Kaiser, Hermann

Educator, resistance fighter

Born: 31.05.1885 in Remscheid

Died: 23.01.1945 in Berlin-Plötzensee

Hermann Kaiser spent his childhood and youth in Wiesbaden. From 1901, the family lived in Kassel, where he also completed his A-levels. He studied mathematics, physics, history and art history in Halle and Göttingen. From 1912, he worked as a teacher at the Oranienschule in Wiesbaden.

During the First World War, he was deployed as an artillery officer on the Western Front. He was decorated several times for bravery. The following incident may illustrate his attitude at the time. Once, when he was being transported away badly wounded, he noticed that the shells from his own guns were falling into his own ranks. Despite being wounded, he shouted "Cease fire" and took up new positions. This led to a clash with a senior officer who forbade interference with his unit. This led to a court martial, during the course of which the question arose as to how Kaiser, as an officer, was able to countermand the order of a senior officer. He replied: "If I see my troops shooting into their own troops, then it's my damned duty and obligation to intervene, even if it's for my head."

After the war, he returned to Wiesbaden. As a teacher, he had a special talent for teaching history, but even then he used modern forms such as illustrated lectures in art history.

Hermann Kaiser was a national conservative. For him, the welfare of the fatherland was paramount. For seven years, he campaigned for the erection of a memorial to his former regiment on Luisenplatz in Wiesbaden. On October 21, 1934, the Oranier memorial for the "1st Nassau Field Artillery Regiment No. 27" was inaugurated, and it was inscribed with the words: "I will remain loyal to the fatherland until death." The monument does not depict cannons, but a rearing horse with a flowing mane. In the memorial speech he gave, Hitler's name was not even mentioned, which was noted with suspicion by the National Socialists present.

At the beginning of the 1930s, in view of the desperate economic situation at the time, he had initially placed his hopes in the NSDAP and had even become a member of the party. However, his enthusiasm did not last long and the conservative turned away from National Socialism. An inner rift occurred in 1934 on the occasion of the Röhm Putsch and the murders of Generals Kurt von Schleicher and Ferdinand von Bredow.

Even at this time, Kaiser said to friends about Hitler: "Only elimination helps." But as an idealist, he initially believed in a bloodless overthrow. He was considered an uncomfortable teacher at his school; he never greeted his pupils with "Heil Hitler", but used the word "Heil Blücher" instead. With almost unbelievable openness, he expressed his opinion on Hitler's policies to his pupils, who revered him as "Caesar". But neither a pupil nor a teacher betrayed him. Kaiser was even supposed to become a lecturer at the University of Marburg, but he was rejected because he was already considered politically unreliable at the time.

In 1939 - after the outbreak of war - he was drafted as a reserve captain with the commander of the reserve army in Berlin. He became leader of the war diary on the staff of Colonel General Friedrich Fromm. He now joined the resistance. He used his outwardly inconspicuous position on the staff to mediate between the civilian and military resistance. He managed to establish contacts between Carl Goerdeler, Ludwig Beck and Erwin von Witzleben. He was also involved in planning the deployment of troops for the coup.

He also demonstrated his oppositional stance during the war. During a speech by Hitler, he demonstratively left the officers' mess without apologizing. When a comrade once greeted him with the Hitler salute, he said: "Stop that, you seem to me like men who want to bless something where there is nothing to bless."

He experienced the attempted coup of July 20, 1944 in Kassel. He was arrested there on July 21 and taken to Wiesbaden. His home was searched there. The trigger for his arrest had been the conspirators' order to call him in as liaison officer for military district XII Wiesbaden.

After one of the infamous hearings before the People's Court, at which its irascible and brutal president Roland Freisler insulted the defendants in the most vicious manner - among other things, he accused Kaiser of three counts of breach of oath: as a civil servant, as an officer and as a party comrade - he was sentenced to death on January 17, 1945.

The Nazi henchmen saved the Wiesbaden resistance fighter as a "precious witness". On January 23, 1945, Hermann Kaiser was executed together with Helmuth James Graf von Moltke, Theodor Haubach and Father Alfred Delp in Berlin-Plötzensee prison.

In Wiesbaden today, two memorial plaques in front of and inside the Oranienschule and a plaque on the base of the Oranier monument on Luisenplatz with the inscription "His life is a warning against war and inhumanity" commemorate the indomitable resistance fighter. His diaries have now also been published. A street in Klarenthal is named after Hermann Kaiser.