda to the Allies . Adam von Trott took part in numerous meetings of members of the Kreisau Circle in Berlin and at the third meeting of the Circle in June 1943 in Kreisau. Adam von Trott was particularly interested in the foreign policy concepts of the Kreisau Circle, in particular he campaigned for the creation of a lasting peace order in Europe. As early as 1939 he had sketched far-reaching European political ideas in the USA and detailed them in two papers written in Switzerland in 1941 and 1943.

Adolf Reichwein

Adolf Reichwein

The educator Adolf Reichwein (1898–1944) from Bad Ems joined the Wandervogel movement in his youth . After graduating from high school in 1916, he volunteered for military service. He came to the Western Front, where he was wounded in the 1917 tank battle of Cambrai . As a republican and socialist, he welcomed the revolution of 1918. During his studies of history, economics and philosophy he came into contact with neo-Kantian teachings and was influenced by Scheler , Natorp and Wolters , among others . He was also in contact with the George Circle . Reichwein wrote for the socialist monthly books , dealt with communism and religion and advocated overcoming class barriers. He counted himself as part of the current of religious socialism . In the late 1920s he toured the United States, Japan, and China. After his return in 1928 he became a consultant and personal confidante of the Prussian Minister of Culture Becker , in the course of this activity he became involved in the Löwenberger Arbeitsgemeinschaft , where he got to know some of the later Kreisauers. Reichwein joined the SPD and accepted a professorship in Halle. After Hitler was appointed Reich Chancellor, he had to give up this post for political reasons and became a village school teacher in Tiefensee . For the Kreisau district he arranged the contacts to Mierendorff and Haubach. After contacting communist resistance groups, he was arrested in 1944, sentenced to death and executed.

Carlo Mierendorff

Carlo Mierendorff

The workers' leader Carlo Mierendorff (1897–1943) from Großenhain exerted a decisive influence on Kreisau's activities . He was a participant in the World War, personally honored by Kaiser Wilhelm, and had studied philosophy and economics from 1918 to 1922. He had already been active as a journalist during the war and had been a member of the SPD since 1920. Mierendorff was one of the bitterest opponents of National Socialism and a capable agitator. He recognized the psychological effect of identification symbols and mass media early on. Rhetorically and in his choice of means, Mierendorff was a match for the NSDAP chief propagandist Goebbels, whom he countered in the Reichstag with the words "Stay in the bar, Mr. Goebbels, if you have the courage to look a front-line fighter in the eye!" Not least because of the publication of the Boxheim documents , he attracted the hatred of the National Socialists, who immediately put him in "protective custody" after they came to power. He spent the years from 1933 to 1938 in the Osthofen , Börgermoor , Buchenwald and Lichtenburg concentration camps . After his release he was not allowed to live under his real name and had to work in an SS company. Regardless, he managed to reactivate previous contacts. Via Reichwein he came to the Kreisau Circle, where he developed a personal relationship with Moltke. The death of Mierendorff in a bombing raid on Leipzig in 1943 was a severe blow to the work of the district.

Theodor Haubach

A close friend of Mierendorff was Theodor Haubach (1896–1945) from Darmstadt. He was also a highly decorated soldier in World War I and a supporter of social democracy. Haubach studied philosophy and did his doctorate with Jaspers . He was a gifted speaker, but far less impulsive than his friend Mierendorff. From 1927 he was a member of the Hamburg parliament; like Julius Leber , he was involved in the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold since its inception. From 1930 he worked as a press officer in the Prussian government and around the same time he was involved in the "New Papers for Socialism", an organ of religious socialism around Paul Tillich . After the "seizure of power" he was briefly imprisoned, and from 1934 to 1936 he was imprisoned in the Esterwegen concentration camp . After July 20, 1944, Haubach was arrested, sentenced to death by Freisler and executed on January 23, 1945.

Augustin Rösch

Father Augustin Rösch (1893–1961) had been Provincial of the Upper German Province of the Jesuit Order since 1935 . Gerstenmaier described him as the strongest man in German Catholicism. At the Gestapo he consistently advocated persecuted friars and the observance of church rights (cf. Reich Concordat ). In the Kreisau district, Rösch kept in touch with the Catholic resistance and helped shape the work on denominational and cultural issues. After July 20, 1944, he was arrested and tortured, but released shortly before the Red Army conquered Berlin . After the war he was regional director of the Bavarian Caritas until 1961 .

Alfred Delp

Alfred Delp, Mannheim memorial plaque

One of the leading intellectuals was the Jesuit priest Alfred Delp (1907–1945), who was introduced to the Kreisau Circle by Rösch as a representative of Catholicism. He grew up in a mixed-denominational family, but joined the Jesuit order in order to break out of civic restrictions and consciously put his life at the service of charity. During his studies (philosophy and theology) Delp dealt with existentialism and wrote a book about Heidegger . He later worked as an editor for the prestigious Catholic magazine "Voices of the Time". After they were banned, he became parish priest in Munich-Bogenhausen in 1941 to avoid military service. He was extremely active in the Kreisau district, in addition to many smaller meetings, he also took part in all three large conferences. After July 20, 1944, he was arrested, sentenced to death and executed on February 2, 1945.

Lothar King

Memorial plaque

When Rösch came to the Kreisau district, he brought his secretary and authorized representative Lothar König (1906–1946) with him. He came from Stuttgart and was active in the youth group New Germany in his youth . He studied philosophy and natural sciences, later he taught cosmology in Pullach. During the church struggle he devoted himself to the defense of his order; he succeeded, for example, in withdrawing the Pullach Ordenshochschule from the Gestapo’s grasp. In the Kreisau district he was mostly on the road as a courier and liaison to various bishops. He was supposed to be arrested after July 20, 1944, but managed to escape at the last moment. While he was in hiding, he became seriously ill; because he was underground, he could not get the medical help he needed. He died as a result of the disease in 1946.

Categorization

According to the presented résumés, the members of the Kreisau Circle can be categorized roughly as follows:

This is just a very rough categorization. While the Catholic group is still the best demarcable group from an ideological point of view, the cohesion due to the predicate “nobility” is only very loose. The vast majority of Kreisau residents, for example, were Protestant Christians, and some aristocrats like Einsiedel were close to the SPD. The depicted “camp formation” is, however, suitable to illustrate the fact that different and sometimes opposing social classes were united in the Kreisau district.

history

The Kreisau Circle was formed at the beginning of 1940, when Moltke and Yorck, who had both previously worked in opposition groups, came together to work together. They both knew each other beforehand - both families were based in Lower Silesia and Yorck's sister Davida Yorck von Wartenburg , called "Davy", was married to Moltke's cousin Hans-Adolf von Moltke , the German ambassador to Poland - but there was no closer contact. Since Moltke and Yorck started working together, trustworthy people have been systematically consulted. These were divided into working groups according to their areas of expertise and were supposed to work out drafts for the reorganization. The preparatory work was summarized at three large conferences at Moltkes Gut Kreisau and recorded in writing as declarations of principle that reflected the district's plans. Very few copies of these writings were made; Moltke had his copies kept by his wife in Kreisau. In January 1944 Moltke was arrested by the Gestapo because he had warned a friend of his imminent arrest. The arrest was therefore not related to work in the Kreisau district. Nevertheless, this dissolved de facto after the leader had failed.

prehistory

As already mentioned, both Moltke and Yorck were active in opposition circles before they worked together in the Kreisau Circle. The Dutch historian Ger van Roon distinguishes between a sociologically and economically interested group around Moltke and an administrative group around Yorck.

After 1933 Moltke was occasionally in the so-called Schifferkreis , in which people belonging to the bourgeois spectrum met for round tables around the former Minister Eugen Schiffer . He also kept in touch with a few friends from the time of the Löwenberger Arbeitsgemeinschaft , about whom we will talk later. First of all, Carl-Dietrich von Trotha and Horst von Einsiedel should be mentioned here.

During the Sudeten crisis, Moltke established closer contact with the former Silesian district administrator Hans Lukaschek , whom he already knew from the time of the Löwenberg working group. Moltke discussed the current political situation with Lukaschek, namely Hitler's war plans against Czechoslovakia and the coup plans developed by Beck, Halder and Goerdeler in response to them. After the immediate danger of war through the British appeasement policy had been removed during the Munich conference, the opposition's considerations had become obsolete.

In 1939, Otto Heinrich von der Gablentz and Adolf Reichwein , Carlo Mierendorff and Theodor Haubach joined Moltke's group through Einsiedel . Contacts with Karl Blessing and Ernst von Siemens were established through the lawyer Eduard Waetjen . This brought together representatives of employers, employees and the economic administration in Moltke's group.

The group around Yorck, known as the “Grafengruppe” because of its members, was constituted in 1938 shortly after the organized pogroms against the Jews . The members included Fritz von der Schulenburg , who later also belonged to the larger Kreisau district, Nikolaus Graf Uexküll , employee of the Reich Prize Commissioner, the industrialist Caesar von Hofacker , the legation councilor Albrecht von Kessel and others. The participants, who mostly met in Yorck's apartment in the Berlin villa district of Lichterfelde-West , mainly discussed constitutional problems. On business and through his family, Yorck also maintained a number of other contacts, for example with Hermann Abs , Günter Schmölders and the Freiburger Kreis . Under the impression of the Sudeten crisis and the " smashing of the rest of the Czech Republic ", Yorck's group also intensified the opposition to the insight that political change was necessary.

Formation of the Kreisau Circle

At the beginning of 1940 the contact between Yorck and Moltke strengthened. On June 4, 1940, the two met Schulenburg near Yorcks. Following this meeting, an exchange of letters between Moltke and Yorck began, in which they clarified their mutual positions and found a mutual cooperation. The beginning of this exchange was influenced by the German victory in France, when National Socialist Germany had almost reached the zenith of its power. Undeterred by this, Moltke was convinced that military success and the expansion of the German Reich would only have to lead to an over-expansion of resources and thus to an accelerated collapse. Accordingly, he opened the correspondence with the words:

"[...] now that we must expect to see a triumph of evil, and while we were prepared to take on all the suffering and misery, instead we are about to face a much worse swamp of outward happiness, comfort and prosperity Having to wade through it is more important than ever to be clear about the fundamentals of a positive political theory. "

Both agreed on the cause of the French defeat, but Yorck judged the result differently:

"[...] I found European readiness on the basis of the completed facts [...] Even if - as I hope - we are currently experiencing the pathetic conclusion of an era, we must pay attention to the germs that the new life is supposed to drive out of the ruins . "

As Moltke's letter already suggests, in their correspondence, which was supplemented by several meetings, the two dealt with constitutional law , the relationship between the state and the individual, and the relationship between the state and religion. Moltke summarized the basic theme as follows: "What is the manifestation of justice in the state!"

On the same day that Moltke wrote his first letter to Yorck, he wrote another to Einsiedel, in which he followed up on the topics that both had discussed in Moltke's business circle. Analogous to the letter to Yorck, Moltke fixed the question to be discussed with Einsiedel: "What is the manifestation of justice in the economy?"

By means of the correspondence, Moltke assessed the possibilities of bringing both groups together on a common basis. The result was a first conference in Kreisau in August 1940, which can probably be regarded as the focal point of the Kreisau district. Moltke, Yorck, Einsiedel and Waetjen discussed questions of education, the failure of teaching staff before the Nazi influence and the structure of education after Hitler. After this weekend, Yorck and Moltke continued their exchange. The latter dealt in detail with various philosophical doctrines, his reading at this time consisted of works by Kant , Voltaire , Spinoza , Freiherr vom Stein and others, of whom he was apparently particularly influenced by Spinoza's Tractatus theologico-politicus . As a result of the exchange of ideas with his friends and his own studies, Moltke wrote the memorandum “On the basics of the theory of the state” on October 20, 1940. The contents of this working paper will be discussed in more detail in the section on the plans of the Kreisau District, but it should be anticipated that Moltke not only wanted to deal with practical forms of state organization, but also thought fundamentally about an administrative organization based on the welfare of the individual :

“First of all, one has to be clear about what the content of the state is, what the state lives on, which distinguishes a state from a large organized gang. [...] Therefore, the question of organization only arises when one is clear about the content [...] "

Moltke discussed the content of this work with Yorck, who was of very different opinion. However, the two managed to come to an agreement on the essential points, so that Moltke wrote in mid-November 1940:

"When I look at these 3 points, I don't see where there should be a serious factual difference between us."

The work of the circle up to the first Kreisau conference

After Moltke and Yorck got together, their respective friends were also included. At the beginning of 1941, various rounds of talks took place, one of which can be determined from Moltke's letters with Abs (January 8) and Albrecht Haushofer (February 3). In 1941, the initial aim was to win over reliable people who wanted to participate in a systematic reorganization concept - i.e. not just non-binding mind games - and to work out viable drafts. After 1940 Steltzer and Christiansen-Less joined the circle. In the spring of 1941 Moltke spoke to Hans Bernd von Haeften and Adam von Trott zu Solz , who both worked in the Foreign Office. Trott already knew Moltke from England, and the constitutional lawyer Hans Peters, who - drafted into the Air Force and transferred to the Air Force Command Staff in Berlin - was in regular contact with Moltke from the end of 1940, was also known to Moltke from his time in Breslau.

Another meeting took place in October at Gut Groß-Behnitz , which belonged to Ernst von Borsig. The contact to Borsig was arranged by Yorck, besides the named persons Trott and a mutual acquaintance of Yorck and Moltke named Wussow also took part. The custom on the large estates of receiving visitors regularly was a suitable camouflage at this and the other meetings in Groß-Behnitz, Kreisau and Klein-Oels. At the end of November Moltke wrote to his wife that the work had progressed so far that the drafts could be put down in writing and given to the individual working groups for discussion.

The contact with the churches that came about at the end of 1941 was also important. In September Moltke visited the Catholic Bishop of Berlin, Preysing , who had dealt critically with developments in National Socialist Germany early on in his pastoral letters. Under the fresh impression of the euthanasia sermons von Galens , Preysing and Moltke found a common basis for discussion, which led to Moltke visiting the bishop every three to four weeks. Karl Ludwig Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg brought Augustin Rösch, Provincial of the Upper German Province of the Jesuit Order, to the Kreisau District in October. An agreement was reached with him in November about a collaboration. Rösch, in turn, was in contact with the Archbishop of Munich, Cardinal Faulhaber . The Kreisau Circle did not come into contact with the Protestant bishops until the summer of 1942. Only the prison pastor Harald Poelchau joined the district via von Haeften in 1941.

The three Kreisau conferences

Kreisau in Silesia gave the district its name. The three most important meetings took place here.

Whitsun 1942, from May 22nd to 25th, the first conference took place in Kreisau. The participants - Moltke and Yorck and their wives, Irene von Yorck , Peters, Poelchau, Rösch, Steltzer, Lukaschek and Reichwein - met in the Berghaus, a somewhat secluded house in which the Moltke family had lived since the early 1930s large Kreisau Castle had given up due to economic difficulties. The participants first gave presentations that had been prepared beforehand, which were then discussed. Moltke gave a lecture on university reform, supplemented by Reichwein's written statement on school issues. Steltzer spoke about the Protestant position on the relationship between church and state, Rösch explained corresponding positions of the Catholic Church. In addition, Peters discussed Concordat and cultural issues.

While this first weekend was still quite relaxed and with a lot of free time, the second conference, which took place from October 16 to 18, 1942, was dominated by an overloaded workload of topics to be discussed. Originally, two larger rounds of talks were planned for autumn 1942, one in Klein-Oels at the end of September and one in Kreisau at the end of October. Since two meetings in such short succession seemed too dangerous and the preparatory work was also behind schedule, the two dates were combined for the second Kreisau conference. Participants were the married couples Moltke and Yorck, again with Yorck's sister Irene, Einsiedel, Haubach, Gerstenmaier , Steltzer, Peters, Delp and Hermann Maaß . The latter was an envoy from Wilhelm Leuschner and was skeptical of the Kreisau views. Therefore it is generally not counted as part of the Kreisau Circle. The subject of the second conference was the constitutional structure, on which Moltke and Steltzer expressed their opinion, and the economic order on which Einsiedel gave the lecture. In the following discussion, the planned federal state structure and the strengthening of self-government were discussed in particular. The fact that centralized organizations such as the unified trade unions should be dispensed with in the federalism plans aroused strong displeasure among Leuschner's representative Maaß. Due to the extensive debates on this topic, only the introduction could be discussed by the economic system.

In February 1943 the 6th Army had capitulated in Stalingrad , the battle for Moscow had already been lost in December 1941 and in the south of the Soviet Union the Wehrmacht had withdrawn from the Don / Volga line to the Donets Basin by March 1943 . It had become obvious that the German Reich could no longer win the war. In addition, the Kreisauers, some of whom worked in the state administration or in the Wehrmacht, had become aware of the crimes of the Wehrmacht and the SS. Against this background, the third conference took place in Kreisau - again at Whitsun - from June 12 to 14, 1943. The married couples Moltke and Yorck had gathered together with their sister, Trott, Einsiedel, Reichwein, Gerstenmaier, van Husen and Delp. On the agenda was the continuation of the discussion on the economic system, foreign policy and the "punishment of right-wing abusers", which meant the legal prosecution of National Socialist war criminals. Trott gave a lecture on foreign policy; van Husen had prepared the subjects of the legal system and the prosecution of war criminals.

The results of the meetings were recorded in writing in several declarations of principle. The “Principles for the Reorganization”, in which the main lines of the Kreisau program are presented, were dated August 9, 1943. In a further document, the “First Instruction to the Provincial Administrators” (also dated August 9, 1943) - taking into account the possibility that the entire country or parts of it would be occupied by Allied troops - the first organizational measures to be initiated were set out after the Collapse of the regime should be carried out. Drafts for the "punishment of right-wing abusers" date from June 14th and July 24th, 1943.

Dissolution of the circle

In January 1944, Moltke was arrested by the Gestapo because he had warned his friend Otto Carl Kiep of his imminent arrest. Nothing was known about the Kreisau work at that time, and Moltke enjoyed a relaxed detention compared to other Nazi practice. Although the Kreisauers were able to keep in touch with Moltke - but the release could not be obtained - the Kreisau Circle was reduced to a rump group, but the joint work did not come to a standstill. In the leadership duo Moltke / Yorck, Peter Yorck was the integrative force, while Helmuth James von Moltke was the driving force that was now missing. Instead of Moltke, Leber now came to the fore. Some Kreisauers joined the von Stauffenberg group, with whom they had already been in contact. The decisive impetus here was the arrest of Leber and Reichwein at the beginning of July 1944, who were denounced by a spy when they wanted to get in touch with communist resistance groups. Yorck and Haubach in particular now became closely associated with Stauffenberg and forced a violent overthrow. In addition to the two named, Haeften, Trott, Reichwein, Leber, Gerstenmaier, van Husen, Lukaschek and Steltzer took an active part in the preparations and / or the execution of the assassination attempt of July 20, 1944.

After its failure, Yorck, Gerstenmaier and Lukaschek were arrested that same night. Haeften (July 23), Trott (July 25), Delp (July 28), Steltzer (August 1), Haubach (August 9), van Husen (August) and Rösch (January 11, 1945) followed. . Lothar König was able to escape the imminent arrest by fleeing, Einsiedel and Trotha were not bothered, although their names had become known. Poelchau, Gablentz and Peters remained completely undiscovered. Moltke (whose release was still up for debate before July 20), Reichwein and Leber had already been arrested.

Especially with the help of Harald Poelchau, who was the prison pastor in Tegel, the arrested people managed to meet and maintain contact with the outside world. This enabled the Kreisauers to coordinate their line of defense. They agreed to deny any active involvement in the coup attempt and to withdraw to the position that they had only been thinking. This defense strategy was of little use during the show trials before the People's Court, as history has shown. The trials ended with death sentences for Yorck, Haeften, Trott, Delp, Moltke, Reichwein, Leber and Haubach. Eugen Gerstenmaier got away with a prison sentence - although he was present in the Bendlerblock on the evening of July 20th . He had successfully mimed the stranger to the court. Lukaschek and van Husen benefited from Freisler's death and were sentenced to three years in prison. Rösch's trial was postponed and became obsolete with the end of the war. Theodor Steltzer was sentenced to death, but after Norwegian-Swedish intervention (he was particularly helped by the influence of Felix Kersten on Himmler), he was pardoned.

Formations of the Kreisau views

A rough milieu categorization has already been carried out in the section on the members of the circle. From the résumés of the people of Kreisau, further phases and currents can be recognized that shaped their spiritual attitudes. What we have in common is that many of the later Kreisauers were involved in movements that aimed to overcome the contradictions that existed at the time, for example between workers and the bourgeoisie, between Protestantism and Catholicism, or between church and socialism.

The First World War should be mentioned as a decisive experience at this point , which particularly influenced the elderly. All Kreisauers born before 1900 with the exception of Lukaschek had actively participated in this. In the trenches, class differences leveled out, comradeship did not depend on the milieu the soldiers belonged to. Adolf Reichwein later wrote about the social effects: “The modern war is so messing up all forces and opposing forces that no party can survive it without a serious crisis.” However, he also saw the following possibilities: “This crisis really does contain that positive cultural moment of war by triggering social reforms as a remedy against itself . If we want to take a cultural gain with us to peace, we have to secure these reforms. "

Youth movement

Even before the war, the youth movement had developed from late-romantic, anti-bourgeois protest behavior . This social group had clearly articulated itself against the widespread chauvinism and nationalism at the First Freideutschen Jugendtag in 1913 and, on the eve of the First World War, demanded that Kaiser Wilhelm preserve the peace. Although some of the leagues later delineated themselves by expressing an elitist character, most of them pursued the goal of overcoming the social differences in the German Reich as determined by the concept of the people. Many of the later Kreisauers were active in the youth movement: Haubach and Mierendorff in the socialist Hofgeismarer Kreis , König and Delp in the Catholic Bund New Germany , Poelchau and Gerstenmaier in Protestant associations, Reichwein, Trotha, Einsiedel and Gablentz in free German groups.

Moltke took part in the development of the Silesian labor camp and popular education movement, which is also part of the youth movement and in which Einsiedel, Trotha, Peters, Lukaschek, Gablentz, Reichwein and Christiansen-Less also worked. Silesia was divided between Germany and Poland after the First World War, with almost all of its industry going to Poland. In addition to the resulting economic problems, there was also a stream of refugees from the formerly German east. As early as 1926 an initiative had been launched in Löwenberg , which was later mostly referred to as the “Löwenberger Arbeitsgemeinschaft” or “Boberhauskreis”. The aim of this initiative was to maintain contact with Germans abroad and to bring together the various social groups. Wroclaw professor Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy became the intellectual head of this working group . According to his ideas, labor camps were carried out in which workers, students and farmers came together for joint work and presentations. In addition to this form of cooperation, which was initially intended to bring young people from different social classes closer together, so-called “leadership meetings” were also held. It was an encounter between the boys and older people and leading positions. This was to prevent the youth group from isolating itself from the older generation. The Silesian labor camp movement found some imitators in Germany, but there were differences in the Silesian group as early as 1930. Particularly in socialist circles, but also in church and industrial circles, there had always been reservations about the initiative; at the beginning of the 1930s they largely withdrew their support. After the National Socialists came to power, the labor camp movement was deprived of its leader - Rosenstock-Huessy was of Jewish origin and emigrated to the United States.

Religious socialism

The current of Religious Socialism was an attempt to bridge the opposing positions of religion and socialism. The most important representative of religious socialism, which originated primarily from the Protestant side, was the Brandenburg philosopher and theologian Paul Tillich . Harald Poelchau, for example, studied at Tillich in Marburg, while Trotha and Einsiedel attended lectures by Adolf Löwe , another prominent representative of religious socialism. The advocates of religious socialism did not attempt to synthesize socialism and religion. Based on ethical and eschatological motives, a new order should be established, a meaningful society in which socialism should no longer be just a workers' movement, but an overarching ethical ideal. The religious socialists rejected the form of capitalism as a society. Rather than alleviating the symptoms - the economic misery of broad strata - the foundation that capitalism was supposed to be removed.

Poelchau and Adam von Trott zu Solz wrote editorial articles in the journalistic organ of the religious socialists, the "New Papers for Socialism", while Reichwein, Haubach and Mierendorff from the later Kreisauers sat on the magazine's advisory board. At the "Neue Blätter für den Sozialismus" (New Papers for Socialism) those named met, among other things, four leading members of the later left-wing socialist resistance group, the Red Shock Troop . These connections lasted, for example via Curt Bley and Adam von Trott zu Solz, even during the time of the "Third Reich" and led to certain overlaps between the two resistance groups.

Catholic social teaching

The social question also played a role in the Catholic Church. In the 19th century, only a few pioneers in Catholicism such as Adolph Kolping or Bishop Ketteler dealt with the social problems of industrialization. The two social encyclicals Rerum Novarum (1891) and Quadragesimo anno (1931) were particularly significant for the position of the official church . Although both letters rejected socialism, there was a rapprochement between socialist and Catholic positions in some areas. This was not least due to the fact that some socialist dogmas were abandoned after the SPD had become the state-sponsoring party. In addition to socialism, capitalism and liberalism were also viewed critically. The Catholic masterminds took the view that church work in capitalism only consists of symptom work, i. H. alleviating the effects of capitalism (economic impoverishment), exists, but fundamental reconstruction work is not possible. For this reason, capitalism was also seen as a system to be overcome. The Jesuit order was the leader in dealing with the social question and in approaching socialist conceptions or religious socialism. For example, the Jesuit social ethicist Gustav Gundlach is said to have played a leading role in the preparation of the encyclical "Quadragesimo anno" . In this second letter on the social question, the Holy See emphasized that man is both an individual and a community. Both unilaterally individualistic and unilaterally collectivist ideas were rejected.

The plans of the Kreisau district

The thought structures and reorganization plans that have been developed in the Kreisau Circle are based on some fundamental principles.

As early as 1939/1940, Moltke formulated the basic idea of ​​a social structure “from below” in his memorandum “The small communities”; the later state should be built on the basis of manageable self-governing units. This idea, which is similar to the subsidiarity principle advocated by the Catholic side , represented a radical departure from the traditional authoritarian state and runs through all subject areas that were dealt with in the Kreisau district. Closely connected with this is the emphasis on a moderate type of individualism, which was directed against (National Socialist) collectivism (national community) and the mass development of urban industrial society. At the center of all considerations was the individual, whose freedom the new state was supposed to guarantee to the greatest possible extent.

While the aforementioned points refer internally, i.e. to the structure of the German state, the third basic principle is directed externally, namely the integration of the German Reich into the international network of states. The Kreisauers represented a decidedly European view, which was reflected on a practical level in the numerous contacts with foreign resistance groups. Nationalism was seen as an outdated principle which had proven unsuitable for solving the problems of continental Europe. Accordingly, the circle wanted to create a European connection on a common ideological basis - namely Christianity. On the one hand, this was intended to solve the problems of ethnic minorities, which had already come to light during the Weimar Republic, and it was also hoped that the danger of war would be averted through European integration, particularly in the economic field. The most radical thought leader in this field was Moltke, who had a European federal state in mind, in which the former nation states were merely to represent non-sovereign administrative divisions.

memorial

The Kreisau estate in the Polish village of Krzyżowa was expanded into the Krzyżowa International Youth Meeting Center after 1989 . In the former castle there is an exhibition on the Kreisau Circle and other resistance movements of the 20th century. The International Youth Meeting Center promotes the exchange between people of different social, religious and national origins and wants to strengthen the building of bridges between Western and Eastern Europe.

Trivia

  • The Kreisau Circle was included in the computer game Wolfenstein (2009) as the armed resistance movement of the fictional city of Isenstadt and supports the American protagonist there, although it can be proven that the real resistance movement did not lead to any armed or militaristic actions.

See also

literature

  • Günter Brakelmann : Helmuth James von Moltke 1907-1945. A biography. CH Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-55495-7 .
  • Günter Brakelmann: Peter Yorck von Wartenburg, 1904–1944. A biography. CH Beck, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-406-63019-4 . (especially Chapter IV "In the Kreisau District", pp. 115–208)
  • Günter Brakelmann: Christianity as the “basis for the moral and religious renewal of the people”, presented in the Kreisau “principles for reorganization” of August 9, 1943. In: Daniel ED Müller, Christoph Studt (ed.): “… And thereby he stands in front of Freisler, as a Christian and as nothing else ... ”. Christian faith as the foundation and action orientation of the resistance against the “Third Reich” (= series of publications of the research community July 20, 1944 eV, vol. 25), Augsburg 2019, ISBN 978-3-95786-234-1 , pp. 95-108.
  • Marion Countess Dönhoff : “For the sake of honor.” Memories of the friends from July 20th. Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-88680-532-8 (first edition), ISBN 3-442-72009-5 (paperback edition).
  • Michaela Ellmann: Hans Lukaschek in the Kreisau Circle - Constitutional and constitutional contributions to the Kreisau Circle's plans for the rebuilding of Germany. Schöningh, Paderborn / Munich / Vienna / Zurich 2000, ISBN 3-506-73389-3 .
  • Kurt Finker : Count Moltke and the Kreisau Circle. Union Verlag Berlin, Berlin (East) 1980, Dietz, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-320-01816-7 .
  • Eugen Gerstenmaier : The Kreisau Circle. In: July 20, 1944. Ed .: From the Federal Center for Homeland Service, Bonn 1954.
  • Walter Hammer : Theodor Haubach in memory. European publishing house, Frankfurt am Main 1955.
  • Ulrich Karpen : Hans Peters, the Görres Society and the Kreisau Circle. In: Roman quarterly for Christian antiquity and church history . Volume 114, 2019, pp. 117-133.
  • Ulrich Karpen (ed.): Europe's future. Performances by the Kreisau Circle around Helmuth James Graf von Moltke. CF Müller, Heidelberg 2005, ISBN 3-8114-5333-5 .
  • Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (ed.): Christian democrats against Hitler. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau / Vienna / Basel 2004, ISBN 3-451-20805-9 .
  • Annedore Leber (Ed.): The conscience stands up. 64 life pictures from the German resistance 1933–1945 collected and edited. by Annedore Leber in collaboration with Willy Brandt and Karl Dietrich Bracher. With numerous b / w illus. Mosaik, Frankfurt am Main 1954, 237 p. (4th edition also 1954).
    • Annedore Leber (Ed.): The conscience stands up. With b / w fig. As license issue. Book guild Gutenberg Verlagsgesellschaft, Frankfurt am Main 1955
    • Annedore Leber (Ed.): The conscience stands up. Life pictures from the German resistance 1933–1945 collected and produced. by Annedore Leber. Newly produced by Karl Dietrich Bracher in connection with the Research Association 20. Juli e. V. It also contains: Conscience decides. With b / w illus. Hase & Koehler, Mainz 1984. XII ISBN 3-7758-1064-1 .
  • Annedore Leber (Ed.): Conscience decides. Areas of German resistance from 1933–1945 in pictures of life. Edited by Annedore Leber in collaboration with Willy Brandt and Karl Dietrich Bracher. Photographic assistance Ruth Wilhelmi. With illus. Mosaik-Verlag. Berlin - Frankfurt am Main 1957
    • Annedore Leber (Ed.): Conscience decides. With b / w fig. As license issue. Book guild Gutenberg Verlagsgesellschaft, Frankfurt am Main 1957
  • Manfred Lütz , Paulus van Husen : When the car didn't come. A true story from the resistance. Herder, Munich 2019, ISBN 978-3-451-38421-9 .
  • Hartmut Mehringer : Resistance and Emigration. The Nazi regime and its opponents. dtv, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-423-04520-5 .
  • Albrecht von Moltke: The economic and socio-political ideas of the Kreisau Circle within the German resistance movement. Cologne 1989, ISBN 3-924361-73-8 .
  • Freya von Moltke : memories of Kreisau. 1930-1945. CH Beck, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-406-42653-0 .
  • Helmuth James Graf von Moltke: Last letters from the Tegel prison. Henssel, Berlin 1950.
  • Hans Mommsen : The future reorganization of Germany and Europe from the point of view of the Kreisau Circle. In: Peter Steinbach, Johannes Tuchel (ed.): Resistance against National Socialism. (= Series of publications by the Federal Agency for Civic Education. Volume 323). Bonn 1994, ISBN 3-89331-195-5 .
  • Ger van Roon : Reorganization in the Resistance. The Kreisau Circle within the German resistance movement. Oldenbourg, Munich 1967.
  • Ger van Roon: Resistance in the Third Reich. An overview. 4th, revised edition. CH Beck, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-406-31900-9 .
  • Karl Heinz Roth , Angelika Ebbinghaus : Red chapels, Kreisau circles, black chapels. New perspectives on the German resistance to the Nazi dictatorship. vsa, Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-89965-087-5 .
  • Franz von Schwerin: Helmuth James Graf von Moltke: Thinking the future in resistance. Objectives for a new Germany. Schöningh, Paderborn / Munich / Vienna / Zurich 1999, ISBN 3-506-73387-7 .
  • Peter Steinbach : July 20, 1944. The faces of resistance. Siedler, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-88680-155-1 .
  • Volker Ullrich : The Kreisau Circle. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-499-50701-4 .
  • Wilhelm Wengler : Helmuth James Graf von Moltke (1906–1945). In: The Peace Watch. No. 6, 1948.
  • Wilhelm Ernst Winterhager : The Kreisau Circle. Portrait of a resistance group. Accompanying volume to an exhibition of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. von Hase and Koehler, Mainz 1985, ISBN 3-7758-1106-0 .
  • Klaus Philippi: The genesis of the Kreisau Circle . PhD thesis phil. at the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Stuttgart in 2012
  • Moltke Foundation Berlin: Moltke Almanach , publisher Moltke Foundation Berlin 1984, Volume 1: The origin of the members of the inner circle of Kreisau. The biographical and genealogical picture of a resistance group

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Schwerin: Moltke. P. 24, note 28; also with F. v. Moltke: memories. P. 49.
  2. ↑ Hans Mommsen : The Kreisau Circle and the future reorganization of Germany and Europe. In: Hans Mommsen: Alternative to Hitler. Studies on the history of the German resistance. Beck, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-406-45913-7 , p. 207. (books.google.de) .
  3. ↑ Due to the indifference mentioned, the list of members varies in some publications. The present presentation is based on van Roon: Reorganization . A different list at F. v. Moltke: memories .
  4. ^ Van Roon: reorganization. P. 61.
  5. ^ Van Roon: reorganization. P. 76 ff .; see also F. v. Moltke: memories. P. 45.
  6. ^ Van Roon: reorganization. P. 83.
  7. ↑ Information on the biography of Trotha from Peter Steinbach, Johannes Tuchel (Ed.): Lexicon of Resistance, 1933–1945 . CH Beck, 1998.
  8. ↑ Peter Steinbach, Johannes Tuchel (Ed.): Lexicon of Resistance, 1933–1945 . CH Beck, 1998, ISBN 3-406-43861-X , p. 205. (books.google.com) .
  9. ↑ Information on Lukaschek's biography from van Roon: Reorganization. P. 116 ff.
  10. ↑ Benigna von Krusenstjern: "That it makes sense to die - to have lived". Adam von Trott zu Solz 1909–1944. Biography . Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2009, ISBN 978-3-8353-0506-9 , pp. 440 ff .
  11. ^ Van Roon: reorganization. P. 102.
  12. ↑ Peter Steinbach, Johannes Tuchel (Ed.): Lexicon of Resistance, 1933–1945 . CH Beck, 1998.
  13. ↑ quoted from van Roon: Reorganization. P. 127.
  14. ↑ Klemens von Klemperer : Natural Law and the German Resistance to National Socialism. In: Peter Steinbach, Johannes Tuchel (ed.): Resistance against National Socialism. 1994, p. 46.
  15. ^ So with van Roon: Reorganization. P. 177.
  16. ↑ Peter Steinbach, Johannes Tuchel (Ed.): Lexicon of Resistance, 1933–1945 . CH Beck, 1998.
  17. ↑ A. Delp: Tragic Existence. On the philosophy of Martin Heidegger. Freiburg i. E.g. Herder, 1935.
  18. ↑ Winterhager: Kreisau Circle. P. 12, there also on the problem of this classification.
  19. ^ Van Roon: reorganization. P. 210 ff., Also on the following.
  20. ↑ On the military resistance in the course of the Sudeten crisis see van Roon: Resistance. P. 168 ff. And Jürgen Schmädeke : Military coup attempts and diplomatic opposition efforts between the Munich conference and Stalingrad. In: Peter Steinbach, Johannes Tuchel (ed.): Resistance against National Socialism. 1994, p. 294 ff.
  21. ^ Van Roon: reorganization. P. 213, note 18.
  22. ↑ Mommsen: Reorganization. P. 248.
  23. ^ Van Roon: Reorganization , p. 479.
  24. ↑ Moltke's letter to Yorck of July 12, 1940, printed by van Roon: Neuordnung , pp. 483 f.
  25. ^ Van Roon: Reorganization , p. 482.
  26. ↑ Moltke to Yorck, June 17, 1940 in van Roon: Reorganization. P. 481.
  27. ↑ Moltke an Einsiedel, 16./17. June 1940 at van Roon: reorganization. P. 479.
  28. ↑ von Schwerin: Moltke. P. 65 f.
  29. ^ Dating from von Schwerin: Moltke. P. 53. The memorandum is printed in the same, p. 162 ff. And in van Roon: Neuordnung. P. 498 ff.
  30. ↑ von Schwerin: Moltke. P. 71 f.
  31. ↑ From the memorandum on the foundations of the theory of the state .
  32. ↑ Molte to Yorck, November 16, 1940, van Roon: reorganization , S. 496 f.
  33. ^ Van Roon: reorganization. P. 222.
  34. ↑ The description of the living conditions in Kreisau and the development of the estate at F. v. Moltke: memories .
  35. ↑ cf. the description of the Kreisau meetings in F. v. Moltke: memories. P. 50 ff., Also on the following.
  36. ^ Van Roon: reorganization. P. 289.
  37. ↑ Winterhager: Kreisau Circle. P. 176.
  38. ↑ quoted from van Roon: Reorganization. P. 101; Highlighting there too.
  39. ^ Van Roon: reorganization. On the youth movement see, for example, Walter Laqueur: The German Youth Movement. Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik, Cologne 1978, ISBN 3-8046-8548-X , p. 23.
  40. ^ Van Roon: reorganization. P. 38.
  41. ↑ Dennis Egginger-Gonzalez: The Red Assault Troop. An early left-wing socialist resistance group against National Socialism. Lukas Verlag, Berlin 2018, p. 310ff, p. 390.
  42. ^ Van Roon: reorganization. P. 51.
  43. ^ Van Roon: reorganization. P. 52.