Carl Friedrich Goerdeler

File:Carl Friedrich Goerdeler.jpg

Carl Friedrich Goerdeler

Carl Friedrich Goerdeler (July 31, 1884 – February 2, 1945) was a conservative German politician and opponent of the Nazi regime.

Biography

Goerdeler was born in Schneidemühl, Germany (modern Piła, Poland) in what was then the Prussian Province of Posen, to a family of Prussian officials. He studied law, and after World War I he joined the conservative German National People's Party (DNVP). Goerdeler served as the second mayor (Bürgermeister) in Königsberg/East Prussia (modern Kaliningrad, Russia) before being elected mayor of Leipzig in 1930. He served as Price Commissioner in 1931-1932 under his friend Heinrich Brüning and again in 1934-35. During the Weimar Republic, Goerdeler was considered to be a hard-working and outstanding successful municipal politician. After the downfall of the Brüning government in 1932, Goerdeler was considered to be a potential Chancellor and was sounded out by General Kurt von Schleicher, who ultimately choose Franz von Papen instead as Brüning's successor. During his second time as Price Commissioner Goerdeler often came into conflict with Hjalmar Schacht over his inflationary policies, which posed a grave danger for the German economy in Goerdeler's opinion, and finally prompted his resignation as Price Commissioner in 1935.

Goerdeler opposed the national socialist racial ideology. He left the DNVP in 1931 when this party began to cooperate with the Nazi party. After 1933, Goerdeler was one of very few politicians in opposition to the ruling NSDAP. Several times, he attempted to help Leipzig Jewish businessmen threatened with "Aryanization" economic policies of the Nazi regime. When the Nazis in 1936 ordered the demolition of a monument to the German-Jewish composer Felix Mendelssohn, Goerdeler tried to achieve its rebuilding. After failing that he declined to accept his reelection as mayor of Leipzig and resigned from office. Between 1937-1938, Goerdeler often travelled abroad, mostly in France, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada to warn anyone who would listern about what he considered to be the aggressive and dangerous foreign policy of the Nazis. During this period, Goerdeler met with Winston Churchill and Robert Vansittart several times. Through opposed to what he considered to be the reckless foreign policy of Nazi Germany, Goerdeler often demanded in his meetings with foreign friends that the Great Powers back the bestowal of the Sudetenland , the Polish Corridor, Memel (modern Klaipėda, Lithuania) , and the Free City of Danzig (modern Gdańsk, Poland) together with the return of the former German colonies in Africa to Germany. In 1938, Goerdeler was deeply disappointed with the Munich Agreement, which in his view, through desirable in that turned over the Sudetenland to Germany was undesirable in that removed what Goerdeler considered to be best chance of putsch against the Nazi regime. After the Munich Agreement, Goerdeler wrote to one of his American friends: "...The German people did not want war; the Army would have done anything to avoid it;...the world had been warned and informed in good time. If the warning had been heeded and acted upon Germany would by now be free of its dictator and turning against Mussolini. Within a few weeks we could have began to build lasting world peace on the basis of justice, reason and decency. A purified Germany with a government of decent people would have been ready to solve the Spanish problem without delay in company with Britain and France, to remove Mussolini and with the United States to create peace in the Far East. The way would have been open for sound co-operation in economic and social fields, for the creation of peaceful relations between Capital, Labour and the State, for the raising of ethical concepts and for a fresh attempt to raise the general standard of living..."^[1]. Despite what Goerdeler considered a major set-back, continued with his efforts to bring about the downfall of the Nazi regime. Goerdeler was a resolute and unyielding optimist, which together with a deep sense of civic duty and religious convictions led him to believe that if only he could convince enough people, he could overthrow the Nazi regime.

Afterwards, Goerdeler assembled conservative politicians and generals comprising most notably Ulrich von Hassell, Ludwig Beck, and Johannes Popitz in opposition to Adolf Hitler. They developed a future constitution for Germany and even a list of potential ministers. Goerdeler's prosposed constitution called for a strong executive branch, a high degree of decentralisation, a Reichstag partially elected on British style-"First-pass-the post" system instead of election by party lists and partially elected by members of local councils, and an Reichsrat comprised of representatives nominated by Christian Churches, trade unions, universities, and business groups^[2]. To assist with the drafting of the future constitution, Goerdeler enlisted the help through his friend Dietrich Bonhoeffer the so-called "Freiburg Circle" a group of professors at Freiburg University which comprised Adolf Lampe, Erich Wolf, Walter Eucken, Constantin von Dietze, and Gerhard Ritter. Had the Putsch attempt of July 20, 1944 succeeded, Goerdeler would have served as Chancellor in the new government that would have been formed after Hitler's assassination and the overthrow of the Nazi regime.

Unlike the Kreisau Circle, Goerdeler was a strong champion of laissez-faire capitalism, and was very much opposed to what Goerdeler saw as the socialism of the Kreisau Circle^[3] .This system was in Goerdeler's vision to serve as the basis of the "democracy of the Ten Commandments"^[4]. In March 1943, Goerdeler wrote in a letter addressed to several German Army officers appealing to them to overthrow the Nazis that the one line that should divide Germans was "...that beween decent and non-decent"^[5]. However, Goerdeler was heavily criticised by other members of the German resistance (for example by some members the Kreisau Circle) for objecting to killing Hitler (who Goerdeler wanted to see tried; Goerdeler had no objection to Hitler being executed after his conviction), for his sympathy for reintroducing monarchy, and for his extremely anti-communist ideology.

On July 17, 1944, a warrant for Goerdeler's arrest was issued. Goerdeler managed to escape but he was apprehended on August 12 of the same year after being denounced by an innkeeper. On September 9, after a trial at the Volksgerichtshof, he was sentenced to death. He was tortured for months by the Gestapo, which hoped to find out the names of other conspirators. He was finally executed on February 2, 1945 by decapitation at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin. While awaiting his death sentence, Goerdeler wrote a farewell letter, which ended with "I ask the world to accept our martyrdom as penance for the German people"^[6].

Footnotes

1. ^ Rothfels, Hans The German Opposition To Hitler London: Oswald Wolff, 1961 pages 60-61.
2. ^ page 102.
3. ^ Ibid page 106.
4. ^ Ibid pages 103-104.
5. ^ Ibid page 86.
6. ^ Ibid page 152.

References

• Ritter, Gerhard The German Resistance : Carl Goerdeler's Struggle Against Tyranny, translated by R.T. Clark, Freeport, N.Y. : Books for Libraries Press, 1970.