Elisabeth von Thadden
Encyclopedia
Elisabeth Adelheid Hildegard von Thadden (29 July 1890 in Mohrungen, East Prussia
, now Morąg
, Poland
– 8 September 1944 in Berlin, executed) was a German
educator who founded a private school that now bears her name, and an outspoken critic of the Nazi
régime. She was put to death in the wake of the July 20 Plot
, although it appears highly unlikely that she was involved in any plot to overthrow the Nazis.
of Greifenberg (now in Poland and called Powiat Gryficki
), and Ehrengard von Gerlach (1868-1909). She was the eldest of five children. In 1905, the family moved to the Trieglaff estate in Pomerania
, where von Thadden grew up in a big family in the Christian
-Protestant spirit.
Elisabeth von Thadden's brother, Reinold von Thadden (1891-1976), grew up to be a famous theologian and jurist, and her nephew, Reinold's son Rudolf von Thadden (born 1932) is a well-known German historian. Her half-brother Adolf von Thadden
(1921-1996) rose to be the National Democratic Party
's chairman after the Second World War in West Germany
. Von Thadden herself never married, and has no direct descendants.
Upon her mother's death in 1909, von Thadden took over the running of the family estate, as well as the care of her youngest siblings. Trieglaff was also the scene of conferences organized by von Thadden and her father. These Trieglaffer Konferenzen attracted politician
s, theologians, jurist
s and scientist
s of many political stripes.
Von Thadden always felt a keen connection with her fellow human beings, and this showed up early on when, during the First World War, she made it possible for many city children to spend time in the somewhat more idyllic setting of Trieglaff.
. She attended Alice Salomon's Soziale Frauenschule where she came into contact with educational progressivism
. After training there, she got a job at a children's camp in Heuberg in the Swabian Alb
, later also gaining experience at the Hermann Lietz
and Kurt Hahn
schools. Having been offered the opportunity to lease an unoccupied stately home, Schloss Wieblingen near Heidelberg
, in 1926, von Thadden quickly found a use for it. At Easter
1927, after receiving government approval to do so, as well as obtaining the requisite monies, Schloss Wieblingen became the home of von Thadden's Evangelisches Landerziehungsheim für Mädchen, a private boarding school
for girls incorporating the Christian ethics that von Thadden had been brought up with and held dear, and Kurt Hahn's educational ideas. The initial enrolment was thirteen girls, whom von Thadden hoped to train "strictly and fairly to (be) independently thinking, emancipated women."
The 1920s were also the time when the National Socialists were rising to prominence. By the time von Thadden founded her school, Adolf Hitler
had already been released from prison after the Beerhall Putsch, and the Nazis were gaining popularity. Von Thadden herself even found a certain appeal in Nazi ideas in the beginning, but she soon decided otherwise, and came to regard the Nazis' vision for Germany
as one quite at odds with her own humanitarian views. Even so, von Thadden – along with many of her contemporaries – was quite blind at this time to the threat posed by the Nazis.
in 1933, tension between the authorities and von Thadden's school began to grow. Von Thadden disregarded official edicts and continued to enroll Jewish girls at her school, sometimes even reducing the boarding fees in special cases. She also kept seeing her Jewish friends. Von Thadden was also not shy about stating her views out loud, and for this reason she was ever more under the Gestapo
's gaze. Even a schoolgirl denounced the school to the Gestapo and the SD
in October 1940, after the school had been evacuated to Tutzing in Bavaria
because it had been too near the French
Maginot Line
. The Bavarian Culture Ministry threatened the school with closure for "activities endangering the state" because there was no portrait of Hitler hanging in the school building, and because at worship services, biblical – and therefore Jewish
– psalms
were being read. Von Thadden decided to take the school back to Wieblingen where she hoped that the school's widely acknowledged good name would keep the harassment away.
It did not, however. In May 1941, the Baden
Education Ministry saw in von Thadden's school "no satisfactory guarantee for a National-Socialist-aligned education", whereupon the school was nationalized
and Elisabeth von Thadden was unceremoniously suspended from the school's governing board without compensation.
Von Thadden went back to Berlin and joined the Red Cross as a nursing assistant. Here, according to her sister Ehrengard, she learnt, among other things, that letters reaching Germany from German prisoners of war
in the Soviet Union
had to be destroyed because Hitler believed that they would weaken morale
at the front.
, Martin Niemöller
and Elly Heuss-Knapp
and also engaged in activities such as gathering food stamps for people in hiding and affording those threatened by the régime a chance to leave the country. In doing so she either underestimated how dangerous these activities were, or acted without regard for her own safety.
She also belonged to the "Solf Circle", a group considered by the Nazis to be part of the German Resistance
. Led by an ambassador's widow and her daughter, and much like the Trieglaffer Konferenzen of von Thadden's youth, it attracted people from various walks of life with assorted political views who came to discuss pressing issues. At one such meeting on 10 September 1943, hosted by Elisabeth von Thadden, one of the guests was a Swiss
doctor named Paul Reckzeh, who, as it turned out, was a Gestapo informant. He had been sent to make contact with the Solf Circle to find traitors
to the Reich. His report to his Gestapo superiors was quite damning, leading the Gestapo to observe the participants to uncover their connections abroad. Over the next few months they were arrested, including Elisabeth von Thadden on 12 January 1944, at her post in Meaux
, France
.
There followed months of dreadful treatment and lengthy interrogation
s in various prison
s and in the penal bunker at Ravensbrück concentration camp
. On 1 July 1944, the Volksgerichtshof, over which presided Roland Freisler
, sentenced Elisabeth von Thadden to death for conspiring to commit high treason
and undermining the fighting forces (Wehrkraftzersetzung
). Ten weeks later on 8 September 1944, at 17:00, she was beheaded at Plötzensee
Prison in Berlin. Her last words were: "Put an end, Lord, to all our sufferings".
saw to it that von Thadden's body was returned to her family for cremation
. The urn was entombed after the war in the grounds of the now renamed Elisabeth-von-Thadden-Schule, the school that von Thadden founded in the 1920s, which is once again a private school in Heidelberg-Wieblingen, although it is nowadays coeducation
al (since 1982) and no longer a boarding school (since 1992). It does, however, retain a strong bond with its eponymous founder's philosophy and her memory.
East Prussia
East Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...
, now Morąg
Morag
Morag may refer to:* Morag , a lake monster reported to inhabit Loch Morar in Scotland* Morąg , a city in Warmia-Masuria, Poland...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
– 8 September 1944 in Berlin, executed) was a German
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...
educator who founded a private school that now bears her name, and an outspoken critic of 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...
régime. She was put to death in the wake 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...
, although it appears highly unlikely that she was involved in any plot to overthrow the Nazis.
Early life and family
Elisabeth von Thadden was from a long-established noble family. Her parents were Adolf von Thadden-Trieglaff (1858-1932), administrator of the KreisDistricts of Germany
The districts of Germany are known as , except in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein where they are known simply as ....
of Greifenberg (now in Poland and called Powiat Gryficki
Gryfice County
Gryfice County is a unit of territorial administration and local government in West Pomeranian Voivodeship, north-western Poland, on the Baltic coast. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its administrative seat and largest town...
), and Ehrengard von Gerlach (1868-1909). She was the eldest of five children. In 1905, the family moved to the Trieglaff estate in Pomerania
Pomerania
Pomerania is a historical region on the south shore of the Baltic Sea. Divided between Germany and Poland, it stretches roughly from the Recknitz River near Stralsund in the West, via the Oder River delta near Szczecin, to the mouth of the Vistula River near Gdańsk in the East...
, where von Thadden grew up in a big family in the Christian
Christian
A 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...
-Protestant spirit.
Elisabeth von Thadden's brother, Reinold von Thadden (1891-1976), grew up to be a famous theologian and jurist, and her nephew, Reinold's son Rudolf von Thadden (born 1932) is a well-known German historian. Her half-brother Adolf von Thadden
Adolf von Thadden
Adolf von Thadden Von Thadden was born at the noble estate of Gut Trieglaff near Greifenberg in Pomerania – was a leading far right German politician...
(1921-1996) rose to be the National Democratic Party
National Democratic Party of Germany
The National Democratic Party of Germany – The People's Union , is a far right German nationalist party. It was founded in 1964 a successor to the German Reich Party . Party statements self-identify as Germany's "only significant patriotic force"...
's chairman after the Second World War in West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
. Von Thadden herself never married, and has no direct descendants.
Upon her mother's death in 1909, von Thadden took over the running of the family estate, as well as the care of her youngest siblings. Trieglaff was also the scene of conferences organized by von Thadden and her father. These Trieglaffer Konferenzen attracted politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
s, theologians, jurist
Jurist
A jurist or jurisconsult is a professional who studies, develops, applies, or otherwise deals with the law. The term is widely used in American English, but in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth countries it has only historical and specialist usage...
s and scientist
Scientist
A scientist in a broad sense is one engaging in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the scientific method. The person may be an expert in one or more areas of science. This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word...
s of many political stripes.
Von Thadden always felt a keen connection with her fellow human beings, and this showed up early on when, during the First World War, she made it possible for many city children to spend time in the somewhat more idyllic setting of Trieglaff.
Career
In 1920, von Thadden's father remarried – her stepmother was Barbara Blank (1895-1972) – and von Thadden herself left Trieglaff to go to Berlin to pursue a career in educationEducation
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
. She attended Alice Salomon's Soziale Frauenschule where she came into contact with educational progressivism
Educational progressivism
Progressive education is a pedagogical movement that began in the late nineteenth century and has persisted in various forms to the present. More recently, it has been viewed as an alternative to the test-oriented instruction legislated by the No Child Left Behind educational funding act...
. After training there, she got a job at a children's camp in Heuberg in the Swabian Alb
Swabian Alb
The Swabian Alps or Swabian Jura is a low mountain range in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, extending 220 km from southwest to northeast and 40 to 70 km in width. It is named after the region of Swabia....
, later also gaining experience at the Hermann Lietz
Hermann Lietz
Hermann Lietz was a German educational progressive and theologian who founded the German Landerziehungsheime für Jungen. Basing his schools on the model of the English Abbotsholme School, he emphasized sports and crafts along with modern languages and science while deemphasizing rote learning and...
and Kurt Hahn
Kurt Hahn
Kurt Martin Hahn was a German educator whose philosophies are considered internationally influential.-Biography:...
schools. Having been offered the opportunity to lease an unoccupied stately home, Schloss Wieblingen near Heidelberg
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
, in 1926, von Thadden quickly found a use for it. At Easter
Easter
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...
1927, after receiving government approval to do so, as well as obtaining the requisite monies, Schloss Wieblingen became the home of von Thadden's Evangelisches Landerziehungsheim für Mädchen, a private boarding school
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
for girls incorporating the Christian ethics that von Thadden had been brought up with and held dear, and Kurt Hahn's educational ideas. The initial enrolment was thirteen girls, whom von Thadden hoped to train "strictly and fairly to (be) independently thinking, emancipated women."
The 1920s were also the time when the National Socialists were rising to prominence. By the time von Thadden founded her school, 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...
had already been released from prison after the Beerhall Putsch, and the Nazis were gaining popularity. Von Thadden herself even found a certain appeal in Nazi ideas in the beginning, but she soon decided otherwise, and came to regard the Nazis' vision for 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...
as one quite at odds with her own humanitarian views. Even so, von Thadden – along with many of her contemporaries – was quite blind at this time to the threat posed by the Nazis.
Third Reich
After the Nazis seized powerMachtergreifung
Machtergreifung is a German word meaning "seizure of power". It is normally used specifically to refer to the Nazi takeover of power in the democratic Weimar Republic on 30 January 1933, the day Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany, turning it into the Nazi German dictatorship.-Term:The...
in 1933, tension between the authorities and von Thadden's school began to grow. Von Thadden disregarded official edicts and continued to enroll Jewish girls at her school, sometimes even reducing the boarding fees in special cases. She also kept seeing her Jewish friends. Von Thadden was also not shy about stating her views out loud, and for this reason she was ever more under 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...
's gaze. Even a schoolgirl denounced the school to the Gestapo and the SD
Sicherheitsdienst
Sicherheitsdienst , full title Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS, or SD, was the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. The organization was the first Nazi Party intelligence organization to be established and was often considered a "sister organization" with the...
in October 1940, after the school had been evacuated to Tutzing in Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
because it had been too near the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Maginot Line
Maginot Line
The Maginot Line , named after the French Minister of War André Maginot, was a line of concrete fortifications, tank obstacles, artillery casemates, machine gun posts, and other defences, which France constructed along its borders with Germany and Italy, in light of its experience in World War I,...
. The Bavarian Culture Ministry threatened the school with closure for "activities endangering the state" because there was no portrait of Hitler hanging in the school building, and because at worship services, biblical – and therefore Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
– psalms
Psalms
The Book of Psalms , commonly referred to simply as Psalms, is a book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible...
were being read. Von Thadden decided to take the school back to Wieblingen where she hoped that the school's widely acknowledged good name would keep the harassment away.
It did not, however. In May 1941, the Baden
Baden
Baden is a historical state on the east bank of the Rhine in the southwest of Germany, now the western part of the Baden-Württemberg of Germany....
Education Ministry saw in von Thadden's school "no satisfactory guarantee for a National-Socialist-aligned education", whereupon the school was nationalized
Nationalization
Nationalisation, also spelled nationalization, is the process of taking an industry or assets into government ownership by a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being...
and Elisabeth von Thadden was unceremoniously suspended from the school's governing board without compensation.
Von Thadden went back to Berlin and joined the Red Cross as a nursing assistant. Here, according to her sister Ehrengard, she learnt, among other things, that letters reaching Germany from German prisoners of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
had to be destroyed because Hitler believed that they would weaken morale
Morale
Morale, also known as esprit de corps when discussing the morale of a group, is an intangible term used to describe the capacity of people to maintain belief in an institution or a goal, or even in oneself and others...
at the front.
Arrest and execution
Von Thadden developed contacts with opponents of the Nazi régime such as Helmut GollwitzerHelmut Gollwitzer
Helmut Gollwitzer was a Protestant theologian and author.Born in Bavaria, Gollwitzer studied Protestant theology in Munich, Erlangen, Jena and Bonn ; he later completed a doctorate under Karl Barth in Basel , writing on the understanding of the eucharist in Martin Luther and John Calvin.During...
, Martin Niemöller
Martin Niemöller
Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemöller was a German anti-Nazi theologian and Lutheran pastor. He is best known as the author of the poem "First they came…"....
and Elly Heuss-Knapp
Elly Heuss-Knapp
Elisabeth Eleonore Anna Justine "Elly" Heuss-Knapp, née Knapp was a German liberal politician, author and wife of Theodor Heuss—from 1949 until her death...
and also engaged in activities such as gathering food stamps for people in hiding and affording those threatened by the régime a chance to leave the country. In doing so she either underestimated how dangerous these activities were, or acted without regard for her own safety.
She also belonged to the "Solf Circle", a group considered by the Nazis to be part of the German Resistance
German Resistance
The German resistance was the opposition by individuals and groups in Germany to Adolf Hitler or the National Socialist regime between 1933 and 1945. Some of these engaged in active plans to remove Adolf Hitler from power and overthrow his regime...
. Led by an ambassador's widow and her daughter, and much like the Trieglaffer Konferenzen of von Thadden's youth, it attracted people from various walks of life with assorted political views who came to discuss pressing issues. At one such meeting on 10 September 1943, hosted by Elisabeth von Thadden, one of the guests was a Swiss
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
doctor named Paul Reckzeh, who, as it turned out, was a Gestapo informant. He had been sent to make contact with the Solf Circle to find traitors
Treason
In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...
to the Reich. His report to his Gestapo superiors was quite damning, leading the Gestapo to observe the participants to uncover their connections abroad. Over the next few months they were arrested, including Elisabeth von Thadden on 12 January 1944, at her post in Meaux
Meaux
Meaux is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located east-northeast from the center of Paris. Meaux is a sub-prefecture of the department and the seat of an arondissement...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
There followed months of dreadful treatment and lengthy interrogation
Interrogation
Interrogation is interviewing as commonly employed by officers of the police, military, and Intelligence agencies with the goal of extracting a confession or obtaining information. Subjects of interrogation are often the suspects, victims, or witnesses of a crime...
s in various prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
s and in the penal bunker at 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 ....
. On 1 July 1944, the Volksgerichtshof, over which presided 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...
, sentenced Elisabeth von Thadden to death for conspiring to commit 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...
and undermining the fighting forces (Wehrkraftzersetzung
Wehrkraftzersetzung
Wehrkraftzersetzung is a term from German military law during the Third Reich. In 1938, with Adolf Hitler moving Germany closer to war, the Nazi government issued a decree for the purpose of suppressing any expression or activity opposed to the Nazi regime or the Wehrmacht...
). Ten weeks later on 8 September 1944, at 17:00, she was beheaded at Plötzensee
Plötzensee
Plötzensee is a small glacial lake in Berlin. It is situated near the Rehberge public park in the former borough of Wedding, now a part of Mitte. The name stems from Plötze, one name for the roach in German, as the lake formerly teemed with it....
Prison in Berlin. Her last words were: "Put an end, Lord, to all our sufferings".
Legacy
A doctor from CharitéCharité
The Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin is the medical school for both the Humboldt University and the Free University of Berlin. After the merger with their fourth campus in 2003, the Charité is one of the largest university hospitals in Europe....
saw to it that von Thadden's body was returned to her family for cremation
Cremation
Cremation is the process of reducing bodies to basic chemical compounds such as gasses and bone fragments. This is accomplished through high-temperature burning, vaporization and oxidation....
. The urn was entombed after the war in the grounds of the now renamed Elisabeth-von-Thadden-Schule, the school that von Thadden founded in the 1920s, which is once again a private school in Heidelberg-Wieblingen, although it is nowadays coeducation
Coeducation
Mixed-sex education, also known as coeducation or co-education, is the integrated education of male and female persons in the same institution. It is the opposite of single-sex education...
al (since 1982) and no longer a boarding school (since 1992). It does, however, retain a strong bond with its eponymous founder's philosophy and her memory.
External links
- Picture and brief biography at Metropolitan State College of Denver
- Eine Christin in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus by Barbara Hohmann, with another picture (in German)
- Elisabeth von Thadden at Oberreut Citizens' Club (in German)
- Elisabeth-von-Thadden-Schule website; includes picture of the Schloss (in German)
- Elisabeth-von-Thadden-Straße in Karlsruhe (in German)