Carl von Ossietzky Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Carl von Ossietzky (October 3, 1889 - May 4, 1938) was a radical German pacifist and the recipient of the 1935 Nobel Peace Prize.He was convicted of high treason and espionage in 1932. His daughter achieved that the case was reopened in the late 1980-ies, men the conviction of high treason and espionage was finally confirmed by the German Supreme Court in 1992.
Despite his failure to finish high school, Ossietzky succeeded in embarking on a career in journalism, with the topics of his articles ranging from theatre criticism to feminism and the problems of early motorization. He later said that his opposition to German militarism during the final years of the Hohenzollern empire under Wilhelm II led him, as early as 1913, to become a pacifist. During the years of the Weimar Republic (1918 – 1933), his political commentaries gained him a reputation as a fervent supporter of democracy and a pluralistic society. Also, he became secretary of the German Peace Society (Deutsche Friedensgesellschaft).
It has been claimed that Ossietzky was blind to the dangers of Nazism, which is only true up to a point. He had been a constant warning voice for many years when, in January 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Reichs Chancellor and the Nazi dictatorship began. However, Ossietzky was one of a very small group of public figures who continued to speak out against the Nazi party. Accordingly, on 27 February 1933, he was arrested, never to be released again. Wilhelm von Sternburg, one of Ossietzky´s biographers, surmises that if he had had a few more days left, he would surely have joined the vast majority of writers who fled the country. In short, Ossietzky had underestimated the speed with which the Nazis would go about ridding the country of unwanted political opponents.
Ossietzky's rise to fame set in in 1936 when, already suffering from a serious illness which was not being treated, he was awarded the 1935 Nobel Peace Prize. The Nazis had been unable to prevent this, but they now refused to release him so that he could have travelled to Oslo. In a remarkable act of civil disobedience, Ossietzky issued a note from the hospital where he was being kept prisoner by the Gestapo saying that he disagreed with the authorities who had stated that by accepting the prize he would cast himself outside the deutsche Volksgemeinschaft (community of German people):
- "After much consideration I have made the decision to accept the Nobel Peace Prize which has fallen to me. I do not happen to share the view put forward to me by the representatives of the Secret State Police that in doing so I exclude myself from German society. The Nobel Peace Prize is not a sign of an internal political struggle, but of understanding between peoples. As a recipient of the prize, I will do my best to encourage this understanding and as a German I will always bear in mind Germany's justifiable interests in Europe."
Further reading
- Sternburg, Wilhelm von: "Es ist eine unheimliche Stimmung in Deutschland." Carl von Ossietzky und seine Zeit (Berlin: Aufbau Verlag 1996).
This is an Article on Carl von Ossietzky. Page Contains Information, Facts Details or Explanation Guide About Carl von Ossietzky