Nikolaus Christoph von Halem

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Nikolaus Christoph von Halem (born March 15, 1905 in Schwetz an der Weichsel ; † October 9, 1944 in Brandenburg an der Havel ) was a German lawyer , businessman and resistance fighter against National Socialism .

Live and act

Memorial plaque in the Halemweg subway station in Berlin-Charlottenburg

Nikolaus Christoph von Halem came from an old noble family in Oldenburg. One of his ancestors was the writer Gerhard Anton von Halem . His parents were Gustav Adolf von Halem (1870–1932), court marshal to the last Prince of Schwarzburg, Günther Victor , and Hertha von Halem, née von Tiedemann (1879–1957).

As a child, Halem was first taught at home, later he attended a grammar school in Schwetz and - after his parents moved to Berlin - the Evangelical monastery school in Roßleben . After graduating from high school in March 1922, he studied law at the universities of Göttingen , Leipzig , Munich and Heidelberg . During this time he was a member of the Corps Saxo-Borussia Heidelberg , from which he was expelled on account of the accusation of causing nuisance in public by being drunk. Since 1931 Halem worked as a clerk at the Eckartsberga District Court and the Naumburg Higher Regional Court . In the same year he married and the marriage resulted in two sons.

Politically, the young Halem the nationalist right was close: On November 9, 1923, he participated as part of the Hitler coup of the Nazis at the march on Munich Feldherrnhalle . Von Halem also maintained close contacts with the “ Black Reichswehr ”. In later years Halem kept a firm distance from the National Socialists. From around 1930 he played a leading role in the Catholic-Conservative group that ranged around the Berlin private scholar Carl von Jordans and had set itself the goal of keeping the National Socialist movement out of power. Through this group and through the joint legal training, Halem was in close contact with Wilhelm Freiherr von Ketteler , Karl von Winkler and Hubert von Ballestrem .

A few months after Adolf Hitler was appointed Reich Chancellor and the National Socialists "seized power " in the spring of 1933, Halem broke off his legal clerkship in the summer of 1933 in order to "not have to take the oath on Hitler." Under the influence of Ernst Niekisch and his mentor von Jordans, Halem came to the conclusion as early as 1935 that the killing of Hitler was a political necessity in order to avert a catastrophic political development.

From 1936 Halem worked as a press officer for the Reich Commissioner for Pricing . In the years before 1938 Halem worked as the Berlin liaison man of his friend Wilhelm von Ketteler against the efforts of the Nazi leadership to incorporate the Republic of Austria into the German Reich . Evidence suggests that Halem was privy to Ketteler's plans to assassinate Hitler in the event of a German annexation of Austria. According to his brother, Halem stayed in Czechoslovakia for a few days in March 1938 in order to be safe from the Gestapo in the event of a successful assassination attempt .

In 1940 Halem took over a leading position in the Graf-Ballestremschen goods administration - probably through the mediation of his friend Hubert von Ballestrem. This activity served him mainly as a facade to camouflage his plans for a new assassination attempt and the political overthrow. He used business trips abroad to establish contacts with political circles critical of the Nazis in England and elsewhere.

Assassination plans and process

Halem was introduced to Josef Römer by Herbert Mumm von Schwarzenstein . At the end of 1939 he revealed himself to him as a bitter opponent of the National Socialists, that the war against England was "pure madness", that the war had to be ended and the National Socialist leadership removed. Germany would be dissolved into ten or twelve principalities and Otto von Habsburg would be elevated to the throne as emperor. Halem offered Josef Römer money to find an assassin who could eliminate Hitler. In 1941 Halem broke off contact with Römer, who had merely put him off. After the co-conspirator Josef Römer was arrested and under torture revealed the name of Halem (and Mumm von Schwarzenstein), Halem was arrested on February 26, 1942. He then went through several prisons and concentration camps , including Sachsenhausen . It was not until June 1944, shortly before the attempted coup on July 20, that charges were brought against Halem at the People's Court . Halem was for conspiracy to commit high treason and sedition sentenced to death on 9 October at the Brandenburg prison by the guillotine executed.

family

Nikolaus had been married to Marie (Mariechen) Garbe since 1931. The couple had two children: Friedrich (* April 9, 1933; † March 8, 2003) and Wilhelm (* February 20, 1941). The politician Marie Luise von Halem is his granddaughter.

memory

The Halemweg was named near the Plötzensee execution site and the Halemweg underground station was named after it. A memorial plaque in honor of Halem was erected here in September 2010. In Brandenburg also a street named after him.

literature

Web links

Commons : Nikolaus Christoph von Halem  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Klaus von Groeben: Nikolaus Christoph von Halem , p. 17.
  2. ↑ Klaus von Groeben: Nikolaus Christoph von Halem ... , p. 18.
  3. ↑ Correspondence between Gottfried von Nostitz and Halem's brother from 1945/1946.
  4. ↑ Information according to the indictment for the People's Court, printed by Klaus von Groeben: Nikolaus Christoph von Halem ...
  5. ↑ Klaus von Groeben: Nikolaus Christoph von Halem ... , p. 62.
  6. ↑ Halemweg. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
personal data
SURNAME Halem, Nikolaus Christoph von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German resistance fighters, opponents and victims of National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH March 15, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Schwetz on the Vistula
DATE OF DEATH October 9, 1944
Place of death Brandenburg on the Havel