German Resistance Memorial Center
- Biographies

Daniel von Recklinghausen came from an academic family. His father spent many years working in the United States, where Daniel von Recklinghausen was born. The family did not return to Germany until the 1930s, and the father died shortly after. Daniel von Recklinghausen was a member of the Catholic Young Men’s Association for a time and joined the Hitler Youth in 1936. He left school in 1941, beginning an internship with Rohde und Schwarz because of his passion for high-frequency and radio technology. Walter Klingenbeck also worked for the company, and Recklinghausen joined his small circle of friends. Along with Erwin Eidel and Hans Haberl, they listened to “enemy radio stations” and discussed what they had heard. When Walter Klingenbeck began to paint the “Victory” sign on buildings, street signs, and hydrants in Munich-Bogenhausen in September 1941, Daniel von Recklinghausen accompanied him to keep watch. The BBC had previously called on Germans to use the sign as a public symbol of immanent victory for the Allied troops. Daniel von Recklinghausen was arrested on January 27, 1942. When searching his home, the Gestapo found recordings of French music. Using a receiver he had built himself, he had listened to French-language radio broadcasts and made records of them. Daniel von Recklinghausen was sentenced to death on September 24, 1942, but reprieved after an appeal for clemency on July 19, 1943, with the sentence reduced to eight years in a penal institution. After the war he emigrated to the United States.