CARL FRIEDRICH GOERDELER FORMER MAYOR OF LEIPZIG

GOERDELER WAS THE LEADING CIVILIAN INVOLVED IN THE PLOT, AND WOULD HAVE BECOME CHANCELLOR IN THE NEW GOVERNMENT

Born in 1884 in Posen (modern-day Poznan in Poland), Goerdeler was a deeply religious man who served on the eastern Front in the First World War, before becoming a career civil servant after Germany’s defeat. enraged by the enforced ceding of territory to establish the Polish state, Goerdeler became a member of the ultra-nationalist German national People’s Party (DNVP) and mayor of first Königsberg and then leipzig. he was also appointed as the reich’s Price Commissioner – a post designed to help keep a lid on the much-feared spectre of inflation.

after the nazis came to power, Goerdeler increasingly found himself caught between two stools: supporting hitler’s bellicose demands for the recovery of the eastern lands, but opposed to massive German rearmament and the surge in inflation it was causing. Goerdeler was also horrified by the nazis’ anti-jewish policies, believing them to be in direct contradiction of his profound Protestant faith – the 1933 nazi boycott of Jewish-owned businesses was lifted in leipzig on his personal intervention. resigning in 1937, he was drawn into the conspiracy through his contact with the likes of Beck and hans Oster.

Often travelling abroad, he became a conduit to foreign intelligence services and, despite his deep dislike of von stauffenberg, was the chief civilian in the resistance movement, advocating a restoration of the monarchy and designated as chancellor-in-waiting.

Ordered arrested before the 20 July assassination attempt, he managed to evade capture until august.

During interrogation

– he wasn’t tortured – he revealed the names of hundreds of co-conspirators, who were then rounded up and subjected to the tender mercies of the Gestapo. he was finally executed by hanging in February 1945.