Freya von Moltke
Encyclopedia
Freya von Moltke was a participant in the anti-Nazi
resistance group, the Kreisau Circle
, with her husband, Helmuth James Graf von Moltke
. During World War II
, her husband acted to subvert German human-rights abuses of people in territories occupied by Germany and became a founding member of the Kreisau Circle, whose members opposed the government of Adolf Hitler
. The Nazi government executed her husband for treason, he having discussed with the Kreisau Circle group the prospects for a Germany based on moral and democratic principles that could develop after Hitler. Von Moltke preserved her husband’s letters that detailed his activities during the war and she also chronicled events of that period from her perspective. She supported the founding of a center for international understanding at the former von Moltke estate in Krzyżowa (former Kreisau) in Poland
.
Von Moltke was born Freya Deichmann in Cologne
, Germany
, the daughter of banker Carl Theodor Deichmann and his wife, Ada (née Ada von Schnitzler). In 1930, she began studying law at the University of Bonn
and attended seminars at the University of Breslau, where she worked as a researcher for her future husband. On 18 October 1931, she married Helmuth James Graf von Moltke
, in Cologne
, Germany. The couple resided initially in a modest house at the von Moltke Kreisau estate, in Silesia
(German: Schlesien), then in Germany but now part of Poland. They moved to Berlin
so that he could complete his legal training. She also studied law in Berlin and received a Juris Doctor
degree from Humboldt University of Berlin
in 1935.
Following her law studies, she visited summers at the von Moltke estate at Kreisau where her husband, a Graf (count), had actively managed the farming activities—a pursuit atypical of a German nobleman—before retaining an overseer. There von Moltke actively worked on the farm, while her husband started an international law
practice in Berlin and studied to become an English barrister
.
In 1933, Adolf Hitler
, the leader of the National Socialist German Workers (Nazi) Party, obtained the chancellorship of Germany, an event that von Moltke’s husband foresaw would be a disaster for Germany, not the transitory figure that others expected. The Nazis immediately revoked the rights of individuals by the emergency Reichstag Fire Decree
and abolished the constitution with the Enabling Act of 1933, by manipulating the Reichstag
. The von Moltkes encouraged their overseer to join the Nazi Party to shield the community of Kreisau from government interference.
In 1937 she gave birth to their first son, Helmuth Caspar. Thereafter, she lived at Kreisau year-round. Her husband inherited the Kreisau estate in 1939.
began with the German invasion of Poland
. Von Moltke’s husband was immediately “drafted at the beginning of the Polish campaign by the High Command of the Armed Forces, Counter-Intelligence Service, Foreign Division, as an expert in martial law and international public law.” In his travels through German-occupied countries, her husband observed many human rights abuses, which he attempted to thwart by insisting that Germany observe the Geneva Convention (it continued not to) and through local actions in creating more benign outcomes for local inhabitants, citing legal principles. In October, 1941, her husband wrote, "Certainly more than a thousand people are murdered in this way every day, and another thousand German men are habituated to murder... What shall I say when I am asked: And what did you do during that time?" In the same letter he said, "Since Saturday the Berlin Jews are being rounded up. Then they are sent off with what they can carry.... How can anyone know these things and walk around free?"
In 1941 von Moltke gave birth to their second son, Konrad, at Kreisau.
In Berlin von Moltke’s husband had a circle of acquaintances who opposed Nazism
and who met frequently there, but on three occasions met at Kreisau. These three incidental gatherings were the basis for the term “Kreisau Circle
.” The meetings at Kreisau had an agenda of well-organized discussion topics, starting with relatively innocuous ones as cover. The topics of the first meeting of May, 1942 included the failure of German educational and religious institutions to fend off the rise of Nazism. The theme of the second meeting in the Fall of 1942 was on post-war reconstruction, assuming the likely defeat of Germany. This included both economic planning and self-government, developing a pan-European concept that pre-dated the European Union
. The third meeting in June, 1943 addressed how to handle the legacy of Nazi war crimes after the fall of the dictatorship. These and other meetings resulted in “Principles for the New [Post-Nazi] Order” and “Directions to Regional Commissioners” that her husband asked von Moltke to hide in a place that not even he knew.
On January 19, 1944 the Gestapo
arrested von Moltke’s husband for warning an acquaintance of that person’s impending arrest. She was allowed to visit him under benign conditions and found that he could continue to work and receive papers. On July 20, 1944 there was an attempt on Hitler's life
, which the Gestapo used as a pretext to eliminate perceived opponents to the Nazi regime. In January 1945, Helmuth von Moltke was tried, convicted, and executed by a Gestapo “People’s Court
” for treason, having discussed with the Kreisau Circle group the prospects for a Germany based on moral and democratic principles that could develop after Hitler.
to avoid the Russian offensive, which ultimately bypassed Kreisau. After the fall of Berlin on May 2, 1945, the Russians sent a small detachment to occupy Kreisau. Using improvised notes in Russian and Czech, she obtained safe passage for both families to return to Kreisau from hiding. A Russian company was billeted at the von Moltke estate to “supervise the harvest" during the summer of 1945. When the Poles began to occupy the small farms, vacated by Germans, the Russians became protectors of the occupants of the von Moltke estate.
After a trip to Berlin, where she met Allen Dulles and received American rations for a difficult return trip to Silesia to retrieve her children, von Moltke followed the advice of Gero von Schulze-Gaevernitz
to leave Kreisau. Gaevernitz was an American officer, who came to inspect conditions in Silesia. Von Moltke gave him for safekeeping the letters that her husband had written to her, which she had hidden from the Nazis in her beehives. Thanks to British friends of her husband, emissaries from the British Embassy in Poland arranged for her evacuation from Poland.
, where she settled with the couple's two young sons, Caspar and Konrad. There she worked as a social worker and a therapist for disabilities. In 1956, unable to further tolerate Apartheid, she returned to Berlin where she commenced her work in publicizing the Kreisau Circle. There she received support in this effort from Eugen Gerstenmeier, then president of the Bundestag
, among others. In 1960 she moved to Norwich
, Vermont
, to join the social philosopher, Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy
, who died in 1973. At the age of 75, von Moltke became an United States citizen in order to pursue her interest in participating in the U.S. political system.
She died in Norwich, Vermont
on January 1, 2010 at the age of 98.
After World War II, Von Moltke was active in publicizing her husband's ideas and actions during the war, to serve as an example of principled resistance. As early as 1949 she traveled to the United States to lecture on "Germany: Past and present," "Germany: Totalitarianism versus democracy,""German youth and the new education," and "Women’s position in the new Germany."
Von Moltke has been a subject of many interviews and articles. She told interviewer, Owings: "People who lived through the Nazi time, and who still live, who did not lose their lives because they were opposed, all had to make compromises."
With the reunification of Germany
, von Moltke was supportive of transforming the former von Moltke estate in Kreisau into a meeting place to promote German-Polish and European mutual understanding. Poland and Germany invested 30 million DM in renovating the venue. It opened in 1998 as the Internationale Jugendbegegnungsstätte Kreisau (Kreisau International Youth Center). In 2004, a fund was established, the Freya von Moltke Stiftung für das Neue Kreisau (Freya von Moltke Foundation for the New Kreisau), to promote the long-term support of the meeting place and further the work done there. As of 2007, von Moltke actively supported this initiative as the honorary chair of the board of trustees of the Kreisau Foundation for European Understanding (the supporting entity for the Kreisau meeting site) and the Institute for Cultural Infrastructure, Sachsen in Görlitz.
Her life served as the basis of a play by Marc Smith titled A Journey to Kreisau.
Director Rachel Freudenburg's documentary film on the life of Freya von Moltke, including her last interview in English, premiered at Goethe-Institut
Boston on January 23, 2011.
awarded von Moltke an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters for her writings on the German resistance during World War II. In same year, she accepted the Bruecke Prize from the city of Görlitz, Germany
, in recognition of her life’s work.
Von Moltke met with three German Chancellors in connection with her life's work, Helmut Kohl
in 1998 to introduce him to the Kreisau International Youth Center built in Krzyżowa, Gerhard Schroeder in 2004 at a wreath-laying ceremony to honor Nazi resisters, and Angela Merkel
in 2007 at a commemoration of the birth centenary of her husband, Helmuth von Moltke. At the March 11, 2007 commemoration in Berlin, Merkel described Helmuth von Moltke
as a symbol of "European courage".
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
resistance group, the Kreisau Circle
Kreisau Circle
The Kreisau Circle was the name the Nazi Gestapo gave to a group of German dissidents centered on the Kreisau estate of Helmuth James Graf von Moltke. The Kreisauer Kreis is celebrated as one of the instances of German opposition to the Nazi regime...
, with her husband, Helmuth James Graf von Moltke
Helmuth James Graf von Moltke
Helmuth James Graf von Moltke 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 and subsequently became a founding member of the Kreisau Circle resistance group, whose members...
. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, her husband acted to subvert German human-rights abuses of people in territories occupied by Germany and became a founding member of the Kreisau Circle, whose members opposed the government of Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
. The Nazi government executed her husband for treason, he having discussed with the Kreisau Circle group the prospects for a Germany based on moral and democratic principles that could develop after Hitler. Von Moltke preserved her husband’s letters that detailed his activities during the war and she also chronicled events of that period from her perspective. She supported the founding of a center for international understanding at the former von Moltke estate in Krzyżowa (former Kreisau) in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
.
Early life
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, the daughter of banker Carl Theodor Deichmann and his wife, Ada (née Ada von Schnitzler). In 1930, she began studying law at the University of Bonn
University of Bonn
The University of Bonn is a public research university located in Bonn, Germany. Founded in its present form in 1818, as the linear successor of earlier academic institutions, the University of Bonn is today one of the leading universities in Germany. The University of Bonn offers a large number...
and attended seminars at the University of Breslau, where she worked as a researcher for her future husband. On 18 October 1931, she married Helmuth James Graf von Moltke
Helmuth James Graf von Moltke
Helmuth James Graf von Moltke 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 and subsequently became a founding member of the Kreisau Circle resistance group, whose members...
, in Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
, Germany. The couple resided initially in a modest house at the von Moltke Kreisau estate, in Silesia
Silesia
Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...
(German: Schlesien), then in Germany but now part of Poland. They moved to Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
so that he could complete his legal training. She also studied law in Berlin and received a Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
degree from Humboldt University of Berlin
Humboldt University of Berlin
The Humboldt University of Berlin is Berlin's oldest university, founded in 1810 as the University of Berlin by the liberal Prussian educational reformer and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt, whose university model has strongly influenced other European and Western universities...
in 1935.
Pre-war Kreisau
International law
Public international law concerns the structure and conduct of sovereign states; analogous entities, such as the Holy See; and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, an impact increasingly evolving beyond...
practice in Berlin and studied to become an English barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
.
In 1933, Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
, the leader of the National Socialist German Workers (Nazi) Party, obtained the chancellorship of Germany, an event that von Moltke’s husband foresaw would be a disaster for Germany, not the transitory figure that others expected. The Nazis immediately revoked the rights of individuals by the emergency Reichstag Fire Decree
Reichstag Fire Decree
The Reichstag Fire Decree is the common name of the Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of People and State issued by German President Paul von Hindenburg in direct response to the Reichstag fire of 27 February 1933. The decree nullified many of the key civil liberties of German...
and abolished the constitution with the Enabling Act of 1933, by manipulating the Reichstag
Reichstag (Weimar Republic)
The Reichstag was the parliament of Weimar Republic .German constitution commentators consider only the Reichstag and now the Bundestag the German parliament. Another organ deals with legislation too: in 1867-1918 the Bundesrat, in 1919–1933 the Reichsrat and from 1949 on the Bundesrat...
. The von Moltkes encouraged their overseer to join the Nazi Party to shield the community of Kreisau from government interference.
In 1937 she gave birth to their first son, Helmuth Caspar. Thereafter, she lived at Kreisau year-round. Her husband inherited the Kreisau estate in 1939.
Wartime Kreisau
In 1939, World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
began with the German invasion of Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. Von Moltke’s husband was immediately “drafted at the beginning of the Polish campaign by the High Command of the Armed Forces, Counter-Intelligence Service, Foreign Division, as an expert in martial law and international public law.” In his travels through German-occupied countries, her husband observed many human rights abuses, which he attempted to thwart by insisting that Germany observe the Geneva Convention (it continued not to) and through local actions in creating more benign outcomes for local inhabitants, citing legal principles. In October, 1941, her husband wrote, "Certainly more than a thousand people are murdered in this way every day, and another thousand German men are habituated to murder... What shall I say when I am asked: And what did you do during that time?" In the same letter he said, "Since Saturday the Berlin Jews are being rounded up. Then they are sent off with what they can carry.... How can anyone know these things and walk around free?"
In 1941 von Moltke gave birth to their second son, Konrad, at Kreisau.
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
and who met frequently there, but on three occasions met at Kreisau. These three incidental gatherings were the basis for the term “Kreisau Circle
Kreisau Circle
The Kreisau Circle was the name the Nazi Gestapo gave to a group of German dissidents centered on the Kreisau estate of Helmuth James Graf von Moltke. The Kreisauer Kreis is celebrated as one of the instances of German opposition to the Nazi regime...
.” The meetings at Kreisau had an agenda of well-organized discussion topics, starting with relatively innocuous ones as cover. The topics of the first meeting of May, 1942 included the failure of German educational and religious institutions to fend off the rise of Nazism. The theme of the second meeting in the Fall of 1942 was on post-war reconstruction, assuming the likely defeat of Germany. This included both economic planning and self-government, developing a pan-European concept that pre-dated the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
. The third meeting in June, 1943 addressed how to handle the legacy of Nazi war crimes after the fall of the dictatorship. These and other meetings resulted in “Principles for the New [Post-Nazi] Order” and “Directions to Regional Commissioners” that her husband asked von Moltke to hide in a place that not even he knew.
On January 19, 1944 the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
arrested von Moltke’s husband for warning an acquaintance of that person’s impending arrest. She was allowed to visit him under benign conditions and found that he could continue to work and receive papers. On July 20, 1944 there was an attempt on Hitler's life
July 20 Plot
On 20 July 1944, an attempt was made to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Führer of the Third Reich, inside his Wolf's Lair field headquarters near Rastenburg, East Prussia. The plot was the culmination of the efforts of several groups in the German Resistance to overthrow the Nazi-led German government...
, which the Gestapo used as a pretext to eliminate perceived opponents to the Nazi regime. In January 1945, Helmuth von Moltke was tried, convicted, and executed by a Gestapo “People’s Court
People's Court (German)
The People's Court was a court established in 1934 by German Chancellor Adolf Hitler, who had been dissatisfied with the outcome of the Reichstag Fire Trial . The "People's Court" was set up outside the operations of the constitutional frame of law...
” for treason, having discussed with the Kreisau Circle group the prospects for a Germany based on moral and democratic principles that could develop after Hitler.
Leaving Kreisau
In the spring of 1945 von Moltke and another Kreisau widow had evacuated their families to CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
to avoid the Russian offensive, which ultimately bypassed Kreisau. After the fall of Berlin on May 2, 1945, the Russians sent a small detachment to occupy Kreisau. Using improvised notes in Russian and Czech, she obtained safe passage for both families to return to Kreisau from hiding. A Russian company was billeted at the von Moltke estate to “supervise the harvest" during the summer of 1945. When the Poles began to occupy the small farms, vacated by Germans, the Russians became protectors of the occupants of the von Moltke estate.
After a trip to Berlin, where she met Allen Dulles and received American rations for a difficult return trip to Silesia to retrieve her children, von Moltke followed the advice of Gero von Schulze-Gaevernitz
Gero von Schulze-Gaevernitz
Gero von Schulze-Gaevernitz was a German economist. He became a crucial assistant of Allen Welsh Dulles in Europe and was awarded the U.S...
to leave Kreisau. Gaevernitz was an American officer, who came to inspect conditions in Silesia. Von Moltke gave him for safekeeping the letters that her husband had written to her, which she had hidden from the Nazis in her beehives. Thanks to British friends of her husband, emissaries from the British Embassy in Poland arranged for her evacuation from Poland.
Transitions
After her escape from Silesia, von Moltke moved to South AfricaSouth Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, where she settled with the couple's two young sons, Caspar and Konrad. There she worked as a social worker and a therapist for disabilities. In 1956, unable to further tolerate Apartheid, she returned to Berlin where she commenced her work in publicizing the Kreisau Circle. There she received support in this effort from Eugen Gerstenmeier, then president of the Bundestag
Bundestag
The Bundestag is a federal legislative body in Germany. In practice Germany is governed by a bicameral legislature, of which the Bundestag serves as the lower house and the Bundesrat the upper house. The Bundestag is established by the German Basic Law of 1949, as the successor to the earlier...
, among others. In 1960 she moved to Norwich
Norwich, Vermont
Norwich is a town in Windsor County, Vermont, United States, located along the Connecticut River opposite Hanover, New Hampshire. The population was 3,544 at the 2000 census....
, Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
, to join the social philosopher, Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy
Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy
Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy was a historian and social philosopher, whose work spanned the disciplines of history, theology, sociology, linguistics and beyond...
, who died in 1973. At the age of 75, von Moltke became an United States citizen in order to pursue her interest in participating in the U.S. political system.
She died in Norwich, Vermont
Norwich, Vermont
Norwich is a town in Windsor County, Vermont, United States, located along the Connecticut River opposite Hanover, New Hampshire. The population was 3,544 at the 2000 census....
on January 1, 2010 at the age of 98.
Legacy
Von Moltke has been a subject of many interviews and articles. She told interviewer, Owings: "People who lived through the Nazi time, and who still live, who did not lose their lives because they were opposed, all had to make compromises."
With the reunification of Germany
German reunification
German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...
, von Moltke was supportive of transforming the former von Moltke estate in Kreisau into a meeting place to promote German-Polish and European mutual understanding. Poland and Germany invested 30 million DM in renovating the venue. It opened in 1998 as the Internationale Jugendbegegnungsstätte Kreisau (Kreisau International Youth Center). In 2004, a fund was established, the Freya von Moltke Stiftung für das Neue Kreisau (Freya von Moltke Foundation for the New Kreisau), to promote the long-term support of the meeting place and further the work done there. As of 2007, von Moltke actively supported this initiative as the honorary chair of the board of trustees of the Kreisau Foundation for European Understanding (the supporting entity for the Kreisau meeting site) and the Institute for Cultural Infrastructure, Sachsen in Görlitz.
Her life served as the basis of a play by Marc Smith titled A Journey to Kreisau.
Director Rachel Freudenburg's documentary film on the life of Freya von Moltke, including her last interview in English, premiered at Goethe-Institut
Goethe-Institut
The Goethe-Institut is a non-profit German cultural institution operational worldwide, promoting the study of the German language abroad and encouraging international cultural exchange and relations. The Goethe-Institut also fosters knowledge about Germany by providing information on German...
Boston on January 23, 2011.
Accolades
In 1999, Dartmouth CollegeDartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
awarded von Moltke an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters for her writings on the German resistance during World War II. In same year, she accepted the Bruecke Prize from the city of Görlitz, Germany
Görlitz
Görlitz is a town in Germany. It is the easternmost town in the country, located on the Lusatian Neisse River in the Bundesland of Saxony. It is opposite the Polish town of Zgorzelec, which was a part of Görlitz until 1945. Historically, Görlitz was in the region of Upper Lusatia...
, in recognition of her life’s work.
Von Moltke met with three German Chancellors in connection with her life's work, Helmut Kohl
Helmut Kohl
Helmut Josef Michael Kohl is a German conservative politician and statesman. He was Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and the chairman of the Christian Democratic Union from 1973 to 1998...
in 1998 to introduce him to the Kreisau International Youth Center built in Krzyżowa, Gerhard Schroeder in 2004 at a wreath-laying ceremony to honor Nazi resisters, and Angela Merkel
Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel is the current Chancellor of Germany . Merkel, elected to the Bundestag from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, has been the chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union since 2000, and chairwoman of the CDU-CSU parliamentary coalition from 2002 to 2005.From 2005 to 2009 she led a...
in 2007 at a commemoration of the birth centenary of her husband, Helmuth von Moltke. At the March 11, 2007 commemoration in Berlin, Merkel described Helmuth von Moltke
Helmuth von Moltke
Helmuth von Moltke may refer to:*Helmuth Graf von Moltke *Helmuth Johann Ludwig von Moltke *Helmuth James Graf von Moltke...
as a symbol of "European courage".
In English
.- Moltke, Freya von. Memories of Kreisau & the German Resistance. Trans. Julie M. Winter. Lincoln, NE: U of Nebraska P, 2003.
- Moltke, Helmuth James von. Letters to Freya 1939-1945. Ed. and Trans. Beate Ruhm von Oppen. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1990...
External links
- FemBiography
- Website of the Freya von Moltke Foundation
- Website of the Kreisau-Initiative Berlin e.V.
- Website of the Kreisau Foundation
- Freya von Moltke interview, Junge Freiheit on August 22, 1994
- Geschwister-Scholl-PreisGeschwister-Scholl-PreisThe Geschwister-Scholl-Preis is a literary prize which was initiated in 1980 by the State Association of Bavaria in the Stock Market Society of the German Book Trade and the city of Munich...
recognition for Briefe an Freya (Letters to Freya) and the achievements of Helmuth von Moltke. - Bruecke Prize recognition of von Moltke's life work.
- "Freya Gräfin von Moltke" - The Independent obituary
- "Freya von Moltke" - Daily Telegraph obituary
- "Freya von Moltke" - Hamburger Abendblatt obituary
- "Freya von Moltke" - Wienerzeitung obituary
- "Freya von Moltke" - Die Zeit obituary
- "Freya von Moltke" - Stern obituary