Friedrich von Rabenau
Friedrich von Rabenau | |
|---|---|
 Friedrich von Rabenau | |
| Born | 10 October 1884 Berlin, German Empire |
| Died | 9 April 1945 (aged 60) Flossenbürg concentration camp |
| Allegiance |  German Empire Weimar Germany Nazi Germany |
| Service/ | Wehrmacht |
| Years of service | 1903 - 1942 |
| Rank | General of Artillery |
| Battles/wars | World War I World War II |
Friedrich von Rabenau (10 October 1884 – 9 April 1945) was a German career-soldier, general, theologian, and opponent of National Socialism.
Biography
Rabenau was born in Berlin to the physician Friedrich von Rabenau (1847–1885) and Wally, née Noebel. He joined the Prussian Army in 1903 as a member of the 72nd Field Artillery Regiment (stationed at Danzig), served in World War I, and remained in the Weimar German Reichswehr.[1] In 1936, Von Rabenau was assigned by the then head of the general staff, Generaloberst Ludwig August Theodor Beck, to establish (from the Reichsarchiv) the first central archive of the German army, in Potsdam. Well suited to the task, Rabenau strove to prevent ideological falsifications with a scientific diligence in gathering sources that was second to none.
His Christian beliefs led him to join the opposition to Nazism early. Rabenau was a Rechtsritter ("Knight of Justice") in the supradenominational Order of Saint John.[2] As a Protestant Christian and a general, he successfully applied to then Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler for permission to take over Maria Laach Abbey, which had been seized from Roman Catholic Cardinal Graf von Galen in Münster. Rabenau joined no resistance group, though he did act as a conduit between Generaloberst Ludwig Beck and Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, whom he knew from his time as an Abteilungskommandeur ("Section Commander") in Königsberg (now Kaliningrad).
In mid-1942, Von Rabenau was relieved of his office, transferred to the rank of General der Artillerie ("General of Artillery"), and sent into premature retirement. He studied Protestant theology at the University of Berlin and in 1943 was made Licentiatus theologiae, writing his dissertation on military chaplaincy.[3]
Von Rabenau was arrested in the aftermath of the plot which culminated in the attempt on Hitler's life on July 20, 1944. On April 09, 1945, without having been charged or tried, General von Rabenau, one of the last inmates remaining in the Flossenbürg concentration camp, was hanged on the specific orders of Himmler. Surviving him were his widow Eva Kautz and their two daughters.
Works
 |
- Die alte Armee und die junge Generation; Berlin: Mittler, 1925.
- Operative Entschlüsse gegen einen an Zahl überlegenen Gegner; Berlin: Mittler, 1935.
- Seeckt; Leipzig: V. Hase & Koehler, 1938.
- Scharnhorst nach 1808 - Seeckt nach 1918; Berlin: Landesgeschichtl. Vereinigg. f. d. Mark Brandenburg, 1939.
- Buch und Schwert; Leipzig: Oberbürgermeister, 1940.
- Von Geist und Seele des Soldaten; Berlin: Eher, 1940.
- Geistige und seelische Probleme im jetzigen Krieg; Berlin: Eher, 1940.
- Vom Sinn des Soldatentums; Köln: Du Mont Schauberg, 1941.
- Hans von Seeckt. Aus seinem Leben 1866-1917.
- Hans von Seeckt. Aus seinem Leben 1918-1936.
From Liste der auszusondernden Literatur (Berlin: Zentralverlag, 1946), Deutsche Verwaltung für Volksbildung in der sowjetischen Besatzungszone [4]
Sources
- ^ Biography at Neue Deutsche Biographie Template:De icon
- ^ Robert M. Clark, Jr., The Evangelical Knights of Saint John: A History of the Bailiwick of Brandenburg; Dallas, Texas: 2003; page 45.
- ^ Nachlass im Bundesarchiv
- ^ Datenbank Schrift und Bild 1900-1960
- Mühleisen, Horst: „Friedrich von Rabenau : Soldat, Archivar und Gelehrter ; zu seinem fünfzigsten Todestag.“ In: Archivalische Zeitschrift 79 (1996) 127 - 140. [1]
- Ramm, Hans-Joachim: Mich trägt mein Glaube. Friedrich von Rabenau. General und Christ im Widerstand. Tagebuch einer Gestapohaft, Saarbrücken 2011
External links
Media related to Friedrich von Rabenau at Wikimedia Commons- Death of Friedrich von Rabenau
- Memorial of the German Resistance, Berlin
- 1884 births
- 1945 deaths
- German Protestants
- German Protestants opposed to the Third Reich
- German theologians
- Humboldt University of Berlin alumni
- Knights of the Order of Saint John (Bailiwick of Brandenburg)
- German generals
- People executed by hanging
- Members of the 20 July plot
- Executed members of the 20 July plot
- Flossenbürg concentration camp victims
- Military personnel who died in Nazi concentration camps
- Resistance members who died in Nazi concentration camps
- German military personnel killed in World War II