Franz Sperr (born 12 February 1878 in Karlstadt-sur-le-Main; died 23 January 1945 in

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 ...

) was a member of

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

resistance against

Nazism Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was fre ...

Biography

Franz Sperr was the son of an engineer from the Royal Bavarian Railways. His family moved a few times and lived in different places. After his "

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 ...

" in 1897, he first did voluntary service in the Bavarian army and then chose it as a career. From 1906 to 1909, Sperr received training at the Bavarian War Academy which enabled him to join the staff. During the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, he was a captain and then a major. In 1916, he left for Berlin and was responsible for representing the army to the Bundesrat. After the war, it is made available. He became a civil servant and worked for the Bavarian Embassy in Berlin. Partisan of federalism, opposed to Nazism, he resigned from the public service on 20 June 1934, set up his business and joined the resistance. He was in contact with Rupprecht, Crown Prince of Bavaria and supported the military. He brought together a small group of Bavarian monarchists such as ministers

Otto Geßler Otto Karl Gessler (or Geßler) (6 February 1875 – 24 March 1955) was a liberal German politician during the Weimar Republic. From 1910 until 1914, he was mayor of Regensburg and from 1913 to 1919 mayor of Nuremberg. He served in numerous W ...

, Anton Fehr, Eduard Hamm, but also bankers and businessmen. Faced with the impossibility of bringing down Hitler, he organized himself with the resistance groups in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

and in

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

after the Allied landings with military and police officers from the Third Reich. Thanks to

Alfred Delp Alfred Friedrich Delp (; 15 September 1907 – 2 February 1945) was a German Jesuit priest and philosopher of the German Resistance. A member of the inner Kreisau Circle resistance group, he is considered a significant figure in Catholic ...

and

Augustin Rösch Augustin Rösch (11 May 1893 – 7 November 1961) was a German Jesuit, Provincial, and significant figure in Catholic resistance to Nazism. Active in the Kreisau Circle German Resistance group, he was arrested in connection with the 1944 July P ...

, he came into contact during the winter of 1942 with the

Kreisau Circle The Kreisau Circle (German: ''Kreisauer Kreis'', ) (1940–1944) was a group of about twenty-five German dissidents in Nazi Germany led by Helmuth James von Moltke, who met at his estate in the rural town of Kreisau, Silesia. The circle was co ...

and notably met

Helmuth James von Moltke Helmuth James Graf von Moltke (11 March 1907 – 23 January 1945) was a German jurist who, as a draftee in the German Abwehr, acted to subvert German human-rights abuses of people in territories occupied by Germany during World War II. He w ...

. In June 1944, a meeting with Claus von Stauffenberg took place, Sperr expressed his skepticism of a coup.

Death

After the failure of 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 ...

, Sperr was arrested for his complicity. The Volksgerichtshof condemned him to death on 11 January 1945. He was hanged on the 23rd in

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 ...

.FRANZ SPERR
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sperr, Franz Executed members of the 20 July plot People executed by hanging at Plötzensee Prison 1878 births 1945 deaths