Max Ulrich Count von Drechsel

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Max Ulrich Graf von Drechsel (born October 3, 1911 in Karlstein ; † September 4, 1944 in Berlin-Plötzensee ) was a German professional officer and resistance fighter from July 20, 1944 .

Life

Max Ulrich Graf von Drechsel grew up with four siblings at Karlstein Castle near Regensburg. He attended the Benedictine high school in Metten and after a student prank switched to the Benedictine high school near St. Stephan in Augsburg . After graduation in 1930 he studied in Munich , Paris , Innsbruck and Erlangen law . In Munich he became a member of the Rheno-Bavaria , a Catholic student association in the KV . After his first legal exam in Erlangen in 1933, he was a trainee lawyer at the Regenstauf District Court. Due to the increasing influence of the National Socialists on the judiciary, he retired from his legal career in order, as he stated, "to be able to distance himself from the political processes". He therefore joined the Reichswehr as an officer candidate in 1934 (from which the Wehrmacht emerged in 1935 ).

After the German troops marched into France ( western campaign ) he wrote in 1940: “Damage that we (Germans and French) weaken each other again and again through wars. One could imagine, if it were finally possible to bring the white peoples into a front, that the forces that are uselessly dissipated can be used much more profitably. "

In the Second World War he was used, among other things, in the German Africa Corps . After a serious wound in 1941, he was transferred to Munich to military district VII, where his childhood friend Major Ludwig Freiherr von Leonrod also worked. When he was posted to Berlin, Drechsel took on the rank of captain as the liaison officer of the resistance group for the military district. After the failed assassination attempt on 20 July 1944 was Drechsel, who had been on his parents' castle on vacation until August 6, in the mid of the month arrested as "accomplices of the rebellion" and through the space formed on Aug. 2, 1944 Court of Honor of Dishonorable expulsion from the Wehrmacht, so that the Reich Court Martial was no longer responsible for the judgment. On September 4, 1944, Drechsel was sentenced to death by the People's Court under its President Roland Freisler and hanged on the same day in Plötzensee . His body was burned and the ashes were scattered on the meadows of the Berlin sewage disposal system.

Drechsel preserved his deep Catholic faith until the end of his life. The two farewell letters to his parents are particularly evidence of this:

“Tomorrow my trial will take place; I look forward to death calmly and calmly. It was a great grace for me to have this long preparation time of three weeks, during which I experienced a lot of comfort, strengthening and enlightenment in prayer. The good Lord has often helped me wonderfully. I have come much closer to him, and he has especially given me the grace to learn to love him right from the heart. (September 3, 1944) "

and:

“You should talk happily with people and with my friends, then I will gladly, spiritually, be with you, whom I was always happy in life. (September 4, 1944) "

Memorial stone for Max Ulrich Graf von Drechsel in front of Karlstein Castle near Regensburg

Commemoration

  • Since the 2006/2007 school year, the state secondary school in Regenstauf has been called Max-Ulrich-von-Drechsel secondary school in Regenstauf. In addition, Max-Graf-von-Drechsel-Strasse and a memorial stone in his home town of Karlstein commemorate the resistance fighter.
  • In 1999, the Catholic Church accepted Max Ulrich Graf von Drechsel as a witness of faith in the German martyrology of the 20th century .

See also

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Drechsel, Max Ulrich Graf von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German professional officer and resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH October 3, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Karlstein
DATE OF DEATH September 4, 1944
Place of death Berlin-Plötzensee