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Harald Poelchau

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Harald Poelchau
Dorothee and Harald Poelchau
Personal
Born
Harald Poelchau

(1903-10-05)5 October 1903
Potsdam, Germany
Died29 April 1972(1972-04-29) (aged 68)
West Berlin, West Germany
ReligionProtestant
Parents
  • Harald Poelchau (father)
  • Elisabeth Riem (mother)
Righteous
Among the Nations
By country

Harald Poelchau (5 October 1903 – 29 April 1972) was a German prison chaplain, religious socialist and member of the resistance against the Nazis.[1][2] Poelchau grew up in Silesia. During the early 1920's, he studied Protestant theology at the University of Tübingen and the University of Marburg, followed by social work at the College of Political Science of Berlin. Poelchau gained a doctorate under Paul Tillich at Frankfurt University. In 1933, he became a prison chaplain in the Berlin prisons. With the coming of the Nazi regime in 1933, he became an anti-fascist. During the war, Poelchau and his wife Dorothee Poelchau helped victims of the Nazis, hiding them and helping them escape. At the same time, as a prison chaplain he gave comfort to the many people in prison and those sentenced to death. After the war, he became involved in the reform of prisons in East Germany. In 1971, Yad Vashem named Poelchau and his wife Righteous Among the Nations.

Life

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Poelchau was the son of Harald (1866–1938) and Elisabeth Poelchau (née Riem; 1871–1945) and was brought up in the Silesian village of Brauchitschdorf.[2] His father was a Lutheran pastor in the village.[2] Poelchau attended the Ritterakademie Gymnasium in Liegnitz, where he participated in Bible classes and became involved in the German Youth Movement (Jugendbewegung), which influenced him to turn away from a rural conservative piety.

At the University of Tübingen, Harald Poelchau met the librarian Dorothee Ziegele (1902–1977).[3] The couple married on 12 April 1928, lived in Berlin and cultivated a large group of friends and acquaintances, that proved highly valuable after the handover of power to the Nazis. In 1938 the couple's son, also baptised Harald, was born,[3] and in 1945 Harald's daughter Andrea Siemsen.[4]

Education

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After graduating from the Ritterakademie Liegnitz in 1921, he studied Protestant theology at the Kirchliche Hochschule Bethel [de], at the University of Tübingen, and the University of Marburg from 1922. In Tübingen he was secretary of the youth organisation Köngener Bund [de]. The Christian socialist philosopher Paul Tillich, who taught in Marburg in 1924, was the decisive, intellectual influence on him. Tillich became a lifelong friend and mentor.[5] As a work student at Robert Bosch company in Stuttgart, he gained an insight into the world of workers and industry. After his first theological exam in 1927 in Breslau, he studied social welfare and state welfare policy at the German Academy for Politics in Berlin.[6]

Career

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Berlin memorial plaque placed on 17 November 1988 in Wedding
Memorial plaque at Tegel Prison in Berlin

Poelchau served as executive director of the German Association for Juvenile Courts and Juvenile Court Assistance [de] in Berlin and as assistant to Paul Tillich at Frankfurt University.[2] In 1931, he passed his second state exam in Berlin and wrote his doctoral thesis under Tillich titled: Die sozialphilosophischen Anschauungen der deutschen Wohlfahrtsgesetzgebung (The Social Philosophical Views of German Welfare Legislation).[2] The paper was published in 1932 as a book titled Das Menschenbild des Fürsorgerechtes: Eine ethisch-soziologische Untersuchung (The Image of Man in the Law of Welfare: An Ethical-Sociological Investigation).[7]

Poelchau applied for a position as prison chaplain at the end of 1932 and was instated on 1 April 1933[8] as the first clergyman in a prison appointed under the Nazi regime. As an official in the Justice Department he worked at Tegel Prison in Berlin as well as at several other prisons such as Plötzensee and Moabit.[9] He was opposed to the Nazis from the beginning, but did not join the Confessing Church (Bekennende Kirche).

World War II

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With the beginning of the World War II in 1939, death sentences against opposition members increased. Poelchau soon became an important source of support for the victims of Nazi persecution, and gave spiritual comfort to hundreds of people sentenced to death as they faced execution [2] [9] After the unsuccessful coup attempt of 20 July 1944, many of his close friends were sentenced to death.[2] To help their families, he would smuggle letters and messages in and out of the prison cells.[2]

In 1937, the first political prisoners began to appear that were members of the prohibited Communist Party.[10] Poelchau cared for Robert Stamm and Adolf Rembte who were executed in november of that year, in Plötzensee.[10]

In October 1941, the deportation of Jews from Germany began. Poelchau knew early on that only an escape into hiding would ensure survival. The refugees were supposed to call him at his office in Tegel and only talk if he answered with the code word "Tegel". But the actual conversation took place in his office, deep inside the prison walls. Supported by his wife, he arranged accommodations among his large group of acquaintances. These included Gertie Siemsen, a long-time friend from his student days, Willi Kranz, canteen manager in the Tegel and Plötzensee prisons and his partner Auguste Leißner, Hermann Sietmann and Otto Horstmeier, two former political prisoners, the couple Hildegard and Hans Reinhold Schneider who worked in social welfare and taught school (they were the parents of [Gesine Schwan] who later became a political scientist). They also included Agnes Wendland [de], a pastor's wife (who were also named Righteous Among the Nations for hiding Jews), and her daughter Ruth Wendland [de], the prison doctor Hilde Westrick, and the physicist Carl Friedrich Weiss [de] and his wife Hildegard.[11]

In 1942, the Soviet led Red Orchestra espionage network was uncovered by the Abwehr in Germany, France and the Low Countries[12] and many of its members were imprisoned and executed. Poelchau provided support for Arvid and his American wife Mildred Harnack, John Rittmeister, Harro and Libertas Schulze-Boysen, Kurt and Elisabeth Schumacher, Walter Husemann, Adam Kuckhoff, and many others.[10]

Only a few of those rescued or helped by the Poelchaus are known by name. One Jewish family, Manfred and Margarete Latte with their son Konrad, fled from Breslau after they learned they were to be deported, to Berlin where they went into hiding.[13] Through a family friend, Ursula Teichmann,[13] they made contact with Poelchau in late February 1943 and turned to him for help.[14][15] He provided them with ration cards, cash and found accommodation for the family.[13] He also found work for Manfred Latte, who became an ice delivery helper, and later gardener.[13] As Konrad Latte was of a typical age to be conscripted[13] Poelchau filled in a registration card for the Volkssturm, a national militia that was independent of the German army, to provide a cover ID.[13]

Konrad Latte, established contact between Poelchau and Ruth Andreas-Friedrich,[13] the co-founder of the resistance group Onkel Emil [de], along with the conductor Leo Borchard.[16][17] The resistance group was motivated more by humanitarian concerns, rather than ideology and was made up on middle-class professionals. They began to work with Poelchau, who could arrange accommodations, forged identity papers, and food ration stamps. The Gestapo apprehended the Latte family in October 1943. Manfred and Margarete Latte were immediately deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp.[18] Konrad Latte managed to escape the Große Hamburger Straße deportation center [15] and went back into hiding.

Rita Neumann[19] had been in hiding with the resistance fighter and Protestant pastor's wife Agnes Wendland [de] since August 1943.[20] Her brother Ralph Neumann joined Wendland.[19] The siblings worked as bicycle couriers for Poelchau. In February 1945, they were arrested along with Wendland. The siblings managed to escape the Große Hamburger Straße deportation collection camp and make their way back to Poelchau's door.[21][22] Other people Poelchau helped were Ilse Schwarz and her daughter Evelyne, a young stenographer Ursula Reuber, Anna Drach, Edith Bruck,[23] Charlotte Paech, part of the Baum group[24] and Charlotte Bischoff.

From 1941, Poelchau belonged to a resistance group of people around Helmuth James Graf von Moltke known as the Kreisau Circle.[25] He took part in the first meeting of the group.[1] After the attempted coup of 20 July 1944, the prison chaplain cared for many of those involved in the assassination. Harald Poelchau's extensive resistance involvement remained undiscovered until the end of the war.

After the war

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In 1945, he co-founded the Aid Organisation of the Protestant Churches [de] (Hilfswerk der Evangelischen Kirchen) in Stuttgart, together with the theologian and resistance fighter Eugen Gerstenmaier[26] and became its General Secretary. The Aid Organisation took care of the problems of refugees, the construction of apartments (settlement work) and homes for the aged and apprentices, and emergency churches. After returning to Berlin in 1946, Poelchau became involved in reforming the prison system in the Soviet occupation zone as councillor of the Central Administration of Justice. This was connected with a teaching assignment for criminology and prison science at the Humboldt University of Berlin. Together with Ottomar Geschke and Heinrich Grüber he sat on the central board of the Association of Political Prisoners and Persecutees of the Nazi System [de] (Vereinigung der Verfolgten des Naziregimes – Bund der Antifaschistinnen und Antifaschisten).[27] When Poelchau was unable to push through his ideas for prison reform in the east, he resigned his position. From 1949 to 1951, he was again appointed as the prison chaplain at Tegel Prison.[28] In 1951, Bishop Otto Dibelius appointed him as the first social and industrial pastor of the Protestant Church in Berlin-Brandenburg (Industrie- und Sozialpfarramt) with the mission to connect the church to the industrial workers.[29] Harald Poelchau dedicated himself to this task until his death in 1972.[27] He is buried in the Zehlendorf cemetery in Berlin.

Awards and honours

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Gravesite at the Zehlendorf Cemetery

Bibliography

[edit]
  • Poelchau, Harald (1932). Das Menschenbild des Fürsorgerechts. Eine ethisch-soziologische Untersuchung. Potsdam: Alfred Protte.
  • Poelchau, Harald (1949). Die letzten Stunden: Erinnerungen eines Gefängnispfarrers. Berlin: Volk u. Welt. ISBN 9783353000965. OCLC 74854117.
  • Poelchau, Harald (2004). Die Ordnung der Bedrängten – Erinnerungen des Gefängnisseelsorgers und Sozialpfarrers (1903-1972). Teetz: Hentrich & Hentrich. ISBN 3-933471-50-8. OCLC 54825307.

References

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  1. ^ a b "Harald Poelchau". German Resistance Memorial Center. Berlin: Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand. Archived from the original on 26 November 2021. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Hammerstein, Franz v. (2001). Neue deutsche Biographie. Vol. 20. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot. p. 561. ISBN 3-428-00201-6. Archived from the original on 26 November 2021. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
  3. ^ a b "Dorothee Poelchau". German Resistance Memorial Center. Berlin: Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand. Archived from the original on 27 November 2021. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
  4. ^ Schuppener, Henriette (2006). "Nichts war umsonst": Harald Poelchau und der deutsche Widerstand (in German). LIT Verlag Münster. p. 120. ISBN 978-3-8258-9315-6.
  5. ^ a b "Poelchau Harald & Dorothee". Yad Vashem. The Authority in Memory of the Martyrs and Heroes of the Holocaust. 30 November 1971. Archived from the original on 26 November 2021. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
  6. ^ "Wer war ... ... Harald Poelchau ?". Suhne Christian Church (in German). Berlin. 29 April 1972. Archived from the original on 1 July 2009. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
  7. ^ Schie, Gerhard (1933). "Poelchau, Harald, Das Menschenbild des Fürsorgerechts. Al/red Protte. Potsdam 1932. Book review". Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung (PDF). Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag. p. 130. Retrieved 28 November 2021.
  8. ^ Beck, Verlag C. H. (1988). Der Aquädukt 1763-1988: ein Almanach aus dem Verlag C.H. Beck im 225. Jahr seines Bestehens (in German). C.H.Beck. pp. 149–158. ISBN 978-3-406-33197-8. OCLC 873358963.
  9. ^ a b "Harald Poelchau (1903-1972)". Kreisau-Initiative e. V. (in German). Berlin: Allianz AG. Archived from the original on 5 October 2021. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
  10. ^ a b c Poelchau, Harald; Stenbock-Fermor, A (1949). Die letzten Stunden. Erinnerungen eines Gefängnispfärrers, aufgezeichnet von A. Stenbock-Fermor (in German). Berlin. pp. 50–80.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  11. ^ Johannes Tuchel; Gedenkst©Þtte Stille Helden in der Stiftung Gedenkst©Þtte Deutscher Widerstand (2009). Gedenkstätte Stille Helden Widerstand gegen die Judenverfolgung 1933 bis 1945 (in German) (2nd ed.). Berlin: Gedenkstaette Stille Helden in der Stiftung Gedenkstaette Deutscher Widerstand. pp. 17–18. ISBN 9783926082367. OCLC 970986725.
  12. ^ "Red Orchestra (espionage)". Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand. Berlin: German Resistance Memorial Center. Archived from the original on 29 May 2022. Retrieved 31 March 2022.
  13. ^ a b c d e f g Schneider, Peter (13 February 2000). "Saving Konrad Latte". The New York Times Magazine. Archived from the original on 2 December 2021. Retrieved 2 December 2021.
  14. ^ Benz, Wolfgang (2003). Überleben im Dritten Reich: Juden im Untergrund und ihre Helfer (in German). C.H.Beck. p. 117. ISBN 978-3-406-51029-8.
  15. ^ a b "Konrad Latte". German Resistance Memorial Center. Berlin: Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand. Archived from the original on 2 December 2021. Retrieved 2 December 2021.
  16. ^ Westerfield, Lillian Leigh (2004). 'This Anguish, Like a Kind of Intimate Song': Resistance in Women's Literature of World War II. Rodopi. p. 82. ISBN 978-90-420-1148-9.
  17. ^ Kleibert, Kristin (1 January 2010). Die Juristische Fakultät der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin im Umbruch: die Jahre 1948 bis 1951 (in German). BWV Verlag. p. 158. ISBN 978-3-8305-1824-2.
  18. ^ Heim, Susanne (4 June 2019). German Reich 1938–August 1939. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. p. 1327. ISBN 978-3-11-052390-4.
  19. ^ a b "Ralph Neumann". German Resistance Memorial Center. Berlin: Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand. Archived from the original on 5 December 2021. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
  20. ^ Gutman, Israel; Fraenkel, Daniel; Borut, Jacob (2005). Lexikon der Gerechten unter den Völkern: Deutsche und Österreicher (in German). Wallstein Verlag. p. 284. ISBN 978-3-89244-900-3.
  21. ^ Paldiel, Mordecai (2006). Churches and the Holocaust: Unholy Teaching, Good Samaritans, and Reconciliation. Jersey City, N.J: KTAV Publishing House, Inc. p. 62. ISBN 978-0-88125-908-7.
  22. ^ Tuchel, Johannes (2009). "Verlangen sie „Tegel". Gedenkstaette Stille Helden : Widerstand gegen die Judenverfolgung 1933 bis 1945 (in German) (2nd Revised ed.). Berlin: Gedenkstaette Stille Helden in der Stiftung Gedenkstaette Deutscher Widerstand. pp. 17–18. ISBN 978-3-926082-36-7.
  23. ^ "Edith Fürst". German Resistance Memorial Center. Berlin: Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand. Archived from the original on 7 December 2021. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
  24. ^ Brothers, Eric (2012). Berlin ghetto : Herbert Baum and the anti-fascist resistance. Stroud, Gloucestershire [England]: Spellmount. ISBN 978-0752476865.
  25. ^ Roon, Ger van; Ludlow, Peter (1971). German resistance to Hitler: Count von Moltke and the Kreisau Circle. London: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co. ISBN 0-442-08975-9.
  26. ^ Scholtyseck, Joachim (2005). Die Überlebenden des deutschen Widerstandes und ihre Bedeutung für Nachkriegsdeutschland. Schriftenreihe der Forschungsgemeinschaft 20. July 1944 e.V. (in German). Vol. 6. Munich: LIT Verlag. p. 79. ISBN 978-3-8258-8317-1. OCLC 905014378. Archived from the original on 3 January 2024. Retrieved 15 December 2021.
  27. ^ a b Schneider, Ulrich (19 March 2012). "Was wollte und was tat die Gründungsgeneration der VVN?". Vereinigung der Verfolgten des Naziregimes – Bund der Antifaschistinnen und Antifaschisten e. V (in German). Archived from the original on 11 December 2021. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
  28. ^ Benz, Wolfgang; Pehle, Walter H; Garmer, Lance W (1997). Encyclopedia of German resistance to the Nazi movement. New York: Continuum. p. 308. ISBN 9780826409454. OCLC 895192195.
  29. ^ Schuppener, Henriette (2006). "Nichts war umsonst": Harald Poelchau und der deutsche Widerstand (in German). LIT Verlag Münster. p. 147. ISBN 978-3-8258-9315-6. Archived from the original on 3 January 2024. Retrieved 15 December 2021.
  30. ^ "Sportschule im Olympiapark-Poelchau-Schule". Bezirksamt Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf (in German). BerlinOnline Stadtportal GmbH & Co. KG betrieben.A. 4 November 2021. Archived from the original on 26 November 2021. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
  31. ^ "Eliteschule des Sports - Eliteschule des Fußballs". Sportschule im Olympiapark - Poelchau-Schule (in German). Berlin: Senatsverwaltung für Bildung, Jugend und Wissenschaft. Archived from the original on 26 November 2021. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
  32. ^ "Friedhöfe und Begräbnisstätten". Senatsverwaltung für Umwelt, Verkehr und Klimaschutz (in German). Berlin: BerlinOnline Stadtportal GmbH & Co. KG betrieben.A. 2 August 2021. p. 65. Archived from the original on 26 November 2021. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
  33. ^ a b "Poelchaustraße". Kaupert (in German). Berlin: Luisenstädt Education Association. Archived from the original on 3 January 2024. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
  34. ^ "Discovery Circumstances: Numbered Minor Planets (10001)-(15000)". Minor Planet Center. International Astronomical Association. Archived from the original on 18 September 2021. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
  35. ^ "Citation for (10348)". Minor Planet Center. International Astronomical Association. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
  36. ^ "Übergabe der Poelchau-Erinnerungsstele in Marzahn". Bezirksamt Marzahn-Hellersdorf (in German). BerlinOnline Stadtportal GmbH & Co. KG betrieben.A. 28 August 2017. Archived from the original on 26 November 2021. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
  37. ^ "Stele erinnert an Eheleute Poelchau". Neues Deutschland (in German). Berlin: Neues Deutschland Druckerei und Verlags GmbH. 19 September 2017. Archived from the original on 26 November 2021. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
  38. ^ "Denkmal für Widerstandskämpfer Harald Poelchau eingeweiht". Senatsverwaltung für Justiz, Verbraucherschutz und Antidiskriminierung (in German). Berlin: BerlinOnline Stadtportal GmbH & Co. KG betrieben.A. 27 January 2020. Archived from the original on 26 November 2021. Retrieved 26 November 2021.

Further reading

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  • Bitter, Stephan (2005). "Harald Poelchau als Theologe des 20. Jahrhunderts". In Angermann, Norbert; Garleff, Michael; Lenz, Wilhelm (eds.). Ostseeprovinzen, Baltische Staaten und das Nationale. Vol. 14. Munich: LIT-Verlag. pp. 513–534.
  • Harpprecht, Klaus (2004). Harald Poelchau : ein Leben im Widerstand (in German) (1st ed.). Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt. ISBN 3-498-02969-X. OCLC 54777865.
  • Harpprecht, Klaus (1 October 2003). "Ein stiller Kämpfer". No. 41. Zeit-Verlag Gerd Bucerius GmbH & Co. KG. Die Zeit. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
  • Kruger, Ralph (2013). Dr. Tegel - Miracle Worker of Berlin: Harald Poelchau in Nazi Germany. Mustang, OK: Tate Publishing. ISBN 978-1-628-442-854.
  • Maser, Werner (1982). Pfarrer am Schafott der Nazis : der authentische Bericht des Mannes, der über 1000 Opfer des Hitler-Regimes auf ihrem Gang zum Henker begleitete. Moewig, 3155 (in German) (Originalausg ed.). Rastatt: Moewig. ISBN 3811831550. OCLC 611415237.
  • Mehlhorn, Ludwig, ed. (2004). Ohr der Kirche, Mund der Stummen : Harald Poelchau : eine Tagung zu seinem 100. Geburtstag (in German). Berlin: Wichern-Verlag. ISBN 3-88981-166-3. OCLC 250024383.
  • Noss, Peter (1994). "Poelchau, Harald". Biographisch-bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon / 7 Patočka, Jan bis Remachus (in German). Vol. 7. Herzberg: Bautz. pp. 769–775. ISBN 3-88309-048-4. OCLC 61946381.
  • Siegfried Mielke; Marion Goers; Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand (Berlin, Germany); Freie Universität Berlin (2008). "German". Einzigartig : Dozenten, Studierende und Repräsentanten der Deutschen Hochschule für Politik (1920-1933) im Widerstand gegen den Nationalsozialismus : Begleitband zur Ausstellung (1st ed.). Berlin: Lukas Verlag. pp. 302–309. ISBN 978-3-86732-032-0. OCLC 314107425.
  • Biographisch-bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon / 7 Patočka, Jan bis Remachus (in German). Vol. 7. Hamm: Bautz. 1994. pp. 769–775. ISBN 3-88309-048-4. OCLC 873794573.
  • Schuppener, Henriette (2006). "Nichts war umsonst" : Harald Poelchau und der deutsche Widerstand (in German). Münster: LIT. ISBN 3-8258-9315-4. OCLC 494666960.
  • Maier, Hugo (1998). Who is who der sozialen Arbeit. Freiburg: Lambertus. pp. 473–475. ISBN 9783784110363. OCLC 40933946.
  • Thorun, Walter (1998). "Poelchau, Harald". In Maier, Hugo (ed.). Who is who der sozialen Arbeit. Freiburg: Lambertus. pp. 473–475. ISBN 3-7841-1036-3.
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