26th August 1931
'He died for freedom and justice'

See 20.07.1964 - 25/67 (SG. MS1343 - 20th anniversary of bomb attempt)

The postcard introduces us to three members involved in the plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler in what became known as the 20th July Plot, orchestrated in part by Claus von Stauffenburg in 1944.

An innocuous postcard purchased for a mere £4 from the on-line auction site Delcampe and described as 'German Reich 1931 - postcard from Berlin'.

The postcard lay outside the collecting remit of 1933-1947, however, the image depicted a Junker's G38 aircraft. The Luft Hansa passenger plane would be used during the 3rd Reich period and therefore found legitimacy within the collection.

The aircraft photographed on this postcard was written-off following an accident in 1936 and it's sister aircraft (there were two built) was destroyed by the RAF in 1941.

So, an innocuous postcard of a long out-of-service aircraft.

Well that's literally one side of the story... It immediately came to our attention that the addressee had a 'v.' preceding his surname. From previous experience we realised that this denotes a 'von' and is often worthy of a brief investigation.

And so, with the help of the internet and Twitter, the postcard revealed itself.

The message is one that could have been written on a million postcards (see above). But by piecing all this together we find we have the following players that participated, in one from or another, in the 20th July Plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

Whilst this is obviously pre-3rd Reich and 13 years away from the 1944 assassination attempt it still brings together a group of people who's fate would forever be seen as heroic in the face of such adversity.

The card is written by Rüdiger Schleicher (1895-1945), a German legal academic. By 1935 Rüdiger was working for Hermann Goring in the Ministry of Aviation. If the revolt against Hitler were to be successful he was to be responsible for the re-organisation of air travel. Rüdiger was sentenced to death in February 1945 and executed in April...

Rüdiger writes his message to Christel and Hans von Dohnányi (1902-1945). Dohnányi, a German legal scholar worked for Reich Ministry of Justice. By the time of the assasination attempt he was already under arrest, and his involvement in the plot was later discovered. Dohnányi was executed in April 1945.

Christel (née Bonhoeffer), his wife, was also arrested in 1943, however, she was later released and survived the war.

And finally, Christel's brother is mentioned. The 'Dietrich' who is travelling to London is most likely Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945). Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian and anti-Nazi. Hans Dohnányi had brought Bonhoeffer into the German Abwehr (Intelligence Organisation) as a means of keeping him safe amongst co-conspirators. Despite this Bonhoeffer was arrested in 1943. Following the discovery of his involvement in the 20th July Plot he was sentenced to death and executed at Flossenburg Concentration Camp on 9th April 1945...

An innocuous postcard indeed.

Timeline: Letter to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in part,

'In accordance with § 1 of the Church Law of March 4, 1930, Concerning the Assignment of Candidates for the Ministry to Work as Assistant Pastors in the Church— K.G. u. V.B1. 1930, p. 113f.—your year of work as an assistant pastor begins on 1st August, 1931.

We assign you, effective beginning on that date until further notice, to work as assistant pastor in the city [Stadtvikar] in Berlin for the time being, doing whatever work is possible without ordination.

Please see General Superintendent Dr. Karow in Berlin-Charlottenburg well before that date; he will decide about your further work...'

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