Hans Coppi
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...
Red Orchestra resistance fighter against the Third Reich.
Life before World War II
Coppi, whose parents Robert and Frieda were members of the Communist Party of GermanyCommunist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956...
(KPD), was born in 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...
. From 1929 to 1932, he attended the Schulfarm Scharfenberg, a progressive
Progressivism
Progressivism is an umbrella term for a political ideology advocating or favoring social, political, and economic reform or changes. Progressivism is often viewed by some conservatives, constitutionalists, and libertarians to be in opposition to conservative or reactionary ideologies.The...
"school-farm" in Berlin's Tegel
Tegel
Tegel is a locality in the Berlin borough of Reinickendorf on the shore of Lake Tegel. The Tegel locality, the second largest in area of the 95 Berlin districts, also includes the neighbourhood of Saatwinkel.-History:...
district. During this time became a member of the "Red Pathfinders" and the Communist Youth Association of Germany
Young Communist League of Germany
The Young Communist League of Germany was a political youth organization in Germany. It was formed in 1920 from the Free Socialist Youth of the Communist Party of Germany, which itself was formed in October 1918, with support from the Spartacus League . The KJVD was created in 1925...
(KJVD).
In 1932, Coppi was expelled from the Schulfarm after supporting some students who had watched Georg Wilhelm Pabst
Georg Wilhelm Pabst
-Biography:Pabst was born in Raudnitz, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary , the son of a railroad employee.Returning from the United States, he was in France when World War I began...
's banned Franco
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...
-German solidarity
Solidarity (sociology)
Solidarity is the integration, and degree and type of integration, shown by a society or group with people and their neighbors. It refers to the ties in a society - social relations - that bind people to one another. The term is generally employed in sociology and the other social sciences.What...
film Kameradschaft
Kameradschaft
Comradeship is a dramatic film with socialist overtones directed by German director Georg Wilhelm Pabst. The French-German co-production drama is noted for combining expressionism and realism ....
. He was transferred to the Berliner Lessing-Gymnasium. In the meantime, 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...
's Nazi Party
National Socialist German Workers Party
The National Socialist German Workers' Party , commonly known in English as the Nazi Party, was a political party in Germany between 1920 and 1945. Its predecessor, the German Workers' Party , existed from 1919 to 1920...
had assumed power in Germany
Machtergreifung
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...
.
Following the Reichstag fire
Reichstag fire
The Reichstag fire was an arson attack on the Reichstag building in Berlin on 27 February 1933. The event is seen as pivotal in the establishment of Nazi Germany....
in March 1933, for which the Nazis blamed communists, Coppi took his political views and activity underground. Within a year, however, he had been arrested 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...
and sent to Oranienburg
Oranienburg
Oranienburg is a town in Brandenburg, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Oberhavel.- Geography :Oranienburg is a town located on the banks of the Havel river, 35 km north of the centre of Berlin.- Division of the town :...
concentration camp for two months without trial. He was then imprisoned for one year for handing out illegal leaflets.
After his release, Coppi found work as a lathe operator and made contact with old friends from the Schulfarm aiding victims of Nazi persecution. He continued to co-write leaflets warning of the consequences of Nazi warmongering.
World War II
At the outbreak of World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
in autumn 1939, Coppi was deemed unfit and unworthy to be a soldier. Instead, he joined Wilhelm Schürmann-Horster's resistance group and established contacts with the communist "Red Orchestra" resistance circle. He agreed to pass information about these groups' activities to 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....
by radio.
Hilde Coppi
Hilde Coppi was a German resistance fighter against the Third Reich. Together with her husband Hans Coppi, she belonged to the Red Orchestra .- Life :...
and the couple continued to aid victims of persecution and illegally relay information to and from Soviet radio. The following year, Coppi was given care of a Soviet agent
Secret Agent
Secret Agent is a British film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, loosely based on two stories in Ashenden: Or the British Agent by W. Somerset Maugham. The film starred John Gielgud, Peter Lorre, Madeleine Carroll, and Robert Young...
who had been parachuted into Germany; and, as the tide of the war turned against Nazi Germany, Coppi received papers calling him up
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
as "suitable" for service in the Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The 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:...
.
Downfall
On September 12, 1942, Coppi and his pregnant wife were arrested in Schrimm (now Śrem, Poland). His parents, brother and mother-in-law were also arrested around this time. He was convicted by the Reichskriegsgericht (the "Reich Military TribunalMilitary tribunal
A military tribunal is a kind of military court designed to try members of enemy forces during wartime, operating outside the scope of conventional criminal and civil proceedings. The judges are military officers and fulfill the role of jurors...
") and sentenced to death on December 19. Three days later, he was hanged along with fellow resistance members Arvid Harnack
Arvid Harnack
Arvid Harnack was a German jurist, economist, and resistance fighter in Nazi Germany.- Early years :...
and Harro Schulze-Boysen
Harro Schulze-Boysen
Heinz Harro Max Wilhelm Georg Schulze-Boysen was a German officer, commentator, and German Resistance fighter against German dictator Adolf Hitler's Nazi régime.- Early life :...
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.
Hilde gave birth to their son, Hans
Hans Coppi, Jr.
Dr. Hans Coppi, Jr. is a German historian. His parents, Hilde and Hans Coppi, were active in the German Resistance and were both executed by the Nazis.- Nazi victim at birth :...
, on November 27, while detained at the Barnimstrasse Women's Prison in Berlin. She was executed less than a year later, on August 5, 1943.
Sources
External links
Timeline of Coppi's life by the Deutsches Historisches MuseumDeutsches Historisches Museum
The German Historical Museum , DHM for short, is a museum in Berlin devoted to German history and defines itself as a place of enlightenment and understanding of the shared history of Germans and Europeans....
.
See also
- Zentralfriedhof FriedrichsfeldeZentralfriedhof FriedrichsfeldeThe Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery , also known as the Memorial to the Socialists , is a cemetery in the borough of Lichtenberg in Berlin. When the cemetery was founded in 1881 it was called the Freidrichsfelde Municipal Cemetery Berlin...
The Socialist Memorial