Randolph von Breidbach-Bürresheim

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Randolph Freiherr von Breidbach-Bürresheim (born August 10, 1912 in Bonn ; † June 13, 1945 in Sachsenhausen concentration camp ) was a lawyer , reserve officer and was part of the German resistance group from July 20, 1944 .

Life

Randolph von Breidbach-Bürresheim was born in Bonn in 1912 as the son of Rittmeister Hubert Freiherr von Breidbach-Bürresheim , chief of an squadron of the King's Hussar Regiment No. 7 , and his wife Maria-Anna, née Countess Wolff-Metternich . First he lived at Satzvey Castle in the Eifel , which belonged to his grandparents Wolff-Metternich, and because of the First World War, from April 1918 on the Fronberg family estate in Schwandorf . From 1922 he attended high school in Kloster Metten and then the Maximiliansgymnasium in Munich , where he passed his Abitur in 1931.

He then studied at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich Law and graduated in 1936 with the First State Examination and in May 1938 with the doctorate at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen from. In January 1941 he was able to take his second state examination. During his studies he was a member of the SA riding troop in Munich from November 1933 in order to avoid being integrated into the National Socialist German Student Union .

After receiving his doctorate ("The Liability of the Binnenschiffers") in 1938, Randolph von Breidbach-Bürresheim worked for the Josef Müller law firm , which defended numerous opponents of the Nazis in court. Especially Josef Müller himself and his environment in the Foreign Office / Defense of the High Command of the Wehrmacht , such as Vice Admiral Wilhelm Canaris , Hans von Dohnanyi and Major General Hans Oster , had a great influence on Breidbach-Bürresheim during this time.

Memorial / Petrus Chapel in Fronberg

In the mid-1930s, Breidbach did military service in the traditional Bavarian Cavalry Regiment No. 17 in Bamberg and completed training as a reserve officer . In November 1939 he was first lieutenant in the Wehrmacht in the Abwehrstelle Munich, then took part in the western campaign in the spring of 1940 and finally from 1941 in the war against the Soviet Union from 1941–1945 . There he fell ill with jaundice in 1942/43 . Breidbach served in the Grenadier Replacement and Training Battalion 55. Above all, the experiences in the Russian campaign finally moved him to write down the crimes of the Wehrmacht in this war as reports (so-called Breidbach reports) and send them to his office. After the arrest of Hans von Dohnanyi, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Josef Müller on April 5, 1943, the Gestapo investigated their environment in the Foreign / Defense Office. This led to the discovery of his reports and his arrest in May 1943 for violating the treachery law . Despite an acquittal in March 1944, the Reich Security Main Office kept him in custody.

Thereupon his mother became active in the spring of 1944 and asked Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg , who, like Breidbach-Bürresheim, had served in Bamberg's Regiment No. 17, for help for her son. In an interview, Stauffenberg held out the prospect of a "positive outcome that will soon take place". After the failed assassination attempt on Hitler on July 20, 1944 , Randolph von Breidbach-Bürresheim was brought into connection with the perpetrators and transferred to the Gestapo prison in Berlin-Moabit to force confessions, but this failed. Shortly before the end of the war he was probably in February 1945, because of the advance of the Allies , in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp laid. After the liberation of the concentration camp on April 22, 1945, Randolph von Breidbach-Bürresheim died in the camp on June 13, 1945 due to advanced tuberculosis .

Appreciation

  • The Catholic Church accepted Randolph Freiherr von Breidbach-Bürresheim as a witness of faith in the German martyrology of the 20th century .
  • His family converted the Petrus Chapel in the Fronberg district into a memorial in the 1950s. The city of Schwandorf renamed the adjacent street Randolf-von-Breidbach-Straße.

literature

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personal data
SURNAME Breidbach-Bürresheim, Randolph von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Breidbach-Bürresheim, Randolph Freiherr von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer and resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH August 10, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Bonn
DATE OF DEATH June 13, 1945
Place of death Sachsenhausen concentration camp