Mildred Elizabeth Harnack ( Fish; September 16, 1902 – February 16, 1943) was an American
literary historian,
translator
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...
, and member of the
German resistance against the Nazi regime. After marrying
Arvid Harnack, she moved to Germany in 1929, where she began her career as an academic. Mildred Harnack spent a year at the
University of Jena
The University of Jena, officially the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (german: Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, abbreviated FSU, shortened form ''Uni Jena''), is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany.
The un ...
and the
University of Giessen
University of Giessen, official name Justus Liebig University Giessen (german: Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen), is a large public research university in Giessen, Hesse, Germany. It is named after its most famous faculty member, Justus von ...
working on her doctoral thesis. At Giessen, she witnessed the beginnings of
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 ...
. Mildred Harnack became an assistant lecturer in English and American literature at the
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 ...
in 1931.
In 1932, Mildred and her husband Arvid began to resist Nazism. Mildred nicknamed the underground resistance group they established "the Circle." Mildred and Arvid became friends with Louise and
Donald Heath, who was First Secretary at the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, and to whom Mildred and Arvid passed intelligence from Arvid's position at the Reich Economics Ministry. Between 1935 and 1940, the couple's group, which Mildred nicknamed "the Circle," intersected with three other anti-fascist resistance groups. The most important of these was run by Luftwaffe lieutenant
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 ...
. Like numerous groups in other parts of the world, the undercover political factions led by Harnack and Schulze-Boysen later developed into an espionage network that collaborated with Soviet intelligence to defeat Hitler. This Berlin anti-fascist espionage group "the Circle" was later named the
Red Orchestra (''Rote Kapelle'') by the
Abwehr. The couple were arrested in September 1942 and executed shortly after.
Life
Mildred Elizabeth Fish was born and raised on the west side of
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at th ...
. Her parents were William Cook Fish, who was frequently unemployed between gigs as an insurance salesman, butcher, and horse trader,
and Georgina Fish ( Hesketh), a self-taught stenographer and typist. Mildred had three siblings, Harriette (the eldest), and twins Marbeau (aka "Bob") and Marion.
As a young woman, she learned to speak, write, and read
German
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
**Ge ...
.
She initially attended
West Division High School (now
Milwaukee High School of the Arts
Established in 1895, Milwaukee High School of the Arts (MHSA), formerly West Division Sr. High School, is a high school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. It is a part of the Milwaukee Public Schools system. It specializes in preparation for ...
). Following to the death of her father, Mildred's family moved to
Chevy Chase, Maryland. Mildred attended Western High School her senior year. She managed to pack a lot in one year, playing on both the basketball and baseball teams, serving as editor for ''The Trailblazer'', and playing the role of Princess Angelica in
William Makepeace Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray (; 18 July 1811 – 24 December 1863) was a British novelist, author and illustrator. He is known for his satirical works, particularly his 1848 novel ''Vanity Fair'', a panoramic portrait of British society, and t ...
's ''The Rose and the Ring'', the senior class play.
and she finished her last year at
Western High School.
In 1919, she began studying at
George Washington University
The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Chartered in 1821 by the United States Congress, GWU is the largest Higher educat ...
and remained there for two years, using family savings to pay tuition.
In 1921, she matriculated at the
University of Wisconsin
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, ...
in Madison. During her first year, she worked for the ''
Wisconsin State Journal
The ''Wisconsin State Journal'' is a daily newspaper published in Madison, Wisconsin by Lee Enterprises. The newspaper, the second largest in Wisconsin, is primarily distributed in a 19 county region in south-central Wisconsin. As of September ...
'' as a film and drama critic to support herself. She stayed at a rooming house popular with journalists and writers, but left after facing some mild prejudice, which caused her to change her major from journalism to humanities, then later to English literature. In 1922, she became a staff writer for the ''Wisconsin Literary Magazine''.
On June 22, 1925, Fish was awarded a
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...
in Humanities.
Her senior thesis was "A Comparison of Chapman's and Pope's Translations of the ''Iliad'' with the Original". She stayed for further study and was awarded a
Master of Arts
A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Th ...
degree in English on August 6, 1925.
In 1926, Fish studied and worked as a lecturer on
German literature at the Milwaukee State Normal School (now the
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (UW–Milwaukee, UWM, or Milwaukee) is a public urban research university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is the largest university in the Milwaukee metropolitan area and a member of the University of Wiscon ...
). In the same year, she met the jurist
Arvid Harnack, a
Rockefeller Fellow from Germany. Harnack had received his doctorate in law in 1924 and completed postgraduate studies in
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
and the
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...
before receiving a Rockefeller scholarship to study in the U.S. After a brief love affair, they were engaged on June 6, 1926, and wed on August 7, 1926 in a ceremony at her brother's farm near the village of
Brooklyn, Wisconsin,
after which Mildred used the hyphenated "Fish-Harnack" as her married name. On September 28, 1928, Harnack returned to Germany as his fellowship had ended. From 1928–29, Fish-Harnack taught English and American literature at
Goucher College
Goucher College ( ') is a private liberal arts college in Towson, Maryland. It was chartered in 1885 by a conference in Baltimore led by namesake John F. Goucher and local leaders of the Methodist Episcopal Church.https://archive.org/details/h ...
in
Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
.
A fellow student of Harnack's was the poet
Clara Leiser, who became a life-long friend and confidante. The professor who exerted the most influence over Fish-Harnack at Madison was
William Ellery Leonard
William Ellery Leonard (January 25, 1876, in Plainfield, New Jersey – May 2, 1944, in Madison, Wisconsin) was an American poet, playwright, translator, and literary scholar.
Early life
William Ellery Channing Leonard was born on the family ho ...
, who advised her when she was writing her senior thesis.
Leonard, a non-conformist who believed in the Emersonian principle that "nothing at last is sacred but the integrity of
ne'sown mind", had an abiding love of German culture. He subjected Fish-Harnack to a grueling scrutiny that shaped her intellectual outlook. For Fish-Harnack,
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...
and
Walt Whitman
Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among ...
were the two greatest advocates of
American literature. While at Madison, the couple met
Margaretha "Greta" Lorke, a German student of
sociology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...
who had been invited to study in the U.S. A lifelong friendship developed between Mildred and Greta. Lorke later married
Adam Kuckhoff.
Education
On June 2, 2, 1929, Fish-Harnack migrated to
Jena
Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a po ...
in Germany, where she spent her first year living with the Harnack family. In the same year, Fish-Harnack received a grant from the
German Academic Exchange Service
The German Academic Exchange Service, or DAAD (german: Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst), was founded in 1925 and is the largest German support organisation in the field of international academic co-operation.
Organisation
''DAAD'' is a ...
that enabled her to start working on her doctorate on
American literature at the
University of Jena
The University of Jena, officially the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (german: Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, abbreviated FSU, shortened form ''Uni Jena''), is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany.
The un ...
, but she found the
University of Giessen
University of Giessen, official name Justus Liebig University Giessen (german: Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen), is a large public research university in Giessen, Hesse, Germany. It is named after its most famous faculty member, Justus von ...
to be most welcome. Fish-Harnack's doctoral supervisor was
Walther Fischer, who judged her to be an excellent lecturer and described her in a 1936 recommendation as showing great "tact", by which he meant Fish-Harnack's tactful approach to the Nazis' increasing incursion into the university in 1931 and 1932. By the time Fish-Harnack arrived in Giessen, more than half the student population were vocal in their support of the Nazis and therefore opponents of several faculty members. Amongst those under suspicion were philosophy professor
Ernst von Aster—a
Marxist—and economist
Friedrich Lenz. Aster's wife, Swedish novelist
Hildur Dixelius, became a good friend of Fish-Harnack and eventually became a house guest at Fish-Harnack's Berlin house.
In the autumn of 1930, Fish-Harnack moved from
Giessen
Giessen, spelled Gießen in German (), is a town in the German state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of both the district of Giessen and the administrative region of Giessen. The population is approximately 90,000, with roughly 37,000 univer ...
to
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 ...
to be with her husband. On February 1, 1931, she was admitted to study at the
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 ...
on a fellowship from the
Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (german: Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung) is a foundation established by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany and funded by the Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Ministry of Education and Rese ...
.
Fish-Harnack was invited to hold a public lecture called "Romantic and Marital Love in the Work of
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion.
He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, from a family long associated with that t ...
" at the
Friedrich-Wilhelm University,
which allowed her to work as an assistant lecturer and
lector
Lector is Latin for one who reads, whether aloud or not. In modern languages it takes various forms, as either a development or a loan, such as french: lecteur, en, lector, pl, lektor and russian: лектор. It has various specialized uses.
...
on
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
and
American literature. She taught courses on Emerson, Whitman,
Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (; August 27, 1871 – December 28, 1945) was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm mora ...
,
Sinclair Lewis
Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951) was an American writer and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States (and the first from the Americas) to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, which was ...
,
Thomas Hardy, and
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...
.
Fish-Harnack was popular with her students and over three semesters the enrollment to the course tripled.
Although Fish-Harnack spent most of her time with her German family, she was an active member of the American expatriate community in Berlin. She went to dances at the American Student Association and was a member of the American Women's Club in Bellevuestrasse, later serving as its chairwoman. The Harnacks were popular at the
American Church in
Nollendorfplatz
Nollendorfplatz (colloquially called ''Nolle'' or ''Nolli'') is a square in the central Schöneberg district of Berlin, Germany.
History
The place was named on 27 November 1864 after the village of ''Nollendorf'' ( cs, Nakléřov) near Petrovi ...
where they attended services.
Career
During their time in Berlin, the Harnacks witnessed the ''Weimardämmerung'', the unraveling of the
German republic. They became interested in 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, ...
and
communism
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...
, seeing them as a solution to the rampant
poverty and unemployment that Germany suffered during the
Great Depression. They were of particular interest for Harnack, whose mother had struggled during the
hyperinflation
In economics, hyperinflation is a very high and typically accelerating inflation. It quickly erodes the real value of the local currency, as the prices of all goods increase. This causes people to minimize their holdings in that currency as t ...
of the 1920s after the loss of her husband while he was still a child. Their interest in capitalism waned, and they both believed that the economic system was ideologically bankrupt; they looked to the Soviet Union's new experimental
five-year plans, believing the system could provide work for the masses. In 1931, Arvid established the ''Wissenschaftliche Arbeitsgemeinschaft zum Studium der sowjetischen Planwirtschaft'' (ARPLAN, "Scientific Working Community for the Study of the Soviet Planned Economy"), a group of writers and academics that met once a month to discuss the Soviet planned economy.
In 1932, the Berlin university had financial difficulties
and Fish-Harnack lost her position as a lecturer in American literature. At the time, the German Americanist and ardent Nazi
Friedrich Schönemann had returned from leave in America to work in the English department. Fish-Harnack never hid her leftist political views during lectures, and as a Marxist encouraged her students to use
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
as a "practical solution to the evils of the present".
In May 1932, the funding that enabled Mildred to teach at
Friedrich-Wilhelm University was canceled.
The couple was forced to move to 61 Hasenheide in
Neukölln due to the Nazis' presence. The couple had leased the apartment from a relative of the writer
Stefan Heym
Helmut Flieg or Hellmuth Fliegel (10 April 1913 – 16 December 2001) was a German writer, known by his pseudonym Stefan Heym (). He lived in the United States and trained at Camp Ritchie, making him one of the Ritchie Boys of World War II. I ...
; in his postwar novel ''Nachruf,'' Heym stated he found the Harnacks to be a genial academic couple with a determined outlook on the Nazis.
In the same year, Soviet economist and diplomat
Sergei Bessonov, with the help of the Soviet embassy, organized a three-week study trip (from August 20 to September 12, 1932) 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, ...
for 23 members of ARPLAN including Arvid. Mildred hoped to go, but due to a scheduling conflict decided to make her own way there by booking the trip using
Intourist
Intourist (russian: Интурист, a contraction of , "foreign tourist") was a Russian tour operator, headquartered in Moscow. It was founded on April 12, 1929, and served as the primary travel agency for foreign tourists in the Soviet Uni ...
and flying back early. Fish-Harnack's career as a scholar was saved when a family friend who was also president of
American Student Union, Warren Tomlinson, suggested she take over his position as lecturer at the Berlin municipal evening high school.
On September 1, 1932, Fish-Harnack began lecturing at the ''Heil'schen Abendschule''
Abendgymnasium
An Abendgymnasium or "Evening Gymnasium" is a German class of secondary school for adults over the age of 19 which allows them to gain the Abitur. Classes are usually held after 17:30 at night, although some classes may be held in the mornings f ...
("Berliner Städtische Abendgymnasium für Erwachsene" or BAG) at Berlin W 50, Augsburger Straße 60 in
Schöneberg
Schöneberg () is a locality of Berlin, Germany. Until Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it was a separate borough including the locality of Friedenau. Together with the former borough of Tempelhof it is now part of the new borough of Tempe ...
,
an evening high school for adults to prepare for the
Abitur.
Fish-Harnack was popular with her students, for many of whom her courses were their first introduction to American Literature. She socialised with her students and discussed economic and political ideas from the United States and the Soviet Union in an open and frank manner. One of her students,
Karl Behrens, became friends with the Harnacks and eventually one of their most ardent recruits.
By 1933, the Harnacks had adopted a left-wing ideology and were committed to the Soviet Union. On January 1 and February 4, 1933, Fish-Harnack wrote to her mother that she believed that the Soviet Union was the couple's best hope for a better world.
In 1933 and 1934, the Harnacks kept in close contact with the
Bonhoeffer family. Fish Harnack, seeking additional income, launched a lecture series that was held in
Klaus
Klaus is a German, Dutch and Scandinavian given name and surname. It originated as a short form of Nikolaus, a German form of the Greek given name Nicholas.
Notable persons whose family name is Klaus
* Billy Klaus (1928–2006), American base ...
and
Emmi Bonhoeffer's home. In June 1933, she joined the
National Socialist teachers' organization, as required by law.
Salon
On June 13, 1933, Fish-Harnack met
Martha Dodd when she and other members of the American Women's club met at the
Lehrter train station to welcome Dodd's father and American ambassador,
William
William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...
. Dodd became Fish-Harnack's closest friend in Berlin,
and her manuscript, ''In Memory'', found in her Prague apartment attic in 1957, stated:
The years of our acquaintance were the most significant of my life. Our work, our experiences, in these courageous tragic years of fulfillment and disappointment are closely interwoven. Everything we thought about. What we loved. Hated. What we fought for. We shared with each other. We, all of us, my husband were in the German underground from 1933 to 1943. I'm the only one left.
The two friends had a similar literary outlook.
In a letter Fish-Harnack wrote to her mother in October 1935, she described Dodd as a talented writer of literary criticism and short stories with "a real desire to understand the wider world... Therefore, our interests combine and we will try to work something out together."''
'' Fish-Harnack and Dodd edited a book column together in the English-language newspaper ''Berlin Topics''.
The Harnacks began to host a Saturday literary
salon on Hasenheide where political views among editors, publishers, and authors were freely expressed; Fish-Harnack lectured on
political economy
Political economy is the study of how economic systems (e.g. markets and national economies) and political systems (e.g. law, institutions, government) are linked. Widely studied phenomena within the discipline are systems such as labour ...
and Marxism. The attendees included publishers
Samuel Fischer,
Ernst Rowohlt, and Rowohlt's son
Heinrich Marie Ledig-Rowohlt; translator
Franz Frein; physician and writer
Max Mohr; authors and playwrights Adam Kuckhoff,
Max Tau,
Otto Zoff
Otto Zoff (9 April 1890 – 14 December 1963) was an Austrian author, script writer, dramaturge, journalist and " all-round Bohemian". For reasons of politics and race he spent much of his life abroad, including almost twenty years as an immigra ...
, and
Ernst von Salomon; journalist
Margret Boveri; critic
Erich Franzen; and Mildred's students, such as writer
Friedrich Schlösinger. By autumn 1934, the meetings became less frequent and eventually disbanded altogether.
In Dodd's book ''Through Embassy Eyes,'' she mentioned a report by an American publisher who had visited the Fish-Harnacks in 1934, who stated:
He was expecting a lively exchange of views and engaging conversations that evening—definitely more appealing than that to which we were used in diplomatic circles. Instead, I only saw suffering and need. People whose spirit was broken. I saw pathetic cowardice. A lying in wait and tension, which was triggered by the visits by the secret police. The last of the meager remnants of free thought.
In 1934, the couple moved to the third floor apartment at 16 Schöneberger Woyrschstraße, close to the
Tiergarten.
The house was destroyed in the war and is now known as 14 Genthiner Straße.
Literary figure
The most important writer in Fish-Harnack's life was
Thomas Wolfe
Thomas Clayton Wolfe (October 3, 1900 – September 15, 1938) was an American novelist of the early 20th century.
Wolfe wrote four lengthy novels as well as many short stories, dramatic works, and novellas. He is known for mixing highly origin ...
. She found that his ability to shape memories from his early life to produce an autobiographical novel was reflected in her own desires for her own novel. She had read Wolfe's first book, ''
Look Homeward, Angel
''Look Homeward, Angel: A Story of the Buried Life'' is a 1929 novel by Thomas Wolfe. It is Wolfe's first novel, and is considered a highly autobiographical American coming-of-age story. The character of Eugene Gant is generally believed to be ...
,'' in 1933, lectured on the writer at the American Women's Club in 1933, and produced a further lecture in 1934 that was presented at the Bonhoeffers'. On August 5, 1934, Fish-Harnack published the essay "Drei junge Dichter aus USA. Thorton Wilder, Thomas Wolfe, William Faulkner" in the ''
Berliner Tageblatt
The ''Berliner Tageblatt'' or ''BT'' was a German language newspaper published in Berlin from 1872 to 1939. Along with the ''Frankfurter Zeitung'', it became one of the most important liberal German newspapers of its time.
History
The ''Berline ...
''. On May 8, 1935, the Harnacks attended the
American embassy in Berlin for tea, along with the Kuckhoffs. Fish-Harnack had a rare chance to meet Wolfe, who came to Germany to promote his book with his publisher, Ledig-Rowohlt. The tea party was also attended by
John Sieg. Tau, a Jewish German-Norwegian writer and close friend of the Harnacks who attended the tea party, had to leave Germany after
Kristallnacht
() or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (german: Novemberpogrome, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) paramilitary and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation fro ...
; it is unclear which of the Harnacks organised his escape.
In the mid 1930s, Fish-Harnack's work began to be noticed and she became a published writer. In 1934, Fish-Harnack wrote an essay, "The Epic of the South"'','' which was published in ''Berliner Tageblatt''. In 1935, she wrote a essay, "Ein amerikanischer Dichter aus großer Tradition.", on
William Faulkner
William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most o ...
for the magazine ''Die Literatur''. This type of critical analysis was no longer tolerated and could have ended her teaching career. On May 27, 1934, Fish-Harnack accepted an invitation from Ledig-Rowohlt, Dodd, and Dodd's boyfriend
Boris Vinogradov to visit the German writer
Hans Fallada in Carwitz, whose book ''
Little Man, What Now?'' was published the previous year in the USA and had been a bestseller.
Fallada was one of the few German writers who failed to obey the Nazi state. After 1935, Fish-Harnack did not publish any literary criticisms, essays, or newspaper articles, as the increasing presence of the Nazi regime made any writings a "rubber stamp for official views".
In 1936, her German translation (with the assistance of her mother-in-law and her sister-in-law Inge) of
Irving Stone
Irving Stone (born Tennenbaum, July 14, 1903 – August 26, 1989) was an American writer, chiefly known for his biographical novels of noted artists, politicians, and intellectuals. Among the best known are '' Lust for Life'' (1934), about the l ...
's biography of
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inc ...
, ''
Lust for Life'', was published.
She continued to work as a translator for publishing houses. In January 1937, Fish-Harnack visited the United States to promote the book, and stayed with Leiser in New York for two weeks, which was the last time that Leiser saw Fish-Harnack.
Leiser found Fish-Harnack changed, from the open and trusting person she had known into someone who seemed distant and superior, a side-effect of the deceit necessary to hide her true feelings in Germany. Fish-Harnack's high school friend Mady Emmerling found Fish-Harnack to be overly cautious, frightened, and reserved, all indicative of having lived in the Nazi state for four years. Fish-Harnack had become used to assuming a persona, or ''passing'', to fool the Nazi state. Many of her friends assumed from her bearing that she had become a Nazi. Immediately after staying with Leiser, Fish-Harnack went on a campus lecture tour that in
Haverford College,
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, th ...
,
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
, and Madison, whose theme was "The German Relation to Current American Literature". Leonard attended the lecture at Madison and found it lacking in substance; he was unwilling to endorse Fish-Harnack's lecture when she asked for a written recommendation. However, at Haverford,
Douglas V. Steere, who did not know her, found her presentation to be "vivid and full of charm". She visited her relatives after the tour and left in the spring to return to Berlin.
Later in 1938, Fish-Harnack worked on her doctoral dissertation, entitled "''Die Entwicklung der amerikanischen Literatur der Gegenwart in einigen Hauptvertretern des Romans und der Kurzgeschicht"'' (), and was awarded her doctorate at the University of Giessen on November 20, 1941. In 1938 she received an job offer from the Rütten & Loening publishing house in Berlin as a consultant for American novels.
In the same year, Fish-Harnack joined the conservative
Daughters of the American Revolution and became a local representative in Berlin.
In October 1939, she applied for the Guggenheim and Rockefeller fellowships in the hopes of leaving Germany with a documented legitimate reason, but was refused. With the war, the demand for English-language fiction disappeared, so in 1941 she worked as an English-language tutor at the
Foreign Studies Department of the
Friedrich Wilhelm University, which was run by SS Major
Franz Six.
Resistance
Leading up to and during the war, Red Orchestra tried to recruit new members, which was difficult due to the ratio of informers to proper recruits in the general populace. The group devised a method to vet potential recruits that would start with inviting them to a meeting, with the approach of making the potential recruit believe the group were Nazis, and lead the person to reveal their political attitude to Nazism through conversation. Harnack lent books to the potential recruit as a test of their intellect, as there was little chance of winning such people over if they did not understand politics. At one meeting, Fish-Harnack held a lecture on
''Kim'' by
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work.
...
to help the recruits understand
colonialism
Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colony, colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose the ...
.
On March 3, 1938, William Dodd was replaced by
Hugh Wilson. Joining him as First Secretary and monetary attaché at the U.S. Embassy was
Donald Heath. In 1937, Fish-Harnack met Louise Heath, Donald Heath's wife, at the American Women's Club in Bellevuestrasse.
The Harnacks became friends with the Heaths.
When the war started the Heaths fled to Norway, but when they returned, Louise requested that Fish-Harnack tutor her son, Donald Heath, Jr., in American literature.
The two couples spent weekends and occasional holidays together. At times Harnack and Donald would meet in the countryside to exchange intelligence,
but it became increasingly dangerous. Between December 1939 and March 1941, Donald Jr., couriered between Fish-Harnack and the American embassy;
he visited the Harnacks every day, with either a message for Fish-Harnack from his mother or a message for Harnack from his father. He also delivered food from Denmark and Italy, as well as medicine for the Harnacks.
In 1940, the Harnacks came into contact with other resistance groups and began to cooperate with them. The most important of these was a group run by
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 ...
, a ''
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 ...
'' lieutenant and descendant of an old German military family who had known Harnack since 1935, but was reintroduced to him sometime in late 1939 or early 1940 through Greta Kuckhoff;
the Kuckhoffs had known the Schulz-Boysens since 1938 and started to engage them socially in late 1939 or early 1940 by bringing Fish-Harnack and
Libertas Schulze-Boysen
Libertas "Libs" Schulze-Boysen, born Libertas Viktoria Haas-Heye (20 November 1913 in Paris – 22 December 1942 in Plötzensee Prison ) was a German aristocrat and resistance fighter against the Nazis. From the early 1930s to 1940, Libs attem ...
together while on holiday in
Saxony
Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...
. Of the meeting Fish-Harnack wrote,
I saw it clearly before my eyes. From then on our work not only implies the risk of losing our freedom, from now on death was a possibility.
Harro and Libertas were part of a bohemian group of friends that met twice a month in fun meetings in contrast to the Harnacks' austere study meetings. The initial meeting of the women gave rise to a licentious image of the group that persisted for decades after the war, based primarily on Gestapo and Abwehr reports. In his 1967 book, ''L'orchestre rouge'',
Gilles Perrault
Gilles Perrault (born Jacques Peyroles; 9 March 1931) is a French writer and journalist.
Biography
Born in Paris, Perrault attended the Collège Stanislas de Paris and then studied at the Institut d'études politiques, eventually becoming a l ...
states that Fish-Harnack and Libertas were lesbians. However, industrialist
Hugo Buschmann, who was an informant and Harro's close friend, stated that the group lived dangerously, but there was no evidence for Perrault's conclusion.
On September 17, 1940, the Harnacks met the third secretary member of the Soviet embassy,
Alexander Korotkov, and Harnack decided to become a Soviet agent. According to lawyer
Wolfgang Havemann, from that point forward Fish-Harnack endured a persistent fear of being discovered that she tried to ameliorate by becoming a workaholic.
Discovery
The discovery of the illegal radio transmissions by Soviet agent
Johann Wenzel
Johann Wenzel (9 March 1902, Nidowo, Nowy Staw – 2 February 1969, Berlin) was a German Communist, highly professional GRU agent and radio operator of the espionage group that was later called the Red Orchestra by the Abwehr in Belgium and th ...
by the German radio
counterintelligence
Counterintelligence is an activity aimed at protecting an agency's intelligence program from an opposition's intelligence service. It includes gathering information and conducting activities to prevent espionage, sabotage, assassinations or ...
organization
Funkabwehr
Funkabwehr, or ''Radio Defense Corps'' was a radio counterintelligence organization created in 1940 by Hans Kopp of the German Nazi Party High Command during World War II. It acted as the principal organization for radio Counterintelligence, i.e ...
and his capture by the Gestapo on June 29–30, 1942 eventually revealed the members of the group and led to the Harnacks' arrest. His exposure of the radio codes enabled
Referat 12, the cipher bureau of the Funkabwehr that had been tracking Red Orchestra radio transmissions since June 1941, to decipher Red Orchestra message traffic. Wenzel's apartment in Brussels was found to contain a large number of coded messages. When
Wilhelm Vauck, principal cryptographer of the Funkabwehr,
received the ciphers from Wenzel, he was able to decipher some of the older messages.
On July 15, 1942, Vauck decrypted a message dated October 10, 1941
that gave the locations of the Kuckhoffs' and Schulze-Boysens' apartments.
Arrest and death
On September 7, 1942, the Harnacks were arrested by the Gestapo at the seaside village of
Preila
Preila (Kursenieki: ''Preiļi'' or ''Prēle'', german: Preil) is a settlement in the Neringa Municipality, Lithuania. It is located on the Preila Bay (north of the and south of the Small ) of the Curonian Lagoon). Preila is situated about away ...
on the
Curonian Spit
The Curonian (Courish) Spit ( lt, Kuršių nerija; russian: Ку́ршская коса́ (Kurshskaya kosa); german: Kurische Nehrung, ; lv, Kuršu kāpas) is a long, thin, curved sand-dune spit that separates the Curonian Lagoon from the Balti ...
.
Harnack was sentenced to death on December 19 after a four-day trial before the ''Reichskriegsgericht'' ("Reich
Military Tribunal
Military justice (also military law) is the legal system (bodies of law and procedure) that governs the conduct of the active-duty personnel of the armed forces of a country. In some nation-states, civil law and military law are distinct bod ...
"), and was executed three days later at
Plötzensee Prison
Plötzensee Prison (german: Justizvollzugsanstalt Plötzensee, JVA Plötzensee) is a juvenile prison in the Charlottenburg-Nord locality of Berlin with a capacity for 577 prisoners, operated by the State of Berlin judicial administration. The d ...
in Berlin. Fish-Harnack was initially given six years in prison, but
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
refused to endorse the sentence and ordered a new trial, which resulted in a death sentence on January 16, 1943. She was
beheaded
Decapitation or beheading is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and most other animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood, while all other organs are deprived of the ...
by
guillotine
A guillotine is an apparatus designed for efficiently carrying out executions by beheading. The device consists of a tall, upright frame with a weighted and angled blade suspended at the top. The condemned person is secured with stocks at t ...
on February 16, 1943. While she was imprisoned, Fish-Harnack translated the poem ''Vermächtnis'' () by
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as t ...
.
Her last words were purported to have been ''"Ich habe Deutschland auch so geliebt"'' ("I loved Germany so much as well"). She was the only American woman executed on the direct orders of Adolf Hitler.
After her execution, her body was released to
Humboldt University
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 initiati ...
anatomy professor
Hermann Stieve to be dissected for his research into the effects of stress, such as awaiting execution, on the
menstrual cycle. After he was finished, he gave what was left to a friend of hers, who had the remains buried in Berlin's
Zehlendorf Cemetery. She is the only member of the Berlin-based anti-fascists whose burial site is known.
When Leiser learned of the execution, she wrote the unfinished poem "To and from the guillotine" in remembrance of her friend.
U.S. government response
While newspapers learned about the execution shortly after the war, he U.S. government concealed additional information about Harnack's story because of her Communist sympathies. The
Counterintelligence Corps
The Counter Intelligence Corps (Army CIC) was a World War II and early Cold War intelligence agency within the United States Army consisting of highly trained special agents. Its role was taken over by the U.S. Army Intelligence Corps in 1961 and ...
(CIC) of the U.S. Army investigated her execution as a possible war crime. They acknowledged her work leading a large group secretly fighting the Nazi regime, but concluded that her execution could be considered lawful since she was a spy and had been afforded some level of due process. The case was closed. However, de-classified documents state that high command never wanted Harnack's execution to begin with. Her file had a note saying her death "should not have been referred for investigation" and ordering the office to halt its investigation.
[Brysac (2000]
p. 14
Retrieved February 18, 2012
Gallery
Stamps of Germany (DDR) 1964, MiNr 1019.jpg, Commemorative stamp honouring Mildred Harnack and her husband Arvid issued by the Deutsche Post of the GDR in 1964
Gedenktafel Blissestr 22 (Charl) Mildred Harnack-Fish.jpg, Commemorative plaque at the Peter A. Silbermann School/Friedrich Ebert Secondary School in Berlin-Wilmersdorf
Mildred Harnack.jpg, Memorial plaque at the Berlin building where they lived, 61 Hasenheide, Neukölln
Gedenktafel Unter den Linden 6 (Mitte) Opfer des Faschismus.jpg, Memorial stone, "NS-Opfer" by Johanna Jura erected in 1976 at 6 Unter den Linden in Mitte
Stolperstein Genthiner Str 14 (Tierg) Mildred Harnack.jpg, A ''Stolperstein
A (; plural ; literally 'stumbling stone', metaphorically a 'stumbling block') is a sett-size, concrete cube bearing a brass plate inscribed with the name and life dates of victims of Nazi extermination or persecution.
The project, initia ...
'' for Mildred Harnack at 14 Genthiner Straße at Tiergarten
Arvid Harnack-Mutter Erde fec.jpg, Memorial stone at Friedhof Zehlendorf
Friedhof is German for ''cemetery''. See:
* List of cemeteries in Germany
** List of cemeteries in Berlin
*** Städtischer Friedhof III
*** Weißensee Cemetery
*** Zentralfriedhof Friedrichsfelde
* Friedhof Fluntern, Fluntern Cemetery, Zürich, ...
at 33 Onkel-Tom-Straße, Berlin-Zehlendorf
Zehlendorf () is a locality within the borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf in Berlin. Before Berlin's 2001 administrative reform Zehlendorf was a borough in its own right, consisting of the locality of Zehlendorf as well as Wannsee, Nikolassee and ...
CIC RO M Harnack.jpg, Counter Intelligence Corps
The Counter Intelligence Corps (Army CIC) was a World War II and early Cold War intelligence agency within the United States Army consisting of highly trained special agents. Its role was taken over by the U.S. Army Intelligence Corps in 1961 and ...
file ref. Mildred Harnack (about 1947)
Memorials
* A
cenotaph
A cenotaph is an empty tomb or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although the vast majority of cenot ...
for the Harnacks stands in the Zehlendorf cemetery in Berlin, Germany
* Mildred Fish Harnack Day is observed by schools in the U.S. state of
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
* In 2006, a street in Berlin's
Friedrichshain
Friedrichshain () is a quarter (''Ortsteil'') of the borough of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg in Berlin, Germany. From its creation in 1920 until 2001, it was a freestanding city borough. Formerly part of East Berlin, it is adjacent to Mitte, Prenzl ...
neighborhood was renamed Mildred Harnack Street (Mildred-Harnack-Straße)
* A school named in honor of Harnack in Berlin is located on Schulze-Boysen-Straße,
a street named for fellow members of the Red Orchestra
Libertas Schulze-Boysen
Libertas "Libs" Schulze-Boysen, born Libertas Viktoria Haas-Heye (20 November 1913 in Paris – 22 December 1942 in Plötzensee Prison ) was a German aristocrat and resistance fighter against the Nazis. From the early 1930s to 1940, Libs attem ...
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 ...
* A public school complex in her hometown of
Milwaukee
Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee ...
was named in honor of Mildred Fish-Harnack in 2013.
* Mildred's ''alma mater'', the
University of Wisconsin-Madison
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...
, hosts the annual Mildred Fish-Harnack Human Rights and Democracy Lecture in her memory, which was established in 1994.
* In 2019, the city of
Madison, Wisconsin
Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...
, dedicated a sculpture to Harnack in Madison's Marshall Park.
* In 2013,
Stolperstein
A (; plural ; literally 'stumbling stone', metaphorically a 'stumbling block') is a sett-size, concrete cube bearing a brass plate inscribed with the name and life dates of victims of Nazi extermination or persecution.
The project, initia ...
s for the Harnacks were laid in front of 14 Genthiner Straße 14 in the
Tiergarten on September 20, 2013, in the presence of US Ambassador
John B. Emerson.
Literature
Translations
* .
* .
Writings
*
*
*
Overall view
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
See also
*
Martha Dodd
*
William E. Dodd
*
Bella Fromm
*
Erik Larson, ''
In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin'' (2011)
*
People of the Red Orchestra
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
External links
Honoring Mildred Harnackat University of Wisconsin-Madison Archives Collection
''New York Times''; accessed May 6, 2014.
Wisconsin's Nazi Resistance: The Mildred Fish-Harnack Story TimelineMildred Fish-Harnack: Germany's Secret HeroWisconsin's Nazi Resistance: The Mildred Fish-Harnack StoryTo and from the Guillotine
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harnack, Mildred
1902 births
1943 deaths
American women in World War II
Writers from Milwaukee
Executed German Resistance members
Red Orchestra (espionage)
People executed by guillotine at Plötzensee Prison
Executed American women
Executed German women
American people executed by Nazi Germany
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee faculty
Executed spies
20th-century executions of American people
Executed people from Wisconsin
Goucher College faculty and staff
Female resistance members of World War II
American salon-holders