Heinrich Scheel (born 11 December 1915 in
Kreuzberg
Kreuzberg () is a district of Berlin, Germany. It is part of the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough located south of Mitte. During the Cold War era, it was one of the poorest areas of West Berlin, but since German reunification in 1990 it ha ...
; died 7 January 1996 in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
) was a German
left-wing
Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...
historian and longtime vice president of the
East German
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
Academy of Sciences
An academy of sciences is a type of learned society or academy (as special scientific institution) dedicated to sciences that may or may not be state funded. Some state funded academies are tuned into national or royal (in case of the Unit ...
and professor of modern history at
Humboldt University of Berlin
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative ...
. Scheel was notable for putting forward a theory of the German radical at the time of the French revolution, in an attempt to determine an alternative tradition in Germany. Scheel was most notable for being a German
resistance fighter
A resistance movement is an organized effort by some portion of the civil population of a country to withstand the legally established government or an occupying power and to disrupt civil order and stability. It may seek to achieve its objectives ...
against the Nazi regime, during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. He was a member of a Berlin-based anti-fascist resistance group that was later called the
Red Orchestra ("Rote Kapelle") by the
Abwehr, during the Nazi regime.
Life
Scheel grew up in a dedicated working class, social democratic family. He was significantly influenced by attending the Schulfarm Insel Scharfenberg, a boarding school located on an island in
Lake Tegel
Lake Tegel (german: Tegeler See) () is the second largest lake in Berlin, Germany. It is situated in the northwest of the city in the Reinickendorf borough, in the ''Ortsteil'' of Tegel.
Overview
The historic name ''Tegel'' (first recorded in 13 ...
and modeled on the
German rural boarding school movement. Scheel attended the school from 1929 to 1934. This resulted in him forming an opposition to
Nazism
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) i ...
. Together with his classmates
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 ...
and
Hans Lautenschläger, they began to resist the Nazis. In 1932, Scheel joined the
Communist Youth Association of Germany (KJVD).
Red Orchestra
![The Schulze-Boysen Group](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/The_Schulze-Boysen_Group.png)
Scheel meet
Harro Schulze-Boysen
Heinz Harro Max Wilhelm Georg Schulze-Boysen (; Schulze, 2 September 1909 – 22 December 1942) was a left-wing German publicist and Luftwaffe officer during World War II. As a young man, Schulze-Boysen grew up in prosperous family with two sibli ...
and
Kurt Schumacher
Curt Ernst Carl Schumacher, better known as Kurt Schumacher (13 October 1895 – 20 August 1952), was a German politician who became chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany from 1946 and the first Leader of the Opposition in the Wes ...
via the librarian
Lotte Bergtel-Schleif who had known Scheel since 1930.
Scheel and his friends questioned the meaning of the newly signed
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact
The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was a non-aggression pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union that enabled those powers to partition Poland between them. The pact was signed in Moscow on 23 August 1939 by German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ri ...
and wanted to discuss this measure with the politically experienced Schulze-Boysen. Schulze-Boysen had defended the pact and in the course of this encounter got in touch with several friends around Scheel and
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 was also part of the anti-fascist resistance group.
Due to Coppi being arrested and sent to
Oranienburg
Oranienburg () is a town in Brandenburg, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Oberhavel.
Geography
Oranienburg is a town located on the banks of the Havel river, 35 km north of the centre of Berlin.
Division of the town
Oranienburg ...
concentration camp
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...
in January 1934 and being found unfit for drafting into military service, Scheel agreed to form contacts with other resistance groups. Scheel eventually became the liaison man between Coppi and Schulze-Boysen.
On 16 September 1942, Scheel was arrested in Berlin but escaped a death penalty due to offering an ingenious defence to the
Reichskriegsgericht
The Reichskriegsgericht (RKG; en, Reich Court-Martial) was the highest military court in Germany between 1900 and 1945.
Legal basics and responsibilities
After the Prussian-led Unification of Germany, the German Empire with effect from 1 Octobe ...
that saved his life.
He was sentenced to five years imprisonment.
Scheel was sent to prison at
Aschendorf in
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...
, but in July 1944 after a year of forced labour, he was put on probation and sent to a
Strafbataillon penal battalion, due to the chronic lack of suitable men for the front, at the time. At the end of 1944, he was captured and sent to an American prisoner of war camp.
Red Orchestra reappraisal
For much of the period that encompassed the
cold war, the
Red Orchestra was seen as a distinctly communist organisation that was beholden to the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
. In the 1970s there was a growing interest in the various forms of resistance and opposition. However, no group was so systematically misinformed and recognised as little as the resistance groups around
Arvid Harnack and
Harro Schulze-Boysen
Heinz Harro Max Wilhelm Georg Schulze-Boysen (; Schulze, 2 September 1909 – 22 December 1942) was a left-wing German publicist and Luftwaffe officer during World War II. As a young man, Schulze-Boysen grew up in prosperous family with two sibli ...
.
Between 1984 and 1990, Heinrich Scheel's analysed the Red orchestra and constructed a more nuanced picture of different groups. In the process, Scheel discovered the work that was done to defame them both during the war and afterwards. Scheel's paper triggered a reevaluation of the Red Orchestra both in Germany and the world, but it was not until 2009 that the German
Bundestag
The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Common ...
overturned the judgments of the National Socialist judiciary for "treason" and rehabilitated the members of the Rote Kapelle.
Career
From 1935 to 1940, Scheel studied German Philology, History and English at the
Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin.
In 1939, Scheel was conscripted into the
Wehrmacht
The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the '' Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previo ...
and was posted as a
weather
Weather is the state of the atmosphere, describing for example the degree to which it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloud cover, cloudy. On Earth, most weather phenomena occur in the lowest layer of the planet's atmos ...
service inspector (German:Wetterdienst-Inspekteur) by the
Luftwaffe
The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...
in the
Tempelhof
Tempelhof () is a locality of Berlin within the borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg. It is the location of the former Tempelhof Airport, one of the earliest commercial airports in the world. The former airport and surroundings are now a park called ...
area of
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
, and later posted to the
Rangsdorf
Rangsdorf is a municipality in the district of Teltow-Fläming in Brandenburg in Germany. It has an airfield p to 1940 a genuine commercial airportfrom where on 20 July 1944 Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg took off on his fateful attempt to ass ...
area for a similar assignment.
Scheel spent the first year after the war unemployed, then in 1946 became an assistant of the Schulfarm Insel Scharfenberg. In 1947, Scheel undertook education management training by
Wilhelm Blume and became the principal of Schulfarm Insel Scharfenberg, a position he held until 1949.
However, he was dismissed for being a member of the
Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands
The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (german: Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, ; SED, ), often known in English as the East German Communist Party, was the founding and ruling party of the German Democratic Republic (GDR; East German ...
and charged of communist infiltration in the school.
Scheel then returned to Humboldt University of Berlin
to study English and History. Scheel was awarded a
Doctor of Philosophy
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
with a dissertation on the popular revolutionary movement in south-western Germany from 1795 to 1801 on the 12 March 1956. In 1960, Scheel
habilitated with a thesis on the South German
Jacobins
, logo = JacobinVignette03.jpg
, logo_size = 180px
, logo_caption = Seal of the Jacobin Club (1792–1794)
, motto = "Live free or die"(french: Vivre libre ou mourir)
, successor = P ...
.
From 1949 to 1956, Scheel was Member, Division Head and then deputy director of the Institute of History at the Academy of Sciences.
In 1960, Scheel was promoted to Professor of German History at Humboldt University of Berlin. From 1972 to 1984, Scheel was the Vice President of the Academy of Sciences.
Der Morgen
''Der Morgen'' (''The Morning'') was a daily newspaper published in the GDR. ''Der Morgen'' was the central organ of the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany. It was published from 3 August 1945 on, six times a week. The premises of the first is ...
14 December 1982 From 1980 to 1990, Scheel was president of the Historians Society of the
GDR (German:Historiker-Gesellschaft der DDR)
Bibliography
* Die revolutionär-demokratischen Volksbewegungen in Südwestdeutschland von 1795 bis 1801 (The revolutionary democratic popular movements in southwest Germany from 1795 to 1801). Berlin, Humboldt-Universität, Phil. Fakultät, Dissertation vom 21. März 1956.
* ''Süddeutsche Jakobiner. Klassenkämpfe und republikanische Bestrebungen im deutschen Süden Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts'' (South German Jacobins. Class struggles and republican aspirations in the German South in the end of the 18th) . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1962.
* ''Jakobinische Flugschriften aus dem deutschen Süden Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts'' (Jacobin pamphlets from the German south in the end of the 18th). Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1965.
* ''Deutscher Jakobinismus und Deutsche Nation'' (German Jacobinism and German Nation). ''Ein Beitrag zur nationalen Frage im Zeitalter der Grossen Französischen Revolution''. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1966.
* ''Biographisches Lexikon zur deutschen Geschichte'' (Biographical lexicon on German history). ''Von den Anfängen bis 1917''. Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin 1967 (mit Karl Obermann).
* ''Schulfarm Insel Scharfenberg'' (School farm island Scharfenberg). Volk u. Wissen, Berlin 1990, .
* ''Vor den Schranken des Reichskriegsgerichts'' (Before the barriers of the Imperial War Court). ''Mein Weg in den Widerstand''. Edition q, Berlin 1993, .
* ''Vom Leiter der Berliner Schulfarm Scharfenberg zum Historiker des deutschen Jakobinismus'' (From head of Berlin's Scharfenberg school farm to historian of German Jacobinism) (1946–1956). ''Autobiographische Aufzeichnungen''. Becker, Velten 1996, .
Literature
* Dietmar Haubfleisch: ''Schulfarm Insel Scharfenberg. Mikroanalyse der reformpädagogischen Unterrichts- und Erziehungsrealität einer demokratischen Versuchsschule im Berlin der Weimarer Republik'' (= ''Studien zur Bildungsreform'', 40), Frankfurt u. a. 2001, .
* Gert Rosiejka: ''Die Rote Kapelle. "Landesverrat" als antifaschistischer Widerstand. Mit einer Einführung von Heinrich Scheel.'' ergebnisse, Hamburg 1986, .
Awards and honours
* 1966 Friedrich Engels Prize of the German Academy of Sciences
* 1975
Patriotic Order of Merit
The Patriotic Order of Merit (German: ''Vaterländischer Verdienstorden'', or VVO) was a national award granted annually in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). It was founded in 1954 and was awarded to individuals and institutions for outstanding ...
in gold.
* 1980
Order of Karl Marx
The Order of Karl Marx () was the most important order in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The award of the order also included a prize of 20,000 East German marks.
The order was founded on May 5, 1953 on the occasion of Karl Marx's 135th ...
* 1985 Honorary clasp to Patriotic Order of Merit in gold.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scheel, Heinrich
1915 births
1996 deaths
People from Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg
Red Orchestra (espionage)
20th-century German historians
German Army personnel of World War II
German prisoners of war in World War II held by the United States