Review: Antje Vollmer's Doppelleben

Green Party leader Antje Vollmer has written a terrific book which examines a little-known aspect of the July 20 Plot to assassinate Hitler.  The full title of the book is Doppelleben - Heinrich und Gottliebe von Lehndorff im Widerstand gegen Hilter und von Ribbentrop ("Double Life: Heinrich and Gottliebe von Lendorff in the Resistance against Hitler and von Ribbentrop")  Von Lehndorff was a reserve lieutenant in the German Army who played a critical supporting role in the conspiracy as the information conduit between Henning von Tresckow - the plot's architect - and Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg.

Through documents and interviews Vollmer reconstructs the family history and lives of "Heini" and his young wife Gottliebe. But this is also the story of a place - Steinort, the vast estate in the Masurian Lakes region of East Prussia which had been in the von Lehndorff family for generations.  Steinort would also be a central venue for the July 20 Plot: Hitler built his Wolf's Lair (Wolfschanze) - just a few miles from Steinort in Rastenburg and his foreign minister von Ribbentrop actually moved into a wing of the von Lehndorff's castle along with his entourage, interacting with Heinrich and Gottliebe and thier young children on a daily basis.  The presence of von Ribbentrop vastly increased the risk of planning the conspiracy at Steinort, but also provided a kind of cover, for who would suspect Ribbentrop's host of treasonous activities?

Why did Heinrich join the conspiracy?  He was anything but political - preferring his horses to debating ideology.  Vollmer provides several clues.  Gottliebe later related that her husband was greatly disturbed by atrocities against Jews he personally witnessed as the Germany army pushed eastward.  Undoubtedly he was angry as the Nazi "outsiders" built a command center on  his beloved land, disrupting the rural life he cherished.  And then there was the general animosity of the aristocracy - especailly the landed gentry - to Hitler and his followers. (In this connection, see also Hans Mangus Enzensberger's Hammerstein oder der Eigensinn.) Remarkably, 12 graduates of von Lehndorff's high school Klosterleben Rossleben, all of aristicratic origin, took part in the July 20 Plot. 

Most of what we know about von Lehndorff and his role in the conspiracy comes from the testimony of Gottliebe, and Vollmer inserts entire transcripts of taped interviews with her as well as letters and diary entries.  Heinrich had shared details of his involvement with his wife.  Gottliebe was with Heinrich when he was arrested by the Gestapo the day after the failed assassination attempt.  Heinrich later escaped during his transport in Berlin and fled on foot to the north, enjoying four last days of freedom in the woods he loved until he was turned in to the Gestapo by a forest ranger.  Gottliebe describes how she and her children were taken into Sippenhaft.  Gottliebe gave birth to her fourth daughter in prisson, while her other children - the oldest was just five - were transported to unknown locations and given new names.  The youngest contracted diptheria and was left untreated (she survived).  The children were later rescued and reunited with their mother by Gottliebe's sister-in-law, Marion von Dönhoff, who, after the war, founded Die Zeit. 

We catch glimpses of Heinirich in prison, where he endured severe beatings and torture.  He was found guilty of high treason by the Nazi court and, in what is the high point of Doppelleben, Vollmer reprints Heinrich's heartbreaking ten page letter to Gottliebe on the eve of his execution. 

The book includes a warm tribute by legendary actress Hanna Schygulla to her close friend Gottliebe von Lehndorff.

Vollmer writes that the July 20 conspiracy has never been fully appreciated by the postwar generations in Germany:

"Ein nicht erfolgriecher Widerstand aus dem Inneren eines Gewaltregimes heraus hat immer doppelt verloren: in der Wirklichkeit und im Gedächtnis der nachkommenden Generationen."

("A failed resistance that takes place within a regime of terror always loses out twrce - once in reality and secondly in the memory of the generations to follow.")

Antje Vollmer's book Doppelleben offers us a partial corrective to this forgetting. 

 

Comments

[emil]

Crying for a handful of disgruntled aristocrats and forgetting about the thousands of real leftist resistance members who went to their deaths.

Thank God these rich, only slightly less 'conservative' than Nazis parasites didn't succeed or Germany would never have been freed.

[Hattie]

That's a little harsh.

[David]

Couldn't agree less. More people died - murdered at concentration camps, through allied fire-bombing, or fleeing the Red Army - in the remaining months following July 20 than in all the previous years together.

Millions might have lived had von Tresckow & co succeeded.

[Strahler 70]

Insgesamt war der Widerstand in Deutschland gegen das NS-Regime leider gering und unerheblich, trotz des hohen Preises, der dafür gezahlt wurde. Die Verschwörer des 20.Juli setzten mit ihrem Attentat aber ein Zeichen von höchster Symbolkraft: Nicht alle Deutschen waren Nazis, Deutschland nicht für alle Zeiten für die Völkerfamilie verloren. Bis zum heutigen Tage wirkt der Aufstand des Gewissens nach, besonders in der Inneren Führung der Bundeswehr. Jeder Rekrut lernt schon den Unterschied zwischen rechtmäßigen und unrechtmäßigen Befehlen, auf einen Befehlsnotstand wird sich niemand mehr berufen können. Ich erinnere an dieser Stelle an Major Pfaff, dessen Weigerung, sich (indirekt) an Kriegshandlungen der USA im Irak zu beteiligen, höchstrichterlich als korrekte Gewissenentscheidung gebilligt wurde. Er ist heute Oberstleutnant.

Die Verschwörer des 20.Juli vollzogen einen Bruch mit militaristischen Traditionen, der vorbildlich über die deutschen Grenzen hinaus ist. Man darf gegen seinen Eid, gegen Befehl und Gehorsam verstoßen, wenn das Gewissen dies gebietet. Dies kristallklar in den Vordergrund gestellt zu haben, ist das große Verdienst von Tresckow, Stauffenberg & co.

[emil]

Alles nur rechtskonservative Scheinargumente, zum Teil wohl (wie bei David) scheinbar direkt von der NPD übernommen.

Die meisten Menschen starben durch die Gewalt der Nazis und sicher nicht durch die Alliierten, bei denen die Russen nunmal ~95% der Arbeit gemacht und auch die KZs befreit haben.

Auch die Behauptung, es bedürfe einer kleinen Bande Adliger die jahrelang problemlos mitgeschwommen waren, und nicht der Ungezählten echten Oppositionellen um die Gewissensfreiheit klarzustellen, ist ein nachträglicher Tiefschlag für die Opfer und die Freiheit.

[David]

Auch wenn die Verschwörer des 20.Juli "mitgeschwommen" haben (von "problemlos mitgeschwommen" kann keine Rede sein), am Ende haben sie Hitler abgelehnt und mit ihrem Leben bezahlt.

Ich kann nur die Worte von von Tresckow zitieren:

"Wenn einst Gott Abraham verheißen hat, er werde Sodom nicht verderben, wenn auch nur zehn Gerechte darin seien, so hoffe ich, daß Gott auch Deutschland um unsertwillen nicht vernichten wird...Der sittliche Wert eines Menschen beginnt erst dort, wo er bereit ist, für seine Überzeugung sein Leben hinzugeben."

[Strahler 70]

Hitler dankte es der Vorsehung, Emil dem lieben Gott, daß das Attentat mißlang. Ich bin überzeugt, daß die Opfer des NS-Regimes darüber anderer Meinung waren.

[miranda lehndorf]

I was wondering if I could find this book translatedto English?

[David]

Hi Miranda,

No, the book has not been translated yet. You may want to contact the author directly ([email protected] ) to find out whether it will be available in English or if there are resources on Lehndorff available in English.

[fujisaku]

The irony when the left buy the nazi propaganda about the blue blooded schwein...

I'm not happy with the left these days...

You know something is off when the wife of real resistance fighter against fascism such as Raif Badawi is sounding more and more like an alt-right. The left have trivialized real resistance activities while obsessing on silly political correctness.