Adam von Trott zu Solz
Encyclopedia
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
and diplomat
Diplomat
A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...
who was involved in the conservative opposition to the Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
regime, and who played a central part in the 20 July Plot. He was supposed to be appointed Secretary of State in the Foreign Office
Foreign Office (Germany)
The Foreign Office is the foreign ministry of Germany, a federal agency responsible for both the country's foreign politics and its relationship with the European Union. From 1871 to 1919, it was led by a Foreign Secretary, and since 1919, it has been led by the Foreign Minister of Germany...
and lead negotiator with the western allies if the plot had succeeded.
Life
Born in PotsdamPotsdam
Potsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. It is situated on the River Havel, southwest of Berlin city centre....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, into the noble Protestant Hessian
Hesse
Hesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...
Trott zu Solz
Trott zu Solz
Trott zu Solz is a Hessian noble family and a member of the Hessian Protestant Uradel and the Old Hessian Knighthood, that is descended from the Knight Hermann Trott, mentioned in 1253. The family seat is in Solz where the family has a manor, and the family also has a castle in Imshausen. It has...
family, he was the fifth child of the Prussian Culture Minister August von Trott zu Solz
August von Trott zu Solz
August Bodo Wilhelm Clemens Paul von Trott zu Solz was a German politician.Born in Hesse-Kassel into the noble Trott zu Solz family, he became Minister of Culture of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1909 to 1917, playing a leading role in the founding of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society.He was the father of...
and Emilie Eleonore (née
Married and maiden names
A married name is the family name adopted by a person upon marriage. When a person assumes the family name of her spouse, the new name replaces the maiden name....
von Schweinitz). Adam von Trott zu Solz went to the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in 1931 on a Rhodes Scholarship
Rhodes Scholarship
The Rhodes Scholarship, named after Cecil Rhodes, is an international postgraduate award for study at the University of Oxford. It was the first large-scale programme of international scholarships, and is widely considered the "world's most prestigious scholarship" by many public sources such as...
to study at Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College , founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England but founded by a family with strong Scottish connections....
where he became a close friend of Lord David Astor
David Astor
Francis David Langhorne Astor CH was an English newspaper publisher and member of the Astor family.-Early life and career:...
son of Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor
Viscount Astor
Viscount Astor, of Hever Castle in the County of Kent, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1917 for the financier and statesman William Waldorf Astor, 1st Baron Astor. He had already been created Baron Astor, of Hever Castle in the County of Kent, in 1916, also in the...
. Following his studies at Oxford, he spent six months in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. He was a great-great-great grandson of John Jay
John Jay
John Jay was an American politician, statesman, revolutionary, diplomat, a Founding Father of the United States, and the first Chief Justice of the United States ....
, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. In 1937 Trott was posted to China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
.
He took advantage of his travels to try to raise support outside Germany for the internal resistance against the Nazis. In 1939, he lobbied Lord Lothian
Philip Kerr, 11th Marquess of Lothian
Philip Henry Kerr, 11th Marquess of Lothian KT CH PC was a British politician and diplomat.Philip Kerr was the son of Lord Ralph Drury Kerr, the third son of John Kerr, 7th Marquess of Lothian...
and Lord Halifax
E. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax
Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax, , known as The Lord Irwin from 1925 until 1934 and as The Viscount Halifax from 1934 until 1944, was one of the most senior British Conservative politicians of the 1930s, during which he held several senior ministerial posts, most notably as...
to pressure the British government to abandon its policy of appeasement
Appeasement
The term appeasement is commonly understood to refer to a diplomatic policy aimed at avoiding war by making concessions to another power. Historian Paul Kennedy defines it as "the policy of settling international quarrels by admitting and satisfying grievances through rational negotiation and...
towards Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
, visiting London three times. He also visited Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, in October of that year in an unsuccessful attempt to obtain American support.
Friends warned Trott not to return to Germany but his conviction that he had to do something to stop the madness of Hitler and his henchmen led him to return. Once there, in 1940 Trott joined the Nazi Party in order to access party information and monitor its planning. At the same time, he served as a foreign policy
Foreign policy
A country's foreign policy, also called the foreign relations policy, consists of self-interest strategies chosen by the state to safeguard its national interests and to achieve its goals within international relations milieu. The approaches are strategically employed to interact with other countries...
advisor to the clandestine group of intellectuals planning the overthrow of the Nazi regime known as the Kreisau Circle
Kreisau Circle
The Kreisau Circle was the name the Nazi Gestapo gave to a group of German dissidents centered on the Kreisau estate of Helmuth James Graf von Moltke. The Kreisauer Kreis is celebrated as one of the instances of German opposition to the Nazi regime...
.
However, during the war, Trott helped Indian leader Subhas Chandra Bose in setting up the Special Bureau for India
Special Bureau for India
The Special Bureau of India was set up by Subhash Chandra Bose under Adam von Trott zu Solz in Berlin in 1941. From here radio broadcasts were made for the Azad Hind Radio. It was also the organisational centre for the Indian National Army in Europe.....
. Bose had escaped to Germany at the onset of the war, and later raised the Indische Legion in the country.
Trott was one of the leaders of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg's plot of 20 July 1944 to assassinate
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
Hitler. He was arrested within days, placed on trial and found guilty. Sentenced to death on 15 August 1944 by the Volksgerichtshof, he was hanged in Berlin's Plötzensee Prison
Plötzensee Prison
Plötzensee Prison was a Prussian institution built in Berlin between 1869 and 1879 near the lake Plötzensee, but in the neighbouring borough of Charlottenburg, on Hüttigpfad off Saatwinkler Damm. During Adolf Hitler's time in power from 1933 to 1945, more than 2,500 people were executed at...
on 26 August.
Trott is one of five Germans who are commemorated on Balliol College's World War II memorial stone. His name is also recorded among the Rhodes Scholar war dead in the Rotunda of Rhodes House, Oxford.
Adam von Trott was survived by his wife, who was jailed for some months, and two daughters, aged 2 and 4, who were taken from their grandmother's house and given to Nazi Party families for adoption. Their mother recovered them in 1945. One daughter later became a teacher at the John F Kennedy Deutsche-Amerikanische Gemeinschaftschule in Zehlendorf, Berlin. The JFK School was created to foster understanding and similarities in both Germans and Americans growing up in the 1960s.
Quotes
- "I am also a ChristianChristianA Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
, as are those who are with me. We have prayed before the crucifixCrucifixA crucifix is an independent image of Jesus on the cross with a representation of Jesus' body, referred to in English as the corpus , as distinct from a cross with no body....
and have agreed that since we are Christians, we cannot violate the allegiance we owe GodGodGod is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
. We must therefore break our word given to him who has broken so many agreements and still is doing it. If only you knew what I know Goldmann! There is no other way! Since we are Germans and Christians we must act, and if not soon, then it will be too late. Think it over till tonight." (Adam von Trott zu Solz speaking in an attempt to recruit Lieutenant Gereon GoldmannGereon GoldmannFr. Gereon Karl Goldmann, OFM was a German Franciscan priest, a World War II veteran of the Wehrmacht, and a member of the German Resistance against Adolf Hitler.-Early life:...
, a WehrmachtWehrmachtThe Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
medicMedicMedic is a general term for a person involved in medicine, especially emergency or first-response medicine, such as an emergency medical technician, paramedic, or a military member trained in battlefield medicine. Also the term is used toward a Nurse in pre-hospital care and/or emergency...
and former Roman Catholic seminarian. Lt. Goldmann had balked at violating the soldier's oath and had questioned the morality of assassinating Adolf HitlerAdolf HitlerAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
. However, Goldmann overcame his qualms and joined the 20 July Plot as a carrier of dispatches).
Works
Adam von Trott was the author of:- Hegels Staatsphilosophie und das internationale Recht; Diss. Göttingen (V&R), 1932
Further reading
- Hedley BullHedley BullHedley Bull, FBA was Professor of International Relations at the Australian National University, the London School of Economics and the University of Oxford until his death from cancer in 1985...
, Edited by: The Challenge of the Third Reich –The Adam von Trott Memorial Lectures Oxford University Press, 1986. ISBN 0-19-821962-8 - Christabel BielenbergChristabel BielenbergChristabel Bielenberg was a British writer who was married to a German lawyer, Peter Bielenberg. She described her experiences living in Germany during the Second World War in two books: The Past is Myself and The Road Ahead...
: The Past is Myself, Corgi, 1968. ISBN 0-552-99065-5. Published in the US as When I was a German, 1934-1945, University of Nebraska Press, 1998. ISBN 0-8032-6151-9 - Shiela Grant DuffShiela Grant DuffShiela Grant Duff was a British author and foreign correspondent.-Early years:The youngest daughter of Adrian Grant Duff and The Hon.Ursula Lubbock, Shiela Grant Duff was born in the Grosvenor Square home of her maternal grandfather, Sir John Lubbock on Whit Sunday...
: Fünf Jahre bis zum Krieg (1934–1939), Verlag C.H.Beck, trans. Ekkehard Klausa, ISBN 3-406-01412-7. (In German) - Shiela Grant Duff: The Parting of Ways—A Personal Account of the Thirties, Peter Owen, 1982, ISBN 0-7206-0586-5.
- The Earl of Halifax: Fulness of Days, Collins, 1957, London.
- Michael IgnatieffMichael IgnatieffMichael Grant Ignatieff is a Canadian author, academic and former politician. He was the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and Leader of the Official Opposition from 2008 until 2011...
: A Life of Isaiah Berlin, Chatto&Windus, 1998, ISBN 0-7011-6325-9. - Diana Hopkinson: The Incense Tree, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1968, ISBN 0-7100-6236-2.
- Annedore Leber, collected by: Conscience in Revolt—Sixty-four Stories of Resistance in Germany 1933-45, Valentine, Mitchell & Co, London 1957 (Das Gewissen Steht Auf, Mosaik-Verlag, Berlin, 1954).
- Klemens von Klemperer: German Resistance Against Hitler—The search For Allies Abroad, Clarendon press, Oxford, 1992, USA under Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-821940-7.
- Klemens von Klemperer (Editor): A Noble Combat—The Letters of Shiela Grant Duff and Adam von Trott zu Solz, 1932-1939, 1988, ISBN 0-19-822908-9.
- Giles MacDonogh: A good German—Adam von Trott zu Solz, Woodstock, N.Y., Overlook Press, 1992, ISBN 0-87951-449-3.
- A. L. RowseA. L. RowseAlfred Leslie Rowse, CH, FBA , known professionally as A. L. Rowse and to friends and family as Leslie, was a British historian from Cornwall. He is perhaps best known for his work on Elizabethan England and his poetry about Cornwall. He was also a Shakespearean scholar and biographer...
: All Souls And Appeasement—A Contribution to Contemporary history, Macmillan & Co., London/New York, 1961. - A. L. RowseA. L. RowseAlfred Leslie Rowse, CH, FBA , known professionally as A. L. Rowse and to friends and family as Leslie, was a British historian from Cornwall. He is perhaps best known for his work on Elizabethan England and his poetry about Cornwall. He was also a Shakespearean scholar and biographer...
: A Man of The Thirties, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1979, ISBN 0-297-77666-5. - A. L. Rowse: A Cornishman Abroad, Jonathan Cape, 1976, ISBN 0-224-01244-4.
- Christopher Sykes: Troubled Loyalty—A biography of Adam von Trott zu Slz, Collins, London, 1968.
- Clarita von Trott zu Solz: Adam von Trott zu Solz. Eine Lebensbeschreibung. Lukas Verlag, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-86732-063-4. (In German)
- Marie VassiltchikovMarie VassiltchikovMarie Illarionovna Vassiltchikov was a Russian princess who was acquainted with some of the people who plotted to kill kill Adolf Hitler in the July 20 Plot, but was not directly involved in the plot itself.-Early life:...
(aka Maria Vasilchilkova): Berlin Diaries 1940-1945, 1988. ISBN 0-394-75777-7 (Vassiltchikov was a friend of Trott and other members of the 1944 plot) - John W. Wheeler-Bennett: The Nemesis of Power—The German Army in Politics, 1918-1945 Macmillan & Co, London/New York, 1953.
- Sir John Wheeler-BennettJohn Wheeler-BennettSir John Wheeler Wheeler-Bennett , GCVO, CMG, OBE, FBA, FRSL was a conservative English historian of German and diplomatic history, and the official biographer of King George VI.-Early career:...
: Friends, Enemies and Sovereigns—The Final Volume of his Auto-biography, MacMillan, London 1976, ISBN 0-312-30555-9.
External links
- Adam von Trott zu Solz, jewishvirtuallibrary.org
- Adam von Trott zu Solz, wiesenthal.org