Kurt von Plettenberg

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Kurt Freiherr von Plettenberg (1930)

Kurt Eugen Gustav Adolf Freiherr von Plettenberg (born January 31, 1891 in Bückeburg , † March 10, 1945 in Berlin ) was a German forester , reserve officer and resistance fighter against National Socialism . He belonged to the inner circle of the resistance on July 20, 1944 . Plettenberg was president of the court chamber of the total property management of the former princely house of Schaumburg-Lippe and from 1941 head of the general administration of the formerly ruling Prussian royal family .

family

Kurt von Plettenberg came from the Westphalian noble family Plettenberg from the Sauerland . An ancestor was first mentioned in the 11th century. His father Karl Freiherr von Plettenberg was an officer, most recently a general of the infantry , commanding general of the Guard Corps and adjutant general of Kaiser Wilhelm II. He had to resign at the end of 1916 after criticizing the warfare of Erich Ludendorff and Paul von Hindenburg during the First World War . His mother was Clara Countess von Wedel , daughter of Wilhelm Graf von Wedel and his wife Luise nee Freiin von Bodelschwingh-Plettenberg .

On September 5, 1934, Plettenberg married in Schossow Arianne Freiin von Maltzahn (1914–1974), a daughter of Helmuth Freiherr von Maltzahn . This marriage resulted in three children, Christa-Erika (1936–1989), Karl-Wilhelm (* 1938) and Dorothea-Marion (* 1943).

Life

Training and deployment in the First World War

Plettenberg studied law and forestry at the Universities of Kiel , Lausanne , Hannoversch Münden , Berlin , Munich and Eberswalde . In Lausanne he joined the Germania Lausanne student union . This was followed by a forestry apprenticeship and a period of service with the 2nd Grand Ducal Mecklenburg Dragoon Regiment No. 18 in Parchim . From 1912 to 1914, Plettenberg completed his studies with a visit to the Hann forestry academy . Mouth off. As early as 1912 he had for the " Mounted Military Police Corps decided" and fought in World War I in 1914 as a lieutenant of the reserve in the 2nd Guard Lancers , from 1917 as MG-officer of the MG - Company of Infantry Regiment 408 and. since 1918 as a machine-gun officer with the staff of the 1st Guard Regiment on foot .

Career history

After the Great State Forest Examination, he became a forest assessor, first he was head of the government's timber trade department in Stralsund and finally went to East Prussia . There he was the administrator of the Count's Dönhoff forests in Friedrichstein near Königsberg until he succeeded Count Albrecht Friedrich von der Schulenburg-Lieberose in the forestry department of the Brandenburg Chamber of Agriculture , from where he became. In 1930 moved to the forestry department in the Prussian Chamber of Agriculture. In 1932, Plettenberg sold the last land of the former Stockum manor , with which the family had been enfeoffed on April 16, 1494. The money was invested in a silver fox farm in East Prussia, which soon went bankrupt. Since 1934 budget officer in the Reich Ministry of Food and Agriculture , General Forester Walter von Keudell appointed him to the Reich Forestry Office in the same year, where Plettenberg was appointed Landforstmeister on October 2, 1934 and later Oberlandforstmeister . When Keudell was replaced as head of the Reich Forestry Office in 1937, Reichsforstmeister Hermann Göring is said to have tried to win Plettenberg as his successor. However, he left with Keudell at his own request, because his political views contradicted those of National Socialism and he knew the goals of the Nazi regime. On November 1, 1937, Plettenberg accepted an offer from Wolrad zu Schaumburg-Lippe to return to his place of birth in Bückeburg as President of the Court Chamber and General Manager of the Total Asset Management of the former Princely House of Schaumburg-Lippe .

In 1939, Plettenberg was drafted as a reserve officer to the 9th Potsdam Infantry Regiment , which belonged to the 23rd Infantry Division , and as a major of the reserve battalion commander of the associated reserve regiment with deployments in Poland, France and the Soviet Union. At the end of 1941 he was given leave of absence to take over the position of head of the general administration of the formerly ruling Prussian royal family, while maintaining his previous position as President of the Court Chamber in Bückeburg. His official seat was the Dutch Palace in Berlin. He thus represented two of the largest agricultural and forestry companies in Germany; 30 farms, 14 forest offices and a few sawmills were subject to his supervision. There were also interests in large industrial companies and extensive home ownership. Plettenberg saved the Prussian royal crown and 15 tobacco boxes from Frederick the Great from looting and destruction by walling them up in the Evangelical Church in Kleinenbremen near Bückeburg.

Resistance to Hitler and suicide

As early as 1942, an opposition group and forest resistance center was formed around Plettenberg. Out of consideration for the Hohenzollern family , however, he stayed in the background. As a close member of the circle of conspirators of July 20, 1944 around Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg , Ludwig Beck , Ulrich von Hassell , Johannes Popitz , Carl-Hans Graf von Hardenberg and Fabian von Schlabrendorff , Plettenberg was involved in the preparations for the coup. After the failure of the assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler , Plettenberg was arrested in Cecilienhof at the beginning of March 1945 and taken to the Gestapo's house prison at Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse 8 in Berlin . There, on March 10, 1945, on the way to interrogation, he struck down his guards and threw himself out of the window to his death so as not to have to torture him to reveal the as yet unrecognized co-conspirators.

Kurt von Plettenberg left behind his wife and three children. He was buried in the Bornstedter Friedhof in Potsdam. The grave is preserved.

Commemoration

In memory of him, streets in Hamburg-Bergedorf , Hanover-Wettbergen , Potsdam , Bückeburg , Plettenberg and Frechen-Bachem are named after him. At Schloss Cecilienhof and Schloss Neuhardenberg , as well as at the Hofapotheke Bückeburg (the former family home), he is commemorated with exhibition boards and commemorative plaques. His close friend Marion Countess Dönhoff wrote in 1985 in her "Memories of Kurt Freiherr von Plettenberg":

“Plettenberg made a deep impression on me in those years. I certainly believe that - quite unconsciously for me - some of the standards were formed that then became decisive for my thinking and judging in life. [...] I have hardly known anyone else who was so filled with inner serenity. "

- Marion Countess Dönhoff : Memories of Kurt Freiherr von Plettenberg

She had his name carved into an abstract sculpture by Alexander Liberman at Crottorf Castle in memory of him and five other friends from the resistance.

Awards

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Kurt von Plettenberg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Short biography of the German Resistance Memorial Center
  2. ↑ Friedrich Schulte-Kramer: The manor Stockum Sunderner Heimatblätter 18: 12-14.
  3. ↑ Friedrich Schulte-Kramer: The manor Stockum Sunderner Heimatblätter 18:14.
  4. ↑ Klaus D. Patzwall , Veit Scherzer : The German Cross 1941-1945. History and owner. Volume II. Verlag Klaus D. Patzwall, Norderstedt 2001, ISBN 3-931533-45-X , p. 354.
personal data
SURNAME Plettenberg, Kurt von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Plettenberg, Kurt Freiherr von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German forester, officer and resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH January 31, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Buckeburg
DATE OF DEATH March 10, 1945
Place of death Berlin