Peter Yorck von Wartenburg
Encyclopedia
Peter Graf Yorck von Wartenburg (13 November 1904 – 8 August 1944) was a German
jurist
and a member of the German Resistance
against Nazism
.
; he came from a family of Silesian landowners. He was descended from Generals Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, who was his great-great-grandfather, and Ludwig Graf Yorck von Wartenburg, who was his great-great-great-grandfather. Also, he was philosopher Paul Yorck von Wartenburg's
grandson. He married Marion Winter
in 1930, who later wrote about events surrounding his life.
Yorck studied law
in Klosterschule Roßleben, Thuringia
, after his Abitur
, and from 1923 in Bonn
and Breslau (Wrocław). During his studies, he joined the Corps Borussia Bonn Studentenverbindung
among whose members had been many sons of high nobility, among them Kaiser
William II
. After the junior lawyers' examination in 1926, his 1927 dissertation on "The Liability Of Bodies Of Public Law For Provisions Of The Workers And Soldiers' Councils", the graduate examination in 1930, and a short time working as a lawyer
, he became in 1932 an official with the Osthilfe, a Weimar Republic
programme for promoting the agricultural economy in East Prussia
. In 1934, he became an official at the Breslau Oberpräsidium, and in 1936 in the authority of the commissar for pricing.
Since Yorck refused to join the Nazi Party owing to his democratic and humanistic convictions, he was from 1938 no longer promoted. He therefore never ranked any higher than a chief government adviser, despite his performance and capability, which had been acknowledged by superiors.
At a family celebration in 1938, Yorck became acquainted with his distant relative Helmuth James Graf von Moltke
. This way he came into contact with various régime opponents within the aristocracy, such as his cousin Berthold Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg
and Adam von Trott zu Solz
. Also, with Fritz-Dietlof von der Schulenburg
and Ulrich Wilhelm Graf Schwerin von Schwanenfeld
, he early on discussed Germany's constitution
after the Nazis' downfall. He saw the outbreak of the Second World War as a lieutenant
functioning as a tank
regiment
adjutant
. His opposition to the régime and his dislike of the war were strengthened by his brothers' deaths in the German invasion of Poland
. He therefore counted himself among the founding members of the Kreisau Circle
in 1940.
In 1942, Yorck was posted to the Armament Ministry after an injury to an intervertebral disk rendered him incapable of frontline service. When Moltke's flat was bombed out in 1943, he moved into Yorck's flat at Hortensienstraße 50 in Berlin-Lichterfelde
. After Moltke's arrest and closer contact with his cousin Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg, Yorck recommended the swift implementation of the plans
to assassinate
Adolf Hitler
.
After the failure of the plot
at the Wolfsschanze
in East Prussia
on July 20, 1944, upon whose success Yorck would have become the Vice-Chancellor's Secretary of State, he was instead arrested the next day, sentenced to death by the Volksgerichtshof on August 8, 1944, and hanged
the same day at Plötzensee Prison
in Berlin.
ordained what has happened is part of his fathomless decrees, which I humbly accept. I believe myself to be pure in heart, yet driven by the feeling of guilt that weighs on all of us. I therefore confidently hope that I find a merciful judge in God."
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
jurist
Jurist
A jurist or jurisconsult is a professional who studies, develops, applies, or otherwise deals with the law. The term is widely used in American English, but in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth countries it has only historical and specialist usage...
and a member of the German Resistance
German Resistance
The German resistance was the opposition by individuals and groups in Germany to Adolf Hitler or the National Socialist regime between 1933 and 1945. Some of these engaged in active plans to remove Adolf Hitler from power and overthrow his regime...
against Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
.
Biography
Yorck was born in Klein-Öls near Ohlau in the Province of SilesiaProvince of Silesia
The Province of Silesia was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1815 to 1919.-Geography:The territory comprised the bulk of the former Bohemian crown land of Silesia and the County of Kladsko, which King Frederick the Great had conquered from the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy in the 18th...
; he came from a family of Silesian landowners. He was descended from Generals Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, who was his great-great-grandfather, and Ludwig Graf Yorck von Wartenburg, who was his great-great-great-grandfather. Also, he was philosopher Paul Yorck von Wartenburg's
Paul Yorck von Wartenburg
Hans Ludwig David Paul Graf York von Wartenburg was a German lawyer, writer and philosopher.York developed a hermeneutical philosophy of history in exchange with his friend Wilhelm Dilthey...
grandson. He married Marion Winter
Marion Yorck von Wartenburg
Marion Gräfin Yorck von Wartenburg was a German jurist and judge. She was a resistance fighter against the Nazis and member of the Kreisau Circle.Yorck was born Marion Winter in Berlin, Province of Brandenburg...
in 1930, who later wrote about events surrounding his life.
Yorck studied law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
in Klosterschule Roßleben, Thuringia
Thuringia
The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....
, after his Abitur
Abitur
Abitur is a designation used in Germany, Finland and Estonia for final exams that pupils take at the end of their secondary education, usually after 12 or 13 years of schooling, see also for Germany Abitur after twelve years.The Zeugnis der Allgemeinen Hochschulreife, often referred to as...
, and from 1923 in Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
and Breslau (Wrocław). During his studies, he joined the Corps Borussia Bonn Studentenverbindung
Studentenverbindung
A Studentenverbindung is a student corporation in a German-speaking country somewhat comparable to fraternities in the US or Canada, but mostly older and going back to other kinds of...
among whose members had been many sons of high nobility, among them Kaiser
Kaiser
Kaiser is the German title meaning "Emperor", with Kaiserin being the female equivalent, "Empress". Like the Russian Czar it is directly derived from the Latin Emperors' title of Caesar, which in turn is derived from the personal name of a branch of the gens Julia, to which Gaius Julius Caesar,...
William II
William II, German Emperor
Wilhelm II was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia, ruling the German Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia from 15 June 1888 to 9 November 1918. He was a grandson of the British Queen Victoria and related to many monarchs and princes of Europe...
. After the junior lawyers' examination in 1926, his 1927 dissertation on "The Liability Of Bodies Of Public Law For Provisions Of The Workers And Soldiers' Councils", the graduate examination in 1930, and a short time working as a lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
, he became in 1932 an official with the Osthilfe, a Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
programme for promoting the agricultural economy in East Prussia
East Prussia
East Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...
. In 1934, he became an official at the Breslau Oberpräsidium, and in 1936 in the authority of the commissar for pricing.
Since Yorck refused to join the Nazi Party owing to his democratic and humanistic convictions, he was from 1938 no longer promoted. He therefore never ranked any higher than a chief government adviser, despite his performance and capability, which had been acknowledged by superiors.
At a family celebration in 1938, Yorck became acquainted with his distant relative 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...
. This way he came into contact with various régime opponents within the aristocracy, such as his cousin Berthold Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg
Berthold von Stauffenberg
Berthold von Stauffenberg may refer to:* Berthold Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg , German lawyer, conspirator in the July 20 Plot, and brother to Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg...
and Adam von Trott zu Solz
Adam von Trott zu Solz
Adam von Trott zu Solz was a German lawyer and diplomat who was involved in the conservative opposition to the Nazi regime, and who played a central part in the 20 July Plot...
. Also, with Fritz-Dietlof von der Schulenburg
Fritz-Dietlof von der Schulenburg
Fritz-Dietlof Graf von der Schulenburg-Tressow was a German government official and a member of the German Resistance in the July 20 Plot against Adolf Hitler.-Personal development:...
and Ulrich Wilhelm Graf Schwerin von Schwanenfeld
Ulrich Wilhelm Graf Schwerin von Schwanenfeld
Ulrich-Wilhelm Graf Schwerin von Schwanenfeld was a German landowner, officer, and resistance fighter against the Nazi régime.- Biography :...
, he early on discussed Germany's constitution
Constitution
A constitution is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is governed. These rules together make up, i.e. constitute, what the entity is...
after the Nazis' downfall. He saw the outbreak of the Second World War as a lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
functioning as a tank
Tank
A tank is a tracked, armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities...
regiment
Regiment
A regiment is a major tactical military unit, composed of variable numbers of batteries, squadrons or battalions, commanded by a colonel or lieutenant colonel...
adjutant
Adjutant
Adjutant is a military rank or appointment. In some armies, including most English-speaking ones, it is an officer who assists a more senior officer, while in other armies, especially Francophone ones, it is an NCO , normally corresponding roughly to a Staff Sergeant or Warrant Officer.An Adjutant...
. His opposition to the régime and his dislike of the war were strengthened by his brothers' deaths in the German invasion of Poland
Invasion of Poland (1939)
The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II in Europe...
. He therefore counted himself among the founding members of 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...
in 1940.
In 1942, Yorck was posted to the Armament Ministry after an injury to an intervertebral disk rendered him incapable of frontline service. When Moltke's flat was bombed out in 1943, he moved into Yorck's flat at Hortensienstraße 50 in Berlin-Lichterfelde
Lichterfelde West
Lichterfelde West is part of Lichterfelde in the Steglitz-Zehlendorf borough of Berlin. It was developed from 1860 through 1900 by a wealthy businessman Carstenn from Hamburg and is a remarkable example of 19th-century Villenkolonie, a German concept of settlements completely made up of mansion...
. After Moltke's arrest and closer contact with his cousin Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg, Yorck recommended the swift implementation of the plans
Operation Valkyrie
Operation Valkyrie was an emergency continuity of government operations plan developed in Nazi Germany for the Territorial Reserve Army of Germany to execute and implement in case of a general breakdown in civil order of the nation...
to assassinate
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
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...
.
After the failure of the plot
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...
at the Wolfsschanze
Wolfsschanze
Wolf's Lair is the standard English name for Wolfsschanze, Adolf Hitler's first World War II Eastern Front military headquarters, one of several Führerhauptquartier or FHQs located in various parts of Europe...
in East Prussia
East Prussia
East Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...
on July 20, 1944, upon whose success Yorck would have become the Vice-Chancellor's Secretary of State, he was instead arrested the next day, sentenced to death by the Volksgerichtshof on August 8, 1944, and hanged
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
the same day at Plötzensee Prison
Plötzensee Prison
Plötzensee Prison was a Prussian institution built in Berlin between 1869 and 1879 near the lake Plötzensee, but in the neighbouring borough of Charlottenburg, on Hüttigpfad off Saatwinkler Damm. During Adolf Hitler's time in power from 1933 to 1945, more than 2,500 people were executed at...
in Berlin.
Quotes
"Dearly beloved child of my heart, we are probably standing at the end of our beautiful and rich life together. Because tomorrow the People's Court intends to stand in judgment on me and others. I hear that we have been expelled from the army. They can take the uniform from us, but not the spirit in which we acted. And in that I feel united our fathers and brothers and comrades. The fact that GodGod
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
ordained what has happened is part of his fathomless decrees, which I humbly accept. I believe myself to be pure in heart, yet driven by the feeling of guilt that weighs on all of us. I therefore confidently hope that I find a merciful judge in God."
External links
- Photograph of von Wartenburg before the Volksgerichtshof
- Biography: Marion Gräfin Yorck von Wartenburg
See also
- List of members of the 20 July plot
- Widerstand