This is a continuation of my inconveniently undated effort in 2023 and has just as little place in a Nature Diary, except - as stated then - in so far as death is arguably a part of life.
And the reason for this renewal of interest in the Death in Berlin theme? Earlier this year I had the experience of seeing the film From Hilde with Love which I found profoundly moving as it followed her involvement in the resistance to Hitler with the loose Rote Kapelle grouping, subsequent imprisonment while pregnant and execution by guillotine.
I immediately wanted to find out more about Hilde Coppi and others involved in the Rote Kapelle and the resistance to Hitler within Germany in general. As almost of those arrested by the Gestapo were also executed in Berlin, the connection to the Death in Berlin theme was obvious - as well as the need for another visit to one of Europe's most fascinating cities for a few days (21/09/25 - 24/09/25).
Note: The photos are of museum exhibits and other memorabilia.
Day 1 - Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand
The obvious place to start was Memorial Museum on the resistance at Stauffenbergstrasse.
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| Edelweiss Pirates |
Roughly similar youth groups were the nostalgic Bündische Tradition and the more rowdy Leipziger Meuten, working-class youths who actively attacked units and buildings of the Hitler Jugend.
In a more middle class mode, the Hamburger Swing-Jugend concentrated more on lifestyle, focussing on an enthusiasm for swing music, hedonistic American and British (hence the umbrellas!) lifestyles and clothing and satirizing Nazi culture ("Swing-Heil").
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| Hamburg Swing Youths |
All groups were vigorously persecuted by the Nazis.
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| Hans Gasparitsch |
Perhaps one of the cruellest examples of opposition for religious reasons was that of Helmut Hübener, a mormon who became the youngest person to be executed by the Nazis for listening to foreign radio stations and distributing leaflets aimed at correcting Nazi propaganda. He was 17. Note: it is forbidden for mormons to join political organisations.
Similarly 16 year-old communist Hans Gasparitsch was imprisoned in a concentration camp in 1935 for writing anti-nazi slogans on the walls of a park in Stuttgart and was only freed at the end of the war. Both the Communist and Social Democratic parties were completely banned and had to meet under subterfuge.
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| "Harry Ormond" |
Some Germans who had been forced to leave the country joined up with allied forces and many worked to undermine Nazi propaganda in the Wehrmacht and the general population. Interestingly, the former judge Hans Oettinger was deposed in 1933 for being a jew and later enlisted in a propaganda unit of the British Army under the name of Harry Ormond. Some German prisoners of war were also active in agitating for an overthrow of the Nazi regime.
The loose Rote Kapelle group reflected very much the breadth of the opposition to Hitler itself in that its 'members' were drawn from all parts of German society, from typists and factory workers through artists and creatives to the higher echelons of German society. In fact their key leaders, Arvid Harnack and Harro Schulze-Boysen were - to me surprisingly - both working at the heart of the Nazi regime as a top economic adviser and a Head Lieutenant in the Luftwaffe respectively. Both wives were also in useful roles - Libertas Schulze-Boysen as a press officer for MGM Studios and Mildred Harnack, an American lecturer and teacher with good connections with the American Embassy. As a unit they were ideally placed to collect and disseminate classified information and one becomes starkly aware that all were leading double lives. So for example Libertas Schulze Boysen was in a position to collect early classified photos of German war crimes from the Ministry of Propaganda..
The name Rote Kapelle was an invention of the Gestapo who claimed they were a Russian-led orchestra of 'pianists' (Secret Service slang for a clandestine wireless operator) that exchanged over 500 coded messages to Moscow) While the Coppis and others made attempts by the group to send messages in morse code, these failed almost entirely, though they did manage to do so via couriers and radio broadcasts. Their main activities were supporting victims of the regime, posting fliers against Hitler and sending a series of pamphlets to prominent members of German society.
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| Sample Wall Sticker displayed in the Gedenkstätte |
This sticker was in satirical opposition to a so-called exhibition mounted by the Nazi regime in order to justify its attack on Russia.
I took the opportunity to read a pamphlet distributed in March 1942, which interestingly argues (contrary to British perceptions at the time) that after the Battle of Britain the war was already lost in the West as well as the East (n.b. this is several months before the start of the Battle of Stalingrad) and points to suicides and defections amongst German military as well as shortages of goods and the collapse of industry, plus an awareness of Germany being held responsible for the consequences of the war after defeat.
As well as an involvement in attempts to send morse code messages with her husband Hans, a longstanding Communist, and participating in the sticker campaigns, she spent a good deal of time listening to Radio Moscow for news of German prisoners of war and passing details on to their relatives, thereby undermining the Nazis claim that the Russians assassinated all soldiers they captured.
The actual guillotine no longer exists. However it is possible to see a drain in a depression in the central floor, which presumably was to cope with the blood. It doesn't show in the photo which was taken against the light but, unless my eyes deceived me, the stonework around it carries a slight red stain. In this sombre scene, the wreath lain by the Czech Ambassador seems rather out of place.
The above notice also declares the victim's forfeiture of all civilian rights. In the case of military personnel this might also exclude the right to death by firing squad, which was regarded as more honourable.
An extra dimension to the scale of opposition to Hitler is offered by mention of the group Europäische Union, a group of professionals who managed to make contact with inmates of German Forced labour Camps from all over Europe and encouraged their attempts to form resistance groups. Notable names were Robert Havemann, Herbert Richter and Paul Rentsch as well as Ukrainian Doctor Galina Romanowa, who had been deported to work as a doctor in forced labour camps. 14 members of the group were executed at Plötzensee.
Another complains of being accused of selfishness for being a mother (as well as an activist.)
Signposts to Schulze-Boysen-Straße
The problem I was having was that all the web searches for the Schulze-Boysen memorial were leading me for some reason to the one outside their family home in Westend district. I headed there next and found it easily - a pretty basic sign on a fairly modest block of flats in what was otherwise a decidedly upmarket residential area.
As I was not far away I decided to see if I could visit the grave of Mildred Harnack, which I had read was in the Zehlendorf Cemetery. Unfortunately this proved to be a time-consuming goose chase, as the internet had initially let me down. She is actually buried in Zehlendorf Woodland Cemetery, some distance away.
On the long walk back to Onkel-Toms-Hütte U-Bahn station, I almost literally stumbled on what I now remember is a Stolperstein. This one is in memorial to a Jewish doctor who used to practice there on Onkel-Tom-Strasse, fled to the Netherlands but was eventually was deported to Ausschwitz and is presumed dead.
You probably recall that all the corpses from Plötzensee were used for scientific research. Mildred Harnack was the only person whose remains could be found and interred.
Interestingly though, it goes on to advocate for change via revolution to a socialist workers' regime oriented towards the USSR and the "progressive forces within Europe" and against a society dominated by plutocrats. This would seem to suggest that, although there was no orchestra of subversives, at least the leadership of the group were fairly clearly red.
There was another group, the Weiße Rose made up of academics and students at Munich University which, in its fifth pamphlet by Professor Kurt Huber and student Sophie Scholl, argued by contrast for a federalist Germany in open cooperation with other European states, arguably anticipating the eventual European movement.
As well as echoing fears about the post war consequences, it also contains a fascinating reference to the fate faced by the Jewish people. I wondered if this was a direct reference to the existence of the death camps as the fifth pamphlet was issued a year after the Wannseekonferenz. Unfortunately key Weiße Rose members were arrested when (perhaps naively) handing out a sixth pamphlet at the University.
The exhibition also featured the postcards valiantly produced by Otto and Elise Hampel, and the basis of a novel by Hans Fallada but frankly the level of argument was relatively naive compared to the efforts of the two larger groups.
And of course there was mention of Hilde Coppi, the heroine of the film that evoked my original interest.
Here she is, looking understandably apprehensive in the standard three-image Gestapo format:
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| Hilde Coppi |
As well as an involvement in attempts to send morse code messages with her husband Hans, a longstanding Communist, and participating in the sticker campaigns, she spent a good deal of time listening to Radio Moscow for news of German prisoners of war and passing details on to their relatives, thereby undermining the Nazis claim that the Russians assassinated all soldiers they captured.
Another name that came up that was new to me was that of Cato Bontjes van Beek, who appears to have helped in producing the pamphlets. A German documentary about her are no longer available but there is a lengthy radio broadcast in German on youtube.
Day2 - Deutsches Historisches Museum
There were nevertheless some interesting observations. There was a suggestion that pictures demonstrating the mass murder of jews were available to the British and American authorities as early as 1942 but were suppressed over doubts about authenticity and prevailing anti-jewish sentiment. There was apparently also much discussion before the first exhibition in London in 1945 for fear of causing public upset. It was further claimed that not much mention was made of the fact that the victims were jewish, so that the British public did not learn the full story of the holocaust for some time.
The extensive rebellions among German armed forces at the end of World War 1 are well known.
Further opportunities to avert the rise of were seen to be a failure to invest in the economy 1933 and the lack of French opposition to the reunification of the Rhineland.
Day2 - Deutsches Historisches Museum
I was frankly a little disappointed by what the museum had to offer. Although its website mentions Rote Kapelle and the key members, there was nothing about them on site, perhaps because the permanent exhibition is currently closed.
What there was instead was two temporary exhibitions, one dealing with post war exhibitions on the persecution of the Jews and the other highlighting periods in German history from 1848 onwards when it could have taken a turn away from the eventual fall into totalitarianism, but omitting the war years completely.
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| The Daily Express 1945 |
There were nevertheless some interesting observations. There was a suggestion that pictures demonstrating the mass murder of jews were available to the British and American authorities as early as 1942 but were suppressed over doubts about authenticity and prevailing anti-jewish sentiment. There was apparently also much discussion before the first exhibition in London in 1945 for fear of causing public upset. It was further claimed that not much mention was made of the fact that the victims were jewish, so that the British public did not learn the full story of the holocaust for some time.
There is a sort of parallel to the attitude towards the Rote Kapelle in Germany after the war. Rather than being seen as heroes of the resistance (except in East Germany) they were somewhat vilified for having conducted espionage against their home country. One group member who survived the war talks of having been extensively harassed for his involvement. I can remember a German Assistent at school telling me that many Germans saw an important distinction between supporting Hitler and supporting the war effort, and I can understand this concept. Perhaps the morale of the story is that the human race has a strong capacity for denial.
In terms of German history, many Southern states opposed the dominant role of Prussia and there were widespread demonstrations against war in 1914. Eventually the Social Democrats, who were the largest party in the Reichstag failed to implement the opposition of a European Social Democrat meeting in Belgium to oppose the war.
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| Belgian cartoon satirising Prussian opposition to democracy |
The extensive rebellions among German armed forces at the end of World War 1 are well known.
Further opportunities to avert the rise of were seen to be a failure to invest in the economy 1933 and the lack of French opposition to the reunification of the Rhineland.
Day 3 - Gedenkstätte Plötzensee
Almost all of the biographies mentioned in the Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand end with the phrase "was executed/murdered in Plötzensee Prison on --/--/19--" making it an absolute if ghoulish 'must see' to appreciate the full extent of Nazi atrocities.
Located beside the intimidating walls of an existing prison, it looks at first as if there isn't much there - just a couple of rooms but engaging with those spaces is an experience of some intensity.
The film "From Hilde With Love" closes with a scene showing how Hilde Coppi is lead to the guillotine block and it is still possible to see where the executions took place.
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| The Execution Chamber at Plötzensee |
The actual guillotine no longer exists. However it is possible to see a drain in a depression in the central floor, which presumably was to cope with the blood. It doesn't show in the photo which was taken against the light but, unless my eyes deceived me, the stonework around it carries a slight red stain. In this sombre scene, the wreath lain by the Czech Ambassador seems rather out of place.
Between 1933 and 1936, prior to the introduction of the guillotine, beheadings of dissidents were carried out by hand axe. After the guillotine was damaged during an allied air raid in late 1943, the regime organised the introduction of the steel framework with butcher's hooks, visible at the back of the room and executions took place by hanging.
When it became apparent that Germany was losing the war, normal procedures were bypassed and the rate of executions accelerated so that as many as eight people could be executed at the same time. In total 2883 died at Plötzensee between 1933 and 1945, including a small number of natural deaths and suicides while awaiting execution.
The detailed exhibition goes on to tell the stories of some of those executed and how the whole process worked. Regime opponents during wartime were tried by court martial, enabling death sentences for minor offences, such as in the case of one Albert Tamboer, for removing two tins of fish from a bombed house. The refusal of appeals for Rote Kapelle members by Hitler were notably countersigned by Field Marshall Keitel.
The authorities made no secret of their activities and often posted signs announcing an execution as a deterrent to others.
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| Public notice of execution |
The above notice also declares the victim's forfeiture of all civilian rights. In the case of military personnel this might also exclude the right to death by firing squad, which was regarded as more honourable.
The corpse remains were not buried but donated to the University of Berlin for the purposes of scientific research and a bill sent to the victim's family to cover the execution costs.
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| Sample Bill |
Fines were additionally levied on the estates of Rote Kapelle leaders Arvid Harnack and Harro Schultze Boysen, no doubt amongst others.
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| Galina Romanowa |
An extra dimension to the scale of opposition to Hitler is offered by mention of the group Europäische Union, a group of professionals who managed to make contact with inmates of German Forced labour Camps from all over Europe and encouraged their attempts to form resistance groups. Notable names were Robert Havemann, Herbert Richter and Paul Rentsch as well as Ukrainian Doctor Galina Romanowa, who had been deported to work as a doctor in forced labour camps. 14 members of the group were executed at Plötzensee.
On the eastern front German efforts to find collaborators in the war against Russia went badly astray when a group of Tatars led by the poet Musa Dshalil led a patriotic insurrection against the Germans themselves. Dshalil had succeeded in infiltrating a German propoganda unit using a false identity. He was executed in 1944.
Over 50 Rote Kapelle members executed at Plötzensee, many of them women. The most prominent names were ;
Cato Bontjes van Beek: Sculptress, Liane Berkowitz: Student, Erika Gräfin von Brockdorff: Office worker, Eva-Maria Buch: Translator and student, Hans Coppi: Radio operator, Hilde Coppi: Clerk, John Graudenz: Journalist, Wilhelm Guddorf: Journalist, Arvid Harnack: Economist, Mildred Harnack: Teacher and Lecturer, Horst Heilmann: Communications officer, Helmut Himpel: Dentist, Walter Husemann: Journalist, Adam Kuckhoff: Writer and theatre critic, Ingeborg Kummerow: Office worker and housewife, Friedrich Rehmer: Dental technician, John Rittmeister: Physician and psychoanalyst, Klara Schabbel: Comintern agent, Rose Schlösinger: Typist, Oda Schottmüller: Dancer and sculptor, Harro Schulze-Boysen: Communications Officer, Libertas Schulze-Boysen: Press Officer, Elisabeth Schumacher: Artist, Kurt Schumacher: Artist, John Sieg: Journalist and railway worker, Heinz Strelow: Journalist, Fritz Thiel: Toolmaker, Maria Terwiel: Secretary.
Day 4 - Memorials to Resistance Fighters
Having completed my planned museum visits, I spent some time searching out memorabilia related to the Rote Kapelle network, with varying degrees of success.
My fist plan was to follow the steps of Hilde Coppi following her arrest. She would have been interrogated at the feared Gestapo Headquarters at Prinz-Albrecht-Straße, which no longer exist. She was incarcerated in the women's prison on Barnimstraße, where she gave birth to her son Hans. The prison was eventually demolished but the site has never been built on and is now a training facility for cyclists, heavily used by primary school children. This notice marks the site.
It mentions that many women gave birth there and that over 300 inmates were executed at Plötzensee.
There is also an audio trail which I gather that one can follow in the afternoons. I was there early so had to make do with following the route marked by a thick blue line over the pavement, which is occasionally punctuated by relevant sayings.
Pavement Sample
In contrast to their initial post-war reception in the West, the GDR regime viewed the Rote Kapelle as heroes, and two streets in the Lichtenberg area were renamed Schultze-Boysen-Straße and Coppistraße, the former being adjacent to former Ministry of Propaganda.
I had problems with Schulze-Boysen-Straße as there are at least five avenues that bear that name!
Signposts to Schulze-Boysen-Straße
There's a similar confusing sign on the other corner of the street.
I couldn't find the sculpture by Achim Kühn. I did stumble upon the the Mildred-Harnack-Schule with a plaque above the entrance but did not know that it also contains somewhere a memorial to the Schulze-Boysens.
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| Plaque |
Fortunately I had better luck on Coppistraße where a student hall of residence has been named after Hans and Hilde Coppi and there is an impressive mural in their memory.
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| At Student Residence |
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| Coppi Mural |
The problem I was having was that all the web searches for the Schulze-Boysen memorial were leading me for some reason to the one outside their family home in Westend district. I headed there next and found it easily - a pretty basic sign on a fairly modest block of flats in what was otherwise a decidedly upmarket residential area.
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| Schulze-Boysen Memorial Plaque |
As I was not far away I decided to see if I could visit the grave of Mildred Harnack, which I had read was in the Zehlendorf Cemetery. Unfortunately this proved to be a time-consuming goose chase, as the internet had initially let me down. She is actually buried in Zehlendorf Woodland Cemetery, some distance away.
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| Stolperstein |
I was later to discover that there are in fact numerous other Stolpersteine to various members of the Rote Kapelle network across Berlin and elsewhere.
On eventually reaching the U-Bahn I noticed there a bus that stops at the Woodland Cemetery. So I decided to have one more try at reaching Mildred Harnack's grave. I got to the cemetery fine but then found there was no way of establishing where anyone's grave is unless they have been honoured by the Land of Berlin.
So I decided to settle for a picture of the entrance and headed back East.
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| Cemetery Entrance |
You probably recall that all the corpses from Plötzensee were used for scientific research. Mildred Harnack was the only person whose remains could be found and interred.
I think there may be scope for another visit to Berlin to follow up some more memorials to Rote Kapelle members one day.
5) Reflections in Retrospect
On returning to the UK, I found myself wondering about two things:
- The bravery in particular of some of the women involved with Rote Kapelle
- How far it was indeed a Communist group
Around 40% of Rote Kapelle followers were female and it would be interesting to know why. One suggestion is that many women could not accept the limited role accorded to them in Nazi society. (Kinder, Kűche, Kirche) It is clear from the farewell letters of Hilde Coppi and Cato Bontjes van Beek that they went to their deaths with no regrets beyond the pain they felt they had inflicted on their
families and (particularly in Cato’s case) expressing a love of life and a convinced humanism. There is absolutely no sense of guilt.
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| Cato |
families and (particularly in Cato’s case) expressing a love of life and a convinced humanism. There is absolutely no sense of guilt.
Cato, the sculptress and glider pilot, was particularly forthright in believing that she would do exactly as she saw fit and about her opposition to National Socialism, right from illegally donating food to forced labourers at train stations as a youngster to expressing her views in sometimes risky situations. Although only in intermittent contact with Rote Kapelle, she was found guilty of abetting conspiracy and became the youngest person to be executed aged 22.
One can add to this the bravery of Mildred Harnack, who was dismissed from work because of her views at least twice. After her husband acquired for her a visa and flight to America, she declined the opportunity to escape from Germany. The only American citizen to be executed by the Nazis, her last words immediately beforehand were: “And I loved Germany so much.”
It occurs to me incidentally that I have not done much research on the Harnacks and Schulze-Boysens.
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| Arvid and Mildred Harnack, Libertas and Harro Schulze-Boysen |
One surprising aspect is that both Coppi and van Beek reported being relatively well treated in prison and by Gestapo officers. In the film there is even a scene where a Gestapo officer asks politely to touch her pregnant stomach and she agrees. In later scenes Hans Coppi and others showed clear signs of physical abuse but none of the women do. Perhaps this shows another side of the German attitudes to women in the 1930s.
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Most sources reject the notion that Rote Kapelle was a Communist-inspired organisation, pointing to the wide social and philosophical base of its 150 or so members, and cannot give a number of those who were active Communists. However it is equally clear that a large number of the leading members - around half of those listed above - had a Communist orientation and we have seen that one of their pamphlets argued in favour of a close orientation to Soviet Russia.
Both views have a measure of truth and the narrative has changed over time. With the onset of the Cold War the condemnation of the group's activities was probably as much inspired by an aversion to Communism as the accusation of treachery. For many years the relatives of Rote Kapelle members received no compensation and were unable to overturn the death sentences against the victims. Unlike in East Germany, where the Rote Kapelle were celebrated as Communist heroes, many Nazis integrated into West German society in positions of influence and there was some resistance against overturning sentences made according to the laws of the Third Reich.
More recently, the tendency has been to play down the Communist influence and emphasise the unity of purpose of a wide spectrum of individuals in opposing Hitler.
It certainly remains true that many others were drawn to Rote Kapelle because of liberal or social democratic leanings or through religious and humanistic beliefs. Perhaps it is worth remembering that the collapse of democracy after 1933 led to a highly polarised political climate in which only extremist views seemed likely to prevail and that Communism at least offered a solution that did not depend on a then non-existent parliamentary democracy. Not many could be expected to have the foresight of Professor Karl Huber (see above) in anticipating different political developments after the war.
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