Hans von Dohnanyi

Hans von Dohnanyi
Born(1902-01-01)1 January 1902
Vienna, Austrian Empire
Died8/9 April 1945 (aged 43)
Sachsenhausen concentration camp, Nazi Germany
NationalityGerman
OccupationJurist
Spouse(s)Christel Bonhoeffer
ChildrenKlaus von Dohnanyi
Christoph von Dohnanyi
Barbara von Dohnanyi

Hans von Dohnanyi (1 January 1902 ? 8 or 9 April 1945) was a German jurist, rescuer of Jews, and German resistance fighter against the Nazi regime.
Contents

1 Early life

2 Career

3 Resistance

4 Proceedings after the war

5 See also

6 References

6.1 Bibliography


7 External links


Early life

Hans von Dohnanyi was born to the Hungarian composer Ern? Dohnanyi and his wife, the pianist Elisabeth Kunwald.[1] After his parents divorced, he grew up in Berlin. He went to the Grunewald Gymnasium there, becoming friends with Dietrich and Klaus Bonhoeffer. From 1920 to 1924, he studied law in Berlin.[1] In 1925, he received a doctorate in law with a dissertation on "The International Lease Treaty and Czechoslovakia's Claim on the Lease Area in Hamburg Harbour".

After taking the first state exam in 1924, he married Christel Bonhoeffer, sister of his school friends, in 1925. About this time, he began putting the stress on the "a" in his last name (which is of Hungarian origin, stressed on the first syllable). He and his wife had three children: Klaus, (mayor of Hamburg from 1981 to 1988), Christoph, (a musical conductor) and Barbara.[1]
Career

Dohnanyi worked at the Hamburg Senate for a short time and in 1929, began a career at the Reich Ministry of Justice, working as a personal consultant with the title of prosecutor to several justice ministers.[1] In 1934, the title was changed to Regierungsrat ("government adviser"). In 1932, he was adjutant to Erwin Bumke, the Imperial Court President (Reichsgerichtsprasident; at this time, Germany was still officially the German Empire, Deutsches Reich), in which capacity he put together Prussia's lawsuit against the Empire, which Prussia had brought after the Preusenschlag, Franz von Papen's dissolution of the Prussian social-democratic government through an emergency decree in 1932. As an adviser to Franz Gurtner from 1934?38, Dohnanyi became acquainted with Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler and Hermann Goring. He had access to the justice ministry's most secret documents.[1]
Resistance

Spurred by the murders of alleged plotters of the 1934 Night of the Long Knives, "legitimised" murders carried out on government orders, without trial or sentence, Dohnanyi began to seek out contacts with German resistance circles. He made records for himself of the regime's crimes, so that in the event of a collapse of the Third Reich, he would have evidence of their crimes. In 1938, once his critical view of Nazi racial politics became known, Martin Bormann had him transferred to the Reichsgericht in Leipzig as an adviser.[1]

Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, Hans Oster called Dohnanyi into the Abwehr of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht. Led by Wilhelm Canaris, it quite quickly became a hub of resistance activity against Hitler.[2] Dohnanyi protected Dietrich Bonhoeffer from conscription by bringing him into the Abwehr with the claim Bonhoeffer's numerous ecumenical contacts could be useful for Germany.[2]

In 1942, Dohnanyi made it possible for two Jewish lawyers from Berlin, Friedrich Arnold and Julius Fliess, to flee with their loved ones to Switzerland, disguised as Abwehr agents. Altogether, 13 people were able to leave Germany without hindrance, thanks to Dohnanyi's forgeries and operation known as U-7.[3] Dohnanyi covertly went to Switzerland to make certain the refugees would be admitted.[3] He also ensured they received money to support themselves.[2]

During late February 1943, Dohnanyi busied himself with Henning von Tresckow's assassination attempt against Hitler and the attendant coup d'etat.[4] The bomb that was smuggled aboard Hitler's plane in Smolensk after being carried there by Dohnanyi, however, failed to go off.[2]

On 5 April 1943, Dohnanyi was arrested at his office by the Gestapo[1] on charges of alleged breach of foreign currency violations: he had transferred funds to a Swiss bank on behalf of the Jews he had saved.[3] Among the transactions in question were ones with Jauch & Hubener. Both Bonhoeffer and Christel Dohnanyi were also arrested, although she was released about a week later.