Graf Dohna

[Muggins in Sussex]

When I was in Kew looking at files on HW Wicks, I discovered that he was -

"employed by Graf Dohna in Germany in 1934"

I have been googling and googling, but am a bit lost as to who or what Graf Dohna might be.

I did find something about a plot to assassinate Hitler, but don't really think that can be right !

Does anyone have any ideas please? Is it a person's name?

Thanks

[Kit]

I could be wrong but is Graf a title, like Mr?

[Kit]

from the Wiki:

Graf is a historical German noble title equal in rank to a count or a British earl .

[Muggins in Sussex]

Gosh - thanks, Kit -

I forgot about looking in the Wiki! :o

[Kit]

There is this link, which refers to Graf Dohna-Tolksdorf:

The German Opposition to Hitler - Google Book Search

It is something to do with resistance to Hitler. Wasn't Wicks pro Hitler?

[It_Is_I_Leclerc]

I found this on the wiki, it may help

Heinrich Graf zu Dohna-Schlobitten (15 October 1882 – 14 September 1944) was a German major general and German Resistance fighter in the July 20 Plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler at the Wolf's Lair in East Prussia.

Dohna-Schlobitten was born in Waldburg near Königsberg, East Prussia. He began his career as a professional soldier and was already an ensign (Fahnenjunker) by 1901. In the First World War, he functioned as a General Staff officer until he had to leave the army in 1919.

Also in 1919, Dohna-Schlobitten became a member of the Baltische Landwehr until, on ethical grounds, he chose to leave the military for good, which he succeeded in doing at first. Since Nazism was not to his liking, he also found himself active in the Confessing Church's Bruderrat ("brother council") in East Prussia.

In 1939, Dohna-Schlobitten was remobilized as a General Staff officer and was appointed as Chief of Staff in Defence District I in Königsberg, later to be promoted to Chief of Staff, Army Group Middle. He acted as a corps leader in France, Norway and Finland.

Dohna-Schlobitten's last post was as major general and Chief of the Acting General Command in Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland), before leaving the Wehrmacht at his own request in 1943. Thereafter, he earned his livelihood from farming in Tolksdorf in East Prussia.

Dohna-Schlobitten kept contacts with Carl Friedrich Goerdeler and was soon involved in Helmuth James von Moltke's Kreisau Circle through Peter Yorck von Wartenburg. After the coup d'état, Dohna-Schlobitten was foreseen as East Prussia's new provincial administrator. The day after Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg's failed attempt on Hitler's life with a briefcase bomb, Dohna-Schlobitten was arrested, and on 14 September 1944, he was sentenced to death at Roland Freisler's Volksgerichtshof. The sentence was carried out the same day at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin.

L

[Muggins in Sussex]

Thank you very much, Kit and Leclerc.

I think Wicks became anti-semitic during his spell in prison in 1936, and that he was an unscrupluous man who would adopt any views if he thought they suited his own ends.

How strange, though....1934 was the time when he was fighting various libel actions in the UK...