Resistance fighters opposing German dictatorships
Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (1907–1944) is one of the best-known figures of the German resistance against National Socialism. As an officer in the German Wehrmacht, he became the leading organizer of the assassination attempt…
Matthias Erzberger was one of the most prominent and controversial politicians of the German transition period from the German Empire to the Weimar Republic. As a member of the Center Party, he signed the Armistice…
When Otto von Bismarck enacted the “Law Against the Publicly Dangerous Endeavors of Social Democracy” (the Anti-Socialist Laws) in 1878, his primary goal was to dismantle the male-dominated structures of the Social Democratic party. However,…
On the morning of August 18, 1976, Protestant Pastor Oskar Brüsewitz drove his Wartburg car in front of St. Michael’s Church in the East German town of Zeitz. On the roof rack, he installed a…
While the Nazi total state attempted to forcefully align the entirety of youth through the Hitler Youth (HJ) and the League of German Girls (BDM), an organic counterculture formed in the working-class districts of major…
In the early years of the GDR, Leipzig University was a focal point of intellectual and political resistance against Stalinist forced conformity. Economics student Herbert Belter remains a symbol of a young generation of academics…
Johann Georg Elser (4 January 1903 – 9 April 1945) was a German carpenter and one of the earliest determined opponents of National Socialism. With his assassination attempt against Adolf Hitler at Munich’s Bürgerbräukeller on…
Sophie Scholl (9 May 1921 – 22 February 1943) is one of the best-known figures of the German resistance against National Socialism. Together with her brother Hans Scholl and other members of the student resistance…
Wolf Biermann (born 15 November 1936 in Hamburg) is one of the most prominent critics of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). As a singer-songwriter, poet, and writer, he denounced the suppression of freedom of expression,…
While official historical narratives frequently celebrate the Weimar Republic as a progressive, golden era of democratic awakening, a closer look at its administrative and judicial practices reveals a starkly different reality. For socialist pioneers, anti-war…
On the surface, the Council of Constance (1414–1418) was intended to restore the unity of the Church. However, behind the scenes of this magnificent assembly at Lake Constance lay one of the most consequential show…
While Jan Hus is often seen as the face of the Bohemian Reformation, Hieronymus of Prague (1379–1416) was its intellectual engine and most passionate orator. His fate at the Council of Constance remains one of…