Hermann Kaiser (resistance fighter)

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Hermann Kaiser (* 31 May 1885 in Remscheid , † 23. January 1945 in Berlin-Plötzensee ) was a German teacher , officer and participant of the assassination on 20 July 1944 .

Life

1885 to 1939

Hermann Kaiser was born as the son of the educator Ludwig Kaiser into a strictly Protestant family in Remscheid; the family moved to Wiesbaden in 1886. His father made a career in school: he was the director of the Wiesbaden Orange School and in 1901 became a provincial school councilor in Kassel. After graduating from high school, Hermann Kaiser studied mathematics and physics at the University of Halle and later at the University of Göttingen with a minor in history and art history. In 1903 he became a member of the fraternity Alemannia auf dem Pflug zu Halle (today fraternity of the Pflüger Halle zu Münster ). His brothers Heinrich Alfred Kaiser and Ludwig Kaiser were also members of July 20, 1944.

In 1912 he became a teacher at the Wiesbaden Orange School. With the onset of World War I in 1914 moved emperor as an officer cadet with the Field Artillery Regiment "Orange" (1 Nassauisches) no. 27 on the Western Front , and later to the Russian and Romanian front . Here he was regimental adjutant and orderly officer on the staff of an artillery brigade. Emperor was awarded both classes of the Iron Cross and the Austrian Military Merit Cross III. Class awarded with swords and war decorations.

After returning to the war in 1918, he returned to Wiesbaden as an apprentice. Although a devout Christian, he became a member of the NSDAP in the 1930s, but increasingly turned away from the party. In particular, he rejects the violent National Socialist church struggle. In 1934 a memorial for the 1st Nassau Field Artillery Regiment No. 27 was erected in Wiesbaden on Kaiser's initiative. Kaiser refused to include the name " Adolf Hitler " in the monument document and did not shy away from conflict with the Gauleiter of Hessen-Nassau. A little later his application for a lectureship in art history in Marburg failed due to the party's objection.

1939 to 1945

In 1939 Kaiser was drafted into military service as first lieutenant in the reserve and regimental adjutant in the 6th Cavalry Regiment in Darmstadt; In 1940 he was transferred to the Army High Command in the Berlin Bendler Block. He took over as captain of the chief of armaments and staff of the commander of the reserve army , Colonel General Fromm , a comrade from the First World War, the keeping of the war diary (KTB) .

In 1941 he met Colonel General Beck and the politician Goerdeler as a staff officer , both organized in the resistance , later also Major General von Tresckow , Lieutenant von Schlabrendorff , General von Stülpnagel and many other opponents of the regime. After the overthrow, Kaiser was designated as State Secretary in the Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs in a new government, after repeatedly rejecting the position of Minister.

In 1943 he was denounced by a comrade from the First World War because of his statements about Hitler ; a preliminary investigation has been initiated. The chief judge of the Army Sack , a confidante of Colonel Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg and General Olbricht , acquitted him with the support of General Fromm and the Wehrmacht commander of Berlin, General von Hase .

Kaiser was fully involved in the Valkyrie des Heeres company and thus assumed the role of one of the most important organizers of the planned assassination attempt on Hitler. On the day of the coup in his hometown of Wiesbaden, the staff officer Kaiser was supposed to be a liaison officer between the military and civilian resistance forces in military district XII.

One day after the failed attempt on July 20, 1944 , he and his brothers Heinrich and Ludwig were arrested at a family festival in Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe. While Heinrich and Ludwig were initially taken to the Kassel-Wehlheiden prison, Hermann was taken directly to the Reich Security Main Office in Berlin via Wiesbaden, where a house search was taking place . Some of his private diaries were confiscated by the Gestapo, two parts from 1941 and 1943 were saved from the war. These were published in November 2010 as a source edition by his godchild and nephew.

Hermann Kaiser was sentenced to death by the People's Court on January 17, 1945 . Freisler wrote in his reasoning for the judgment:

“If there can be any increase in meanness among the traitors of July 20th, then one of the meanest is Hermann Kaiser. He swore an oath to our Führer three times: as a civil servant, as a party member and as an officer. He shamefully broke this oath [...] He is an accomplice of the traitors Count von Stauffenberg and Goerdeler. "

“His betrayal is much more mean than the act of terror that gave rise to the National Socialist Reich at the time to provide for the execution of the death penalty by hanging for cases of particularly mean crimes than the terror act of the Reichstag fire. This man must be wiped out of our midst once and for all for the sake of cleanliness, for the sake of our honor. He made himself dishonorable forever. "

Hermann Kaiser was on 23 January 1945 in Plötzensee , together with Franz Sperr , Ludwig Schwamb , Helmuth James Graf von Moltke , Busso Thoma , Nikolaus Gross , Erwin Planck , Theodor Haubach , Reinhold Frank and Eugen Bolz by the train executed.

While still in custody, he wrote in autumn 1944 that his "henchmen allowed him to have the New Testament, which I have had since my youth and which I carried with me during the two wars, and the old Nassau catechism [...] in his cell."

Fabian von Schlabrendorff , one of the last to see him in custody, writes: “Hermann Kaiser was ready to draw the conclusions from his attitude. He went to his death with unshakable calm and inner firmness. "

Commemoration

Wiesbaden

Memorial of the 1st Nassau Artillery Regiment No. 27
Plaque

In the 1980s, a memorial plaque was attached to the monument of the 1st Nassau Artillery Regiment No. 27 on Luisenplatz in Wiesbaden . The city council of Wiesbaden agreed on the following text on August 16, 1988:

“Hermann Kaiser, born on May 31, 1885, member of the regiment from 1914 to 1918, unveiled this memorial on October 21, 1934. He was executed on January 23, 1945 as an active member of the July 20, 1944 resistance movement. His path in life is a warning against war and inhumanity. "

This version suppresses the fact that Hermann Kaiser was initially a staunch National Socialist and only later became an active member of the resistance movement of July 20, 1944. An earlier draft of the local advisory board of the Wiesbaden I Mitte district brings this to light better:

“Hermann Kaiser, born on May 31, 1885, member of the regiment from 1914 to 1918, unveiled this memorial on October 21, 1934. The initially convinced National Socialist became an active member of the resistance movement of July 20, 1944. Executed January 1945. His path in life is a warning against war and inhumanity. "

- Resolution of the local council of the district of Wiesbaden I Mitte on January 22, 1987

Further memorial plaques are located in the staircase of the main building of the Orange School and, since May 2012, next to the main entrance of the school. The latter plaque was donated by a former student, the entrepreneur Friedbert Nik Kornbusch.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Oranienschule Wiesbaden, commemorative publication 150 years of the Orange School. 2007, p. 47.
  2. ^ Van Roon: Hermann Kaiser and the German resistance. In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte . 24th year 1976, p. 263 ( PDF )
  3. ^ Fabian von Schlabrendorff : Encounters in five decades . Wunderlich, Tübingen 1979, ISBN 3-8052-0323-3 , p. 289 f .
  4. ↑ Peter M. Kaiser (ed.): Courage to confess. The secret diaries of Captain Hermann Kaiser 1941/1943. Lukas Verlag , Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86732-072-6 .
  5. ^ Oranienschule Wiesbaden, commemorative publication 150 years of the Orange School. 2007, p. 47.
personal data
SURNAME Kaiser, Hermann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Arco Arminius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German teachers and resistance fighters
DATE OF BIRTH May 31, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Remscheid
DATE OF DEATH January 23, 1945
Place of death Berlin