Adolf Berthold Ludwig Grimme (31 December 1889 – 27 August 1963) was a German politician, a member of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

(SPD). He was Cultural Minister during the later years of the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German Reich, German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclai ...

and after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, during the early years of the

Federal Republic of Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen constituent states have a total population of over 84 ...

. During the

Third Reich Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

, he was arrested as a member of the German Resistance and sentenced to prison. After the war, he filed a legal complaint against the judge who had condemned him and others. After years of delays, the case was dropped by the prosecutor.

Life before 1945

Grimme was born in

Goslar Goslar (; Eastphalian dialect, Eastphalian: ''Goslär'') is a historic town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the Goslar (district), district of Goslar and is located on the northwestern wikt:slope, slopes of the Harz ...

Prussian Hanover The Province of Hanover () was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1866 to 1946. During the Austro-Prussian War, the Kingdom of Hanover had attempted to maintain a neutral position, alo ...

, the son of Louise, née Sander (1858–1952) and Adolf Grimme (1854–1906), a train station master. In 1908, he began studying

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and

German studies German studies is an academic field that researches, documents and disseminates German language, literature, and culture in its historic and present forms. Academic departments of German studies therefore often focus on German culture, German h ...

, attending universities in Halle,

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

and

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

. He was also involved in the free student reform movement. He finished, passing his state exams in philosophy in 1914.Adolf Grimme short biography
Fernsehmuseum Hamburg. Retrieved January 28, 2012 In 1922, he became a member of the SPD. He began teaching in 1924. He then became a senior teacher (''Oberstudienrat'') in

Hannover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

and in 1925, he became the superintendent in

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; ) is the Capital city, capital of the Germany, German States of Germany, state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is on the Elbe river. Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archbishopric of Mag ...

. He became the assistant Minister at the

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

n Ministry of Culture, and a year later, the vice president of the provincial school council of

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

and Mark Brandenburg. In 1930, he became the successor to

Carl Heinrich Becker Carl Heinrich Becker (12 April 1876 – 10 February 1933) was a German orientalist and politician in Prussia. In 1921 and 1925–1930, he served as Minister for Culture in Prussia (independent). He was one of the founders of the study of ...

, serving as the last Culture Minister of a democratically elected

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

government in Prussia. He was removed from this position on 20 July 1932 when the state government was deposed in the Prussian coup. Grimme belonged to the Covenant of Religious Socialists. In 1942, his house was searched because of his connections to the Red Orchestra and he was arrested by the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

. In 1943, he was brought before the Reich court martial. A good defense strategy, which mainly consisted of informing on his fellow Red Orchestra members, enabled him to avoid the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

facing himUlrich Teusch
"Wer war Adolf Grimme?"
''

Neue Zürcher Zeitung The (''NZZ''; "New Newspaper of Zurich") is German language daily newspaper, published by NZZ Mediengruppe in Zurich. The paper was founded in 1780. It has a reputation as a high-quality newspaper, as the German Swiss newspaper of record ...

'' (March 5, 2008). Retrieved January 29, 2012 and he was sentenced to three years in a labor prison ('' Zuchthaus''), condemned for " failure to report an attempt at

high treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its d ...

". The Gestapo failed to uncover his participation in the German Resistance as author of many fliers then in circulation. Under the Third Reich, the crime of ''

Wehrkraftzersetzung ''Wehrkraftzersetzung'' or ''Zersetzung der Wehrkraft'' ( German for "corroding of defensive strength") was a sedition offence in German military law during the Nazi Germany era from 1938 to 1945. ''Wehrkraftzersetzung'' was enacted in 1938 b ...

'' was punishable by death. Grimme's prison term was spent at the prisons in

Luckau Luckau (Lower Sorbian: ''Łuków'') is a city in the district of Dahme-Spreewald in the States of Germany#States, federal state of Brandenburg, in eastern Germany. Known for its beauty, it has been dubbed "the Pearl of Lower Lusatia". Origin of t ...

and

Fuhlsbüttel is an urban quarter in the north of Hamburg, Germany in the Hamburg-Nord district. It is known as the site of Hamburg's international airport, and as the location of a prison which served as a concentration camp in the Nazi system of repression. ...

After the war

Although not given to revenge, on 15 September 1945 Grimme filed a complaint with the

state's attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, county prosecutor, state attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or solicitor is the chief prosecutor or chief law enforcement officer represen ...

against Manfred Roeder for his involvement condemning to death or imprisonment 49 members of the Red Orchestra, including

Dietrich Bonhoeffer Dietrich Bonhoeffer (; 4 February 1906 – 9 April 1945) was a German Lutheran pastor, neo-orthodox theologian and anti-Nazi dissident who was a key founding member of the Confessing Church. His writings on Christianity's role in the s ...

Hans von Dohnanyi Hans von Dohnanyi (; originally ''Johann von Dohnányi'' ; 1 January 1902 – 8 or 9 April 1945) was a Germans, German jurist. He used his position in the Abwehr to help Jews escape Germany, worked with German resistance to Nazism, German r ...

Arvid Harnack Arvid Harnack (; 24 May 1901 – 22 December 1942) was a German jurist, Marxist economist, Communist, and German resistance fighter in Nazi Germany. Harnack came from an intellectual family and was originally a humanist. He was strongly influen ...

and

Günther Weisenborn Günther Weisenborn (10 July 1902 – 26 March 1969) was a German writer and fighter in the German Resistance against Nazism. He was notable for collaborating with Bertolt Brecht, along with Hanns Eisler, Slatan Dudow, on the play, '' The Mother ...

. Dated 12 May 1951, the final report by Hans-Jürgen Finck,

Lüneburg Lüneburg, officially the Hanseatic City of Lüneburg and also known in English as Lunenburg, is a town in the German Bundesland (Germany), state of Lower Saxony. It is located about southeast of another Hanseatic League, Hanseatic city, Hambur ...

state's attorney, about the investigation into the complaint filed by Grimme and other surviving Red Orchestra members came to the conclusion that the Reich court martial trials had been conducted "in accordance with the law" (''ordnungsgemäß'') and the defendants correctly sentenced to death.Helmut Kramer
"Als hätten sie nie das Recht gebeugt"
''Ossietzky'' No. 23 (2002). Retrieved January 29, 2012 "The basis of the 'Red Orchestra'... was treason. Treason... has ever and in all ages been regarded as the most ignominious crime. ... Also the

20 July Plot The 20 July plot, sometimes referred to as Operation Valkyrie, was a failed attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler, the chancellor and leader of Nazi Germany, and overthrow the Nazi regime on 20 July 1944. The plotters were part of the German r ...

was in profound measure fueled by treason and espionage." The report further stated that the military opposition had "assumed... an enormous amount of guilt". Other German men disagreed with Hitler and the war, but nonetheless "did their duty as soldiers and in administration and the economy... ndcertainly would have rejected with outrage... being placed in the same league with men like

Beck Beck David Hansen (born Bek David Campbell; July 8, 1970), known mononymously as Beck, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his Experimental music, experimental and Lo-fi mus ...

, Canaris,

Oster Oster (, ; ) is a city in Chernihiv Raion, Chernihiv Oblast, Ukraine. It is located where the Oster River flows into the Desna. Oster hosts the administration of Oster urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Its population is Today O ...

ndvon Dohnanyi." The case, also pursued by Weisenborn and

Greta Kuckhoff Margaretha "Greta" Kuckhoff ( Lorke; 14 December 1902 – 11 November 1981) was a Resistance member in Nazi Germany, who belonged to the Communist Party of Germany and the NKVD spy ring that was dubbed the Red Orchestra by the Abwehr. She was m ...

, was delayed by the state's attorney in

until the end of the 1960s, when it was dropped.Eva Liebchen
"Günther und Joy Weisenborn"
Friedenau Netzwerk. Retrieved January 28, 2012 Grimme Adolf Grab

Grimme was a member of the postwar "appointed

Landtag A ''Landtag'' (State Diet) is generally the legislative assembly or parliament of a federated state or other subnational self-governing entity in German-speaking nations. It is usually a unicameral assembly exercising legislative competence ...

" organized by the British military government in their occupation zone. It existed for just a few months, from 23 August 1946 to 8 December 1946. After the British created the

German state The Federal Republic of Germany is a federation and consists of sixteen partly sovereign ''states''. Of the sixteen states, thirteen are so-called area-states ('Flächenländer'); in these, below the level of the state government, there is a ...

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

, he became a member of the appointed Landtag of Lower Saxony, which existed from 8 December 1946 to 28 March 1947. When the elections were held, he became a member of the first elected Landtag, later becoming the first Minister of Culture of Lower Saxony. On 15 November 1948 Grimme was named the first General Manager of

Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk (NWDR; ''Northwest German Broadcasting'') was the organization responsible for public broadcasting in the German Federal States of Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia from 22 September ...

. In 1956, he retired to Degerndorf am

Inn Inns are generally establishments or buildings where travelers can seek lodging, and usually, food and drink. Inns are typically located in the country or along a highway. Before the advent of motorized transportation, they also provided accomm ...

in the municipality of

Brannenburg Brannenburg is a municipality in the district of Rosenheim in Bavaria in Germany. There is a railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, wh ...

. A well-known quote from Adolf Grimme is "A

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

can be a

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

. A Christian must be a socialist.""Adolf Grimme über Christen und Sozialisten"
sprueche-und-zitate.com Retrieved January 28, 2012

Legacy

Over the decades since his death, Grimme has become a "name without a history". An annual television prize, the most prestigious in Germany, is named for him, the

Adolf Grimme Award The Grimme-Preis (Grimme Award), formerly known as the Adolf-Grimme-Preis, is one of the most prestigious German television awards. It is named after the first general director of Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk, Adolf Grimme. The Grimme Institute ...

. Known since 2010 as the Grimme Award, it was first awarded by the City of

Marl Marl is an earthy material rich in carbonate minerals, Clay minerals, clays, and silt. When Lithification, hardened into rock, this becomes marlstone. It is formed in marine or freshwater environments, often through the activities of algae. M ...

training institute in 1964. In 1973, a media institute named after Grimme was founded in Marl, and has given out the Grimme Award since 1977, expanded in 2001 to include new media. A biography about Grimme was published in 2008, helping to "return the missing history" to Grimme's name.

Footnotes

References

External links