Anti-Nazi Resistance Figure. He studied law in Heidelberg and Berlin and then became a government official. He declined to join the Nazi Party in 1933 as he was a member of the Confessing Church. This decision forced him to leave government service in 1935 and become a businessman. There he helped Jewish friends who were forced to sell their businesses due to the Nazi takeover. In 1940, he was drafted into the Wehrmacht where he became part of the Abwehr, the German intelligence organization. He became involved with resistance groups there and was arrested by the Gestapo in October 1944 as a result of the July 20th attempt on Hitler's life. While many of his fellow resistance figures were executed on or about April 23, 1945, he was not and was released from prison upon the Russian victory in the Battle of Berlin two days later. That freedom did not last long, as he was arrested by the Russians in late May due to his service in the Abwehr. He died of diphtheria in the Russian Special Camp Jamlitz, ironically a former Nazi concentration camp itself. He also has a cenotaph in the family plot in Friedhof Grunewald, Berlin. His brother Max Delbrück won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1969.
Anti-Nazi Resistance Figure. He studied law in Heidelberg and Berlin and then became a government official. He declined to join the Nazi Party in 1933 as he was a member of the Confessing Church. This decision forced him to leave government service in 1935 and become a businessman. There he helped Jewish friends who were forced to sell their businesses due to the Nazi takeover. In 1940, he was drafted into the Wehrmacht where he became part of the Abwehr, the German intelligence organization. He became involved with resistance groups there and was arrested by the Gestapo in October 1944 as a result of the July 20th attempt on Hitler's life. While many of his fellow resistance figures were executed on or about April 23, 1945, he was not and was released from prison upon the Russian victory in the Battle of Berlin two days later. That freedom did not last long, as he was arrested by the Russians in late May due to his service in the Abwehr. He died of diphtheria in the Russian Special Camp Jamlitz, ironically a former Nazi concentration camp itself. He also has a cenotaph in the family plot in Friedhof Grunewald, Berlin. His brother Max Delbrück won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1969.
Bio by: Kenneth Gilbert
Family Members
Advertisement
See more Delbrück memorials in:
Explore more
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
