224:. Like most Swiss, he expressed anti-Nazi sentiments in a discussion joined by others present, most vocal of which were Kiep and Bernstorff. Before the end of the party, Reckzeh offered to convey the correspondence of those present to their friends in Switzerland, an offer which many accepted. However, Reckzeh was actually an agent or informer working for the
580:"I think the Japanese Government did not intervene, and if it did, the Nazis, or better the Foreign Ministry, did most certainly not react to that request. On 7 July 1944 the attorney Dr Kurt Behling wrote to another attorney about these fruitless attempts. (source: estate of Dr Behling, National Archives,
367:
on 15 August 1944. Elisabeth von
Thadden also met the same fate on 8 September. Arthur Zarden, knowing what was in store for him and afraid to implicate others under torture, committed suicide on 18 January 1944 by throwing himself out a window at the Gestapo interrogation center. Irmgard Zarden (his
587:
On 18 July the
Ministry of Justice issued a "Führerinformation" (an information by the "Führer") describing the court case of 1 July, and the fact that the case against Johanna Solf was separated from the other cases because new evidence was found against her. According to the state attorney, the
228:, and he turned over these letters and reported on the gathering. Moreover Reckzeh was not in fact Swiss, but a German born in Berlin, and had only been sent by his spymasters to neutral Switzerland the previous year to gather intelligence on the various resistance networks active in Germany.
340:
While the demise of the Abwehr was an unexpected but welcome boon to the Allies, it also deprived the German armed forces of an intelligence service of its own, and was a further blow to those among the anti-Nazi conspirators against Hitler who had also used the Abwehr's resources.
252:. Moltke himself was arrested at this time due to his connection with Kiep. But that was not the only consequence of Kiep's arrest - its repercussions spread as far as Turkey, and resulted in the final demise of the Abwehr, already under suspicion as a hotbed of anti-Nazi activity.
595:
On 24 July
Behling wrote a note after a discussion with someone at the Ministry of Justice who said 'the case against Solf is absolutely serious and the death sentence will be seriously considered' (Behling estate, National Archives). By that time the
243:
had his evidence. He waited four months to act on it, hoping to cast a wider net; apparently he succeeded, for on 12 January 1944 some seventy-four persons, including everyone who had been in the tea party, were arrested. The Solfs themselves fled to
324:
Ultimately the capture of the Solf Circle and the subsequent defection of
Vemehren exposed how the presence of Resistance agents and Allied spies had infiltrated within the Abwehr inner circle. This proved to be the last straw for
423:. Nevertheless, they were finally scheduled to be tried on 27 April but they were released from Moabit on 23 April, apparently because of an error brought about by the confusion caused by the entry of the Red Army into Berlin.
383:
liberated the prison on 25 April he was not among the living. Together with
Richard Kuenzer, Bernstorff was taken out of the prison two days before to the vicinity of the Lehrter Bahnhof, and presumably shot upon the orders of
106:
and political enemies of the regime; Solf and her daughter were responsible for hiding many Jews and providing them with documents for them to emigrate safely. They also had links with other anti-Nazi groups like the
297:
When Kiep was arrested, the
Vermehrens were summoned to Berlin by the Gestapo to be interrogated in connection with their friend's case. Knowing what would be in store for them, they got in touch with the British
238:
a number of telephone conversations between
Reckzeh and the Gestapo, and he quickly informed Kiep, who in turn informed the rest of the guests. They hurriedly fled for their lives, but it was too late, as
419:, who knew the Solfs. Their trial was further delayed because the same air raid that killed Freisler on 3 February 1945 also destroyed the dossier on the Solfs, which was in the files of the
36:
359:, and eventually executed. Kiep himself was subjected to severe torture; while he was being interrogated after his conviction, the Gestapo learned of his involvement with the
547:
90:
and, like her husband, was a political moderate and anti-Nazi. After her husband's death in 1936 she had presided over a circle of anti-Nazi intellectuals in her salon in
333:, under Himmler's jurisdiction. The disintegration of the Abwehr caused the resignation of hundreds of officers who took up positions elsewhere rather than serve the
152:, a high official from the Foreign Office, who was once dismissed from his position as Consul General in New York City for attending a public luncheon in honor of
371:
Bernstorff was confined to
Ravensbrück together with Solf and repeatedly tortured. He was then sent to the prison in Prinz Albrecht Straße to stand trial in the
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102:. They included career officers from the Foreign Office, industrialists and writers, and they would meet regularly to discuss the war and relief for the
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branch of the Abwehr. He also managed to get his wife to follow him, despite the
Gestapo's efforts to detain her in Germany as a hostage.
577:. However, according to Eugen Solf, a grandson of Dr. Wilhelm and Hanna Solf who is doing research of his family during the Nazi Period:
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After the war, Solf went to
England while her daughter was reunited with her husband, Count Hubert Ballestrem, who was an officer in the
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indicted Halem for conspiracy to commit treason and undermining the war effort. He was sentenced to death and hanged on 9 October 1944.
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Solf and her daughter So'oa'emalelagi were interned in Ravensbrück after their arrest. In December 1944 they were transferred to
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Nikolaus von Halem was arrested on 26 February 1942 and suffered through a number of prisons and concentration camps, including
634:
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55:. Most members were arrested and executed after attending a tea party in Berlin on 10 September 1943 at the residence of
313:– it became the talk of Berlin. Although the Vermehrens did not bring any documents of any intelligence value or
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Countess von Ballestrem died on 4 December 1955 at the age of 46, her early death attributable to her incarceration.
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548:"Planung eines Attentates durch die Widerstandsgruppe um Beppo Römer, Paul Joseph Stuermer und Nikolaus von Halem"
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did not have the satisfaction of sentencing him because he was killed in an air raid on 3 February 1945. When the
415:. The considerable delay in their trial was at least in part due to the efforts of the Japanese ambassador,
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It is by no means certain that the Solf dossier was destroyed when Freisler was killed on 3 February 1945."
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daughter) spent five months in Ravensbrück concentration camp before being acquitted for lack of evidence.
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321:, it was believed that they absconded with the Abwehr's secret codes and handed them over to the British.
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290:. Excluded from military service because of a childhood injury, he managed to get himself assigned to the
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It is therefore more than uncertain that the Japanese Government's possible interventions bore any fruit.
234:, a member of the Kreisau Circle, learned of this betrayal through a friend in the Air Ministry who had
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The following paragraphs are paraphrased from William Shirer's, "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich":
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600:(Stauffenberg) must have played a serious role in these considerations.
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On 10 September 1943 the Solf Circle met at a birthday party given by
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537:, Die Dänische Friedens Akademie. (In German). Retrieved 2010-03-20.
47:) was an informal gathering of German intellectuals involved in the
78:, who served as Imperial Colonial Secretary before the outbreak of
395:. In June 1944, shortly before the 20 July 1944 coup attempt, the
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The defection of Erich Vermehren and the dissolution of the Abwehr
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When the news of the defection broke – courtesy of British
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59:. The group's downfall also ultimately led to the demise of the
478:
Heinrich Himmler: The Sinister Career of Hitler's Gestapo Chief
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and were caught by the Gestapo; they were then incarcerated in
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Most members of the Solf Circle were tried and convicted in
510:"Instincts to Lead": On Leadership, Peace, and Education
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http://wais.stanford.edu/Germany/germany_resistance.htm
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death sentence for Solf had been seriously considered (
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State Secretary Arthur Zarden and his daughter Irmgard.
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and lived in Berlin. Solf died on 4 November 1954 in
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the Countess Hannah von Bredow, the granddaughter of
174:, the German ambassador to the United States during
195:, a merchant; hanged for conspiracy to kill Hitler;
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Countess So'oa'emalelagi "Lagi" von Ballestrem-Solf
286:in 1938 because he repeatedly refused to join the
411:Remand Prison while awaiting their trial in the
567:The reference to Oshima's intervention is in
115:The tea party and betrayal of the Solf Circle
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270:and his wife, the former Countess Elisabeth
480:(Paperback ed.). Warner. p. 183.
345:The fate of some members of the Solf Circle
137:headmistress of a famous girls' school in
274:. Vermehren, by profession a lawyer from
208:To the party, Thadden brought a handsome
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216:, who was said to be practising at the
27:Group of anti-Nazi German intellectuals
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574:The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
302:in February 1944, and were flown to
457:Category:Members of the Solf Circle
452:List of members of the 20 July plot
98:, together with her daughter, the
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630:20th century in Baden-Württemberg
278:, was prevented from taking up a
198:Legation adviser Richard Kuenzer;
266:Among Kiep's close friends were
512:, Connor Court, Australia, 2013
250:Ravensbrück concentration camp
172:Johann Heinrich von Bernstorff
1:
504:Albrecht von Bernstorff, see
388:, the Nazi Foreign Minister.
232:Helmuth James Graf von Moltke
640:German resistance to Nazism
535:Hitlers Weltkrieg 1939-1945
300:Secret Intelligence Service
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220:in Berlin under Professor
592:, RJustMin 1944, Nr 144).
145:. Among the guests were:
476:Manvell, Roger (1968).
306:and thence to England.
168:Albrecht von Bernstorff
635:Berlin in World War II
386:Joachim von Ribbentrop
170:, the nephew of Count
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521:see german Knowledge
403:The fate of the Solfs
363:. He was executed in
131:Elisabeth von Thadden
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94:, reminiscent of the
74:was the widow of Dr.
57:Elisabeth von Thadden
222:Ferdinand Sauerbruch
18:Frau Solf Tea Party
550:. Bernard-stein.de
280:Rhodes scholarship
193:Nikolaus von Halem
183:Friedrich Erxleben
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82:and ambassador to
63:in February 1944.
590:Führerinformation
569:William L. Shirer
365:Plötzensee Prison
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584:, Germany).
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375:. However,
176:World War I
96:SeSiSo Club
80:World War I
32:Solf Circle
624:Categories
554:2013-02-10
311:propaganda
143:Heidelberg
139:Wieblingen
135:Protestant
86:under the
72:Hanna Solf
67:Background
49:resistance
45:Solf-Kreis
432:Starnberg
428:Wehrmacht
150:Otto Kiep
124:Otto Kiep
37:‹See Tfd›
441:See also
381:Red Army
292:Istanbul
51:against
582:Koblenz
500:On the
317:to the
315:ciphers
276:Hamburg
246:Bavaria
226:Gestapo
189:priest;
181:Father
141:, near
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409:Moabit
319:Allies
284:Oxford
236:tapped
187:Jesuit
166:Count
133:, the
92:Berlin
61:Abwehr
41:German
463:Notes
304:Cairo
210:Swiss
84:Japan
482:ISBN
331:RSHA
104:Jews
30:The
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282:in
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335:SS
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34:(
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