Solf Circle
The Solf Circle (German: Solf-Kreis) was an informal gathering of German intellectuals involved in the resistance against Nazi Germany. Most members were arrested and executed after attending a tea party in Berlin on 10 September 1943 at the residence of Elisabeth von Thadden. The group's downfall also ultimately led to the demise of the Abwehr in February 1944.[1]
Background
The tea party and betrayal of the Solf Circle
On 10 September 1943 the Solf Circle met at a birthday party given by
- Otto Kiep, a high official from the Foreign Office, who was once dismissed from his position as Consul General in New York City for attending a public luncheon in honor of Albert Einstein, but was able to get himself reinstated in the diplomatic service;
- the Countess Hannah von Bredow, the granddaughter of Otto von Bismarck;
- Count Albrecht von Bernstorff,[2] the nephew of Count Johann Heinrich von Bernstorff, the German ambassador to the United States during World War I;
- Father Jesuitpriest;
- Nikolaus von Halem, a merchant; hanged for conspiracy to kill Hitler;
- Legation adviser Richard Kuenzer;
- State Secretary Arthur Zarden and his daughter Irmgard.
The following paragraphs are paraphrased from William Shirer's, "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich":
To the party, Thadden brought a handsome Swiss doctor named Paul Reckzeh,[3] who was said to be practising at the Charité Hospital in Berlin under Professor Ferdinand Sauerbruch. Like most Swiss, he expressed anti-Nazi sentiments in a discussion joined by others present, most vocal of which were Kiep and Bernstorff. Before the end of the party, Reckzeh offered to convey the correspondence of those present to their friends in Switzerland, an offer which many accepted. However, Reckzeh was actually an agent or informer working for the Gestapo, and he turned over these letters and reported on the gathering. Moreover Reckzeh was not in fact Swiss, but a German born in Berlin, and had only been sent by his spymasters to neutral Switzerland the previous year to gather intelligence on the various resistance networks active in Germany.
The defection of Erich Vermehren and the dissolution of the Abwehr
Among Kiep's close friends were
When Kiep was arrested, the Vermehrens were summoned to Berlin by the Gestapo to be interrogated in connection with their friend's case. Knowing what would be in store for them, they got in touch with the British
When the news of the defection broke – courtesy of British
Ultimately the capture of the Solf Circle and the subsequent defection of Vemehren exposed how the presence of Resistance agents and Allied spies had infiltrated within the Abwehr inner circle. This proved to be the last straw for
While the demise of the Abwehr was an unexpected but welcome boon to the Allies, it also deprived the German armed forces of an intelligence service of its own, and was a further blow to those among the anti-Nazi conspirators against Hitler who had also used the Abwehr's resources.
The fate of some members of the Solf Circle
Most members of the Solf Circle were tried and convicted in
Bernstorff was confined to Ravensbrück together with Solf and repeatedly tortured. He was then sent to the prison in Prinz Albrecht Straße to stand trial in the Volksgerichtshof. However, Roland Freisler did not have the satisfaction of sentencing him because he was killed in an air raid on 3 February 1945. When the Red Army liberated the prison on 25 April he was not among the living. Together with Richard Kuenzer, Bernstorff was taken out of the prison two days before to the vicinity of the Lehrter Bahnhof, and presumably shot upon the orders of Joachim von Ribbentrop, the Nazi Foreign Minister.[4]
Nikolaus von Halem was arrested on 26 February 1942 and suffered through a number of prisons and concentration camps, including Sachsenhausen. In June 1944, shortly before the 20 July 1944 coup attempt, the People's Court indicted Halem for conspiracy to commit treason and undermining the war effort. He was sentenced to death and hanged on 9 October 1944.[5]
The fate of the Solfs
Solf and her daughter So'oa'emalelagi were interned in Ravensbrück after their arrest. In December 1944 they were transferred to Moabit Remand Prison while awaiting their trial in the Volksgerichtshof. The considerable delay in their trial was at least in part due to the efforts of the Japanese ambassador, Hiroshi Ōshima, who knew the Solfs. Their trial was further delayed because the same air raid that killed Freisler on 3 February 1945 also destroyed the dossier on the Solfs, which was in the files of the Volksgerichtshof.[6] Nevertheless, they were finally scheduled to be tried on 27 April but they were released from Moabit on 23 April, apparently because of an error brought about by the confusion caused by the entry of the Red Army into Berlin.
After the war, Solf went to England while her daughter was reunited with her husband, Count Hubert Ballestrem, who was an officer in the Wehrmacht and lived in Berlin. Solf died on 4 November 1954 in Starnberg, Bavaria.
Countess von Ballestrem died on 4 December 1955 at the age of 46, her early death attributable to her incarceration.
See also
Notes
- ISBN 9780446669085.
- Rhodes Scholar Albrecht von Bernstorff, see Donald Markwell, "Instincts to Lead": On Leadership, Peace, and Education, Connor Court, Australia, 2013
- ^ see german Wikipedia de:Paul Reckzeh
- ^ Kurt Singer, Hitlers Weltkrieg 1939-1945, Die Dänische Friedens Akademie. (In German). Retrieved 2010-03-20.
- ^ "Planung eines Attentates durch die Widerstandsgruppe um Beppo Römer, Paul Joseph Stuermer und Nikolaus von Halem". Bernard-stein.de. Retrieved 2013-02-10.[permanent dead link]
- ^ The reference to Oshima's intervention is in William L. Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. However, according to Eugen Solf, a grandson of Dr. Wilhelm and Hanna Solf who is doing research of his family during the Nazi Period:
- "I think the Japanese Government did not intervene, and if it did, the Nazis, or better the Foreign Ministry, did most certainly not react to that request. On 7 July 1944 the attorney Dr Kurt Behling wrote to another attorney about these fruitless attempts. (source: estate of Dr Behling, National Archives, Koblenz, Germany).
- On 18 July the Ministry of Justice issued a "Führerinformation" (an information by the "Führer") describing the court case of 1 July, and the fact that the case against Johanna Solf was separated from the other cases because new evidence was found against her. According to the state attorney, the death sentence for Solf had been seriously considered (Führerinformation, RJustMin 1944, Nr 144).
- On 24 July Behling wrote a note after a discussion with someone at the Ministry of Justice who said 'the case against Solf is absolutely serious and the death sentence will be seriously considered' (Behling estate, National Archives). By that time the 20 July Plot(Stauffenberg) must have played a serious role in these considerations.
- It is therefore more than uncertain that the Japanese Government's possible interventions bore any fruit.
- It is by no means certain that the Solf dossier was destroyed when Freisler was killed on 3 February 1945."
- http://wais.stanford.edu/Germany/germany_resistance.htm