| 16
Sept. 1902
|
born in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, youngest child of William Fish and
Goergina Hesketh Fish, sister of Harriette, Marion and Marbeau (Bob).
|
| 1919 |
graduated
from Western High School in Georgetown, Virginia.
|
| 1921-1928
|
studied and taught at the University of Wisconsin (Madison); senior
thesis: “A Comparison of Chapman’s and Pope’s translations of the Iliad
with the Original”; worked on the Wisconsin Literary Magazine.
|
| 7
August 1926
|
married
Arvid Harnack at her brother’s farm near Brooklyn/Wisconsin.
|
| 1928-1929
|
taught English at Goucher College in Baltimore/Maryland.
|
| 1929
|
joined her husband in Germany, living in the Harnack family home in
Jena; began to work on her doctorate in American literature at the
university in Jena and in Giessen.
|
| 1930
|
moved to Berlin; studied at the University of Berlin with the help of
a fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation; lectured on English
and American literature and language; participated in activities with the
American Student Association, the American Women’s Club (president), the
Berlin chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (secretary) and
the American Church; maintained contact with the family of her husband’s
uncle, Adolf von Harnack, and his relatives and associates (Delbrück,
Bonhoeffer, von Dohnanyi); developed an interest in Russia and in Communism
as a solution to poverty.
|
| May
1932
|
lost teaching position at Berlin University, along with other women
and foreigners.
|
| summer
1932
|
visited the Soviet Union with a group of workers on Intourist tour.
|
| 30
Jan 1933 |
Hindenburg appointed Hitler
Chancellor.
|
| 27 Feb 1933 |
Reichstag fire; emergency decree
suspending civil rights granted by the Weimar Constitution.
|
| 21 March 1933 |
establishment of first
concentration camp (Dachau) for political prisoners (Communists,
Social
Democrats and trade unionists).
|
| 10
May 1933
|
official burning of forbidden books (by Jews and Nazi opponents).
|
| fall
1933
|
visited the Soviet Union
|
| as
if 1933
|
teacher of English literature at the Berliner Abendgymnasium,
which offered adults a secondary curriculum required for university
admission. With some of
her students, participated in a discussion group with economic and political
ideas from America and the Soviet Union, led by her husband Arvid;
with her husband, frequent guests at the American Embassy; edited a
book column in Berlin Topics (a local English language newspaper)
with Martha Dodd, daughter of the American ambassador; published articles in
German for Berliner Tageblatt and Die Literatur until 1935,
when publication required prior consent of the Nazi party; made contacts
with men and women who were critical of the Nazi regime, recruited
collaborators for the resistance; served
as courier for her husband and others in their contacts with Soviet agents.
|
| June,
1933 |
joined the National Socialist teachers’ organization.
|
| 1935
|
met Thomas Wolfe at the American Embassy; published an interview with
him for the Continental Post.
|
| 1936
|
published translation into German of Irving Stone’s biography of
van Gogh, Lust for Life; worked for several German publishing
companies as a reader of new English and American literature.
|
| 1937
|
visited family in the United States; went on a campus lecture tour
(“The German Relation to Current American Literature”), which included
the University of Wisconsin. |
| 9
Nov 1938
|
Kristallnacht
|
| as
of 1938
|
reportedly arranged visas and exit opportunities for Jews and
political opponents of the Nazis.
|
| 1939
|
publication of her translation of Sailor on Horseback,
Stone’s biography of Jack London, was blocked by Nazi censors. |
| 1939
|
completed doctorate at Berlin University; dissertation: “The
Development of Contemporary American Literature with Some Main Representatives of the Short Story.” |
| 26
Aug 1939
|
U.S. government advised Americans to leave Germany
|
| 1
Sept 1939
|
Nazi invasion of Poland
|
| October
1939
|
through Donald Heath at the American Embassy, applied for Rockefeller
and Guggenheim fellowships to continue research in America on a book based
on her dissertation; both denied.
|
| 1939
|
Arvid booked for her an open reservation by ship to America.
|
| 1941-1942 |
taught English at the Foreign Studies Department of Berlin
University.
|
| 7
Sept 1942
|
arrested with her husband in Preil, while on weekend holiday.
|
| 19
Dec 1942
|
sentenced to six years in prison by the Reich Court Martial.
|
| 21
Dec 1942
|
prison sentence canceled by Hitler
|
| 13
Jan 1943
|
new trial with more damaging but questionable evidence.
|
| 16
Jan 1943
|
sentenced to death.
|
| 16
Feb 1943
|
beheaded at Plötzensee. Last words: “Und ich hatte Deutschland so geliebt”
(And I had loved Germany so much) |
|
|
|
|
Arvid
Harnack
|
| 24
May 1901
|
born in Darmstadt (Hesse), son of Otto Harnack and Clara
Harnack, nephew of Adolf von Harnack, brother of
Falk, Inge, Angela.
|
| 1914
|
father committed suicide
|
| 1918
|
ran away from home to join the army at the end of the war.
|
| 1919
|
joined the Freikorps, a right-wing, anti-communist militant group.
|
| 1924
|
Doctor of Law
|
| 1926-1929
|
Rockefeller Scholar at the University of Wisconsin (Madison)
|
| 7
Aug 1926
|
married Mildred Fish.
|
| 1928
|
returned alone to Germany.
|
| 1930
|
joined the Social Democratic student group; received second doctorate
summa cum laude; dissertation on pre-marxist American
workers’ movement; moved to Berlin.
|
| 1931
|
post-doctoral research
and study at the university in Marburg.
|
| 1931
|
co-founder and secretary of ARPLAN, a group of scholars which met
once a month to study and discuss developments in the Soviet planned
economy.
|
| summer
1932
|
visited the Soviet Union with
ARPLAN; established contacts with Soviet agents.
|
| March
1933
|
ARPLAN disbanded; membership records destroyed.
|
|
as
of 1933 |
began to work with a circle of young workers and academics to prepare
for the economy of Germany after the fall of the Nazi regime; had contacts in the ministries of the Nazi
government and with other resistance groups;
spoke with representatives of the American and Soviet governments,
sharing information about the
resistance and insights into the economic situation in Nazi Germany; had
contacts with publishers (Fischer,
Rowohlt), writers, editors, translators; began to work in the Amerikareferat
of the Economics Ministry.
|
| summer 1934 |
Nazis consolidated power with the suppression of Ernst Roehm and the
SA and the death of Hindenburg
|
| as
of 1937
|
contacts
with Donald Heath in the American Embassy. |
| May
1937
|
joined the Nazi party.
|
| 1938
|
several Soviet contacts executed in Stalin purge.
|
| 1939
|
renewed contacts with Soviet agents.
|
| summer
1939 |
working trip to Washington, D.C.; made contacts in the Treasury
Department; shared information.
|
| 1940
|
investigated by the Nazis because of his earlier Communist work.
|
| 1940
|
began resistance and espionage work with Harro
Schulze-Boysen, since
1934 on the intelligence staff at the Luftwaffe; widened contacts with other
resistance groups; collected evidence of Nazi crimes; spread word of
resistance through illegal posters and pamphlets.
|
| 1940-1941
|
with
Schulze-Boysen, informed Soviet and American contacts of plans
for invasion of the Soviet Union; ignored by Stalin.
|
| 1941
|
established radio contact in code with Soviet agents.
|
| June
21, 1941 |
Nazi invasion of the Soviet
Union; Soviet citizens in Germany arrested. |
| August
1942
|
Nazi intelligence deciphered Russian code, found names and addresses
and uncovered the Berlin resistance group headed by Arvid Harnack and Harro
Schulze-Boysen; group named “die Rote Kapelle” by the Nazis.
|
| 7
Sept 1942
|
arrested with his wife in
Preil, while on weekend holiday.
|
| 19
Dec 1942
|
sentenced to death.
|
| 22
Dec 1942
|
on Hitler’s orders, put to death by hanging at
Plötzensee.
|
