Dr. jur. Friedrich Adam* von Trott zu Solz

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_von_Trott_zu_Solz

Adam von Trott zu Solz (9 August 1909 – 26 August 1944) was a German lawyer and diplomat who was involved in the conservative opposition to the Nazi 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 and lead negotiator with the western allies if the plot had succeeded.

Life

Born in Potsdam, Germany, into the noble Protestant Hessian Trott zu Solz family, he was the fifth child of the Prussian Culture Minister August von Trott zu Solz and Emilie Eleonore (née von Schweinitz). Adam von Trott zu Solz went to the UK in 1931 on a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Mansfield College, Oxford where he became a close friend of the Hon. David Astor son of Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor. Following his studies at Oxford, he spent six months in the United States. He was a great-great-great grandson of John Jay, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. In 1937 Trott was posted to China.

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 and Lord Halifax to pressure the British government to abandon its policy of appeasement towards Adolf Hitler, visiting London three times. He also visited Washington, D.C., 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 advisor to the clandestine group of intellectuals planning the overthrow of the Nazi regime known as the Kreisau Circle.

However, during the war, Trott helped Indian leader Subhas Chandra Bose in setting up the Special Bureau for India. 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 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 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 Christian, as are those who are with me. We have prayed before the crucifix and have agreed that since we are Christians, we cannot violate the allegiance we owe God. 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 Goldmann, a Wehrmacht medic and former Roman Catholic seminarian. Lt. Goldmann had balked at violating the soldier's oath and had questioned the morality of assassinating Adolf Hitler. 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

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_von_Trott_zu_Solz

• Trott wurde am 25.juli verhaftet und nach endlosen Verhören, auch unter Anvendung der Folter, am 15. August vom "Volksgerichtshof" zum Tode veruteilt. Nach elftägiger Haft in volliger Isolation wurde Adam von Trott zu Solz am 26. August 1944 in geheimen in Berlin-Plötzensee hingerichtet. Er war gerade 35 Jahre alt.

Adam von Trott zu Solz (9 August 1909 – 26 August 1944) was a German lawyer and diplomat who was involved in the conservative opposition to the Nazi 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 and lead negotiator with the western allies if the plot had succeeded.

Life

Born in Potsdam, Germany, into the noble Protestant Hessian Trott zu Solz family, he was the fifth child of the Prussian Culture Minister August von Trott zu Solz and Emilie Eleonore (née von Schweinitz). Adam von Trott zu Solz went to the UK in 1931 on a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Mansfield College, Oxford where he became a close friend of the Hon. David Astor son of Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor. Following his studies at Oxford, he spent six months in the United States. He was a great-great-great grandson of John Jay, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. In 1937 Trott was posted to China.

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 and Lord Halifax to pressure the British government to abandon its policy of appeasement towards Adolf Hitler, visiting London three times. He also visited Washington, D.C., 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 advisor to the clandestine group of intellectuals planning the overthrow of the Nazi regime known as the Kreisau Circle.

However, during the war, Trott helped Indian leader Subhas Chandra Bose in setting up the Special Bureau for India. 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 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 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 Christian, as are those who are with me. We have prayed before the crucifix and have agreed that since we are Christians, we cannot violate the allegiance we owe God. 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 Goldmann, a Wehrmacht medic and former Roman Catholic seminarian. Lt. Goldmann had balked at violating the soldier's oath and had questioned the morality of assassinating Adolf Hitler. 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

Als fünftes Kind des preußischen Kultusministers August von Trott zu Solz am 09. August 1909 in Potsdam geboren, wächst Adam von Trott in Berlin, Kassel und auf dem hessischen Familiengut Imshausen in einem geistig offenen Klima auf. Ab 1927 studiert er Rechtswissenschaft in München, Berlin und Göttingen. Nach der Promotion tritt er ein Rhodes-Stipendium in Oxford an und gewinnt einen großen englischen Freundeskreis. Er studiert „PPE“ (Politik, Philosophie, Volkswirtschaft) und setzt ab 1933 in Deutschland seine juristische Referendarausbildung fort. 1936 legt er das Assessorexamen ab. Er hält Verbindungen zum sozialistischen Untergrund. 1937/38 verbringt er ein Jahr als Rhodes-Stipendiat in China. Seine zahlreichen Auslandsaufenthalte prägen ihn stark. Nach Deutschland zurückgekehrt, nimmt er mit anderen Regimegegnern Kontakt auf, unter ihnen Helmuth James Graf von Moltke und Hans von Dohnanyi, und versucht 1939, die englische Regierung zur Zusammenarbeit zu gewinnen. Nach Kriegsbeginn wirbt er in den USA für den deutschen Widerstand und wird 1940 Mitarbeiter in der Informationsabteilung des Auswärtigen Amtes, später Leiter des Indienreferats und 1943 Legationsrat. Von 1942 bis 1944 reist er häufig in die Schweiz und nach Schweden und bemüht sich um Kontakte zu den Alliierten, um den geplanten Umsturz außenpolitisch abzusichern. Als zentrales Mitglied des Kreisauer Kreises leitet er Pfingsten 1943 auf der dritten Kreisauer Haupttagung die Diskussion über die Grundlagen künftiger deutscher Außenpolitik. Ab Herbst 1943 arbeitet er eng mit Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg und Julius Leber zusammen. Fünf Tage nach dem gescheiterten Attentat vom 20. Juli 1944 wird er verhaftet, am 15. August vom Volksgerichtshof zum Tode verurteilt und am 26. August 1944 in Berlin-Plötzensee ermordet.

cf.: https://www.stolpersteine-berlin.de/de/wilhelmstr/92/adam-von-trott...