Carl Friedrich Goerdeler (; 31 July 1884 – 2 February 1945) was a German conservative politician, monarchist, executive, economist, civil servant and opponent of the Nazi regime. He opposed anti-Jewish policies while he held office and was opposed to the Holocaust.

Had the 20 July plot to overthrow Hitler's dictatorship in 1944 succeeded, Goerdeler would have served as the Chancellor of the new government. After his arrest, he gave the names of numerous co-conspirators to the Gestapo, causing the arrests and executions of hundreds. Goerdeler was executed by hanging on 2 February 1945.

Due his close relations with the Freiburg Circles, he is regarded as one of many forerunners of the social market economy.

Early life and career

Goerdeler was born into a family of Prussian civil servants in Schneidemühl in the Prussian Province of Posen of the German Empire (now Piła in present-day Poland). Goerdeler's parents supported the Free Conservative Party, and after 1899 Goerdeler's father served in the Prussian Landtag as a member of that party. Goerdeler's biographer and friend Gerhard Ritter described his upbringing as one of a large, loving middle-class family that was cultured, devoutly Lutheran, nationalist and conservative. As a young man, the deeply religious Goerdeler chose as his motto to live by omnia restaurare in Christo (to restore everything in Christ). From 1902 to 1905 Goerdeler studied economics and law at the University of Tübingen. From 1911 he worked as a civil servant for the municipal government of Solingen in the Prussian Rhine Province.

In the early 1930s, Goerdeler became a leading advocate of the viewpoint that the Weimar Republic had failed, as shown by the Great Depression, and that a conservative revolution was needed to replace democracy.

After the downfall of the Brüning government in 1932, Goerdeler was considered a potential Chancellor. General Kurt von Schleicher sounded him out for the post but eventually Franz von Papen was chosen instead.

After the fall of Brüning's government on 30 May 1932, Brüning recommended Goerdeler to President Paul von Hindenburg as his successor. Hindenburg rejected Goerdeler because of his former membership of the DNVP. (From 1928, under the leadership of Alfred Hugenberg, the DNVP had waged a vituperative campaign against Hindenburg and had even labelled him as one of the "November Criminals" who had allegedly "stabbed Germany in the back" in 1918. As a result, by 1932, no current or even former member of the DNVP was acceptable to Hindenburg as chancellor.)

The fall of Brüning led to Goerdeler's resignation as Price Commissioner. Later in 1932, Goerdeler refused an offer to serve in Papen's cabinet.

Role in the Nazi government

Mayor in the Third Reich

As late as 1935, Goerdeler considered Adolf Hitler an "enlightened dictator", who, with the proper advice, would be a force for good. Goerdeler later called the period in which he supported the Nazis the only chapter of his life that he found embarrassing. On 1 April 1933, the day of the national boycott declared against all Jewish businesses in the Reich, Goerdeler appeared in full uniform of the Oberbürgermeister of Leipzig to order the SA not to enforce the boycott and ordered the Leipzig police to free several Jews taken hostage by the SA. Several times, he attempted to help Leipzig Jewish businessmen threatened with the "Aryanisation" economic policies of the Nazi regime. A few days after the boycott, Goerdeler found himself as mayor of Leipzig enforcing the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service, which, unlike the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, did not give him cause for complaint.

thumb|Hitler and Goerdeler during the former's visit to Leipzig, 6 March 1934

As part of his efforts to influence the Nazi regime, Goerdeler had sent Hitler long memoranda containing his advice on economic policy, and in the second half of 1935, he wrote up a new draft law on the powers and responsibilities of municipal governments. He served as a member of Hans Frank's Academy for German Law. Despite his early sympathy for the regime and considerable pressure from the National Socialists, Goerdeler always refused to join the NSDAP. By the mid-1930s, Goerdeler grew increasingly disillusioned with the Nazis as it became more and more apparent that Hitler had no interest in reading any of Goerdeler's memoranda but was instead carrying out economic and financial policies that Goerdeler regarded as highly irresponsible.

In addition, the massive increase in spending by the Leipzig municipal government caused the city's debts to be a major source of worry for Goerdeler. By 1934 he clashed with Hitler over his foreign policy, as Germany signed a nonaggression treaty with Poland to which Goerdeler was opposed and demanded annexation of Polish territories. He wrote to Hitler that continued Polish possession of territories in Gdańsk Pomerania and Greater Poland was a "thorn in country's economic flesh and honour" and that "the German people must fight for security of their existence".

In 1933, a Reich law forbade doctors who were members of the Communist Party of Germany or were "non-Aryans" from participating in public health insurance, exempting only those who were First World War veterans or children or parents of veterans. A second decree of 1934 banned all physicians from participating in public health insurance who had one or more Jewish grandparents regardless of their religion or if they were married to a "non-Aryan". However, the laws did not affect those physicians who received their approbation under the Weimar Republic.

On 9 April 1935, the Deputy Mayor of Leipzig, the National Socialist Rudolf Haake, overstepping existing laws, banned all Jewish doctors from participating in public health insurance and advised all municipal employees not to consult Jewish doctors. In response, the Landesverband Mitteldeutschland des Centralvereins deutscher Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens e. V (Middle German Regional Association of the Central Association of German Citizens of Jewish Faith) complained to Goerdeler and asked him to enforce the existing anti-Semitic laws, which allowed at least some Jewish doctors to practice.

On 11 April 1935, Goerdeler ordered the end of Haake's boycott and provided a list of "non-Aryan" physicians permitted to operate and those excluded. Critics of Goerdeler, such as the American political scientist Daniel Goldhagen, have considered the exclusion list as evidence of Goerdeler's anti-Semitism. By contrast, defenders like the Canadian historian Peter Hoffmann have argued that Goerdeler's insistence on enforcing the laws served to protect at least some Jewish physicians.

Price Commissioner: making economic policy

In November 1934, Goerdeler was again appointed Reich Price Commissioner, and ordered to combat the increasingly unpopular inflation caused by rearmament. Gestapo reports from 1934 record that the German public greeted the news of Goerdeler's reappointment as Price Commissioner as a positive development. Despite the great fanfare that greeted Goerdeler's appointment, he was given little real power.

In 1934, Goerdeler was vehemently opposed to the idea of devaluing the Reichsmark and had supported Hitler and Schacht against the advocates of devaluation. During his second term as Price Commissioner in 1934–35, Goerdeler often came into conflict with the Economics Minister and Reichsbank President Hjalmar Schacht over his inflationary policies. In Goerdeler's opinion, they posed a grave danger to the German economy, and finally prompted his resignation in 1935 as Price Commissioner. As Price Commissioner, Goerdeler became increasingly troubled by Nazi economic policies and disgusted by rampant corruption within the Nazi Party. In September 1935, as mayor of Leipzig, Goerdeler found himself enforcing the Nuremberg Laws, which he found deeply distasteful.

thumb|Goerdeler as Price Commissioner, 1934

In October 1935, Goerdeler sent Hitler a memorandum in which he urged that the priorities for the use of German foreign exchange should be shifted from buying raw materials that Germany lacked for rearmament and instead should be used to buy food that Germany lacked such as fats. In his report, Goerdeler wrote that the foremost goal of German economic policy should be "the satisfactory provisioning of the population with fats, even in relation to armaments, as having political priority". In the same report, Goerdeler argued that the root of German economic problems was rearmament, and he advocated as the solution reducing military spending, increasing German exports and returning to a free-market economy.

Goerdeler warned that to continue the present course of increasing statism in the economy and the current levels of high military spending would result in the total collapse of the economy with an extremely drastic drop in living standards. After Hitler ignored Goerdeler's report, Goerdeler asked Hitler to dissolve the Reich Commissariat for Price Surveillance since there was nothing for that office to do. In the spring of 1936, Goerdeler came into increasing conflict with Haake over the question of demolition of a monument to the German-Jewish composer Felix Mendelssohn.

In the summer of 1936, Goerdeler was heavily involved in trying to influence the decisionmaking regarding the great economic crisis, which gripped Germany that year. Despite his earlier differences with Schacht, Goerdeler and Schacht headed the "free-market" faction in the German government and, during the economic crisis of 1936, urged Hitler to reduce military spending, turn away from autarkic and protectionist policies and reduce statism in the economy. Supporting the "free-market" faction were some of Germany's leading business executives, most notably Hermann Duecher of AEG, Robert Bosch of Robert Bosch GmbH and Albert Voegeler of Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG. Goerdeler and Schacht were opposed by another faction centred around Hermann Göring calling for the opposite.

Despite his disagreements with Göring over the best economic course to follow, on 6 August 1936, Göring commissioned a report from Goerdeler as a leading economic expert about whether or not Germany should devalue the Reichsmark. Goerdeler began his report by rejecting the policies of Schacht's New Plan of 1934 as untenable. Making a U-turn from his stance of 1934, Goerdeler now embraced devaluation of the Reichsmark as the best solution to the economic crisis. Goerdeler argued that the tolerance of other Western nations, especially the United States for the German state's subsidising the dumping of exports was wearing thin and would soon result in harsh new tariffs being applied against German goods.

Goerdeler argued that the only way out of the economic crisis, which gripped the German economy in 1936, was the devaluation of the Reichsmark and abandoning all of the restrictions on foreign exchange in Germany. Goerdeler argued that for devaluation of the Reichsmark to be successful would require co-ordination with other nations, especially the United States, the United Kingdom and France, which otherwise might be tempted to engage in competitive devaluations of the dollar, the pound and the franc respectively. To secure their co-operation, Goerdeler argued for rapprochement with the Western powers. In his memorandum for Göring, Goerdeler wrote of the "grandiose possibility" that a German reengagement with the world economy and the end of protectionism and autarchism would lead to a new age of economic co-operation among the world's largest economies.

To that end, Goerdeler argued in exchange for Anglo-French-American economic co-operation and support, Germany should at least cease its unilateral economic policies and sharply cut military spending. In addition, Goerdeler felt that the price of Western economic support would be a moderation of the Nazi regime's policies in regards to the "Jewish question, freemasonry question, question of the rule of law, Church question". Goerdeler wrote, "I can well imagine that we will have to bring certain issues ... into a greater degree of alignment with the imponderable attitudes of other peoples, not in substance, but in the manner of dealing with them".

The British historian Adam Tooze has argued that Goerdeler was following his own agenda in seeking to moderate the regime's domestic policies in his memorandum and that it is highly unlikely that outside powers would have required the concessions on anti-Semitic and other domestic policies that Goerdeler advocated as the price of Western economic support. However, Tooze feels that Goerdeler was correct in arguing that the West would have made cutting military spending a precondition of economic support. Goerdeler argued his policies of economic liberalisation and devaluation would, in the short run, cause 2 million–2.5 million unemployed in Germany but argued that, in the long run, the increase in exports would make the German economy stronger.

In public, Göring called Goerdeler's memorandum "completely unusable." Göring's copy of Goerdeler's memorandum is covered with handwritten personal comments by Göring on the side such as "What cheek!", "Nonsense!", and "Oho!" When Göring forwarded a copy of Goerdeler's memorandum to Hitler, his covering letter stated: <blockquote>This may be quite important, my Führer, for your memorandum, since it reveals the complete confusion and incomprehension of our bourgeois businessmen, limitation of armaments, defeatism, incomprehension of the foreign policy situation alternate. His [Goerdeler's] recommendations are adequate for a mayor, but not for the state leadership.</blockquote>

Goerdeler's advice was rejected by Hitler in his "Four-Year Plan Memorandum" of August 1936. Instead, in the autumn of 1936, the Nazi regime launched the Four Year Plan as a way out of the 1936 economic crisis. Hitler himself found Goerdeler's report objectionable, and Hitler's "Four-Year Plan Memorandum" may have been written in part as a reply to Goerdeler's memorandum (Gerhard Ritter favoured this theory whereas Gerhard Weinberg rejects it).

On 4 September 1936, speaking before the German Cabinet, Göring cited Goerdeler's memorandum as an example of flawed economic thinking and announced that Germany would pursue heavy military spending, protectionism and autarky, regardless of the economic consequences.

Resignation

In the autumn of 1936, Goerdeler's ongoing dispute with Haake over the Mendelssohn statue came to a head. After much argument, Goerdeler agreed to have the statue moved from its location in front of the Gewandhaus concert hall to a lower-profile position. In the autumn of 1936, Goerdeler left for a trip to Finland promoted by the German Chamber of Commerce. Before leaving, Goerdeler met with Adolf Hitler and the propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and received their promise that nothing would happen to the statue during his trip.

During his trip, the statue was demolished on Haake's orders. Upon his return, Haake stated that the matter of the statue was "only the outward occasion of the conflict" and declared that "Dr. Goerdeler's attitude in the Jewish Question had been revealed particularly clearly in the matter of the Mendelssohn-Bartholdy statue". Goerdeler tried to have the statue rebuilt. After failing that, he declined to accept his reelection as mayor of Leipzig and resigned from office on 31 March 1937. During his meeting with Young, Goerdeler asked for Young to convey a message to the British government to the effect that London should apply diplomatic and economic pressure on Germany to cease the persecution of the Jews.

On 6 May 1939, Goerdeler leaked information to the British Foreign Office stating that the German and Soviet governments were secretly beginning a rapprochement, with the aim of dividing Eastern Europe between them. In May 1939, Goerdeler visited London to repeat the same message to the British government. During his London trip, Goerdeler told the British that the state of the German economy was so deplorable that war, even if it occurred, would only accelerate the German economic collapse and that Germany simply lacked the economic staying power for an extended war. During the same visit to London in May 1939, Goerdeler claimed that the German Army leadership was willing to overthrow the regime, that he himself favoured launching a putsch immediately, but that "the leaders of the whole movement ... still considered it too early". The German historian Klaus-Jürgen Müller commented that Goerdeler in making these claims was either lying to the British or else was seriously self-deluded. Goerdeler's assessment of the German diplomatic-military-economic situation had considerable influence on decision-makers in the British and French governments in 1939, who, based on his reports, believed that a firm Anglo-French diplomatic stand for Poland might bring about the fall of Hitler without a war or, at least, would ensure that the Allies faced war on relatively auspicious economic terms.

Besides trying to influence opinion abroad, Goerdeler urged the German military to overthrow Hitler and frequently found himself frustrated by the unwillingness of the generals to consider a putsch. In a memo written at the end of July 1939 during a visit to Turkey, Goerdeler took the view that Hitler was bluffing in his demands against Poland, and if he could be forced to stand down by a firm Anglo-French stand, that would be such a blow as to topple the Nazi regime. Later, as the summer of 1939 went on, Goerdeler changed his views about Hitler's intentions towards Poland. In August 1939, Goerdeler contacted General Walter von Brauchitsch and advised him if Germany attacked Poland, the result would not be the limited war that Hitler expected but a world war pitting Germany against Britain and France. Goerdeler advised Brauchitsch that the only way to save Germany from such a war would be a putsch to depose Hitler. Brauchitsch was not interested in Goerdeler's opinions, and told him that he shared Hitler's belief that Germany could destroy Poland without causing a world war in 1939. On 25 August 1939, discovering that the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact had not led as intended to the Anglo-French abandonment of Poland, Hitler ordered the temporary postponement of Fall Weiss, which had been due to begin the next day. Goerdeler was convinced that the postponement was a fatal blow to Hitler's prestige.

On 26 August, he went to a trip to Sweden that he had been considering cancelling because of the international situation. On 27 August 1939 Goerdeler told the British diplomat Gladwyn Jebb to continue to make a firm diplomatic stand for Poland as the best way of bringing down the Nazi regime. At the same time, Goerdeler's insistence on restoring Germany to its 1914 borders and his intense German nationalism left many British diplomats to mistrust Goerdeler as they regarded him as not much different from Hitler. At the beginning of September 1939, Goerdeler returned to Germany a dejected man. Goerdeler was most disappointed and unpleasantly surprised when Germany attacked Poland on 1 September, the Anglo-French declarations of war on 3 September and then the German Army doing nothing to overthrow Hitler. That marked the beginning of a recurring pattern where Goerdeler would invest great hopes in his beloved German Army rising up against Hitler, only to discover repeatedly that Army officers much preferred to fight for the Führer to fighting against him.

Phoney War, the Zossen putsch attempt of November 1939 and attack on the West

In 1939–40, Goerdeler assembled conservative politicians, diplomats and generals, most notably Ulrich von Hassell, General Ludwig Beck and Johannes Popitz, in opposition to Adolf Hitler. On 11 October 1939 speaking to Hassel of German war crimes in Poland, Goerdeler commented that both General Halder and Admiral Canaris were afflicted with nervous complaints as a result of "our brutal conduct of the war" in Poland. In October 1939, Goerdeler drafted peace terms that a post-Nazi government would seek with Great Britain and France. Under Goerdeler's terms, Germany would retain all the areas of Poland that had been part of Germany prior to 1918, Austria and the Sudetenland with independence being restored to Poland and Czechoslovakia with general disarmament, the restoration of global free trade and the ending of protectionism as the other major goals for the new regime. On 3 November 1939, Goerdeler paid another visit to Sweden, where he met Marcus Wallenberg, Gustav Cassell, and Dr. Sven Hedin. Hedin wrote in his diary that "he [Goerdeler] believed in Göring and thought that a speedy peace was the only thing to save Germany, but that peace was unthinkable so long as Hitler remained at the head of affairs". At the same time, Goerdeler was deeply involved in the planning of an abortive putsch intended to be launched on 5 November 1939, and as such was in very high spirits prior to that day. Hassell wrote in his diary that with worry that "He [Goerdeler] often reminds me of Kapp." (Wolfgang Kapp, the nominal leader of the Kapp Putsch was notorious for his irresponsibility). The proposed putsch became stillborn when Field Marshal Walter von Brauchitsch and General Franz Halder, the leaders of the planned putsch got cold feet, and dropped their support. Brauchitsch and Halder had decided to overthrow Hitler after the latter had fixed "X-day" for the invasion of France for 12 November 1939; an invasion that both officers believed to be doomed to fail. During a meeting with Hitler on 5 November, Brauchitsch had attempted to talk Hitler into putting off "X-day" by saying that morale in the German Army was worse than what it was in 1918, a statement that enraged Hitler who harshly berated Brauchitsch for incompetence. After that meeting, both Halder and Brauchitsch told Goerdeler that overthrowing Hitler was simply something that they could not do, and he should find other officers if that was what he really wanted to do. Equally important, on 7 November 1939 following heavy snowstorms, Hitler put off "X-Day" until further notice, which removed the reason that had most motivated Brauchitsch and Halder to consider overthrowing Hitler. On 23 November 1939, Goerdeler met with Halder to ask him to re-consider his attitude. Halder gave Goerdeler the following reasons why he wanted nothing to do with any plot to overthrow Hitler:

  • That General Erich Ludendorff had launched the Kaiserschlacht in March 1918, which led directly to Germany's defeat in November 1918, but most people in Germany still considered Ludendorff one of Germany's greatest heroes. By contrast, the men who staged the November Revolution and signed the armistice that took Germany out of a losing war were hated all over the Reich as the "November Criminals". Even if Hitler were to launch an invasion of France that signally failed, most people would still support Hitler, just as the failure of the Kaiserschlacht had failed to hurt Ludendorff's reputation as it should have, so the Army could do nothing to overthrow Hitler until the unlikely event that his prestige was badly damaged. Until Hitler was discredited, anyone who acted against him to end the war would be a "new November Criminal".
  • That Hitler was a great leader, and there was nobody to replace him.
  • Most of the younger officers in the Army were extreme National Socialists who would not join a putsch.
  • Hitler deserved "a last chance to deliver the German people from the slavery of English capitalism".
  • Finally, "one does not rebel when face to face with the enemy".

Despite all of Goerdeler's best efforts, Halder would not change his mind.

In January–February 1940, Goerdeler together with Popitz, Beck and Hassell spent most of their time working on the sort of constitutional, economic, social and educational system that a post-Nazi government would have to carry out. The basis of all their planning was the restoration of the monarchy. Goerdeler believed that the main reason why the Army would not overthrow Hitler was the lack of a positive goal to inspire them with the hope of a better tomorrow, and if he and his colleagues could work out plans for a better future, then the Army leaders would change their minds. During their discussions for a post-Hitler future, it was agreed that various Nazi leaders like Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler, provided that they were willing to break with Hitler could have a leading role in a post-Nazi government. The only Nazi leader besides Hitler whom Goerdeler and his circle were adamant could play no role in a post-Nazi government was the Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop who Goerdeler personally hated as an obnoxious bully, and whose foreign policy Goerdeler viewed as criminally inept. In early April 1940, Goerdeler met secretly with General Franz Halder, the Chief of the General Staff, and asked him to consider a putsch while the Phoney War was still on, while the British and French were still open to a negotiated peace. Halder refused Goerdeler's request. Goerdeler told Halder that too many people had already died in the war, and this refusal to remove Hitler at this point would ensure that the blood of millions would be on his hands.

Halder told Goerdeler that his oath to Hitler and his belief in Germany's inevitable victory in the war precluded his acting against the Nazi regime. Halder told Goerdeler that "The military situation of Germany, particularly on account of the pact of non-aggression with the Soviet Union is such that a breach of my oath to the Führer could not possibly be justified" [Halder was referring to the Hitler oath], that only if Germany was faced with total defeat would he consider breaking his oath, and that Goerdeler was a fool to believe that the Second World War could be ended with a compromise peace. Halder ended his meeting with Goerdeler on 6 April 1940 with the remark: <blockquote>Britain and France had declared war on us, and one had to see it through. A peace of compromise was senseless. Only in the greatest emergency could one take the action desired by Goerdeler</blockquote> In June 1940, much to Goerdeler's intense disappointment, following the German victory over France, the German Army lost all interest in anti-Nazi plots.

Not until December 1941, after the first German defeats in the Soviet Union, were Army officers again to show interest in becoming involved in Goerdeler's anti-Nazi plots. In June 1941, Goerdeler experienced a brief surge of hope that he learned that Hitler had issued a set of orders to the Army for the upcoming Operation Barbarossa that violated international law and made it clear that he wanted the war against the Soviet Union to be waged in the most inhumane, brutal way possible. Goerdeler argued that the Army would now overthrow Hitler because no self-respecting German officer would wage war in such an inhumane fashion and become a war criminal. The sequel was recorded in Hassell's diary on 16 June 1941: <blockquote>"Brauchitsch and Halder have already agreed to Hitler's tactics [in the Soviet Union]. Thus the Army must assume the onus of the murders and burnings which up to now have been confined to the SS.<br><br>A series of conferences with Popitz, Goerdeler, Beck and Oster to consider whether certain orders which Army commanders have received (but which they have not yet issued) might suffice to open the eyes of the military leaders to the nature of the regime for which they are fighting. These orders concern brutal ... measures the troops are to take against the Bolsheviks when the Soviet Union is invaded.<br><br>We came to the conclusion that nothing was to be hoped for now ... They [the generals] delude themselves ... Hopeless sergeant majors!"</blockquote>

Leader of the national conservative opposition

Plans for the future

During the winter of 1940–1941, Goerdeler spent much of his time discussing with Popitz, Beck and Hassell which of the Hohenzollerns would occupy the throne of Germany after the overthrow of the Nazis. Goerdeler supported the claim of Prince Oskar of Prussia. The idea of restoring the former Emperor Wilhelm II to his throne was rejected by Goerdeler under the grounds that the personality of the former Kaiser and the way he had behaved during his thirty-year reign made him a completely unsuitable candidate. The Crown Prince Wilhelm was rejected by Goerdeler partly because his well deserved reputation as a womaniser, a heavy drinker and an irresponsible playboy made him offensive to the austere, God-fearing Lutheran Goerdeler and partly because of his outspoken support for the Nazi regime. Popitz by contrast, while agreeing with Goerdeler that the unstable former Kaiser was unsuitable, insisted on dynastic grounds that the Crown Prince Wilhelm be the next emperor, and was to spend much time arguing with Goerdeler over which of the sons of the former emperor was to sit on the throne. They developed a future constitution for Germany and even a list of potential ministers. Popitz favored a return to the pre-1918 authoritarian political system. However, Goerdeler argued with his fellow conspirators in favor of a British-style constitutional monarchy with an emperor who was "not meant to govern, but to watch over the Constitution and to represent the State".

Goerdeler's proposed constitution called for a strong executive, a high degree of decentralisation, a Reichstag elected partially by the people on a British-style "first-past-the-post" basis (instead of by party lists) and partially by members of local councils, and a Reichsrat composed of representatives nominated by Christian churches, trade unions, universities, and business groups. To assist with the drafting of the future constitution, Goerdeler enlisted the help, through his friend Dietrich Bonhoeffer, of the so-called Freiburger Kreis (Freiburg Circle), an anti-Nazi discussion group of professors at Freiburg University founded in 1938 that included , , Walter Eucken, Constantin von Dietze, and Gerhard Ritter. Had the 20 July Plot succeeded, Goerdeler would have served as Chancellor in the new government that would have been formed after Hitler's assassination and the overthrow of the Nazi regime. In August 1941, Goerdeler was most disappointed with the Atlantic Charter. He felt that the demands contained in Clause 8, calling for the disarmament of Germany, would make both the task of recruiting the German Army to overthrowing the regime more difficult and were unacceptable since Goerdeler believed in maintaining a strong military". Starting in 1941, Goerdeler expanded his network of anti-Nazi contacts to include Social Democrats like Wilhelm Leuschner and Hermann Maas.

Reaction to news of genocide

In late 1941, under the impact of the news of the deportations of German Jews to be shot in Eastern Europe, Goerdeler submitted a memo to the German government calling for all Jews who had been German citizens or were descended from Jews who had been German citizens before 1871 to be classified as Germans, and those Jews who were descended from Jews who had not lived within the borders of Germany prior to 1871 to be considered citizens of a Jewish state whose creation would occur later.

Recruiting for the resistance

In November 1942, Goerdeler made a secret and illegal visit to Smolensk using forged papers provided by Colonel Hans Oster to meet Field Marshal Günther von Kluge and Henning von Tresckow to gain their support for overthrowing Hitler. Both Kluge and Tresckow promised to arrest Hitler when he visited the Eastern front. Tresckow in particular was very favourably impressed with Goerdeler, whom he saw as a kindred spirit. Goerdeler returned to Berlin feeling assured about the future, and was most disappointed when he received a message from Kluge via General Beck stating he changed his mind about acting against the Nazi regime, and to count him out of any putsch. Kluge's change of mind about attempting to overthrow Hitler was related to the "gifts" he had received from Hitler in the fall of 1942. On 30 October 1942 Kluge was the beneficiary of an enormous bribe from Hitler who mailed a letter of good wishes together with a huge cheque totaling 250,000 marks made out to him from the German treasury and a promise that whatever improving his estate might cost could be billed out to the German treasury. Hitler was unaware of Goerdeler's plotting, but had heard rumours that Kluge was unhappy with his leadership. After receiving another "gift" of 250,000 marks from Hitler later in November that was intended to buy his loyalty, it had the desired effect with Kluge's message to Goerdeler not to involve him in anti-Nazi plots.

The corruption of the German officer corps by the Nazi regime via generous bribes was a source of considerable disgust and exasperation to Goerdeler. One of Goerdeler's contacts with the Army, a Captain Hermann Kaiser informed Goerdeler that all of the senior officers were taking huge bribes from Hitler in exchange for their loyalty. By May 1943, Goerdeler was well aware that Field Marshal Günther von Kluge, General Heinz Guderian and Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt had accepted 250,000 Reichsmark cheques as birthday presents from Hitler that were intended to bribe them into loyalty, and that in addition, Guderian had received an estate in Poland. Since these were all men that Goerdeler had hopes of recruiting, their refusal to join the conspiracy because of their greed for more bribes enraged Goerdeler. Goerdeler wrote with disgust in May 1943 that the senior officers "think only of helping themselves".

In December 1942, the "Freiburg Circle" who were continuing their work helping Goerdeler develop a constitution submitted the "Great Memorandum" to Goerdeler for the proposed post-Nazi German government, which also included "Proposals for a Solution of the Jewish Question in Germany". The "Proposals" rejected Nazi racial theories but stated that after the overthrow of the Nazis, German Jews would not have their German citizenship restored but be restricted to living in ghettos and be allowed only minimal contact with German Christians, and he called for continuing the Nazi ban on marriage and sex between Jews and German Christians. The Israeli historian Saul Friedländer used the "Proposals" to argue that Goerdeler was anti-Semitic, and that his differences with the Nazis on the "Jewish Question" were ones of degree, not kind.

After the Battle of Stalingrad, the pace of Goerdeler's conspiratorial activities gathered speed. The German historian Christof Dipper in his 1983 essay "Der Deutsche Widerstand und die Juden" (translated into English as "The German Resistance and the Jews") argued that the majority of the anti-Nazi national-conservatives such as Goerdeler were anti-Semitic. Dipper wrote that for Goerdeler and his social circle "the bureaucratic, pseudo-legal deprivation of the Jews practised until 1938 was still considered acceptable". Though Dipper noted that no one in the Widerstand movement supported the Holocaust, he claimed also that the national-conservatives like Goerdeler did not intend to restore civil rights to the Jews after the overthrow of Hitler.

By contrast, the Canadian historian Peter Hoffmann in his 2004 essay "The German Resistance and the Holocaust" has contended that Goerdeler was opposed to anti-Semitism in all forms, and that this opposition played a major role in motivating his efforts to overthrow the Nazi regime. Most recently in his 2011 book Carl Goerdeler and the Jewish Question, 1933–1942 and in his 2013 book Carl Goerdeler gegen die Verfolgung der Juden, Hoffmann has defended Goerdeler against the charge that he was an anti-Semite. Hoffmann quotes memoranda for Hitler from the years 1934–1939 in which Goerdeler urged the government to change its "Jewish policy" as a matter of justice and national interests; Goerdeler argued that Germany could enjoy good relations with Britain, France and the United States only if the policies concerning "the Jewish Question, the Free-Masons’ Question, legal security, the Church Question" were changed.

Before the war, Goerdeler had implored the British government to pressure Hitler to alleviate his "Jewish policy". In 1941, he proposed for the League of Nations to found a Jewish state that would extend Jewish citizenship to all Jews in the world. Since Germans according to the German citizenship law of 1913 lost their German citizenship by acquiring another citizenship, Goerdeler declared that for German Jews there must be four categories of "exceptions" to this rule. Analysis of population, emigration, immigration and naturalization statistics shows that Goerdeler's proposal guaranteed German citizenship to at least 94% of German Jews and sustain the legal fiction of "exceptions". Goerdeler thus intended to protect, if possible, all German Jews against the loss of their German citizenship; the few who did not fall into one of Goerdeler's categories of "exceptions" could have applied, under the 1913 German citizenship law, for re-instatement. As a leading civilian anti-Hitler conspiracy leader, Goerdeler worked tirelessly to bring about the pre-condition for his proposals' implementation: the overthrow of the Nazi government.

The Israeli historian Danny Orbach in his 2010 book Valkyrie: Hahitnagdut Hagermanit Lehitler (Valkyrie: Germans Against Hitler) defended Goerdeler against the charge that he was an anti-Semite by noting Goerdeler's strong support for Zionism and his work with Chaim Weizmann in encouraging German Jews to move to the British Mandate for Palestine. In a recent article, Orbach also argued that Dipper's accusations of anti-Semitism are based on a misreading, if not distortion, of Goerdeler's memoranda, thus ignoring Goerdeler's plan to restore emancipation to the German Jews and securing a national homeland for their Polish brethren. The Israeli historian Tom Segev has dismissed Orbach's claims that Goerdeler was a philo-Semitic, stating that Goerdeler was an anti-Semitic who supported Zionism only because he disliked the idea of German Jews living in Germany, and he much preferred if they all move to Palestine. Bankier wrote that Goerdeler felt that the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question" was going too far and would have to be stopped, but "[f]or Goerdeler, the solution of the Jewish question after the war was the establishment of a Jewish state in parts of Canada or South America and granting German citizenship only to a small, elitist minority of Jews willing to assimilate completely." in Marienwerder (modern Kwidzyn, Poland) while visiting the grave of his parents. Under Gestapo interrogation, Goerdeler claimed that the Holocaust was the major reason for his seeking to overthrow the Nazi regime. On 9 September 1944, after a trial at the People's Court, he was sentenced to death. Goerdeler was not physically tortured by the Gestapo, and freely co-operated with them in naming names, which made him the object of considerable hatred from the other prisoners, who saw him as a "spineless rat."

Goerdeler's friend, the historian Gerhard Ritter, who shared the same prison with him, reported that Goerdeler was never tortured but was instead subjected to "the overheating of cells, painfully tight shackling especially at night, bright light shining on one's face while one tried to sleep, completely insufficient food". One prisoner recalled that Goerdeler was often "groaning aloud from hunger". Goerdeler's hope in confessing all was to overload the Gestapo with information, and thereby buy time to save his life and the others imprisoned; in the process, he caused hundreds involved in the plot to be arrested. During his time in prison, Goerdeler was asked by the SS to assist with writing the constitution of a future SS-ruled Germany. Goerdeler agreed, and often met with Otto Ohlendorf and Dr. Mäding of the SD to provide his advice. Whether Goerdeler was sincere in wishing to help the SS or just trying to buy time to save his life remains unclear. When confronted with the loneliness of his imprisonment and the utter defeat of his cause, Goerdeler, who had always been a highly devout Lutheran, became increasingly preoccupied with spiritual matters. Goerdeler was overwhelmed with despair over what he considered to be the triumph of evil and the destruction of all that he loved. Ritter saw Goerdeler in prison in January 1945 and reported: <blockquote>I was ... astonished at his undiminished intellectual power, but at the same time I was shocked by his outward appearance. It was a man grown old who stood before me, shackled hand and foot, in the same light summer clothes as had on when captured, shabby and collarless, face thin and drawn, strangely different. But it was his eyes that shocked me the most. They were once bright grey eyes and had flashed beneath the heavy eyebrows; that had always been the most impressive thing about him. Now there was no light in them; they were like the eyes of a blind man, yet like nothing I had seen before. His intellectual power was as it had always been; his spiritual strength was not. His natural cheerfulness had gone; his look seemed turned inward. What I beheld was a man with the weariness of death in his soul.</blockquote>

thumb|Plötzensee Memorial, 2005

While Goerdeler was on death row, he wrote a letter that called the Holocaust the very worst of Nazi crimes. At the same time, Goerdeler remained anti-Semitic. In his "Thoughts of a Man condemned to Death", written towards the end of 1944 in prison, Goerdeler wrote: <blockquote>We should not attempt to minimize what has been happening, but we should also emphasize the great guilt of the Jews, who had invaded our public life in ways that lacked customary restraint. </blockquote> He was finally executed by hanging on 2 February 1945 at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin with two other men: Johannes Popitz and Alfred Delp. While awaiting his death sentence, Goerdeler wrote a farewell letter, which ended with "I ask the world to accept our martyrdom as penance for the German people."

After the war, Helene Schwärzel was arrested for denouncing Goerdeler. In 1946, she was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to 15 years in prison, which was reduced to 6 years on appeal.

Notes

References

  • Fest, Joachim Plotting Hitler's Death : The Story Of The German Resistance, New York : Henry Holt, 1996, .
  • Gill, Anton A Honourable Defeat : A History Of German Resistance To Hitler, 1933–1945, New York : H. Holt, 1994, .
  • Goldhagen, Daniel Hitler's Willing Executioners : Ordinary Germans And The Holocaust, New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 1996, .
  • .
  • .
  • Notes of a conversation with 'X' (Dr Carl Friedrich Goerdeler) -one of the "X documents" detailing A.P. Young's account of meetings with Goerdeler on 6th and 7 August 1938.
  • The Jews in Plans for Postwar Germany by David Bankier.
  • Why They Tried To Kill Hitler What the Tom Cruise film does not explain – a footnote to 'Valkyrie' by Uwe Siemon-Netto.
  • Juli 20: the Politics of a coup by Jacob Pemberton.
  • Goerdeler's Writings by Peter Hoffmann.
  • The Good Germans by Tom Segev.