Ludwig von Hammerstein-Equord

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Ludwig Maximilian Freiherr von Hammerstein-Equord (born November 17, 1919 in Berlin ; † February 26, 1996 there ) was a German officer (first lieutenant ), journalist and broadcast director . In 1944 he took part in the coup d'état against Adolf Hitler .

family

Ludwig von Hammerstein-Equord was one of seven children of Colonel General and Hitler's opponent Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord (1878-1943; called "Red General") and his wife Maria (1886-1970), daughter of General Walther von Lüttwitz .

Like his brother Kunrat, he embarked on an officer career after graduating from high school and Reich Labor Service as well as an internship in the Ruhr area . In January 1940, he joined the Infantry Replacement Battalion 9 in Potsdam , the replacement unit of the 9th Infantry Regiment . He then became a member of the 178 Infantry Regiment and took part in the Russian campaign. In 1941 he attended a course at the war school in Berlin and was then promoted to lieutenant . After being seriously injured in the war in December 1941, he was transferred to the Führer Reserve . In December 1941, he was given a leave of absence to study mining at the Technical University of Berlin .

Fritz-Dietlof Graf von der Schulenburg , a reserve officer also belonging to the 9th Potsdam Infantry Regiment, asked him at a casino evening of the replacement battalion whether he wanted to take part in an action against Hitler. He took an active part in the attempted coup on July 20, 1944 , where he guarded General Joachim von Kortzfleisch and was able to evade arrest, armed with forged papers by Oskar Huth . He lived underground until the end of the war.

Ludwig von Hammerstein, last lieutenant , and his family, especially his sister Maria Therese and his brother Kunrat, had close personal relationships with the resistance of July 20, 1944, especially with Carl Friedrich Goerdeler , Philipp von Boeselager , and Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin , Axel von dem Bussche , Fabian von Schlabrendorff as well as to the families of Lynar , von Hardenberg , von Hassell, von Falkenhausen and others. Ludwig and his brother were Kunrat as deserters Wehrmacht sought.

At the end of 1944, his mother Maria von Hammerstein and other family members were arrested for their ties to the resistance. Together with family members of the conspirators, they were taken to a shielded special camp of the Buchenwald concentration camp on July 20, and later to a Regensburg prison.

After the war, von Hammerstein worked as a journalist, initially as a correspondent and editor for the daily newspaper Die Welt . From 1950 to 1960 he was press officer in the Bonn Federal Ministry for all-German issues . From 1961 to 1973 he was deputy director of the NDR . In 1974 he was appointed director of the RIAS and in 1979 he was re-elected for a second term. On June 1, 1984, he retired.

Von Hammerstein died in Berlin in 1996 at the age of 76.

literature

  • Ludwig Freiherr von Hammerstein-Equord , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 20/1996 of May 6, 1996, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of the article freely available)
  • Bruno Jahn (edit.): The German-language press. A biographical-bibliographical handbook . Volume 1: A-L . Saur, Munich 2011, ISBN 3-598-11710-8 , p. 403.
  • Ines Reich: Potsdam and July 20, 1944. On the trail of the resistance against National Socialism. Accompanying document to the exhibition of the Military History Research Office and the Potsdam Museum . Rombach, Freiburg im Breisgau 1994, ISBN 3-7930-0697-2 , p. 73 ff.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "Birthday of Kurt Freiherr von Hammerstein-Equord" , WDR, September 26, 2003.
  2. ↑ Our future depends on us not trying the future in ignorance of the past. ( Memento of September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 75 kB) Lecture by Ludwig Freiherr von Hammerstein on July 18, 1993 in the Bornstedt Church, Potsdam.
  3. ↑ A German journey through life. In: Die Welt , 15. June 2001.
  4. ^ "Action Reconciliation for Peace Services: Franz von Hammerstein" ( Memento from February 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), Diakonie, January 16, 2006.
  5. ^ "Action Reconciliation for Peace Services: Franz von Hammerstein" ( Memento from February 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), Diakonie, January 16, 2006.
  6. ↑ Former director of the RIAS died in Berlin. Nekrolog in the Berliner Zeitung , February 28, 1996.
personal data
SURNAME Hammerstein-Equord, Ludwig von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hammerstein-Equord, Ludwig Maximilian Freiherr von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer, journalist and general manager, involved in the coup d'état against Adolf Hitler in 1944
DATE OF BIRTH November 17, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH February 26, 1996
Place of death Berlin