The son of an estate manager follows a straight path: school, youth movement, studies in languages and
history, a doctoral degree with high honors, military service, teacher, and the youngest member of an academy. But at age 30, after his wartime experiences, he radically changes his life. He becomes a state parliamentarian for the KPD, a party journalist, a member of the Reichstag, a prominent speaker, and an opponent of the Nazis. In 1933, he was arrested for his involvement in the resistance and held for six years without trial in various Gestapo prisons and concentration camps. Released from Buchenwald in 1939, he once again established a resistance group. The People’s Court sentenced him to death in January 1945.
