Constantin von Dietze
Encyclopedia
Friedrich Carl Nicolaus Constantin von Dietze (9 August 1891 in Gottesgnaden
- 18 March 1973 in Freiburg im Breisgau) was an agronomist
, lawyer
, economist
, and theologian. He was a member of both the Confessing Church
and the "Freiburg Circle" during the Nazi era.
Constantin von Dietze and his wife Johanna (Gündell) von Dietze. His grandfather, Adolf von Dietze-Barby, was a close friend of Otto von Bismarck
and a conservative member of the Prussian
House of Representatives.
Von Dietze attended the Landesschule Pforta
and studied law
with the intention of someday working either in administration or foreign affairs
. He attended the universities of Cambridge
, Tübingen, and Halle an der Saale
. After a year of voluntary military service, Dietze entered World War I
as a lieutenant
. He was captured by the Russians
in 1915 and taken to a detention camp
in Siberia
, where he learned Russian
and began reading economic works. He was released three years later following the Russian Revolution and returned to Germany.
After returning to Germany von Dietze resumed his studies at the University of Breslau, where he received a doctorate in political science in 1919 for his work on Stolypinian land reform
.
, and Jena. On 1 April 1933 he left the University of Jena and moved to Berlin
as the successor to economist Max Sering at the University of Berlin. During his first year in Berlin von Dietze came in contact with many leading politicians including Hanns Kerrl
and Roland Freisler
.
Von Dietze wasted little time establishing himself as an opponent of the Nazi regime
, joining the Confessing Church
and consistently voicing his disapproval of the policies of Reich
Minister of Food Richard Walther Darré. As a result, the Institute for Agricultural and Housing Engineering was closed by the Nazis in 1934.
As President of the Verein für Socialpolitik
von Dietze acted directly against the Nazi Regime by granting a Jewish doctoral candidate his doctorate in 1935.
After moving to Freiburg im Breisgau in 1936 to replace Karl Diehl at the University of Freiburg, von Dietze became increasingly involved in the Confessing Church
's opposition to the Nazis. He was arrested and held in captivity by the Gestapo
for two weeks in 1937 after a conflict with the "German Christians
" in which he informed visitors attending the church of the arrest of the Confessing Church's pastor and subsequent replacement with a pastor for the "German Christians."
In 1938 von Dietze worked with Adolf Lampe and Walter Eucken
to found the "Arbeitsgemeinschaft Erwin von Beckerath", which would later become the Freiburger Kreis. Through this group von Dietze would come in direct contact with Carl Friedrich Goerdeler
and Dietrich Bonhoeffer
.
After the failure of the July 20 plot
von Dietze was arrested for his relationship with Goerdeler and Bonhoeffer and charged with high treason
. He was imprisoned in Ravensbrück concentration camp
and Zellengefängnis Lehrter Straße 3 in Berlin. His impending conviction and death sentence were impeded only by the collapse of the Third Reich
, making him one of the few political prisoners who avoided being executed in the Plötzensee Prison
.
In 1948 von Dietze received an honorary doctorate
in Theology from the University of Heidelberg for his commitment to christian lifestyle and ethics in the field of economics. He became a member of the advisory council to the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection in 1950 and served as president of the Evangelical Church in Germany
from 1955 until 1961.
In 1958 and 1961 he was awarded a Bundesverdienstkreuz.
In 1960 von Dietze was named Doctor of Agriculture by the agricultural faculty at the University of Bonn
.
Von Dietze died on 18 March 1973 at the age of 81 in Freiburg im Breisgau
Calbe
Calbe is a town in the district of Salzlandkreis, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.It is situated on the Saale River, approx. north of Bernburg, and southeast of Magdeburg. It is known as Calbe an der Saale, to distinguish it from the smaller town of Kalbe on the Milde in the same state. Pop...
- 18 March 1973 in Freiburg im Breisgau) was an agronomist
Agronomist
An agronomist is a scientist who specializes in agronomy, which is the science of utilizing plants for food, fuel, feed, and fiber. An agronomist is an expert in agricultural and allied sciences, with the exception veterinary sciences.Agronomists deal with interactions between plants, soils, and...
, 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...
, economist
Economist
An economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...
, and theologian. He was a member of both the Confessing Church
Confessing Church
The Confessing Church was a Protestant schismatic church in Nazi Germany that arose in opposition to government-sponsored efforts to nazify the German Protestant church.-Demographics:...
and the "Freiburg Circle" during the Nazi era.
Early life and World War I
Freidrich Carl Nicolaus Constantin von Dietze was born on 9 August 1891 to former RittmeisterRittmeister
Rotamaster was the military rank of a commissioned cavalry officer in charge of a squadron , the equivalent of O3 or Captain, in the German-speaking armies, Austro-Hungarian, Polish-Lithuanian, Russian and some other states.The exact name of this rank maintains a variety of spellings in different...
Constantin von Dietze and his wife Johanna (Gündell) von Dietze. His grandfather, Adolf von Dietze-Barby, was a close friend of Otto von Bismarck
Otto von Bismarck
Otto Eduard Leopold, Prince of Bismarck, Duke of Lauenburg , simply known as Otto von Bismarck, was a Prussian-German statesman whose actions unified Germany, made it a major player in world affairs, and created a balance of power that kept Europe at peace after 1871.As Minister President of...
and a conservative member of the Prussian
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...
House of Representatives.
Von Dietze attended the Landesschule Pforta
Pforta
Pforta, or Schulpforta, is a former Cistercian monastery, Pforta Abbey , near Naumburg on the Saale River in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is now a celebrated German public boarding school, called Landesschule Pforta...
and studied law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
with the intention of someday working either in administration or foreign affairs
Foreign Affairs
Foreign Affairs is an American magazine and website on international relations and U.S. foreign policy published since 1922 by the Council on Foreign Relations six times annually...
. He attended the universities of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
, Tübingen, and Halle an der Saale
University of Halle-Wittenberg
The Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg , also referred to as MLU, is a public, research-oriented university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg within Saxony-Anhalt, Germany...
. After a year of voluntary military service, Dietze entered World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
as a lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
. He was captured by the Russians
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
in 1915 and taken to a detention camp
Internment
Internment is the imprisonment or confinement of people, commonly in large groups, without trial. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the meaning as: "The action of 'interning'; confinement within the limits of a country or place." Most modern usage is about individuals, and there is a distinction...
in Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
, where he learned Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
and began reading economic works. He was released three years later following the Russian Revolution and returned to Germany.
After returning to Germany von Dietze resumed his studies at the University of Breslau, where he received a doctorate in political science in 1919 for his work on Stolypinian land reform
Pyotr Stolypin
Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin served as the leader of the 3rd DUMA—from 1906 to 1911. His tenure was marked by efforts to repress revolutionary groups, as well as for the institution of noteworthy agrarian reforms. Stolypin hoped, through his reforms, to stem peasant unrest by creating a class of...
.
Opposition to the Nazis
Throughout the 1920s von Dietze worked as a professor at the universities of Göttingen, RostockUniversity of Rostock
The University of Rostock is the university of the city Rostock, in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.Founded in 1419, it is the oldest and largest university in continental northern Europe and the Baltic Sea area...
, and Jena. On 1 April 1933 he left the University of Jena and moved to Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
as the successor to economist Max Sering at the University of Berlin. During his first year in Berlin von Dietze came in contact with many leading politicians including Hanns Kerrl
Hanns Kerrl
Hanns Kerrl was a German Nazi politician. His most prominent position, from July 1935, was that of Reichsminister of Church Affairs...
and Roland Freisler
Roland Freisler
Roland Freisler was a prominent and notorious Nazi lawyer and judge. He was State Secretary of the Reich Ministry of Justice and President of the People's Court , which was set up outside constitutional authority...
.
Von Dietze wasted little time establishing himself as an opponent of the Nazi regime
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
, joining the Confessing Church
Confessing Church
The Confessing Church was a Protestant schismatic church in Nazi Germany that arose in opposition to government-sponsored efforts to nazify the German Protestant church.-Demographics:...
and consistently voicing his disapproval of the policies of Reich
Reich
Reich is a German word cognate with the English rich, but also used to designate an empire, realm, or nation. The qualitative connotation from the German is " sovereign state." It is the word traditionally used for a variety of sovereign entities, including Germany in many periods of its history...
Minister of Food Richard Walther Darré. As a result, the Institute for Agricultural and Housing Engineering was closed by the Nazis in 1934.
As President of the Verein für Socialpolitik
Verein für Socialpolitik
The Verein für Socialpolitik is an important society of economists in the German-speaking area. The Society, which covers all branches of economics was founded in 1873. Among its members were eminent economists like Gustav von Schmoller and Adolph Wagner.It annually awards the Gossen Prize to...
von Dietze acted directly against the Nazi Regime by granting a Jewish doctoral candidate his doctorate in 1935.
After moving to Freiburg im Breisgau in 1936 to replace Karl Diehl at the University of Freiburg, von Dietze became increasingly involved in the Confessing Church
Confessing Church
The Confessing Church was a Protestant schismatic church in Nazi Germany that arose in opposition to government-sponsored efforts to nazify the German Protestant church.-Demographics:...
's opposition to the Nazis. He was arrested and held in captivity by the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
for two weeks in 1937 after a conflict with the "German Christians
German Christians
The Deutsche Christen were a pressure group and movement within German Protestantism aligned towards the antisemitic and Führerprinzip ideological principles of Nazism with the goal to align German Protestantism as a whole towards those principles...
" in which he informed visitors attending the church of the arrest of the Confessing Church's pastor and subsequent replacement with a pastor for the "German Christians."
In 1938 von Dietze worked with Adolf Lampe and Walter Eucken
Walter Eucken
Walter Eucken was a German economist and father of ordoliberalism. His name is closely linked with the development of the "social market economy".-Life:...
to found the "Arbeitsgemeinschaft Erwin von Beckerath", which would later become the Freiburger Kreis. Through this group von Dietze would come in direct contact with Carl Friedrich Goerdeler
Carl Friedrich Goerdeler
Carl Friedrich Goerdeler was a monarchist conservative German politician, executive, economist, civil servant and opponent of the Nazi regime...
and Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian and martyr. He was a participant in the German resistance movement against Nazism and a founding member of the Confessing Church. He was involved in plans by members of the Abwehr to assassinate Adolf Hitler...
.
After the failure of the July 20 plot
July 20 Plot
On 20 July 1944, an attempt was made to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Führer of the Third Reich, inside his Wolf's Lair field headquarters near Rastenburg, East Prussia. The plot was the culmination of the efforts of several groups in the German Resistance to overthrow the Nazi-led German government...
von Dietze was arrested for his relationship with Goerdeler and Bonhoeffer and charged with high treason
High treason
High treason is criminal disloyalty to one's government. Participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplomats, or its secret services for a hostile and foreign power, or attempting to kill its head of state are perhaps...
. He was imprisoned in Ravensbrück concentration camp
Ravensbrück concentration camp
Ravensbrück was a notorious women's concentration camp during World War II, located in northern Germany, 90 km north of Berlin at a site near the village of Ravensbrück ....
and Zellengefängnis Lehrter Straße 3 in Berlin. His impending conviction and death sentence were impeded only by the collapse of the Third Reich
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
, making him one of the few political prisoners who avoided being executed in the 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...
.
Post-war
After returning to Freiburg on 17 June 1945, von Dietze resumed teaching at the university and served as Rector from 1946 until 1949. During this time he founded a research society for agricultural politics and sociology, of which he was the president until his death.In 1948 von Dietze received an honorary doctorate
Honorary degree
An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations...
in Theology from the University of Heidelberg for his commitment to christian lifestyle and ethics in the field of economics. He became a member of the advisory council to the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection in 1950 and served as president of the Evangelical Church in Germany
Evangelical Church in Germany
The Evangelical Church in Germany is a federation of 22 Lutheran, Unified and Reformed Protestant regional church bodies in Germany. The EKD is not a church in a theological understanding because of the denominational differences. However, the member churches share full pulpit and altar...
from 1955 until 1961.
In 1958 and 1961 he was awarded a Bundesverdienstkreuz.
In 1960 von Dietze was named Doctor of Agriculture by the agricultural faculty at the University of Bonn
University of Bonn
The University of Bonn is a public research university located in Bonn, Germany. Founded in its present form in 1818, as the linear successor of earlier academic institutions, the University of Bonn is today one of the leading universities in Germany. The University of Bonn offers a large number...
.
Von Dietze died on 18 March 1973 at the age of 81 in Freiburg im Breisgau
Further reading
- Blesgen, Detlef J. (2004). "Constantin von Dietze." Christliche Demokraten gegen Hitler: Aus Verfolgung und Widerstand zur Union. Ed. Buchstab, Günter; Kaff, Brigitte; Kleinmann, Hans-Otto. Freiburg, Germany: Herder, 2004. 123-130. Print. ISBN 978-3451208058