Between 1933 and 1945, more than 500,000 German citizens resisted the Nazi government. Many were imprisoned for political crimes which included both active attempts to remove Hitler from office and passive attempts to oppose the Nazi regime. Resistance was found among university students, churches and even in the German military. This fascinating and compelling history of the German resistance covers groups and methods from underground newspapers such as "Rote Kapella" and "Internal Front" to conspiracy movements within the army, that culminated with Operation Valkyrie, a coup d'état and assassination attempt which went terribly wrong.

Hoffmann examines the growing recognition by some Germans in the 1930s of the malign nature of the Nazi regime, the ways in which these people became involved in the resistance, and the views of those who staked their lives in the struggle against tyranny and murder.

An account of the German Resistance, its composition, its aim, and its efforts.

The author documents more than a dozen plots to assassinate Hitler, surprisingly, from conservative and military circles within Germany.

This book includes four essays, each written by a German specialist, that discuss important problems of the German resistance with judgment and candor, offering the kind of interpretive judgment often lacking in other histories. Hermann Graml shows that as far as foreign policy, the resistance conservatives were never quite able to reconcile their hopes for a supranational solution in central Europe with their desire to fulfill traditional national aims from a position of German strength. Addressing the social policy of resisting groups, Hans Mommsen concludes that a central purpose was the "de-massing of the masses," while rejecting both communism and Western democracy. Hans-Joachim Reichhardt assesses the labor movement, wherein Communist leaders come out badly. Utterly failing to understand the threat of Hitler, they refused to join in efforts to thwart his coming to power. On the efforts of the religious, Ernst Wolf concludes, as have so many others, that the heroic resistance of individual Christians contrasts lamentably with the role played by organized Christianity. These thoughtful essays reinforce the impression gained in larger and more detailed studies: the resistance to Hitler's barbarism by decent German citizens was widespread, genuine--and tragically ineffective.

THE GERMAN OPPOSITION TO HITLER An Appraisal by HANS ROTHFELS Translated from the German by LAWRENCE WILSON New Revised Edition 1962 HENRY REGNERY COMPANY CHICAGO 4 FOUNDATION FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS SEMES, NUMBER 6 The Foundation for Foreign Affairs, 64 East Jackson Boulevard, Chicago 4, Illinois, is a non-profit corporation devoted to the promotion of a wider under standing of international relations political, economic, and cultural. Books in the Foundation for Foreign Affairs Series are published in the interest of public information and debate. They represent the free expression of their authors and do not necessarily indicate the judgment and opinions of the Foundation. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NO. 62-1562 MADE AND PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY THE GARDEN CITY PRESS LIMITED LBTCHWORTH, HERTFORDSHIRE CONTENTS FOREWORD INTRODUCTION . The Basic Character of the Opposition 1 1 2. Obstacles on the Road to Truth 16 CONDITIONS AND POSSIBILITIES 1. German Submissiveness 23 2. Degrees of Non-conformity 27 5. Attitude to Jews 31 4. Intellectuals and Churches 33 PLANS AND ACTIONS 1. Early Centres of Resistance 45 2. Crisis in the Autumn of 1938 56 5. Military Sector 63 4. Political Structure of the Opposition 84 5. Ideas on Constitutional and Social Reform 98 6. The Kreisau Circle 108 THE OPPOSITION AND THE ALLIES . Peace Feelers 125 2. Unconditional Surrender 142 SUMMARY 5 2, 6307426, oo 5 FOREWORD f 1ms study of the German Resistance movement is based in I essentials on a public address which was delivered in 1947 JL at the University of Chicago in memory of soth July. Being one of the central themes of recent and not only of German his tory, the subject has preoccupied me ever since.Hence the first undertaking was followed in 1948 by a short book written in English The German Opposition to Hitler, Henry Regnery, Hinsdale, 111.. This edition contained fairly extensive notes re ferring to the evidence available at that time and offering a means of checking controversial questions. It was followed in 1949 by a somewhat expanded German edition which was published by the Scherpe-Verlag, Krefeld. Through the years the book appeared to fill a certain gap and as it repeatedly found new readers I was later urged from many sides to prepare a new and revised edition corresponding to the state of our present, greatly extended know ledge. This edition, of which the present book is a translation, was published in the Fischer Bilcherei, Frankfurt am Main, in 1958. While retaining the original structure of the work, it con tained notes which were further expanded to cover the source material which had become known since 1949. With all this it neither was nor is my intention to write a history of the German Resistance, let alone a complete one. My concern throughout is to discuss rather than to narrate, that is, to place the material in certain factual and interpretive contexts with, as an indispensable prerequisite, a basis of fact that shall be as assured as possible. The book abstains from any kind of Pharisaism, for no one has the right to pass facile judgement on conflicts of conscience and the possibility of unqualified resistance who has not himself fully experienced the trials of life under a totalitarian system. This applies to the standpoint of an author who was only able to ob serve from the outside the final and most tragic culmination of events that occurred afterSeptember, 1939. But the avoidance of 7 8 THE GERMAN OPPOSITION TO HITLER exclusive and Pharisaical criteria should not lead to an exagger ated extension of the term resistance such as was customary for a time as a form of comfortable self-deception...

This is a classic morality tale – a story of the eternal struggle between good and evil. It speaks of those who resisted that evil and of those who succumbed to it. Little is known about those whose courage and conviction drove them to risk and lose everything to bring the Third Reich to an end. The story of Georg Elser and his attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler encapsulates the wider story of the anti-Nazi German resistance almost perfectly. All the moral and ethical issues and the practical problems that the resisters faced are found in his story. In sum, it is a microcosm of the larger story. Elser personified the entire resistance movement! Presented within the broader context of German history and contemporary world events, this comprehensive study relies on extensive historiography by noted scholars to produce a well-balanced, timely narrative of the German resistance to one of history's most violent regimes. Traitors or Patriots? tells a story of incredible courage and conviction that transcends time and place—a story for our own time and for all time.

Klemens von Klemperer's scholarly and detailed study uncovers the beliefs and activities of numerous individuals who fought against Nazism within Germany, and traces their many efforts to forge alliances with Hitler's opponents outside the Third Reich. -;Klemens von Klemperer's scholarly and detailed study uncovers the beliefs and activities of numerous individuals who fought against Nazism within Germany, and traces their many efforts to forge alliances with Hitler's opponents outside the Third Reich. Measured by conventional standards of diplomacy, the foreign ventures of the German Resistance ended in failure. The Allied agencies, notably the British Foreign Office and the US State Department, were ill prepared to deal with the unorthodox approaches of the Widerstand. Ultimately, the Allies' policy of absolute silence', the Grand Alliance with the Soviet Union, and the demand for unconditional surrender' pushed the war to its final denouement, disregarding the German. Resistance. -;a massive work by a distinguished historian - New Statesman and Society;a detailed, sympathetic, and meticulously documented chronicle of German resistance diplomacy - Journal of Military History;a superbly researched study - Financial Times

A distillation of recent scholarship on Germany's domestic resistance to the Nazi dictatorship.