German Resistance Memorial Center
Topic - The Red Orchestra
Topics | Selection Selection

The Resistance Networks
Born in 1916 in Berlin, Hans Coppi grew up in a working-class family. He attended Schulfarm Scharfenberg, a school farm in Berlin, but had to leave in 1932 after setting up a communist youth group. He continued his schooling at Lessing High School. In 1934 Coppi was sentenced to one year's imprisonment for distributing communist leaflets. From 1939 on he attended evening classes at a technical school where he met Karl Böhme, who introduced him to the opposition circle around Wilhelm Schürmann-Horster.
Hans and Hilde Coppi on a camping trip
Coppi was acquainted with Harro Schulze-Boysen from May 1940 on. In June 1941 he agreed to Schulze-Boysen's proposal that he establish a radio link with Moscow, but the attempts at transmission failed because of technical problems. In 1941 Hans Coppi married Hilde Rake, who worked at the Reich Insurance Institution for Employees. Hans and Hilde Coppi were involved in many resistance activities. They were arrested on September 12, 1942. On November 27, 1942 their son was born in prison. Hans Coppi was sentenced to death on December 19, 1942 and murdered on December 22, 1942 in Berlin-Plötzensee. Hilde Coppi was sentenced to death on January 20, 1943 and murdered on August 5, 1943 in Berlin-Plötzensee. Three days earlier, in Barnimstraße Women's Prison, she had entrusted her son Hans to the care of her mother, Hedwig Raasch.
Karl Behrens was born in 1909 in Berlin. He grew up in a working-class family and worked as a locksmith. After obtaining his school-leaving certificate at Berlin Night School he studied mechanical engineering. In 1929 he joined the National Socialist Party (NSDAP), but was expelled from the party in May 1931 because of his criticism of Hitler. A year later he joined the German Communist Party (KPD). As a young night school student he met the English teacher Mildred Harnack in 1932, and remained in close contact with her and her husband, Arvid Harnack, after 1933.
Karl Behrens
From 1938 on Behrens worked in the AEG turbine factory in Berlin, where he formed a group of colleagues opposed to the National Socialist regime. He gave Harnack information about new developments in his factory. In May 1942 Behrens was drafted to the artillery. He was arrested in mid-September 1942, sentenced to death on January 19, 1943 and murdered on May 13, 1943 in Berlin-Plötzensee.
Born in Aachen in 1887, Adam Kuckhoff grew up in a manufacturer's family in the Rhineland. After gaining his doctorate he established the Frankfurt Artists' Theatre, edited the works of Georg Büchner and became editor of the cultural journal "Die Tat" ("The Deed") in 1928. In 1930 Adam Kuckhoff became dramatic adviser at the National Theater in Berlin and in 1932 a lector at Deutscher Verlag Berlin.
Greta and Adam Kuckhoff
From 1935 on he lived with the economist Greta Lorke, who knew Arvid Harnack from the United States. Kuckhoff and Greta Lorke, who married in 1937, belonged to the discussion circle that Arvid and Mildred Harnack formed with their friends. Kuckhoff had contacts to the social democratic resistance and collaborated on several leaflets in 1941-42. He was arrested in Prague on September 12, 1942, sentenced to death on February 3, 1943 and murdered on August 5, 1943 in Berlin-Plötzensee. Greta Kuckhoff was sentenced to ten years in a penitentiary and liberated from Waldheim Prison by the Red Army in May 1945.
Born in Bremen in 1920, Cato Bontjes van Beek was the daughter of a sculptor and ceramics manufacturer. After her parents' divorce she went to England at the age of 17 to learn English. She had strong religious bonds. After her return from England she completed a training course in office organization and worked in an office in Bremen. In the fall of 1939 she moved to Berlin and learned the trade of ceramist in her father's workshop. Cato Bontjes van Beek and Heinz Strelow
Cato Bontjes van Beek and Heinz Strelow
From the fall of 1940 on, she and her sister Mietje organized help for French prisoners of war and persecuted Jews. Cato Bontjes van Beek and Heinz Strelow were a couple from 1941 on. In November 1941 she met Libertas Schulze-Boysen at her father's home. Cato Bontjes van Beek and Heinz Strelow were involved in distributing the "AGIS" pamphlet in February 1942. On September 20, 1942 Cato Bontjes van Beek was arrested, followed by Heinz Strelow on October 1, 1942. They were sentenced to death together on January 26, 1943. Heinz Strelow was murdered on May 13, 1943, Cato Bontjes van Beek on August 5, 1943 in Berlin-Plötzensee.
John Rittmeister was born in 1898 and grew up in a merchant's family in Hamburg. He studied medicine and became a neurologist. At the beginning of the 1930s he tended towards liberal socialism. After working in Switzerland until 1937, he became a senior consultant at Waldhaus psychiatric clinic in Berlin. He was the director of an outpatient clinic for psychotherapy in Berlin-Nikolassee from the fall of 1939 on. Vergrösserung
John and Eva Rittmeister
In the same year he married Eva Knieper, who was born in Zeitz in 1913 and was studying for her school-leaving certificate at Heilsche Night School. The Rittmeisters often hosted discussion evenings with friends of Eva from night school, including Fritz Thiel, Ursula Goetze, and Friedrich Rehmer. John Rittmeister's friend, Werner Krauss, a scholar of Romance literature, was also part of the circle, which took a humanist standpoint. At Christmas 1941 the Rittmeisters met Harro and Libertas Schulze-Boysen for the first time. Schulze-Boysen's discussions with Rittmeister gave him the idea of addressing the public with his "AGIS" pamphlet. Rittmeister was arrested with his wife Eva on September 26, 1942. He was sentenced to death on February 12, 1943 and murdered on May 13, 1943 in Berlin-Plötzensee. Eva Rittmeister was sentenced to three years' imprisonment and released from prison in April 1945.
Ursula Goetze was born in 1916 in Berlin. As a high school student she joined the Communist Youth Federation, which led to her arrest in 1933 for a brief period. After attending commercial college she worked as a shorthand typist from 1935 on. She had close contact to members of a communist circle in Neukölln and worked with them to help people persecuted on racial or political grounds. She was decisively influenced by her acquaintance with the actress Eva Knieper, a fellow-student from night school who married the neurologist John Rittmeister in 1939. Vergrösserung
Ursula Goetze
Meetings were held in Goetze's apartment, sometimes with French forced laborers. On the night of May 17-18, 1942, Goetze and her boyfriend Werner Krauss, a scholar of Romance literature, flyposted around 50 handbills against the propaganda exhibition "The Soviet Paradise". Friedrich Rehmer accompanied the couple during the action. Ursula Goetze was arrested on October 15, 1942, sentenced to death on January 18, 1943 and murdered on August 5, 1943 in Berlin-Plötzensee.
Liane Berkowitz was born in August 1923 in Berlin. From 1941 on she attended Heilsche Night School. Ursula Goetze introduced her to the circle around John Rittmeister, whose wife Eva was a former student from the night school. Liane Berkowitz and her fiancé Friedrich Rehmer participated regularly with Fritz and Hannelore Thiel and others in the circle's discussions on fundamental questions of political life. On the evening of May 17, 1942 Liane Berkowitz took part in the action against the propaganda exhibition "The Soviet Paradise." She met Harro Schulze-Boysen, John Graudenz, and Maria Terwiel in Thiel's apartment. Liane Berkowitz
Liane Berkowitz
Otto Gollnow and Liane Berkowitz were given around 100 handbills. They flyposted half of them in the area between Kurfürstendamm and Uhlandstraße. To camouflage the action they acted like a loving couple, while Harro Schulze-Boysen followed behind, protecting them with a pistol. Liane Berkowitz was arrested at the end of September 1942 and sentenced to death with Friedrich Rehmer on January 18, 1943. On April 12, 1943 she gave birth to her daughter Irene in Barnimstraße Women's Prison. The baby was cared for by her grandmother from July 1943 on, and was probably killed in October 1943 in Eberswalde Hospital when the National Socialists carried out a murder action against mentally ill people. Friedrich Rehmer was murdered on May 13, 1943, Liane Berkowitz on August 5, 1943 in Berlin-Plötzensee. On July 21, 1943 Adolf Hitler personally rejected the clemency pleas of 17 members of the Berlin Red Orchestra. Even the Reich Court Martial recommended him to pardon the 22-year-old ceramist Cato Bontjes van Beek and the 19-year-old school student Liane Berkowitz. Hitler emphatically rejected this as well, and had his decision countersigned by Wilhelm Keitel, chief of the Armed Forces High Command.
Born in 1910, Albert Hößler was arrested in March 1933, but was released shortly after and fled to Czechoslovakia. From 1935 to 1937 Hößler studied at the International Lenin School in Moscow. In 1937 he fought in the Spanish Civil War. He returned to the USSR and married the doctor Klavdia Rubzova in 1941. In the same year he volunteered for front-line service. On August 5, 1942 he parachuted from a Soviet long-range bomber with Robert Barth, landing near Gomel. In Berlin he established contact with Harro Schulze-Boysen and Hans Coppi through Elisabeth Schumacher. Albert Hößler
Albert Hößler
He tried to set up radio contact with the USSR from Erika von Brockdorff's apartment, but without success. Albert Hößler was arrested in September 1942 and murdered without trial shortly after.
Erika Schönfeldt was born in 1908 in Kolberg. From 1929 on she worked as a domestic servant, later as a shorthand typist in Berlin. From the spring of 1941 on she worked in the Reich Office for Industrial Safety, like Elisabeth Schumacher. Through her marriage in 1937 to the artist Cay von Brockdorff she entered the circle of opponents of the National Socialist regime which had formed around the actor Wilhelm Schürmann-Horster. From 1939 on Hans Coppi, Karl Böhme, and Wolfgang Thiess also took part regularly in the circle's discussions. Erika von Brockdorff
Erika von Brockdorff
In 1941 Erika von Brockdorff formed closer links with the circle of friends around Hans Coppi, who brought a radio transmitter to her apartment, intending to repair it with Karl Böhme and Kurt Schulze. In the summer of 1942, Erika von Brockdorff offered accommodation to the parachutist Albert Hößler and supported his unsuccessful attempts at radio transmission. She was arrested on September 16, 1942 and sentenced to ten years in a penitentiary on December 19, 1942. After a retrial, the judgment was changed to the death sentence on Hitler's orders. Erika von Brockdorff was murdered on May 13, 1943 in Berlin-Plötzensee.
The amateur actress Marta Husemann was born in Berlin in 1913. She and her husband Walter Husemann were active members of the circle around Schulze-Boysen. Marta Husemann was arrested on September 19, 1942, sentenced to four years' imprisonment and liberated from Leipzig-Kleinmeusdorf Women's Prison in 1945. Walter Küchenmeister was born in 1897 in Waldheim. He grew up in a shoemaker's family and learned the trade of lathe operator. He joined the labor union and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) early on. In the First World War he volunteered for the Navy. Marta Husemann, Günther Weisenborn, Walter Küchenmeister and Kurt Schumacher
Marta Husemann, Günther Weisenborn, Walter Küchenmeister and Kurt Schumacher
After 1918 he joined the German Communist Party (KPD). He was an editor of the communist daily paper "Ruhr-Echo" in Essen until 1926, but was later expelled from the party. He became well known as the biographer of Thomas Müntzer and Tilman Riemenschneider. In 1933 Walter Küchenmeister was imprisoned in Sonnenburg concentration camp and only released in the fall of 1934, when he was seriously ill. Shortly after, he joined the circle around Kurt and Elisabeth Schumacher. He attended their meetings regularly, wrote pamphlets, used his contacts abroad and distributed leaflets. On September 16, 1942 he and his partner, the doctor Elfriede Paul, were arrested. He was sentenced to death in February 1943 and murdered on May 13, 1943 in Berlin-Plötzensee. The writer Günther Weisenborn, born in 1902, was a close friend of Harro Schulze-Boysen. Arrested on September 26, 1942 and sentenced to three years' imprisonment, he was liberated from prison on April 28, 1945.