Resistance Activities
After World War I, von der Schulenburg got his diplomatic career going again, becoming, among other things, an envoy to Tehran and Bucharest. In 1934, he was appointed German ambassador to the Soviet Union. Von der Schulenburg favoured an agreement between Germany and the Soviet Union, and was instrumental in bringing about the August 1939 German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact. After the Soviet invasion of Poland, despite the state of war between Germany and Poland, he used his position as the most senior ambassador in Moscow to allow Polish diplomats (including ambassador Wacław Grzybowski) to leave the Soviet Union, when the Soviets tried to arrest them. To the last, he tried to thwart the German attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941 through means such as hinting at the country's military strength and the unassailability of its industrial reserves. He is quoted as having said to Vyacheslav Molotov on the morning of the German attack on the Soviet Union: "For the last six years I've personally tried to do everything I could to encourage friendship between the Soviet Union and Germany. But you can't stand in the way of destiny."
After the aggression began on 22 June 1941, von der Schulenburg was interned for a few weeks, and transferred to the Soviet-Turkish border. Thereafter, von der Schulenburg was assigned leader of the Russia Committee, a Foreign Office post with no political influence that neutralized him. Later he would make his influence felt in the military opposition, to reach a quick peace agreement in the east. He was ready and willing to negotiate even with Joseph Stalin in the plotters' names. In the plans for the overthrow, Friedrich-Werner von der Schulenburg was tentatively foreseen as the new foreign minister.
After the failure of the attempt on Adolf Hitler's life on 20 July 1944, he was arrested and charged with high treason. On 23 October 1944, the Volksgerichtshof ("People's Court") sentenced him to death. He was hanged on 10 November 1944 at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin.
Read more about this topic: Friedrich Werner Von Der Schulenburg
Famous quotes containing the words resistance and/or activities:
“War is pillage versus resistance and if illusions of magnitude could be transmuted into ideals of magnanimity, peace might be realized.”
—Marianne Moore (1887–1972)
“Both gossip and joking are intrinsically valuable activities. Both are essentially social activities that strengthen interpersonal bonds—we do not tell jokes and gossip to ourselves. As popular activities that evade social restrictions, they often refer to topics that are inaccessible to serious public discussion. Gossip and joking often appear together: when we gossip we usually tell jokes and when we are joking we often gossip as well.”
—Aaron Ben-Ze’Ev, Israeli philosopher. “The Vindication of Gossip,” Good Gossip, University Press of Kansas (1994)