Arvid Harnack
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Arvid Harnack (; 24 May 1901 – 22 December 1942) was a German
jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...
, Marxist economist, Communist, and German resistance fighter in
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
. Harnack came from an intellectual family and was originally a
humanist Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential, and agency of human beings, whom it considers the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humanism" ha ...
. He was strongly influenced by
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...
but progressively moved to a Marxist-Socialist outlook after a visit to the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
and the Nazis' appearance. After starting an undercover discussion group based at the Berlin
Abendgymnasium An ''Abendgymnasium'' or "evening gymnasium" is a German class of secondary school for adults over the age of 18 which allows them to gain the ''Abitur''. They were started in the 1920s as an opportunity for working class adults to improve their ...
, he met Harro Schulze-Boysen, who ran a similar faction. Like numerous groups in other parts of the world, the undercover political factions led by Harnack and Schulze-Boysen later developed into an espionage network that supplied military and economic intelligence to the Soviet Union. The group was later called the Red Orchestra (''Rote Kapelle'') by the
Abwehr The (German language, German for ''resistance'' or ''defence'', though the word usually means ''counterintelligence'' in a military context) ) was the German military intelligence , military-intelligence service for the ''Reichswehr'' and the ...
. He and his American-born wife, Mildred Fish, were executed by the Nazi regime in 1942 and 1943, respectively.


Life

Harnack's family were prominent and academically gifted Protestant Germans from the Baltic region. His father was literary history professor Otto Harnack and his mother was Clara Harnack (née Reichau), an artist. Reichau was the granddaughter of
Justus von Liebig Justus ''Freiherr'' von Liebig (12 May 1803 – 18 April 1873) was a Germans, German scientist who made major contributions to the theory, practice, and pedagogy of chemistry, as well as to agricultural and biology, biological chemistry; he is ...
, one of the principal founders of
organic chemistry Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the science, scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic matter, organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain ...
. Harnack's siblings were
Falk Harnack Falk Harnack (2 March 1913 – 3 September 1991) was a German director and screenwriter. During Germany's Nazi era, he was also active with the German resistance to Nazism, German Resistance and toward the end of World War II, the partisans in Gr ...
, his elder brother; Inge Harnack; and Angela Harnack, a violin teacher. Harnack was the nephew of theologian
Adolf von Harnack Carl Gustav Adolf von Harnack (born Harnack; 7 May 1851 – 10 June 1930) was a Baltic German Lutheran theologian and prominent Church historian. He produced many religious publications from 1873 to 1912 (in which he is sometimes credited ...
. In 1919 he became a member of the ''
Freikorps (, "Free Corps" or "Volunteer Corps") were irregular German and other European paramilitary volunteer units that existed from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. They effectively fought as mercenaries or private military companies, rega ...
'', a volunteer militia. From 1919 to 1923 he studied
law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...
at the
Friedrich Schiller University The University of Jena, officially the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (, abbreviated FSU, shortened form ''Uni Jena''), is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany. The university was established in 1558 and is cou ...
, the
University of Graz The University of Graz (, formerly: ''Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz'') is a public university, public research university located in Graz, Austria. It is the largest and oldest university in Styria, as well as the second-largest and second-old ...
, and the
University of Hamburg The University of Hamburg (, also referred to as UHH) is a public university, public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('':de:Allgemeines Vorlesungswesen, ...
; he became a Doctor of Law in 1924. He completed postgraduate studies in economics in Hamburg and the
London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...
before being awarded a Rockefeller scholarship to study at the
University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...
. In
Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It is the List of municipalities in Wisconsin by population, second-most populous city in the state, with a population of 269,840 at the 2020 Uni ...
, Harnack was influenced by the industrial economist and labor historian
John R. Commons John Rogers Commons (October 13, 1862 – May 11, 1945) was an American institutional economist, Georgist, progressive and labor historian at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Early years John R. Commons was born in Hollansburg, Ohio o ...
, and saw him as a mentor. In 1926, Harnack met American literary historian Mildred Fish, also a graduate student at the Wisconsin University, after Harnack wandered into the wrong lecture hall. After a brief friendship and romance, they were engaged on 6 June 1926 and married on 7 August 1926. The couple met Margaretha "Greta" Lorke, a German student of
sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...
, at a Friday evening gathering organized by Commons in Madison. A friendship that lasted for many years developed between Mildred and Lorke, the latter being drawn into an intimate group of Wisconsin radicals known as the Friday Niters Club. According to a fellow student and member of the group, Hazel Briggs Rice, the Friday Niters Club members considered themselves to be liberal Progressives. Lorke later married
Adam Kuckhoff Adam Kuckhoff (, 30 August 1887 – 5 August 1943) was a German writer, journalist, and German resistance to Nazism, German resistance member of the anti-fascist resistance group that was later called the Red Orchestra (espionage), Red Orchestra ...
. The Harnacks' Friday Niters Club was a preface to their involvement in what became known as the
Sacco and Vanzetti Nicola Sacco (; April 22, 1891 – August 23, 1927) and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (; June 11, 1888 – August 23, 1927) were Italian immigrants and anarchists who were controversially convicted of murdering Alessandro Berardelli and Frederick Parm ...
case, which became a ''
cause célèbre A ( , ; pl. ''causes célèbres'', pronounced like the singular) is an issue or incident arousing widespread controversy, outside campaigning, and heated public debate. The term is sometimes used positively for celebrated legal cases for th ...
''. Many in the group protested the planned execution of the pair, and Arvid petitioned the governor to create a committee to investigate the controversy. The trial radicalised the Harnacks. At the end of the semester in March 1928, Arvid returned to Germany, as his fellowship had ended, while Mildred stayed for another year to complete her studies before moving to Germany on 2 June 1929, at which point the couple lived in the small university towns of
Jena Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 in ...
and Giessen. In 1931, Arvid was promoted to his second doctorate, a Doctor of
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 ...
from
University of Giessen University of Giessen, official name Justus Liebig University Giessen (), is a large public research university in Giessen, Hesse, Germany. It is one of the oldest institutions of higher education in the German-speaking world. It is named afte ...
with a thesis titled: ''Die vormarxistische Arbeiterbewegung in den Vereinigten Staaten'' ("The Pre-Marxist Workers' Movement in the United States") that dealt explicitly with the history of the American workers' movement. The thesis was sponsored by
Friedrich Lenz Friedrich may refer to: Names *Friedrich (given name), people with the given name ''Friedrich'' *Friedrich (surname), people with the surname ''Friedrich'' Other *Friedrich (board game), a board game about Frederick the Great and the Seven Years' ...
, who founded the Giessen School of National Economics. The Harnacks, like many of their literary counterparts, shared an interest in the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
. They decided to set up a study group in the autumn of 1931, along with Lenz. At the height of the
Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
, Harnack's hope was that Germany could serve as a spiritual and economic bridge between the East and West. Lenz believed that only an alliance with the Soviet Union would relieve Germany of the constraints of the
Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...
, re-establish the country's position, and return it to great nation status.


ARPLAN

Harnack founded the ''Wissenschaftliche Arbeitsgemeinschaft zum Studium der sowjetischen Planwirtschaft'' ("Scientific Working Community for the Study of the Soviet Planned Economy"), or ARPLAN, with Lenz in 1931. It was an organisation of writers and academics that met once a month to discuss the Soviet planned economy. Harnack became secretary of the group and Lenz became the president. The first meeting took place on 3 and 4 January 1932. The study group had around 50 members. Some of the more prominent members were the economist
Emil Lederer Emil Lederer (22 July 1882 – 29 May 1939) was a Bohemian-born German economist and sociologist. Purged from his position at Humboldt University of Berlin in 1933 for being Jewish, Lederer fled into exile. He helped establish the "University ...
, the sociologist and
historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...
Alfred Meusel, the politician
Otto Hoetzsch Otto Hoetzsch (14 February 1876 – 27 August 1946), was a German academic and politician (German Conservative Party, German National People's Party, DNVP and Conservative People's Party (Germany), KVP). At the beginning of the 20th century, he was ...
, the
political scientist Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...
Klaus Mehnert Klaus Mehnert (October 10, 1906, in Moscow, Russian Empire – January 2, 1984, in Freudenstadt, West Germany) was a German writer, journalist and academic. He was a correspondent in the Soviet Union; a professor in the United States; a publisher ...
, the
Marxist philosopher Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, and ...
György Lukács György Lukács (born Bernát György Löwinger; ; ; 13 April 1885 – 4 June 1971) was a Hungarian Marxist philosopher, literary historian, literary critic, and Aesthetics, aesthetician. He was one of the founders of Western Marxism, an inter ...
, the Marxist historian
Hermann Duncker Hermann Ludwig Rudolph Duncker (24 May 1874 – 22 June 1960) was a German Marxist politician, historian and social scientist. He was a lecturer for the workers' education movement, co-founder of the Communist Party of Germany, professor at the U ...
, the
playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...
, historian
Karl August Wittfogel Karl August Wittfogel (; 6 September 1896 – 25 May 1988) was a German-American playwright, historian, and sinologist. He was originally a Marxist and an active member of the Communist Party of Germany, but after the Second World War, he was ...
, the politician
Ernst Niekisch Ernst Niekisch (23 May 1889 – 23 May 1967) was a German writer and political theorist. Initially a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and of the Old Social Democratic Party of Germany (ASP), he later became a prominent exponent of th ...
the
publicist A publicist is a person whose job is to generate and manage publicity for a company, a brand, or public figure – especially a celebrity – or for work or a project such as a book, film, or album. Publicists are public relations specialists wh ...
, the philosopher
Ernst Jünger Ernst Jünger (; 29 March 1895 – 17 February 1998) was a German author, highly decorated soldier, philosopher, and entomology, entomologist who became publicly known for his World War I memoir ''Storm of Steel''. The son of a successful busin ...
and politician Count von
Ernst Graf zu Reventlow Ernst Christian Einar Ludvig Detlev, Graf zu Reventlow (18 August 1869 – 21 November 1943) was a German naval officer, journalist and Nazi politician. A conservative aristocrat and a German nationalist, he was a member of several right-wing pa ...
. Also among them was the leading Soviet economist and diplomat
Sergei Bessonov Sergei Alexeyevich Bessonov (6 August 1892 – 11 September 1941) was a Soviet state, public and party activist and diplomat. He was one of the defendants in the Case of the Anti-Soviet "Bloc of Rightists and Trotskyites" of 2–13 March 1938. H ...
, who at the time was a member of the Russian trade delegation, and Alexander Hirschfeld, who was Arvid's contact at the Soviet embassy in Berlin. At the time, the Harnacks were also members of the Association of Intellectual Workers (''Bund der Geistesarbeiter''), a communist front organisation. They were seen by Moscow as able to recruit "people of good will" or "people of influence" but not necessarily party members. According to
Georgi Dimitrov Georgi Dimitrov Mihaylov (; ) also known as Georgiy Mihaylovich Dimitrov (; 18 June 1882 – 2 July 1949), was a Bulgarian communist politician who served as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party from 1933 t ...
, the head of
Communist International The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internationa ...
, the organizations allowed them to extend their influence to people that were difficult to reach. Communist or KPD members stayed in the background in meetings that were open to everyone, but controlled the discussion to gain influence. The real purpose of organisations like ARPLAN was to draw influential people who supported a pro-Soviet agenda in relation to German policy. Bessonov was ordered to recruit suitable German technocrats for visits to the Soviet Union and extract useful information for the Soviet trade legation.


Salon

In January 1932, Mildred lost her position teaching English literature at the University of Berlin. In May 1932, the couple were forced to move to 61 Hasenheide in
Neukölln Neukölln (), officially abbreviated Neuk, is one of the twelve boroughs of Berlin. It is located south-east of Berlin's center and stretches from the inner city southward to the border with Brandenburg, encompassing the eponymous quarter of Neu ...
due to the presence of Nazis, which they leased from
Stefan Heym Helmut Flieg (10 April 1913 – 16 December 2001) was a German writer, known by his pseudonym Stefan Heym (). He lived in the United States and trained at Camp Ritchie in 1943, making him one of the Ritchie Boys of World War II. In 1952, he r ...
. In his postwar novel, ''Nachruf'', Heym stated he found the Harnacks to be a genial academic couple who had "resolute views" on the Nazis. The Harnacks hosted a Saturday
salon Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon A beauty salon or beauty parlor is an establishment that provides Cosmetics, cosmetic treatments for people. Other variations of this type of business include hair salons, spas, day spas, ...
at Hasenheide where intellectual discussion among editors, publishers, and authors was freely shared, and where Harnack lectured on
political economy Political or comparative economy is a branch of political science and economics studying economic systems (e.g. Marketplace, markets and national economies) and their governance by political systems (e.g. law, institutions, and government). Wi ...
and Marxism. Amongst those who attended were publishers
Samuel Fischer Samuel Fischer, later Samuel von Fischer (24 December 1859 – 15 October 1934), was a Hungarian-born German publisher, the founder of S. Fischer Verlag. Biography Fischer was born in Liptau-Sankt-Nikolaus/Liptószentmiklós (now Liptovský ...
,
Ernst Rowohlt Ernst Hermann Heinrich Rowohlt (23 June 1887 in Bremen – 1 December 1960 in Hamburg) was a German publisher who founded the Rowohlt publishing house in 1908 and headed it in its repeated incarnations until his death. In 1912, he married actres ...
, and Heinrich Marie Ledig-Rowohlt; translator
Franz Frein Franz may refer to: People * Franz (given name) * Franz (surname) Places * Franz (crater), a lunar crater * Franz, Ontario, a railway junction and unorganized town in Canada * Franz Lake, in the state of Washington, United States – see Fran ...
; physician and writer Max Mohr; authors and playwrights
Adam Kuckhoff Adam Kuckhoff (, 30 August 1887 – 5 August 1943) was a German writer, journalist, and German resistance to Nazism, German resistance member of the anti-fascist resistance group that was later called the Red Orchestra (espionage), Red Orchestra ...
,
Max Tau Max Tau was a German–Norwegian writer, editor, and publisher. Life Tau grew up in an environment characterized by what he later termed the "Jewish-German" symbiosis, in a Jewish household heavily influenced by the Jewish enlightenment. He ...
, Otto Zoff, and
Ernst von Salomon Ernst von Salomon (25 September 1902 – 9 August 1972) was a German novelist and screenwriter. He was a Weimar-era national-revolutionary activist and right-wing Freikorps member. Family and education He was born in Kiel, in the Kingdom of Pr ...
; journalist Margret Boveri; critic
Erich Franzen The given name Eric, Erich, Erikk, Erik, Erick, Eirik, or Eiríkur is derived from the Old Norse name ''Eiríkr'' (or ''Eríkr'' in Old East Norse due to monophthongization). The first element, ''ei-'' may be derived from the older Proto-Nor ...
; and some of Mildred's students, including Friedrich Schlösinger. 23 members of ARPLAN, including Harnack, went on a three-week study trip to the Soviet Union from 20 August to 12 September 1932, which was organised with the help of Bessonov and the Soviet embassy. They observed the Soviet economy in Moscow, Leningrad, Odessa, Kiev, and the
Dnieper The Dnieper or Dnepr ( ), also called Dnipro ( ), is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. Approximately long, with ...
region. There were allegations that Harnack was recruited by Soviet intelligence during the trip. David Dallin describes the trip as the turning point in Harnack's life, and that Harnack agreed to spy was for the Soviet Union when he was bluntly asked by senior
Comintern The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internatio ...
leaders. This allegation was repeated in 1994 by the KGB's deputy director,
Pavel Sudoplatov Pavel Anatolyevich Sudoplatov (; ; July 7, 1907 – September 24, 1996) was a senior Soviet official in the intelligence services of the former Soviet Union whose career spanned over 34 years in the different intelligence branches of the Soviet A ...
, though it was not recorded in Harnack's own records. Even though the group travelled through Ukraine as academics and took notes, it failed to notice the
famine A famine is a widespread scarcity of food caused by several possible factors, including, but not limited to war, natural disasters, crop failure, widespread poverty, an Financial crisis, economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenom ...
before them; when
Arthur Koestler Arthur Koestler (, ; ; ; 5 September 1905 – 1 March 1983) was an Austria-Hungary, Austro-Hungarian-born author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest, and was educated in Austria, apart from his early school years. In 1931, Koestler j ...
went there around the same time, he documented starving people in almost every station. Koestler believed that the Harnacks' mentality was driven by the influence of Soviet propaganda, and that although they knew the standard of living in the West was much higher than the Soviet Union, they judged that Soviet citizens were much better off under Stalin than they were under the czar.


Career change

By the end of 1932, Harnack could not pursue an academic career, as the universities overwhelmingly supported Hitler, and he was no longer eligible for a career as a National Socialist. His thesis on "The Pre-Marxist Workers' Movement in the United States" could no longer be published. In the same year, he instructed illegal training courses for former members of the
Marxist Workers School Marxist Workers' School () (MASCH) was an educational institute founded in the winter of 1925 in Berlin, by the Berlin city office of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). Its function was to enable workers to learn the basics of proletarian life ...
(MASCH) and at the Berliner
Abendgymnasium An ''Abendgymnasium'' or "evening gymnasium" is a German class of secondary school for adults over the age of 18 which allows them to gain the ''Abitur''. They were started in the 1920s as an opportunity for working class adults to improve their ...
("Berliner Städtische Abendgymnasium für Erwachsene"), an evening high school for adults seeking to obtain the ''
Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...
'' and university admission. Mildred also taught English literature at the same school. While at the ''Abendgymnasium'', Harnack met KPD member and design engineer Karl Behrens, one of Mildred's students, who became one of Harnack's closest comrades-in-arms in the resistance. After Adolf Hitler's rise to power and the
Reichstag fire The Reichstag fire (, ) was an arson attack on the Reichstag building, home of the German parliament in Berlin, on Monday, 27 February 1933, precisely four weeks after Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany. Marinus van der Lubbe, ...
in early 1933, the Harnacks kept a low profile; they decided to dissolve ARPLAN in March 1933. The membership list was destroyed and many members fled abroad. Lenz was attacked at Giessen University by the
Schutzstaffel The ''Schutzstaffel'' (; ; SS; also stylised with SS runes as ''ᛋᛋ'') was a major paramilitary organisation under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II. It beg ...
, his house was raided, and he was dismissed from the university in September due to being "politically unreliable".


Resistance


Early stages

In 1933, Harnack was appointed advisor at the Reich Ministry of Economics (''Reichswirtschaftsministerium''), before becoming a senior civil servant (''Oberregierungsrat'') in 1938, and worked on payment balances and foreign exchange questions about trade. As chief of trade policy, Harnack was part of many decision-making processes involving a very large number of people, including contacts in the
German Foreign Office The Federal Foreign Office (, ; abbreviated AA) is the foreign ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany, a federal agency responsible for both the country's foreign policy and its relationship with the European Union. It is a cabinet-leve ...
(''Auswärtiges Amt''). Over time, Harnack gathered detailed knowledge of the German economy, and when he was promoted to senior civil servant, he was legitimately able to form contacts with American trade counterparts at the American embassy. The same year, he also finished his legal qualifications in Jena, and successfully completed the junior law examination. With the Kuckhoffs, the Harnacks assembled a discussion circle that debated political perspectives on the time after the Nazis' expected downfall. Between 1928 and 1929, Adam Kuckhoff headed the cultural-political magazine ''
Die Tat ''Die Tat'' (''The Deed'' or ''The Action'') was a German monthly publication of politics and culture. It was founded in April 1909 and its publisher (from 1912 on) was Eugen Diederichs from Jena. From 1939 until 1944 ''Die Tat'' was continued a ...
'' ("The Deed"). At that time, he became acquainted with the communist
John Sieg John Sieg (February 3, 1903 – October 15, 1942) was an American-born German Communist railroad worker, journalist and resistance fighter, who publicized Nazi atrocities through the underground Communist press and fought against National Sociali ...
, who was previously a reporter on the communist newspaper, ''
Die Rote Fahne ''Die Rote Fahne'' (, ''The Red Flag'') was a German newspaper originally founded in 1876 by Socialist Worker's Party leader Wilhelm Hasselmann, and which has been since published on and off, at times underground, by German Socialists and Commun ...
''. Harnack was good friends with lawyer and academic Carl Dietrich von Trotha, and knew lawyer
Horst von Einsiedel Horst may refer to: Science * Horst (geology), a raised fault block bounded by normal faults or graben People * Horst (given name) * Horst (surname) * ter Horst, Dutch surname * van der Horst, Dutch surname Places Settlements Germany * Hors ...
since 1934. The group met to discuss and disseminate communist theories that included material Harnack was able to copy from the ministry. In 1934, the couple moved to the third-floor apartment at 16 Schöneberger Woyrschstraße, close to the Tiergarten. The house was destroyed in the war and is now known as 14 Genthiner Straße. By 1935, Harnack was employed as a
lecturer Lecturer is an academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. They may also conduct re ...
on
foreign policy Foreign policy, also known as external policy, is the set of strategies and actions a State (polity), state employs in its interactions with other states, unions, and international entities. It encompasses a wide range of objectives, includ ...
at the
University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...
. On 8 August 1935, three months after Harnack joined the trade ministry, he met with Hirschfeld in a meeting that lasted three hours. During the meeting, Hirschfeld informed Harnack that his position in the trade ministry could provide useful information that could be used to defeat the Nazis, and offered to establish a system to convey the documents to Moscow. Harnack agreed to be an informer and was given the codename ''Balt'', assigned a control officer, Alexander Belkin, and given a mission to increase his sources by building a network of contacts. However, Hirschfeld requested that Harnack break off all relations with the KPD, and to avoid working for the resistance, but Harnack refused; he was never interested in becoming a Soviet agent, considered himself a communist, and would supply information to anybody who would take part in anti-fascist operations that helped to destroy the Nazis. According to KGB sources, between 1935 and 1938 Harnack supplied information about German currency, German investments abroad, and details of the German foreign debt. He also provided details of secret trade agreements to Soviet intelligence. During that period, Harnack circulated the same information to other groups. In 1935, Harnack met Harro Schulze-Boysen for the first time, but Harnack decided not to meet again due to their different temperaments. At the end of 1937, and formally on 3 March 1938, U.S. ambassador William Dodd was replaced by Hugh Wilson. Joining him as First Secretary and monetary attaché at the U.S. Embassy was
Donald Heath Donald Read Heath (August 12, 1894 – October 15, 1981) was a member of the United States Foreign Service for more than four decades including service as the Minister to Laos (1950–1954), and Ambassador to Cambodia (1950–1954), Vietnam (1952 ...
. U.S. Secretary of the Treasury
Henry Morgenthau Jr. Henry Morgenthau Jr. (; May 11, 1891February 6, 1967) was the United States Secretary of the Treasury during most of the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He played the major role in designing and financing the New Deal. After 1937, whil ...
felt that the Berlin embassy needed a treasury attaché who could ferret out German economic information, so Heath became an intelligence agent in the office of coordination at the embassy (a forerunner of the
Office of Strategic Services The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the first intelligence agency of the United States, formed during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines ...
). His job was to recruit sympathetic informers that could provide that type of information. Mildred met Louise Heath, Donald's wife, at the American Women's Club in Bellevuestrasse in 1937. The Harnacks became friends with the Heaths, but Arvid was resistant to Donald's proposal at first; by 1938 he started providing him with intelligence. At the start of World War II, Louise and Donald Heath Jr. fled to Norway before returning several months later. When they returned, Louise asked Mildred to tutor her son in American literature. The two couples began to regularly spend weekends together and occasionally went on vacation together. At other times Arvid and Donald met in the countryside to exchange intelligence, but it became increasingly dangerous. Between December 1939 and March 1941, Donald Jr. couriered between Harnack and the American embassy, delivered food from Denmark and Italy, and gave medicine to the Harnacks. After the war, Donald acknowledged that Arvid was his source for German economic intelligence. In 1937, former Prussian minister of culture and religious socialist Adolf Grimme was brought into the group through Kuckhoff and playwright
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 ...
. Harnack had previously met Grimme at the funeral of
Adolf von Harnack Carl Gustav Adolf von Harnack (born Harnack; 7 May 1851 – 10 June 1930) was a Baltic German Lutheran theologian and prominent Church historian. He produced many religious publications from 1873 to 1912 (in which he is sometimes credited ...
on 10 June 1930. Grimme was a religious socialist who belonged to the Covenant of Religious Socialists of Germany, so Harnack used considerable effort to convince him to become a communist. On 26 January 1937, a new civil service law gave Nazi officials the power to sack tenured civil servants. Walther Funk, Harnack's manager at the Ministry, persuaded him to join the Nazi Party to protect himself, and become what was known as a ''Hamburger'' (i.e. Nazi brown outside, Moscow red inside). In May 1937, Harnack joined the Nazi Party with the number 4153569. Harnack's nephew, Wolfgang Havemann, became a frequent visitor to the group discussions after 1938.


Harnack/Schulze-Boysen Group

In 1940, Harnack came into contact with other resistance groups and began to cooperate with them. The most important of these was a small group called ''Gegner Kreis'' that was run by Harro Schulze-Boysen, a ''
Luftwaffe The Luftwaffe () was the aerial warfare, aerial-warfare branch of the before and during World War II. German Empire, Germany's military air arms during World War I, the of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Army and the of the Imperial Ge ...
'' lieutenant and descendant of an old German military family, who had known Harnack since 1935, but was reintroduced to him sometime in late 1939 or early 1940 through Greta Kuckhoff. The Kuckhoffs had known the Schulz-Boysens since 1938, and started to engage them socially in autumn 1940 by bringing Mildred and Libertas (Harro's wife) together while on holiday in Saxony. Harnack and Schulze-Boysen were wary of meeting due but finally met in October 1940 at the house of Adam's 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 ...
apartment at Wilhelmshöher Allee 19 in Friedenau. On 17 September 1940, the Harnacks met the third secretary member of the Soviet embassy, Alexander Korotkov who used the alias Alexander Erdberg while meeting the couple in their Tiergarten apartment. Korotkov was a Soviet intelligence agent who had been operating clandestinely in Europe for much of the 1930s as an employee of the foreign intelligence service of the Soviet
People's Commissariat for State Security The People's Commissariat for State Security () or NKGB, was the name of the Soviet secret police, intelligence and counter-intelligence force that existed from 3 February 1941 to 20 July 1941, and again from 1943 to 1946, before being rename ...
(NKGB), but had been dismissed during Stalin's purges. He managed to get back into the service . Initially wary and suspicious of the uninvited guest, Korotkov proposed a second meeting at the Soviet Embassy in Berlin to Harnack, where Korotkov could demonstrate his good faith and prove to Harnack that he was not a decoy. Several reasons were given as to why Harnack decided to become a spy, including a need for money, being ideologically driven, and possibly blackmail by Russian intelligence. It was known that Harnack had his own agenda, and that he wanted Germany to be separate from Nazism and the Soviet Union. According to a statement by Korotkov discovered after the war, he thought Harnack was not motivated by money or ideologically driven, but that he was specifically building an anti-fascist organisation for Germany, as opposed to an espionage network for Russian or American intelligence; Harnack considered himself a German patriot. Korotkov considered Harnack a moral person, and that while he reported to his Soviet directors, he felt the Soviet Union "was a country whose ideals he felt connected to". Harnack often told his friends of his aversion to the Soviet Union and once told Grimme that Germany would "need a fist not to become a puppet of the Soviet Union". On 26 September 1940, Harnack provided Erdberg with his first intelligence report that reported the Nazi state was in the planning stages for a war against the Soviet Union. In mid-April 1941, in an attempt to increase the influx of intelligence, the Soviets ordered Korotkov to create a Berlin espionage operation and Harnack was asked by Korotkov to run it. Korotkov was instructed by Soviet intelligence to provide a person in Berlin that could be contacted via radio in the event of war. Harnack refused to be contacted in that manner and agreed only to collect and encipher the material in his own apartment, but the transmission would take place somewhere else. In June 1941, with Harnack's approval, Korotkov delivered a wireless transmitter to Greta Kuckhoff during a meeting at an underground railway station. The device was mounted in a case and had a range of 600 miles, but the battery only lasted two hours. The aim of the operation was to organise the Harnack group into an independent network with direct contact with Soviet intelligence. In May, two additional
shortwave radio Shortwave radio is radio transmission using radio frequencies in the shortwave bands (SW). There is no official definition of the band range, but it always includes all of the High frequency, high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30& ...
transmitters were delivered by diplomatic pouch; one was battery powered. The second one was dismantled so that it could fit into a suitcase, and required an electrical supply to operate. However, when Adam Kuckhoff tested the first transmitter, it failed to work so it was returned the following week. Along with the radio transmitter, Korotkov gave Harnack 12,000
Reichsmark The (; sign: ℛ︁ℳ︁; abbreviation: RM) was the currency of Germany from 1924 until the fall of Nazi Germany in 1945, and in the American, British and French occupied zones of Germany, until 20 June 1948. The Reichsmark was then replace ...
s and Adam Kuckhoff 500 Reichsmarks. Harnack distributed the money to his agents: Behrens received 5000 marks, Leo Skrzipczynski received 3,000, Grimme received 2,000, and Rose Schloesinger received 1,000. The rest of the money was used by Harnack for daily expenses Harnack acted as the intermediary when transmitting reports, which were delivered from several people, including Schulze-Boysen, and were encyphered and passed to Hans Coppi for transmission. The courier was initially Behrens, but Schlösinger took over when Behrens became unavailable. On 1 July 1941, Korotkov and the Soviet embassy staff, along with many other Soviet citizens, left Germany. In June 1941, after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, the resistance group intensified its leaflet propaganda. At the same time, the group started to collect military intelligence in a careful, systematic manner that could be used to overthrow the Nazis. Members of both groups were convinced that Germany could only be liberated by the Nazis' military defeat, and that by shortening the war, millions of people could be saved. In 1941, Harnack sent the Soviets information about the forthcoming
invasion An invasion is a Offensive (military), military offensive of combatants of one geopolitics, geopolitical Legal entity, entity, usually in large numbers, entering territory (country subdivision), territory controlled by another similar entity, ...
. That same year, he wrote for the resistance magazine, ' 'Die innere Front'' ("The Home Front"), the twice-monthly newspaper written in six languages that was created by John Sieg. In 1942, Harnack produced a study called "''Das nationalsoialistische Stadium des Monopolkapitalismus''" (The National stage of monopoly capitalism), published in ''Die innere Front'', which described 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 ...
as a tendentious and antigovernment economic treatise, and was read as far as Munich and Hamburg. In the summer of 1942, Sieg recruited Wilhelm Guddorf, a communist writer and former editor of the ''Die Rote Fahne''. From January to August 1942, Harnack was forced to pass his intelligence via courier. Harnack arranged with the Communist Party in Hamburg via
Bernhard Bästlein Bernhard Bästlein (; 3 December 1894 – 18 September 1944) was a German Communist and German resistance to Nazism, resistance fighter against the Nazism, Nazi régime. He was imprisoned very shortly after the Nazis seized power in 1933 and was i ...
to pass the reports through contacts in Flensburg and Denmark to the Soviet embassy in Stockholm. Bästlein was a close associate of Guddorf.


Discovery

The discovery of the illegal radio transmissions of Soviet agent Johann Wenzel by the German radio
counterintelligence Counterintelligence (counter-intelligence) or counterespionage (counter-espionage) is any activity aimed at protecting an agency's Intelligence agency, intelligence program from an opposition's intelligence service. It includes gathering informati ...
organization Funkabwehr and his capture by the Gestapo on 29–30 June 1942 eventually revealed the members of the groupand led to the Harnacks' arrest. Wenzel decided to cooperate after he was tortured. His exposure of the radio codes enabled Referat 12, the cipher bureaux of the Funkabwehr, to decipher Red Orchestra message traffic. The unit had been tracking Red Orchestra radio transmissions since June 1941, and found Wenzel's house in Brussels contained a large number of coded messages. When Wilhelm Vauck, principal cryptographer of the Funkabwehr, received the ciphers from Wenzel. On 15 July 1942, Vauck managed to decrypt a message dated 10 October 1941 that gave the locations of the Kuckhoffs and Schulze-Boysens' apartments. When Vauck decrypted this message, it was forwarded to
Reich Security Main Office The Reich Security Main Office ( , RSHA) was an organization under Heinrich Himmler in his dual capacity as ''Chef der Deutschen Polizei'' (Chief of German Police) and , the head of the Nazi Party's ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS). The organization's stat ...
IV 2A, where they identified the people living at the three addresses. The three couples were put under surveillance on 16 July 1942. There was a member of Schulze-Boysen's group working in Referat 12 in Vauck's team: Horst Heilmann, who was supplying Schulze-Boysen with intelligence. Heilmann tried to contact Schulze-Boysen but was unsuccessful and left a message with him to phone him back. Schulze-Boysen returned the call, but Vauck answered the phone, and when he requested the name of the caller to take a message and was met with Schulze-Boysen, the deception was revealed and the group exposed.


Trial and death

On 7 September 1942, the Harnacks were arrested by the Gestapo while on a short holiday to Preila on the
Curonian Spit The Curonian Spit, sometimes called Courish Split (; ), is a long, thin, curved sand-dune spit that separates the Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site shared by Lithuania and Russia. Its southern portion lies w ...
. Arvid was sentenced to death on 19 December after a four-day trial before the ''
Reichskriegsgericht The Reichskriegsgericht (, RKG; ) was the highest German military law, military court in Germany between 1900 and 1945. Legal basics and responsibilities After the Kingdom of Prussia, Prussian-led Unification of Germany, the German Empire with e ...
'' ("Reich
Military Tribunal Military justice (or military law) is the body of laws and procedures governing members of the armed forces. Many nation-states have separate and distinct bodies of law that govern the conduct of members of their armed forces. Some states us ...
"), and was put to death three days later at
Plötzensee Prison Plötzensee Prison (, JVA Plötzensee) is a men's prison in the Charlottenburg-Nord locality of Berlin with a capacity for 577 prisoners, operated by the State of Berlin judicial administration. The detention centre established in 1868 has a lon ...
in Berlin. He and his co-conspirators were hanged from meat hooks by piano wire, a method designed to prolong their suffering. Mildred was originally sentenced to six years in prison, but Hitler swiftly cancelled the sentence and ordered a new trial, which resulted in a death sentence. She was beheaded by guillotine, and her body was released to Hermann Stieve, anatomy professor at
Humboldt University The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public university, public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III of Prussia, Frederick W ...
, to be dissected for research. A cenotaph was installed for the Harnacks after the war by Arvid's older brother Falk, a member of the
White Rose The White Rose (, ) was a Nonviolence, non-violent, intellectual German resistance to Nazism, resistance group in Nazi Germany which was led by five students and one professor at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, University of Munich ...
resistance group, at Zehlendorf Cemetery.


Awards and honours

* On 6 October 1969, Harnack was posthumously awarded the
Order of the Red Banner The Order of the Red Banner () was the first Soviet military decoration. The Order was established on 16 September 1918, during the Russian Civil War by decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. It was the highest award of S ...
. This honour has been proven to be erroneous, as it mistakenly interpreted Red Orchestra as a communist spy network working for the Soviets. This interpretation of the resistance group, based on original slander by the Gestapo, was used in a similar way in the West, in which the rebels were not honoured there, but persecuted as traitors until the 1970s. * 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 ...
, a street called Harnackstraße is named after the Harnacks, as well as similar named streets in
Lichtenberg Lichtenberg may refer to: Places * Lichtenberg, Austria * Lichtenberg, Bas-Rhin, France * Lichtenberg, Bavaria, Germany * Lichtenberg, Berlin, Germany * Lichtenberg, Mittelsachsen, Saxony, Germany * Lichtenberg (Lausitz), Saxony, Germany * Lichte ...
, Berlin; and Reudnitz,
Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...
. * In
Jena Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 in ...
, a street known as the Arvid-Harnack-Straße is named after him. * In the courtyard location at Unter den Linden 6 of the
Humboldt University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...
is a memorial stone. * In
Neukölln Neukölln (), officially abbreviated Neuk, is one of the twelve boroughs of Berlin. It is located south-east of Berlin's center and stretches from the inner city southward to the border with Brandenburg, encompassing the eponymous quarter of Neu ...
, Berlin, in the Hasenheide, on the corner of Lilienthalstraße, a plaque commemorates the Harnacks and Heym. *
Stolperstein A (; plural ) is a concrete cube bearing a brass plate inscribed with the name and life dates of victims of Nazi extermination or persecution. Literal translation, Literally, it means 'stumbling stone' and metaphorically 'stumbling block'. ...
s for the Harnakcs were laid in front of 14 Genthiner Straße 14 in the Tiergarten on 20 September 2013 in the presence of US Ambassador John B. Emerson.


Gallery

Stamps of Germany (DDR) 1964, MiNr 1019.jpg, A Commemorative stamp honouring Mildred Harnack and her husband Arvid that was issued by the
Deutsche Post of the GDR The Deutsche Post (, , abbr. DP ), also Deutsche Post of the GDR (, ) was the state-owned postal and telecommunications monopoly of the German Democratic Republic (GDR - East Germany). The DP was placed under the control of the Ministry of Post ...
in 1964 Rote Kapelle stamp.jpg, A Commemorative stamp honouring Arvid Harnack, Harro Schulze-Boysen and John Sieg, from the GDR, 1983 Gedenktafel Blissestr 22 (Charl) Mildred Harnack-Fish.jpg, Commemorative plaque at the Peter A. Silbermann School/Friedrich Ebert Secondary School in Berlin-Wilmersdorf Mildred Harnack.jpg, Memorial plaque for Arvid and Mildred Harnack at the Berlin building where they lived, 61 Hasenheide,
Neukölln Neukölln (), officially abbreviated Neuk, is one of the twelve boroughs of Berlin. It is located south-east of Berlin's center and stretches from the inner city southward to the border with Brandenburg, encompassing the eponymous quarter of Neu ...
Gedenktafel Unter den Linden 6 (Mitte) Opfer des Faschismus.jpg, Memorial stone, "NS-Opfer" by Johanna Jura erected in 1976 at 6 Unter den Linden in
Mitte Mitte () is the first and most central borough of Berlin. The borough consists of six sub-entities: Mitte proper, Gesundbrunnen, Hansaviertel, Moabit, Tiergarten and Wedding. It is one of the two boroughs (the other being Friedrichshain-Kreuz ...
Stolperstein.Tiergarten.Genthiner Straße 14.Arvid Harnack.0253.jpg, A ''
Stolperstein A (; plural ) is a concrete cube bearing a brass plate inscribed with the name and life dates of victims of Nazi extermination or persecution. Literal translation, Literally, it means 'stumbling stone' and metaphorically 'stumbling block'. ...
'' for Arvid Harnack at 14 Genthiner Straße at Tiergarten Arvid Harnack-Mutter Erde fec.jpg, Memorial stone to Arvid and Mildred Harnack at Friedhof Zehlendorf cemetery at 33 Onkel-Tom-Straße,
Berlin-Zehlendorf Zehlendorf () is a locality within the borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf in Berlin. Before Berlin's 2001 administrative reform Zehlendorf was a borough in its own right, consisting of the locality of Zehlendorf as well as Wannsee, Nikolassee and Da ...


Further reading

* * * * * * * *


Thesis

*


See also

* People of the Red Orchestra


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


External links

*
Hessian Biography


{{DEFAULTSORT:Harnack, Arvid 1901 births 1942 deaths Jurists from Darmstadt Executed Red Orchestra members Executed communists in the German Resistance People from Hesse executed at Plötzensee Prison 20th-century German economists University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni University of Jena alumni University of Hamburg alumni Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin