Misplaced Pages

#576423

113-782: Herbert Enke Wilhelm Engelsing (born 2 September 1904 in Overath , died 10 February 1962 in Konstanz ) was a right-wing German Catholic lawyer in Berlin and resistance fighter against the Nazi regime. When the Nazi regime began, Engelsing found himself unable to work in law. Instead he found work in the German film industry, becoming a very successful film producer with Tobis Film . In 1938, Engelsing and his wife Ingeborg became close friends with Libertas and Harro Schulze-Boysen who were part of

226-526: A German patriot he wished to create a "counterpublic" to the Nazis and his resistance would work needed to continue. In April 1941, in an attempt to increase the influx of intelligence, the Soviets ordered Korotkov to create a Berlin espionage operation and Harnack was asked by Korotkov to run it. Korotkov was instructed by Soviet intelligence to provide a person in Berlin that could be contacted via radio in

339-501: A dozen times. In the course of their furtive conversations, Libertas told Breiter what she knew of the other prisoners, asked Breiter to deliver letters to her mother and asked for additional favours, primarily in the form of a typewriter to write poetry. In the three months Libertas was in prison, she wrote a number of remarkable letters and poems to her mother and friends. When the Gestapo informed her of Breiter's betrayal, Libertas

452-486: A farming unit in occupied Poland . In 1935, he became a lawyer at the Tobis Film company, after the Nazis took over the courts. When Tobis was purged by the Nazis he was offered a position in 1937 as a director of production groups (Herstellungs-Gruppenleiter) that involved retraining. Engelsing retained the right to practice as a lawyer, by joining the firm of Carl Langbehn , a well known and prominent law firm. He

565-827: A girls' finishing school in Zurich, followed by a 9-month stay in Ireland and the United Kingdom. After returning in January 1933, Schulze-Boysen attended a Nazi torchlight procession that marched past the Reich Chancellery . Though not totally understanding the new and powerful German Youth Movement , she was impressed enough with them to join the Nazi Party with member number 1 551 344, in March 1933, and at

678-521: A group to commit an arson attack on the exhibition. While the arson attack was not reported, 500 Berlin based Jewish men were rounded up and deported to concenctration camps in a reprisal. When she returned from Vienna, she discovered Harro in flagrante with the actor Stella Mahlberg with whom he had been having an affair since April 1941. She immediately demanded a divorce stating she would seek legal advice from Herbert Engelsing but Harro convinced her to stay, informing her that they knew too much about

791-722: A meeting with the Wien-Film film company. While she was away, the group protested the Nazi propaganda exhibition called The Soviet Paradise (German original title "Das Sowjet-Paradies") in Lustgarten , that had the express purpose of justifying the invasion of the Soviet Union to the German people. The protest took the form of small stickers with a message Permanent Exhibition, The Nazi Paradise, War, Hunger, Lies, Gestapo, How much longer? that were pasted up in several German neighbourhoods. On 18 May 1942, Herbert Baum led

904-644: A neighbour and they became friends. Her husband was John Graudenz . Schulze-Boysen introduced both Krauss and Graudenz into the resistance group. In April 1939, the couple moved into their new apartment at Altenburger Allee 19 in Charlottenburg , now the Westend . In the summer of 1939, Schulze-Boysen visited the town of Nidden on the Curonian Spit . While there, she photographed a ship laden with Jewish passengers desperate to reach Latvia . She

1017-465: A party, held by a mutual friend. From that point forward they became good friends and began to meet frequently. Ingeborg became particularly close friends with Libertas, who confided in her about her slightly scandalous past; about her mother running away with her art tutor and her parents divorcing. Ingeborg was largely kept in the dark about the groups resistance activities, as being both a young mother and Jewish made her particularly vulnerable. In 1939,

1130-591: A plan, that took advantage of Harro's position at the ministry was formed. In February 1937, Harro compiled a short information document about a sabotage enterprise planned in Barcelona by the German Wehrmacht . The information was from "Special Staff W", an organisation established by Luftwaffe general Helmuth Wilberg to study and analyse the tactical lessons learned by the Legion Kondor during

1243-478: A play Die guten Feinde ( The Good Enemies ) about the German physician Robert Koch and his competition with Max Pettenkofer and their search for the causes of tuberculosis . In July 1938, von Pöllnitz was released from prison and was seriously ill with a tuberculosis infection. Libertas and Elfriede Paul began caring for her cousin, ensuring she was able to attend a sanatorium first in Sommerfeld in

SECTION 10

#1732793603577

1356-409: A religious foundation for their children. Despite her upbringing, Libertas never became overtly religious, although many of her early poems and later letters show Christian roots. Her sister was Countess Ottora Maria Douglas-Reimer (1910 -2001), who married Count Carl Ludvig Douglas (1908 - 1961), a Swedish diplomat. The couple had four children: Count Gustav Archibald Sigvart Douglas (1938–2023),

1469-480: A resistance organisation against the Nazis. Engelsing maintained a high profile in the film business and low profile in the resistance, but made his mark by introducing many new people into the organisation, brokering deals and providing secure locations for meetings. The couple survived the war and moved to the United States in 1947. Engelsing did not receive permanent residency due to false accusations of being

1582-483: A resistance organisation into an espionage network, from a small cadre of close friends, that began to collaborate with Soviet intelligence. In December 1940, Harro was put on a war footing in preparation for the invasaion of the Soviet Union, moving to a barracks in a forest in Potsdam . At the beginning of 1941 (sources vary) Harro had begun an affair with Stella Mahlberg, a stage actress. Harro informed Libertas of

1695-612: A school in Berlin while living with her father, who headed the fashion department of the Kunstgewerbemuseum . Later, a co-worker of her father (artist Valerie Wolffenstein ) supervised her during a summer in Switzerland in 1924, where Libertas learned to draw. Between 1926 and 1932, Schulze-Boysen was sent to be educated at boarding schools in Paris, London and Switzerland. In 1932, Schulze-Boysen completed her Abitur at

1808-493: A series of reports known as "AGIS", a name chosen by Libertas who named in reference to the Spartan King Agis IV , who was a social reformer who fought against corruption. Rittmeister, Schulze-Boysen, Heinz Strelow , and Küchenmeister among others, wrote them with titles like The becoming of the Nazi movement , Call for opposition , Freedom and violence and Appeal to All Callings and Organisations to resist

1921-410: A source of information on members of the Nazi state. At the beginning of 1950, Engelsing made himself available as a witness in the preliminary proceedings against the then representative of the prosecution in the "Red Orchestra Trial", the Nazi apologist and General Judge Manfred Roeder . However, the proceedings were discontinued. Before the end of the war, Engelsing moved from Berlin to Konstanz at

2034-429: A stockbroker, Princess Elisabeth Christina Douglas (b. 1940), Rosita Spencer-Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough (b. 1943), an artist, and their youngest son, Carl Philipp Morton, a civil engineer. Libertas's older brother, Johannes Haas-Heye  [ de ] (1912 - 2008), was a journalist and diplomat. Her mother was known as "Thora"—spelled "Tora"—and came from an old Prussian noble family. She

2147-605: A subsidiary of Michaelsberg Abbey at Siegburg . The Catholic church in Heiligenhaus is devoted to Saint Roch ( Heiliger Rochus ). Marialinden' s church ( St. Mariä Heimsuchung ) is a pilgrimage destination for Saint Mary . The B 55 und B 484 federal roads (German Bundesstraßen ) as well as the A ;4 Autobahn pass through area of the town. The A 4 has got two exits to Overath, Overath-Untereschbach and Overath . The Cologne Bonn Airport

2260-562: A weekly basis each editor received a copy of the Zeitschriften-Dienst , a confidential newsletter from the ministry that described various directives as to what could be published and the particular theme the Nazi Party wanted to see in use. Libs decided to cooperate in order to express herself and maintain influence. To bypass the censors, she varied her tone, for films she liked, she would often write extravagantly, or in

2373-469: A woman in a picture. He identified her immediately as Libertas Schulze-Boysen. This provided definitive proof to the investigators that she was actively involved in the work of her husband. She and her husband were brought before trial in the Reichskriegsgericht ("Reich Court Martial"). She was charged with "preparation" to commit high treason , helping the enemy and espionage. Her husband

SECTION 20

#1732793603577

2486-493: A writer and journalist. Initially sympathetic to the Nazis, she changed her mind after meeting and marrying Luftwaffe officer Harro Schulze-Boysen . As an aristocrat, Schulze-Boysen had contact with many different people in different strata of German society. Starting in 1935, she utilized her position to recruit left-leaning Germans into discussion groups which she hosted at her and Harro's apartment, where they sought to influence her guests. Through these discussions, resistance to

2599-524: A writer of seditious pamphlets and a recruiter for the group. When Harro was not present she deputised as the groups leader. When her husband was arrested in August 1942 by the Gestapo, she made a valiant attempt to destroy evidence of their work and warn other members of the group, but it was to no avail. Schule-Boysen was arrested in September 1942, a month after her husband Harro, and both were executed on

2712-408: Is twinned with: Libertas Schulze-Boysen Libertas " Libs " Schulze-Boysen , born Libertas Viktoria Haas-Heye (20 November 1913, Paris – 22 December 1942, Plötzensee Prison ) was a German Prussian noblewoman , who became a resistance fighter against the Nazis. From the early 1930s to 1940, Schulze-Boysen attempted to build a literary career, first as a press officer and later as

2825-573: Is no hospital in Overath. The nearest hospitals are in Bergisch Gladbach and Engelskirchen. The city council consists of 38 members. The current breakdown, from the general elections held September 26, 2004, is as follows: Christoph Nicodemus was elected mayor (German Bürgermeister ) in September 2020, representing CDU, Greens and FDP. The coat of arms of Overath was only created on March 3, 1938. It consists of two areas: Overath

2938-409: Is reachable within 25 minutes. The railway station in Overath connects the town with Cologne and Marienheide . The train heading for Cologne departs every 30 minutes, the train heading for Marienheide departs every 60 minutes. Cologne is reachable by train in within 35 minutes. These traffic connections, together with rural surroundings, make Overath a popular place to live for commuters . There

3051-558: The Babelsberg Studio . Many of them opposed the Nazis and worked to help the victims of the regime. Both Herbert and Ingeborg Engelsing were anti-Nazis who were active during the war in resisting the Nazis. They collected and distributed food to dispossessed Jews and other people who didn't possess ration-cards and identity papers. In 1938, the Engelsings met the couple Harro Schulze-Boysen and Libertas Schulze-Boysen at

3164-516: The Deutsche KulturfilmZentrale (German Documentary Film Institute) whose purpose was to organise the production of ten to twenty minute long cultural films, that were to be shown in German film theatres, before the start of the main film, for the purpose of propaganda Libertas applied for a position in the department of Kunst, deutsches Land und Volk, Völker und Länder (Art, German Land and People, Peoples and Countries) and

3277-646: The Gestapo and put into protective custody (Schutzhäftlinge) by them. In prison, Libertas met Gertrude Breiter, the secretary for Libertas's interrogator, Kommissar Alfred Göpfert. Libertas believed that Breiter was hostile to her superiors, seeing her more as a friend than an agent provocateur Breiter told Libertas that Göpfert did not have any serious evidence against her and due to her family connections with Hermann Göring , her life would be safe. Libertas decided to confide in Breiter and talked with her more than

3390-601: The Humboldt University of Berlin for a doctorate, in an attempt to attain the position of Regierungsrat or government councillor. From July 1940 to 13 November 1941, Libertas wrote film reviews for the culture section of the National-Zeitung . The task was difficult as she could not write freely or criticize, as the paper was censored by Joseph Goebbels ' propaganda ministry. Beginning in May 1939, on

3503-622: The Wannsee . Harro Schulze-Boysen had been the publisher of the left-liberal magazine Der Gegner (English: "The Opponent") between 1932 and 1933. It was closed down when he was arrested by the Sturmabteilung in April 1933. He was badly beaten and lost half his ear, and was only released due to the influence of his mother. Besides the mutilation of his ear, the attack left Harro with damaged kidneys. His Jewish friend Henry Erlanger , who

Herbert Engelsing - Misplaced Pages Continue

3616-526: The literary historian , translator Mildred and Marxist economist Arvid Harnack should be introduced to the Schulze-Boysens. Greta decided that it would be the women who should meet first and in late 1939, brought Mildred and Libertas together while on holiday in Saxony. The Harnak's also held group meetings with a preplanned agenda, where they debated the political and economic perspectives of

3729-560: The "...old things should be left alone" and that Harro should be sent on a pilots course, enabling his career advancement. On 1 October 1936, the couple moved into an apartment at 2 Waitzstraße in Charlottenburg . At the same time, their marriage ran into trouble. Due to pain in Harro's kidneys and the Swastika carved into his leg when he was arrested, he found lovemaking difficult. After sex, his urine would turn red. Libertas realised

3842-674: The American films Sons of the Desert and Dancing Lady , both of which were immediate successes. In May 1933, when the studio started to feel the effects of Nazi censorship, it was forced to drop Herman Mankiewicz 's screenplay The Mad Dog of Europe , a film meant to illuminate the worsening treatment of Jews in Germany at that time. Mankiewicz would later go on to write the screenplay for Citizen Kane . In April 1934, Libertas met Harro Schulze-Boysen while they were both sailing on

3955-457: The Berlin newspapers between 1907 and 1909. It ran so long that it became known as the Eulenburg affair . In 1921, when Libertas was eight years old, her parents divorced (unusual at the time) and her grandfather died. Libertas spent part of her childhood at Eulenburg's country estate, Liebenberg Castle (near Berlin). She was taught initially by a governess . In 1922, she began attending

4068-474: The Brandenberg sands and then later in Switzerland. The Gestapo visited and searched their apartment as they were associates of von Pöllnitz. The visits along with von Pöllnitz's illness led Schulze-Boysen to suffer from a general malaise that caused her to flee to Zurich, a city she felt safe in. On 6 August 1938, she was introduced to the author Thomas Mann and spoke about her difficulties. Mann recorded

4181-518: The Engelsing's introduced Maria Terwiel and her future fiancé Helmut Himpel into the group. Himpel had been the Engelsings family dentist for a number of years. His work was so good that Engelsing had recommended him to his film friends and that led to him to build a career as a dentist to German film stars. Engelsing also introduced the industrialist Hugo Buschmann to the group. Buschmann, an ardent anti-nazi, rented one of Engelsings apartments, in

4294-687: The German radio counterintelligence organization Funkabwehr and his capture by the Gestapo on 29–30 June 1942 eventually exposed the group and led to the arrest of the Schulze-Boyzen's. Wenzel decided to cooperate after he was tortured. His exposure of the radio codes enabled Referat 12 , the cipher bureaux of the Funkabwehr, to decipher Red Orchestra message traffic. The unit had been tracking Red Orchestra radio transmissions since June 1941 and had located Wenzel's house in Brussels. When it

4407-659: The Gestapo, decided to leave Berlin for several weeks. On 27 September 1937, Harro left for a treatment for kidney stones at a sanatorium in Bad Wildungen , while Libertas arranged a sea trip via a friend, on the cargo ship SS Ilona Siemers (1923) that left from the Hamburg port of St. Pauli , transporting coal to the Black Sea . During the journey, she filled her journal on stories of her travels. She returned on Christmas Day 1937. In late 1937, Schulze-Boysen met

4520-477: The Harnacks were arrested while on holiday. On the same day Libertas returned to an empty apartment after a short business trip and called Harro's secretary to try and locate him. She suspected that Schulze-Boysen was arrested and contacted the Engelsings. Herbert Engelsing tried to contact Kuckhoff without result. Libertas and Spoerl both started to panic and frantically tried to warn others. They destroyed

4633-692: The Kuckhoff's and the Schulze-Boysen's apartments. On 31 August 1942, Harro Schulze-Boysen was arrested in his office in the Ministry of Aviation. Libertas had received a puzzling phone call from his office several days before. She was also warned by the women who delivered her mail that the Gestapo were monitoring it. Libertas's assistant Alexander Spoerl also noticed that Adam Kuckhoff had gone missing while working in Prague . On 7 September 1942,

Herbert Engelsing - Misplaced Pages Continue

4746-733: The Nazi regime grew, and by 1936, she and Harro began to actively resist the Nazis. During the early 1940s, whilst working as a censor for the German Documentary Film Institute, Schulze-Boysen began to document atrocities committed by the Nazis from photographs of war crimes forwarded by soldiers of the Sonderbehandlungen task force to the Film Institute. By 1940, the couple came into contact with other Berlin-based anti-fascist resistance groups and collaborated with them. The most important of these

4859-575: The Schulze-Boysens in the Reichskriegsgericht , stated that Libertas never betrayed anybody. Roeder credited the Funkspiel operation the Abwehr ran against the Red Orchestra radio operators for providing the necessary clues to identify the resistance members. On 15 November 1942, Gurevich was brought back to Berlin where he was asked by the Gestapo on 22 November 1942 to identify the name of

4972-576: The Soviet Union, Engelsing broke of their friendship, as he believed it was an act of betrayal. At the end of the war, he had made his last entertainment film with director Gustav Fröhlich on the island of Mainau on Lake Constance in the summer of 1944, and brought his family from Berlin to safety on Lake Constance. In the spring of 1945, agents of the CIC, the intelligence service of the US Army, operating out of Zurich, contacted Engelsing and used him as

5085-551: The Spanish Civil War. The unit also directed the German relief operations that consisted of volunteers, weapons and ammunition for General Francisco Franco 's FET y de las JONS . The information that Schulze-Boysen collected included details about German transports, deployment of units and companies involved in the German defence. The group around Schulze-Boysen did not know how to deliver the information, but discovered that Schulze-Boysen's cousin, Gisela von Pöllnitz ,

5198-591: The United States in December 1947. Attempts by Herbert to regain a foothold there in the film business failed. Engelsing remained a lawyer until his untimely death in 1962. The following is a list of films that were produced by Engelsing: Overath Overath is located about 25 km east of Cologne , in the Bergisches Land . Despite the reclassification as a 'Stadt' (town, though the German understanding leans towards city) years ago due to surpassing

5311-810: The West, Bergisch Gladbach in the North-West, Lindlar in the North-East, Engelskirchen in the East and Much , Neunkirchen-Seelscheid and Lohmar in the South. Overath is divided into 7 parts. When first mentioned in 1060, Overath was called "Achera" (after the Agger river). Presumably because of the first settlement at a clearing (German Rodung ) the name changed to "Ouerode" (about 1280), "Ovverode" (1304), "Overadt" (1582), and finally became "Overath". In 1939,

5424-549: The advice of Elisabeth Schumacher —wife of Kurt Schumacher who also attended. Among the other guests were Heinrich Karbe, a journalist for the Essen National Newspaper  [ de ] , the actor Werner Dissel and the Rowohlt editor Ernst von Salomon . The Spanish Civil War galvanised the inner circle of the group in their discussions. Kurt Schumacher demanded that action should be taken and

5537-401: The affair. As they had an open marriage they promised when they married not to deceive each other. In January 1941, Schulze-Boysen attended the wedding of Günther and Joy Weisenborn . While there she was surrounded by her friends but was deeply unhappy over the affair. Their arguments led her friend Ingeborg, who viewed the marriage as being in a critical state, to see them less and less as

5650-411: The collection of photographs from the front so they can be used by Libertas to define themes for new cultural films. As part of her job, she had to continue requesting pictures from soldiers on leave. For a long while Schulze-Boysen did not know how to react to the material as it was so shocking. She decided to start gathering pictorial evidence of Nazi war crimes , in anticipation of using them after

5763-466: The constitution of the crafts in the bays. At the time, Libertas was unprepared for the fact that Harro spent more time looking at the military installations and the ships in the harbour than at her. Schulze-Boysen considered herself a libertine and the couple had an open marriage . In August 1936, the journalist Evan James, an English friend of Libertas's from her 1933 stay in England, lodged with

SECTION 50

#1732793603577

5876-613: The couple married in England. The couple had a son, Thomas (16 August 1938) and a daughter, Catherine (9 September 1941). Beginning in 1943, the couple began to change their address, moving numerous times over the next two years, so that Ingeborg wasn't drafted into a Reich women's work unit (Berufsausbildungsprogramm Ost). These women's work units were introduced by the Reich Minister of the Economy Walther Funk in 1943 and would have meant Ingeborg being assigned to

5989-668: The couple moved in together to an apartment in Hohenzollerndamm, in the Wilmersdorf district of Berlin . On 15 January 1935, Schulze-Boysen left to join the Reich Labour Service for female youth ( Freiwilligen Arbeitsdienst für die weibliche Jugend ) for six months' voluntary work near Glindow , close to Potsdam . On 18 July 1935, she completed her six months of voluntary service, she returned to work at MGM. Her lack of enthusiasm for her voluntary service

6102-482: The couple showed James the anti-Jewish notices in the shops but what is so obvious to them, that the Nazi consolidation of power will lead to war, was not so obvious to James. At the time Harro was dumbfounded at James' attitude but gradually realised that his position in the Air Ministry could give him access to valuable information but to access the most valuable and sensitive information, he would need to rise in

6215-676: The couple to report on the 1936 Summer Olympics . At the time, Harro wanted to give James the details on prisoner numbers from the Spanish Civil War , compiled from situation reports his office received, so he could get them published by the BBC. However James refused, stating the source would be too easy to identify. Instead, Libertas translated the bombastic words from the first page of Mein Kampf , to warn him, to show him, that there would be war. However, James did not want to hear. Instead

6328-413: The couple visited Stockholm in Sweden, where Harro was introduced to Libertas's Swedish relatives, her sister Ottora and her sister's husband Count Douglas. Harro was on duty during the short honeymoon that the couple took between 27 July and 9 August 1936. He had arranged a language study trip from his employer and he had submitted a confidential report upon his return, that detailed the description and

6441-442: The couple went on a 2-day holiday together to Venice Italy, the first time the couple had been together for months, that was due to the demanding need for overtime at the Air Ministry. When the couple returned they witnessed Kristallnacht . At the end of 1938, looking to determine her fortune, Schulze-Boysen became a client of Anna Krauss , a well-known clairvoyant and fortune-teller. Through Krauss, Libertas met Toni Graudenz,

6554-519: The current situation openly and what they could do to further resistance. Harnack tells the group that he was introduced to Soviet agent Alexander Korotkov who used the alias Alexander Erdberg and had already told Erdberg on 26 September 1940, that Germany was in the planning stages of an invasion of the Soviet Union. By the end of that first meeting, both Schulze-Boysen and Kuckhoff had agreed to be informants to Harnack. From that point forward, their combined undercover political faction, developed from

6667-406: The darkroom at the Kulurefilm center and Libertas destroyed her meticulously collected archive. At home, she packed a suitcase with all Harro Schulze-Boysen's papers and then tried to fabricate evidence of loyalty to the Nazi state by writing fake letters. She sent the suitcase to Günther Weisenborn in the vain hope that it could be hidden, and he tried to contact Harro Schulze-Boysen in vain. On

6780-405: The event of war. Harnack refused to be contacted in that manner and agreed only to collect and encipher the material in his own apartment, but the transmission would take place somewhere else. Instead Adam Kuckhoff would be the radio contact. In June 1941, with Harnack's approval, Korotkov delivered a wireless transmitter to Greta Kuckhoff during a meeting at an underground railway station. However

6893-473: The fact they were in the resistance, while they were discussing Harro working for Hermann Göring . This led Karbe to describe the consequences of their actions should they be discovered, which made Libertas scream. At the time. the daily fear of discovery was palpable and made the days run slow. They knew that the groups actions were considered treasonous , specifically Hochverrat or "High Treason" and punishable by death, but could do little to change it. Karbe

SECTION 60

#1732793603577

7006-423: The form of a love letter. In other films that did not find favour, she would write in a strict and formal manner. Originally a temporary position, it became permanent in the summer of 1941, but she became unsettled and decided to leave to try to achieve a film career. Her last article Resurrection the mask in art dance introduced the dancer Oda Schottmüller , to the general public and her successor as film critic

7119-456: The goal of undermining the Nazi movement with the magazine's own themes. In August 1935, Harro was given permission by the Ministry of Aviation (Luftfahrtministerium) to attend a series of lectures on the League of Nations in Geneva, and Libertas accompanied him. On the way home, the couple stopped at the Château de Muzot to visit the last home of the Bohemian - Austrian poet and novelist Rainer Maria Rilke as well as visit his tomb. In

7232-432: The government . By 15 February 1942, Schulze-Boysen had written a six-page pamphlet titled Die Sorge Um Deutschlands Zukunft geht durch das Volk! ("The Concern for Germany's Future Goes Through the People!"). Co-authored by Rittmeister, the master copy was arranged by Van Beek, and the pamphlet was written up by Terwiel on her typewriter. One copy survives today. The pamphlet posited the idea of active defeatism, which

7345-420: The group was joined by Heinrich Scheel along with Hans and Ina Lautenschläger . Elfriede Paul stated that in early 1940, they discussed the opening of concentration camps in Poland and the military supply organisation known as Organisation Todt . In the spring of 1940, Harro began to study foreign policy at the newly opened Institute of International Studies, part of the Deutsche Hochschule für Politik of

7458-410: The head of a Soviet sleeper cell. Engelsing studied law, literature and art history and earned a doctorate in law. In 1938, Engelsing married Ingeborg Engelsing née Kohler. Kohler came from a prominent Berlin based legal family. The couple were engaged in 1936, however Kohler was classified as half-Jewish or Mischling , a pejorative term. When she went for her race characteristics exam, and although

7571-405: The house at 2 Bettinastraße in Grunewald that the Engelsings moved into in 1939. In 1940, Adam and Greta Kuckhoff met Harro and Libertas Schulze-Boysen at the home of the Engelsing's. In 12–13 May 1940, the couple spent the weekend at Liebenberg castle, the family home of Libertas Schulze-Boysen, where they were joined by the Schumachers, Günther Weisenborn and other friends in the group. During

7684-456: The journalist John Sieg use some of the letters material to write a fictional letter to fictional police captain that stated: The letter was duplicated in a hectograph machine. Kurt Schumacher took several copies when he returned to his unit in Poznan and the group hoped for a snowball effect in its distribution, to see the letter pass up the chain of command. The discovery of the illegal radio transmissions by Soviet agent Johann Wenzel by

7797-438: The lawyer Maria Terwiel and her fiancée, the dentist Helmut Himpel as well as the factory worker Friedrich Rehmer and the student Ursula Goetze . Rittmeister was happy to hear from the reports that informed him of the German military setback on the Eastern Front and convinced Schulze-Boysen that the reports should be shared with the German people, which would destroy the myth of German propaganda. The group decide to write

7910-463: The leaflets required a small army of people and a complex approach to organisation to avoid being discovered. The couple spent Christmas holidays 1941 apart with Libertas spending Christmas in Liebenberg Castle with her cousin Ingeborg von Schoenebeck, who had a strong dislike of Harro and tried to convince Libertas that she should divorce. By 1942, the unrelenting stress of the resistance work began to tell. In early 1942, Van Beek and Strelow realised

8023-461: The manuscript for review to the Reich Labour Service, but whether that actually happened, is unknown. Salomon heard nothing further on that point. The nature of her work at MGM—the tedious cycle of film promotion and censor work—made Libertas restless. Starting in July 1935, Schulze-Boysen began working on Harro's magazine Wille zum Reich ("Will to Empire") as an editor and translator. The magazine dealt with cultural and political issues, but with

8136-457: The marriage was in trouble and influenced by the views of her husband, returned her Nazi membership booklet. During 1937, they held their first public picnic evenings and held further meetings every other week on Thursday nights. Their first picnic evening of the year was held on 21 January 1937. Among the 30 odd guests were Gisela von Pöllnitz and a doctor, Elfriede Paul who was the girlfriend of Walter Küchenmeister who had been invited on

8249-576: The meeting in his diary. When Libertas returned in August, she worked with Weisenborn to arrange the premier of the play at a theatre in Bremen in November 1938, that was delated but finally held on 1 March 1939 at the Theater Bremen . At the same time, Schulze-Boysen had signed a contract with Deutschlandsender for a production of a radio play that was broadcast on 3 March 1939. On 9 November,

8362-460: The photographer attempted to portray her as tall, blond and slim , she was refused permission to marry. The couple began to look for help and received it, in the form of the actor Käthe Dorsch . Dorsch was a childhood friend of Hermann Göring and through her advocacy managed to persuade Goring to present the couple's case to Hitler. Finally in September 1937, permission was received from Hitler and

8475-643: The place names written in the Cyrillic alphabet, so instead Libertas along with Adam Kuckhoff met Erdberg in the Potsdamer Platz station to manually whisper the list of cities to Erdberg, repeating the names to Erdberg so he would remember them while they walked back and forward along the station, over several hours. In August 1941, during a dinner party that Karbe and his wife held with the Schule-Boysens, he described how Libertas had blurted out

8588-409: The playwright Günther Weisenborn who had been friends with Harro since 1932. in what was their first illegal meeting that was attended by Kuchenmeister and Schumacher. On 12 January 1938, Weisenborn was introduced to Libertas. In February 1938, the Schulze-Boysens learnt that von Pöllnitz had been arrested the month before. Their apartment at 2 Waitzstraße was searched by the Gestapo but nothing

8701-521: The population of Overath was 6,500. In 1946, it already exceeded 10,500 and continued to grow to 15,500 in 1970. The area of the community was extended in 1975, which increased the population to over 20,000. Since then it has risen further up to 27,106 in December 2005. The Catholic church is devoted to Saint Walpurga ( Heilige Walburga ). Until 1803 the Benedictines had a monastery in Cyriax ,

8814-468: The radio was damaged by Erdberg before delivery. Adam Kuckhoff arranged with Harnack to return the damaged radio back to Erdberg. A Luftwaffe report consisting of the Russian city names and their railway stations that were to be bombed during the initial attack of Operation Barbarossa had to be manually transcribed to Erdberg, instead of being transmitted. Greta Kuckhoff was unable to accurately remember

8927-590: The ranks. They decided to invite Göring to the Liebenberg estate, to hunt deer, on 6 September 1936. Göring's country estate of Carinhall was next to Liebenberg Castle. In essence it was a charm offensive, led by Libertas, to get Harro noticed. Libertas was successful as Göring made an enquiry to Hans-Jürgen Stumpff , who reported the Harro Schulze-Boysen was considered unreliable due to his political involvements before 1933. Göring replied that

9040-507: The relevant population threshold, the former appellation Gemeinde (parish) seems more appropriate (particularly to the inhabitants) due to the spread-out villages it consists of. The main settlement is in the Agger valley, with others spread on the hills surrounding it. The kleine Heckberg (small Heckberg, 348 m) near Federath is the highest point of Overath, and the whole Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis . Neighbouring cities are Rösrath in

9153-625: The resistance effort. Harro Schulze-Boysen continued the affair until August 1942. Libertas found the lack of emotional support highly distressing. Through 1941 and 1942, Schulze-Boysen continued working with the Deutsche KulturfilmZentrale. In January 1942, she wrote to her mother-in-law Marie Louise, where she described the work, which she completes at home and spoke of how it made her deeply unhappy and melancholic. In May 1942, Schulze-Boysen met Alexander Spoerl  [ de ] who held similar political views. Spoerl

9266-721: The same day in Plötzensee Prison. Libertas Schulze-Boysen was the youngest of three children. Her father was the Heidelberg -born Otto Ludwig Haas-Heye (1879–1959), couturier to the aristocracy, and her mother was noted pianist, Countess Viktoria Ada Astrid Agnes zu Eulenburg (1886–1967). Libertas's parents married in Liebenberg Castle  [ de ] on 13 May 1909 and lived for a time in London and Paris. They were Protestants who believed in providing

9379-540: The same day, she was informed by Horst Heilmann that Harro had been arrested. On 8 September, while on a train to visit friends in the Moselle Valley, Libertas was arrested. She was taken to the basement cells (German:Hausgefängnis) in the most dreaded address in all of German-occupied Europe , Reich Security Main Office headquarters at 8 Prinz-Albert-Straße (Prince Albert street) containing department AMT IV,

9492-584: The same time the League of German Girls (German: Bund Deutscher Mädel). In May of the same year, Schulze-Boysen moved to Berlin after being hired by the motion picture company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) as a press officer . The position consisted of writing reviews to inform the media and public about new cinematic releases. During the spring of 1933, the film studio had sacked all its Jewish employees, leaving it short-staffed and making openings for non-Jewish workers. Initially, Libertas worked on press copy for

9605-542: The spring of 1936, Schulze-Boysen applied to leave the Nazi party by submitting a resignation request to the Reichsleitung der NSDAP in Munich. During Easter in 1936, the couple were engaged and lived together for a year before getting married on 26 July 1936. The wedding took place in the chapel of Liebenberg Castle under a painting of Guido Reni , with Hermann Göring giving away the bride. For their honeymoon,

9718-508: The summer progressed. In April 1941, Schulze-Boysen gave up the idea of turning her ship journal into a novel. This was a result of a shortage of paper, and the fact that novels were no longer published unless for propaganda purposes. In March 1941, Harro met with Korotkov directly in Harnack's apartment and he agreed to provide military information to Korotkov. Korotkov asked Schulze-Boysen to curtail his resistance activities, he replied as

9831-487: The terrible danger they were in, and began to withdraw from the group and their resistance activities. In the spring of 1942, Schulze-Boysen confided in Günther Weisenborn that for five years she had worked to resist the Nazis on behalf of Harro, but she found that she could not face the fear any longer. She yearned simply to live, in love and peace. On 16 May 1942, she visited Vienna for four days to conduct

9944-474: The time but were considered rather austere compared to Libertas and Shulze-Boysen's fun filled nights of music and dancing. The initial meeting of the women gave rise to a licentious image of the group that persisted for decades after the war, based primarily on Gestapo and Abwehr reports. In his 1967 book, L'orchestre rouge , Gilles Perrault states that Mildred and Libertas were lesbians, quoted from an unnamed source. However, industrialist Hugo Buschmann, who

10057-860: The time in the French occupation zone in Germany . Engelsing was admitted to the bar of the French military courts in 1945, where he was one of two lawyers admitted to practice. In the fall of 1945 was employed by the Konstanz district court. He ran a criminal and civil law practice. In addition to the usual mandates, he also represented victims of Nazi Aryanization as well as German and French Sinti families in restitution proceedings. He also took on mandates for some former southwest German military economic leaders in denazification proceedings. In March 1947, Ingeborg emigrated with her family to Berkeley, California, where Ingeborg's parents had moved to in 1939 and immediately applied for American citizenship . Herbert arrived in

10170-514: The war to show the extent of the genocide. In December 1941, the Schulze-Boysens met the psychoanalyst John Rittmeister and his wife Eva . Through Rittmeister, several people who attended the Heil'schen Abendschule Abendgymnasium ("Berliner Städtische Abendgymnasium für Erwachsene") (BAG) in Schöneberg including Rittmeister's wife, Eva, who became part of the espionage group. This included

10283-465: The war, combined with Harro's illness, the start of rationing and the double life they led, lead to what Shulze-Boysen considered the most desolate period in her life. At the beginning of 1940, the blackout led to the group meeting less often due to the difficulty of walking home in the darkness. Schulze-Boysen arranged to drive their friends home for her apartment, although it involved a considerable risk to herself of being followed. In early 1940,

10396-417: The war. In one photograph she archives, it contains an image of a little girl next to her older brother, mother and a baby. All of them are to be shot. In another letter she received, a soldier spoke in lyrical terms of certain insects that he loved and could not harm, one was the potato beetle and included a photograph of him about to hurl a small baby against the wall. Libertas along with Adam Kuckhoff and

10509-492: The weekend, the group discussed writing leaflets and formulated a method of distributing them. After the war Weisenborn stated of Engelsing, who was familiar with film and political figures, tolerated our work and encouraged it wherever he could. He was a so-called contact man, which means that our organization used the connections he had with key figures in the Third Reich. In early 1941, when Schulze-Boysen began to spy for

10622-437: The writer Günther Weisenborn, the dancer and sculptor Oda Schottmüller as well as the actor Marta Husemann and her husband, Walter Husemann who was an editor. In the same month, Schulze-Boysen was informed that her cousin, Gisela von Pöllnitz, had died on 14 September 1939 in a Swiss sanatorium. In the following month, Harro fell ill with Kidney stone disease . The couple spent their Christmas in 1939 apart. The stress of

10735-513: Was Adam Kuckhoff . Both were her and Harro's friends and both resisted the Nazis. In October 1940, Greta and Libertas finanlly managed to convince Harro Schulze-Boysen to meet with Arvid Harnack. A meeting was held in Adam's and Greta Kuckhoff apartment at Wilhelmshöher Allee 19 in Friedenau. At the meeting of the new combined political faction, Schulze-Boysen, Harnack and Kuckhoff discussed

10848-611: Was a compromise between principled pacifism and practical political resistance. It stated the future for Germany lay in establishing a socialist state that would form alliances with the USSR and progressive forces in Europe. It also offered advice to the individual resistor: "do the opposite of what is asked of you". The group produced hundreds of pamphlets that were spread over Berlin, left in phone boxes, in eating establishments and sent to selected addresses, for example universities. Producing

10961-499: Was an ardent anti-Nazi and agreed to collaborate with her, by helping her write up the Nazi crimes in her archive. In the autumn of 1941, Cato rented two rooms from Schulze-Boyson that were part of her very large apartment at 2 Waitzstrasse. Van Beek's lover, the journalist and poet Heinz Strelow rented on the rooms directly from Van Beek. In August 1940, the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda created

11074-447: Was an informant and couples close friend, stated that the group lived dangerously, but there was no evidence for Perrault's conclusion Certainly Libertas and Mildred were good friends. Other friends who joined their parties and who became staunch anti-Nazis, included the actor Werner Dissel who they met in 1935 as well as Albrecht Haushofer , Kurt Schumacher and his wife Elisabeth Schumacher , Elfriede Paul , Walter Küchenmeister ,

11187-455: Was appointed on 1 November 1941. In the position she acted as a censor, reviewing film scripts to determine if they adhered to Nazi Party ideology. Those that did not she would reject; filmmakers who she found to be trying to be innovative were passed. On her first day at work, she found her desk piled high with envelopes filled with photographs containing images of the work of the Sonderbehandlungen task forces. Joseph Goebbels had ordered

11300-523: Was arrested at the same time, did not survive the beating. Harro was in the habit of bringing his work friends from Der Gegner together with his other friends and colleagues for social evenings in his apartment, during which they discussed philosophical and political questions of the day. To protect themselves from persecution, the couple surrounded themselves with a group of politically incorruptible friends who were left-leaning anti-fascists, among them artists, pacifists and communists . In October 1934,

11413-464: Was executive producer on thirty-four films. He was sufficiently successful to maintain his own division in 1942 when Tobis Films lost its independence when it was merged with Terra , Bavaria Film and Wien-Film to form UFA GmbH by the Nazis. Engelsing friends included the actors Heinz Rühmann and Theo Lingen Engelsing was close to many members of the Babelsberg film community, the home of

11526-411: Was found as the couple had spent several days feverishly clearing the place of any evidence of wrongdoing. After Harro was cleared by the Air Ministry, their plans to flee to Amsterdam, where Johannes Haas-Heye was stationed, were abandoned. As the year progressed Libertas and Weisenborn relationship blossomed and eventually consummated in an open affair. In the same month, they collaborated in writing

11639-539: Was immediately arrested, but refused to say anything and was permitted to leave. In September 1939, the Schulze-Boysens met the writer and playwright Adam Kuckhoff and his wife, the socialist Greta Kuckhoff at a dinner party hosted by the film producer Herbert Engelsing and his wife Ingeborg at their house in Bettinstraße in Grunewald. The free exchange of ideas and opinion was expected. Herbert Engelsing

11752-471: Was never part of the resistance and he believed that Libertas has little understanding of the danger they were currently in. In the same month, Karbe put the couple in touch with Anna Krauss , a fortune-teller, who became an important part of the group. In September 1941, Schulze-Boysen met Cato Bontjes van Beek while on an assignement at the Leipzig Trade Fair and became friends. Van Beek

11865-485: Was overwhelmed with remorse, stating in a letter to her mother, "I had to drink the bitter cup for now I learn that the person whom I had given my complete trust Gertrude Breiter had betrayed me." Her mother believed that Libertas had betrayed a number of the Schulze-Boysen/Harnack group. However, in an unpublished interview with David Dallin after the war, Manfred Roeder , the advocate who prosecuted

11978-497: Was planning to produce a film on Adam's book, "Der Deutsche von Bayencourt (The German from Bayencourt) that had been published in 1937 and became prominent. The party at the Engelsings, who were close friends of the Schulze-Boysens, was the ideal way to gauge the political stance of the Kuckhoff's. The Kuckhoffs were impressed by the Schulze-Boysens and shared the same political views. Libertas and Greta Kuckhoff became close friends. In 1939, Kuckhoff's decided that their close friends,

12091-597: Was planning to visit the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne that was held in Paris from 25 May to 25 November 1937. In November, Pöllnitz fulfilled her mission and placed the letter in the mailbox of the Soviet Embassy on the Bois de Boulogne . Unfortunately the Gestapo were watching the location and she was arrested. The couple, fearing instant retribution from

12204-512: Was raided by the Gestapo it was found to contain a large number of coded messages. When Wilhelm Vauck , principal cryptographer of the Funkabwehr , the radio counterintelligence department of the Abwehr , received the ciphers from Wenzel, he was able to decipher some of the older messages. On 15 July 1942, Vauck managed to decrypt a message dated 10 October 1941 that gave the locations of

12317-585: Was responsible for distribution the films, such as Willi Forst 's upbeat comedy Tomfoolery (Allotria) produced in 1936. He held a similar position at several film companies until the end of the war in 1945. Engelsing's films include the Forst productions Serenade (1937) and the 1939 film Bel Ami , but also the Nazi propaganda films The Fox of Glenarvon (Der Fuchs von Glenarvon), My Life for Ireland (Mein Leben für Irland) and Jakko. Between 1937 and 1944, Engelsing

12430-463: Was run by Arvid Harnack . From April 1941, their underground resistance group became an espionage network that supplied military and economic intelligence to the Soviet Union. That organisation became known as the Red Orchestra ("Rote Kapelle") by the Abwehr . Schulze-Boysen was fully aware of her husband's espionage activities and became one of his most active agents, working as a courier,

12543-579: Was such that she decided to write a book that was brutally honest, that described the daily fight for assertion, the status of women in the community and the fight for ideals. She submitted the manuscript to the writer Ernst von Salomon , a family friend who worked at the Rowohlt publishing house for review. Salomon believed it was good enough to publish, but had doubts as to whether the Reich Labour Service would allow it. Rowohlt wanted to publish it for precisely for that reason. Libertas intended to submit

12656-490: Was the son of the German author Heinrich Spoerl . At a party at the Engelsings and in an open conversation, she suggested that Spoerl become her assistant at the KulturfilmZentrale, to help her organise the pictures into an archive. However, the number of pictures in envelopes continued to increase. Schulze-Boysen decided to answer some of the letters she received, in an effort to collect more details for after

12769-472: Was the youngest of the eight children of the Prussian diplomat and composer Prince Philipp zu Eulenburg and his Swedish wife, Countess Augusta Constantia Ulrike Charlotte Sandels . Philipp zu Eulenburg was a close friend of Kaiser William II, German Emperor . Eulenburg and William II were allegedly lovers. This allegation was published as a series of articles by influential journalist Maximilian Harden in

#576423