Hans Coppi | |
|---|---|
 Hans Coppi on the lft, in Velten in 1940 | |
| Born | 25 January 1916 Berlin, German Empire |
| Died | 22 December 1942 (aged 26) |
| Cause of death | Hanging |
| Nationality | German |
| Occupation | Machinist |
Hans-Wedigo Robert Coppi (25 January 1916 – 22 December 1942) was a German resistance fighter against the Nazis. He was a member of the anti-fascist resistance group that was later called the Red Orchestra by the Gestapo.[1]
Life[edit]
Coppi was born in Wedding, Berlin to a working-class family.[2] His parents were Robert and Frieda, who were members of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and had joined in 1930.[3] From 1929 to 1932, Coppi attended the Schulfarm Scharfenberg, a progressive "school-farm" in Berlin's Tegel district.[4] During 1931-32 time became a member of the "Red Pathfinders" and the Communist Youth Association of Germany (KJVD).[1]
In 1932, Coppi was expelled from the Schulfarm after supporting some students who had watched Georg Wilhelm Pabst's banned Franco-German solidarity film Kameradschaft. He was transferred to the Berliner Lessing-Gymnasium. In February 1933, the Coppi family moved to the newly created garden-colony known as Am Waldessaum in Borsigwalde.[1] In February 1934 Coppi was arrested by the Gestapo for posting illegal leaflets and sent to Oranienburg concentration camp for two months without trial, before being sentenced for one year in juvenile detention.[1] After his release, Coppi found work as a lathe operator[5] and made contact with old friends from the Schulfarm aiding victims of Nazi persecution. He continued to co-write leaflets warning of the consequences of Nazi warmongering.
World War II[edit]
At the outbreak of World War II in autumn 1939, Coppi was deemed unfit and unworthy to be a soldier. Instead, he joined the former actor and communist Wilhelm Schürmann-Horster's resistance group and established contacts with the communist "Red Orchestra" resistance circle. He agreed to pass information about these groups' activities to the Soviet Union by radio.
In 1941, Coppi married Hilde Rake and the couple continued to aid victims of persecution and illegally relay information to and from Soviet radio. The following year, Coppi was given care of a Soviet agent who had been parachuted into Germany; and, as the tide of the war turned against Nazi Germany, Coppi received papers calling him up as "suitable" for service in the Wehrmacht.
Arrest[edit]
On 12 September 1942, Coppi and his pregnant wife were arrested in Schrimm, now in central Poland.[5] His parents, brother and mother-in-law were also arrested around this time. He was convicted by the Reichskriegsgericht and sentenced to death on 19 December. Three days later, he was hanged along with fellow resistance members Arvid Harnack and Harro Schulze-Boysen at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin.
Hilde gave birth to their son, Hans, on 27 November, while detained at the Barnimstrasse Women's Prison in Berlin. She was executed less than a year later, on 5 August 1943.
Awards[edit]
- Coppi was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War Second Degree by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on 6 October 1969.[6]
- In 1986, a memorial plaque was placed on Scharfenberg island on Lake Tegel that commemorates him and former Scharfenberg student Hanno Günther.[7]
Bibliography[edit]
- Weiss, Peter (2016). Die Ästhetik des Widerstands Roman (in German) (1st ed.). Berlin: Suhrkamp. ISBN 9783518425510. OCLC 970660891.
- In 1999, Geertje Andresen and Hans and Hilde Coppi's orphaned son, Hans Coppi Jr., published a collection of Harro Schulze-Boysen's letters, Dieser Tod passt zu mir ("This Death Becomes Me").
- Scheel, Heinrich (1993). Vor den Schranken des Reichskriegsgerichts : mein Weg in den Widerstand (in German). Berlin: Edition Q. ISBN 9783861241478. OCLC 805310754.
- Perrault, Gilles (1990). Auf den Spuren der Roten Kapelle (in German) (Überarb. und erw. Neuausg ed.). Vienna: Europaverl. ISBN 9783203512327. OCLC 75468124.
- Rosiejka, Gert (1986). Die Rote Kapelle "Landesverrat" als antifaschist. Widerstand (in German) (1st ed.). Hamburg: Ergebnisse Verlag. ISBN 3-925622-16-0. OCLC 497259004.
- Roloff, Stefan (2004). Die Rote Kapelle die Widerstandsgruppe im Dritten Reich und die Geschichte Helmut Roloffs. Ullstein, 36669 (in German) (1st ed.). Berlin: Ullstein. ISBN 3-548-36669-4. OCLC 76625534.
Gallery[edit]
Memorial plaque for Hans and Hilde Coppi located at 23 Seidelstraße Tegel, Germany
Memorial plaque, Hans Coppi, Insel Scharfenberg, Tegel, Germany
40+20 Pfennig-Stamp commemorative stamp issued by the DDR on 7 September 1961
Location of plaque for Coppi at allotment garden no. 107 at 20 Seidelstraße 20
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d Coppi Jnr, Hans. "Hans Coppi". Stolpersteine (in German). Berlin: Koordinierungsstelle Stolpersteine. Retrieved 4 January 2019.
- ^ "Hans Coppi". Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand. German Resistance Memorial Center. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
- ^ Eckelmann, Susanne (15 September 2014). "Hans Coppi 1916-1942". 20 JAHRE LEMO. Berlin: Deutsches Historisches Museum. Retrieved 25 July 2021.
- ^ "Coppi, Hans". Die politischen Häftlinge des Konzentrationslagers Oranienburg. Archived from the original on 6 January 2013. Retrieved 25 July 2021.
- ^ a b Peter Steinbach; Johannes Tuchel; Ursula Adam (1998). Lexikon des Widerstandes, 1933-1945 (in German). C.H.Beck. p. 41. ISBN 978-3-406-43861-5. Retrieved 29 July 2021.
- ^ Neues Deutschland. 23 December 1969. p. 5.
{{cite news}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ Hübner, Holger. "Hans Coppi; Hans (Hanno) Günthe". Gedenktafeln in Berlin (in German). Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand und des Vereins Aktives Museum Faschismus und Widerstand in Berlin e.V. Retrieved 29 July 2021.
External links[edit]
- Timeline of Coppi's life by the Deutsches Historisches Museum. (in German)
See also[edit]
- Zentralfriedhof Friedrichsfelde The Socialist Memorial
| General | |
|---|---|
| National libraries | |
