Heinz Harro Max Wilhelm Georg Schulze-Boysen (2 September 1909 – 22 December 1942) 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...

 officer, commentator, and 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...

 fighter against German dictator 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 régime

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...

.

Early life

Schulze-Boysen was born in Kiel

Kiel

Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...

 as the son of decorated naval

Navy

A navy is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake- or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions...

 officer Erich Edgar Schulze. His mother was Marie Luise (née Boysen). On his father's side, he also counted Grand Admiral

Grand Admiral

Grand admiral is a historic naval rank, generally being the highest such rank present in any particular country. Its most notable use was in Germany — the German word is Großadmiral.-France:...

 Alfred von Tirpitz

Alfred von Tirpitz

Alfred von Tirpitz was a German Admiral, Secretary of State of the German Imperial Naval Office, the powerful administrative branch of the German Imperial Navy from 1897 until 1916. Prussia never had a major navy, nor did the other German states before the German Empire was formed in 1871...

 among his kin. He had sister, Helga (born 1910) and brother, Hartmut (born 1922).

He spent his youth in Duisburg

Duisburg

- History :A legend recorded by Johannes Aventinus holds that Duisburg, was built by the eponymous Tuisto, mythical progenitor of Germans, ca. 2395 BC...

. In 1923, when he was 14, he found himself in the middle of the occupation of the Ruhr

Ruhr

The Ruhr is a medium-size river in western Germany , a right tributary of the Rhine.-Description:The source of the Ruhr is near the town of Winterberg in the mountainous Sauerland region, at an elevation of approximately 2,200 feet...

 by 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...

 and Belgian

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 troops. Schulze-Boysen's participation in the struggle against the occupiers brought about his swift arrest by the French.

Political activities

In 1928, he joined the Jungdeutscher Orden, a youth organization in the Weimar Republic

Weimar Republic

The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...

 and the Studentenverbindung

Studentenverbindung

A Studentenverbindung is a student corporation in a German-speaking country somewhat comparable to fraternities in the US or Canada, but mostly older and going back to other kinds of...

Albingia. He studied law in Freiburg

Freiburg

Freiburg im Breisgau is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. In the extreme south-west of the country, it straddles the Dreisam river, at the foot of the Schlossberg. Historically, the city has acted as the hub of the Breisgau region on the western edge of the Black Forest in the Upper Rhine Plain...

 (Baden-Württemberg

Baden-Württemberg

Baden-Württemberg is one of the 16 states of Germany. Baden-Württemberg is in the southwestern part of the country to the east of the Upper Rhine, and is the third largest in both area and population of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of and 10.7 million inhabitants...

), and Berlin, without finishing. In 1930, he supported an intellectual-nationalistic group called the Volksnationale Reichsvereinigung ("People's National Imperial Union"), had contacts with the French magazine Plans in 1931, which sought the establishment of a Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

-wide collective economic system. The same year, he published the left-liberal Der Gegner founded by Franz Jung and modelled on Plans. Although he was leaning towards the political left, he maintained his contacts to nationalistic circles.

In 1932, he organized the Treffen der revolutionären Jugend Europas ("Meeting of Europe's Revolutionary Youth"), with over a hundred participants. He also advocated the abolition of the capitalist

Capitalism

Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...

 system, and the liquidation of the Diktat of Versailles

Treaty of Versailles

The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...

.

In April 1933, the offices of Der Gegner were destroyed by Brown Shirt

Sturmabteilung

The Sturmabteilung functioned as a paramilitary organization of the National Socialist German Workers' Party . It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s...

 thugs, and Schulze-Boysen was roughed up, had crooked crosses scratched in his skin, and was held in confinement for several days. He was released after his parents intervened. In May 1933 he began pilot training at Warnemünde

Warnemünde

Warnemünde is a sea resort and northmost district of Rostock in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, situated on the Baltic Sea in the northeast of Germany at the estuary of the river Warnow.- History :...

 and from 1934 he was working in the communications department of the Reich Air Transport Ministry (Reichsluftfahrtministerium) in Berlin.

Resistance activities

Beginning in 1935, he gathered around himself a circle of left-leaning anti-fascists, among them artist

Artist

An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...

s, pacifists, and Communists. The circle published anti-fascist writings. In 1936, he married Libertas Haas-Heye

Libertas Schulze-Boysen

Libertas Schulze-Boysen, born Libertas Viktoria Haas-Heye was a German opponent of the Nazis who belonged to the Red Orchestra resistance group during the Third Reich.- Early years :Schulze-Boysen spent her childhood at her grandfather's estate Philip, Prince of Eulenburg and Hertefeld...

, a press officer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...

, who likewise joined the resistance group. In 1936, Schulze-Boysen made contact with Arvid Harnack

Arvid Harnack

Arvid Harnack was a German jurist, economist, and resistance fighter in Nazi Germany.- Early years :...

 and his circle, and also with the Communists Hilde

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 Hans Coppi

Hans Coppi

Hans Coppi was a German Red Orchestra resistance fighter against the Third Reich.- Life before World War II :...

. From these meetings arose what 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...

 called the Red Orchestra (Rote Kapelle) group.

In 1940-1941, the group was in wireless

Wireless

Wireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications...

 contact with Soviet agents, and was thereby trying to thwart the forthcoming German aggression upon 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....

. (As a first lieutenant on the Luftwaffe

Luftwaffe

Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....

 Leadership Staff, Schulze-Boysen had access to secret documents.)

Arrest and death

In July 1942, the Decryption Department of the Oberkommando des Heeres managed to decode the group's radio messages, and 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...

 pounced. On 31 August, Harro and Libertas Schulze-Boysen were arrested. They were sentenced to death on 19 December and executed three days later at 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...

 in Berlin.

Memorials

In the Berlin borough of Lichtenberg

Lichtenberg

Lichtenberg is the eleventh borough of Berlin, Germany. In Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it absorbed the former borough of Hohenschönhausen.-Overview:...

 in 1972, a street is named after the Schulze-Boysens (see link below). There are stolpersteine

Stolpersteine

Stolperstein is the German word for "stumbling block", "obstacle", or "something in the way". The artist Gunter Demnig has given this word a new meaning, that of a small, cobblestone-sized memorial for a single victim of Nazism...

 for them in the Dellviertel quarter of Duisburg, at Karl-Lehr-Straße 9.

In the picture at right appear the following lines:

"Wenn wir auch sterben sollen,

So wissen wir: Die Saat

Geht auf. Wenn Köpfe rollen, dann

Zwingt doch der Geist den Staat."

"Glaubt mit mir an die gerechte Zeit, die alles reifen lässt!"

"Even if we should die,

We know this: The seed

Bears fruit. If heads roll, then

The spirit nevertheless forces the state."

"Believe with me in the just time that lets everything ripen."

External links

• Lebendiges Museum Online
• Berlingeschichte.de: Schulze-Boysen-Straße (both in German)

Sources

• Harro Schulze-Boysen: Gegner von heute – Kampfgenossen von morgen. (Erstauflage 1932); Fölbach Verlag, Koblenz 1994, 4. Auflage ISBN 3-923532-24-5
• Elsa Boysen: Harro Schulze-Boysen – Das Bild eines Freiheitskämpfers. (Erstauflage 1947), Fölbach Verlag, Koblenz 1992, ISBN 3-923532-17-2
• Shareen Blair Brysac: Mildred Harnack und die „Rote Kapelle“. Die Geschichte einer ungewöhnlichen Frau und einer Widerstandsbewegung. Scherz-Verlag, Bern 2003, ISBN 3-502-18090-3
• Hans Coppi: Harro Schulze-Boysen – Wege in den Widerstand, Fölbach Verlag, Koblenz 1995, 2. Auflage, ISBN 3-923532-28-8
• Hans Coppi: Harro Schulze-Boysen und Alexandre Marc. Die Gruppe Ordre Nouveau und der Gegner-Kreis. Oder: Der Versuch, die deutsch-französischen Beziehungen auf neue Grundlagen zu stellen. In: Ferdinand Kinsky / Franz Knipping (Hrsg.): Le fédéralisme personnaliste aux sources de l'Europe de demain. Der personalistische Föderalismus und die Zukunft Europas. Schriftenreihe des Europäischen Zentrums für Föderalismus-Forschung Tübingen, Band 7. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft: Baden-Baden 1996 S. 153–167
• Hans Coppi, Geertje Andresen (Hrsg.): Dieser Tod paßt zu mir. Harro Schulze-Boysen - Grenzgänger im Widerstand. Briefe 1915-1942, Aufbau Taschenbuch Verlag, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-7466-8093-X
• Alexander Bahar: Sozialrevolutionärer Nationalismus zwischen Konservativer Revolution und Sozialismus – Harro Schulze-Boysen und der GEGNER-Kreis. Fölbach Verlag, Koblenz 1992, ISBN 978-3-923532-18-6
• Silke Kettelhake: Erzähl allen, allen von mir! Droemer Knaur, 2008. 432 Seiten. ISBN 342627437X (Biographie der Ehefrau)
• Karl Otto Paetel: Nationalbolschewismus und nationalrevolutionaere Bewegungen in Deutschland. „Der Gegnerkreis“ S.189 bis S.205, Verlag Siegfried Bublies, Schnellbach 1999, ISBN 3-926584-49-1
• Gert Rosiejka: Die Rote Kapelle. „Landesverrat“ als antifaschistischer Widerstand. – Mit einer Einführung von Heinrich Scheel. ergebnisse, Hamburg 1986, ISBN 3-925622-16-0