Cay-Hugo Graf von Brockdorff, known as Cay von Brockdorff (9 February 1915 - 17 January 1999) was a German sculptor and art historian who after
1933
Events
January
* January 11 – Sir Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first commercial flight between Australia and New Zealand.
* January 17 – The United States Congress votes in favour of Philippines independence, against the wis ...
became an
anti-Nazi resistance activist.
Life
Cay-Hugo Graf von Brockdorff (''Cay-Hugo, the Count of Brockdorff'') was born in the
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
quarter of
Schmargendorf
Schmargendorf () is a south-western locality (''Ortsteil'') of Berlin in the district (''Bezirk'') of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Until 2001 it was part of the former district of Wilmersdorf.
Geography
Schmargendorf borders with the localities o ...
.
[ He was the son of Count Ludwig von ]Brockdorff
Brockdorff is a name of a Schleswig-Holsteiner ancient noble house that belonged to German and Danish nobility.
History
It first appeared in a document from 1167 where Eilwardus de Bruchthorp was mentioned by Duke Henry the Lion of Saxony. Mem ...
(1881-1938), a district judge and his wife Erika Hildegard Therese Martha von Spalding (1892-1940). His grandfather, Count Cay Lorenz von Brockdorff (1844–1921), had been a cavalry officer and a theosophist- anthroposophist.
He studied at the United National Academy for Free and Applied Arts (''"Vereinigte Staatsschulen für freie und angewandte Kunst"'') in Berlin-Charlottenburg
Charlottenburg () is a Boroughs and localities of Berlin, locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Established as a German town law, town in 1705 and named after Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, Queen consort of Kingdom ...
where he was taught by the sculptor Wilhelm Gerstel. After that he launched himself as a freelance visual artist. Through his studies he made contacts with people who would later become opposition activists in the Charlottenburg district, and members of the group around Kurt Schumacher who would be arrested by the Gestapo
The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...
in 1942.
Around or before 1931, von Brockdorff became a member of the Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...
and of the Socialist Workers' Party (''"Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei Deutschlands"'' / SAP). In January 1933 the Nazis
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
took power and lost no time in transforming Germany into a one-party dictatorship
A dictatorship is a form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, which holds governmental powers with few to no limitations on them. The leader of a dictatorship is called a dictator. Politics in a dictatorship are ...
. Political activism (except in support of the Nazi party) became illegal. Sources nevertheless indicate that from 1936 he was involved in "illegal work" in various groups of "intellectuals" and "workers".[
In 1937, he married Erika Schönfeldt (1911-1943). Their daughter Saskia was born towards the end of October 1937.] In 1939 he linked up with Hans Coppi
Hans-Wedigo Robert Coppi (25 January 1916 – 22 December 1942) was a German resistance fighter against the Nazis. He was a member of a Berlin-based anti-fascist resistance group that was later called the Red Orchestra by the Gestapo.
Lif ...
who around this time became a member of the so-called Rote Kapelle (''inaccurately but conventionally translated into English as "Red Orchestra"'') resistance group. Erika von Brockdorff would later put her Berlin apartment at the disposal of Coppi for use as a radio communication centre, connecting with Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
, as a result of which she was arrested and, on 13 May 1943, executed. Meanwhile, war having broken out in September 1939, Cay von Brockdorff found himself serving in the army
An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
between July and October 1940, and again between April 1941 and October 1942.[
In 1942, while serving on the Russian Front, von Brockdorff was arrested because of his involvement in the Red Orchestra group. He was found guilty of "preparing to commit high treason" and sentenced to a four year prison term before being transferred to serve in a punishment battalion. The time-lines are not entirely clear, but it does appear he never had the chance to communicate with his wife before she died, although a short moving letter of valediction that she wrote to him shortly before her execution does survive.] Between 1943 and November 1946 Cay von Brockdorff was held by the British military authorities as a prisoner of war in Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
.[
After May 1945 the central portion of Germany surrounding Berlin was administered as the ]Soviet occupation zone
The Soviet Occupation Zone ( or german: Ostzone, label=none, "East Zone"; , ''Sovetskaya okkupatsionnaya zona Germanii'', "Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany") was an area of Germany in Central Europe that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a c ...
, and it was to the Soviet zone that Brockdorff returned. April 1946 saw the contentious political merger that created the Socialist Unity Party (''"Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands"'' / SED) which after October 1949 became the ruling party in the Soviet sponsored German Democratic Republic
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
, a new kind of German one-party dictatorship
A dictatorship is a form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, which holds governmental powers with few to no limitations on them. The leader of a dictatorship is called a dictator. Politics in a dictatorship are ...
. By the end of 1946 Brockdorff had become an SED party member.[ His daughter later recalled that following her mother's death, in the Soviet zone (later East Germany), she and her father "enjoyed many advantages, because urvivingmembers of hat the Nazis had disparagingly termedthe "Rote Kapelle" (''"Red Orchestra"'') were celebrated as antifascist heroes."][
Between 1947 and 1949 Brockdorff was employed as a senior official in the "German Administration for People's Education" (''"Deutschen Verwaltung für Volksbildung"''). During this period, in 1948, he married the author and former resistance activist Eva Lippold (born Eva Rutkowskaya). They set up home together at Kallinchen near Zossen, a short distance to the south of Berlin. In 1950 Cay von Brockdorff received a doctorate.][
In 1953 Brockdorff became the first editor in chief of the magazine Bildende Kunst, a publication produced jointly by the National Commission for the Arts (''"Staatliche Kommission für Kunstangelegenheiten"'') and by the state approved National Association of Visual Artists (''"Verband Bildender Künstler der DDR"''), an organisation to which those wishing to pursue a career in the visual arts were in effect obliged to belong. However, during 1954 he resigned the editorship and resumed his life as a "freelance artist".][ His successor, who took over with effect from Issue 3 of the newly launched publication, was another surviving anti-Nazi resistance activist, the cartoonist and caricaturist ]Herbert Sandberg
Herbert Sandberg (April 18, 1908 – March 18, 1991) was a German artist and caricaturist. He was best known for his caricatures in the satirical magazine, ''Ulenspiegel'', which he co-founded and art directed. He is also well known for his drawin ...
who, despite a discretely satirical approach, managed to stay in the post till 1957. Between 1955 and 1956 he was deputy general director of the State Art Collection in Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...
. After that, From Autumn 1957 till his retirement, he was director at the newly rebuilt Marcher Museum in Berlin.[
Towards the end of the 1950s he was excluded from the party.][
]
Output
Cay von Brockdorff wrote a number of books on art history, notably "Soviet Artists, building peace" (1952), "Soviet and pre-revolutionary Russian art" (1953 ), "German Painting" (1954) and "Finnish graphic art" (1954).
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brockdorff, Cay
Artists from Berlin
20th-century German sculptors
Communists in the German Resistance
Union of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime members
Communist Party of Germany politicians
Socialist Unity Party of Germany members
1915 births
1999 deaths
People convicted of treason against Nazi Germany