Thread by @Xy5Z89

Story of a important man in history who got pretty much sadly forgoten😔. As one of the biggedt resistance of Hitler. So I write this also in his memorial

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So I resarched a bit about

Carl Albert Fritz Michael Gerlich

Carl Albert Fritz Michael Gerlich. Born February 15, 1883 in Szczecin in a Calvinist family with four brothers; Died July 1, 1934 in the #Dachau #concentrationcamp. He studied mathematics and physics in 1902. History and anthropology in 1903.

In 1907 he received his doctorate in philosophy (Dr.Phil). In addition to his work as a historian in the Bavarian State Archives Service, he published numerous articles on anti-socialist and ethnic-#German-conservative topics in the southern German monthly magazines.

In the post-war period he was already active against the #Munich #Soviet Republic. From 1920 to 1928 he was editor-in-chief of the "Münchner Neuesten Nachrichten", which the "@SZ" sees itself as a successor. In the editorial office,

he cultivated a collegial working style and also corrected his own editorials after criticism from the editors. He withdrew all support from the #Nationalsocialists after the #Hitler putsch in 1923. #Gerlich wrote Gustav von Kahr's speech in the Bürgerbräukeller

on the day of the coup. Gerlich resigned from the MNN on February 1, 1928 after arguments with the publishing management, including reports against #Hitler's #NSDAP. In 1923, with the #Hitler coup,

#Gerlich changed from a more nationally #authoritarian sympathizer of the #Nationalsocialist movement to a committed critic and opponent of Adolf #Hitler. Fritz #Gerlich's rejection of totalitarianism was based on #naturallaw as a human right.

In addition, #Gerlich had made the acquaintance of Therese Neumann, the mystic of Konnersreuth, in 1927, who encouraged him to resist the #Hitler #Party. Originally, he wanted to expose the "fraud" of their stigmata,

but #Gerlich came back as a convert and converted to Roman in 1931 #Catholic faith. In 1930 he took over the editing and editing of the Catholic magazine Illustrierter Sonntag (financed by the prince Erich von Waldburg-Zeil, whom he knew from Konnersreuth),

which appeared from 1932 under the title The Straight Way and consistently turned against #Hitler and the #NSDAP. consistently turned against #Hitler and the #NSDAP. Fritz Gerlich once wrote: "National Socialism means: lies, hate, fratricide and boundless hardship."

The #newspaper also became popular due to competitions and articles aimed at the taste of the masses, with circulation of more than 100,000. It was printed in the same printing plant as the #VölkischeBeobachter, with frequent encounters between #Gerlich and #Hitler.

After a headline in which he dubbed the #Nationalsocialists agitators, criminals and confused, #Hitler got a tantrum and ultimately demanded that the printer quit Gerlich's newspaper. #Gerlich changed to a #Catholic printing house and renamed the newspaper

(The Straight Way - German Newspaper for Truth and Law). Until the end, #Gerlich #warned of the #danger and the #consequences of a "seizure of power" by the #Nationalsocialists and tried to prevent it. Insistently, but in vain, he #warned:" You,

you who have fallen #victim to this #deception of a man #possessed by #tyranny! It is about #Germany, yours, your #children's fate." Despite warnings (colleagues had offered to save him in #Switzerland), he remained in the editorial office, which he did not want to let down.

On March 9, 1933, he was mistreated by an #SA #squad in the editorial offices of the Straight Way, and was severely #tortured (an SA man jumped on his hands at the Munich police headquarters with full force so that he could never write again).

He remained in "protective custody" in #Munich for almost 16 months. #Gerlich himself knew that one wanted to #murder him, as he said to a fellow #prisoner, because he #knew too much. In the night from June 30 to July 1, 1934,

he was transferred to the #Dachau #concentration camp by the #Munich #Police Directorate in connection with the so-called Röhm coup, where he was #shot on the shooting range of the #camp together with the combat leader Paul Röhrbein.

@threadreaderapp please unroll

This was Carl Albert Fritz Michael Gerlich. He was a victim of the "night with long knives" and one of the first victims of the Nazis