Doppelleben
('Double Life')
Heinrich and Gottliebe
von Lehndorff-Steinort
and their place in the
resistance against Hitler
and Ribbentrop
A matter of life and death: Antje Vollmer's double biography of the charismatic couple Heinrich and Gottliebe von Lehndorff-Steinort, who dared to stand up against the Nazi regime, illustrates the private and political facets of the tragic failure of the plot to kill Hitler on 20 July 1944. The setting is the couple's palace in Steinort (now Sztynort) in East Prussia, which was located only 25 kilometres away from Hitler's so-called 'Wolf's Lair'.
Heinrich von Lehndorff had already joined the Henning von Tresckow/Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg circle in around 1939/40. Like his friend Carl-Hans von Hardenberg, Lehndorff was also on the staff of field marshal General Fedor von Bock. During the attack on the Soviet Union, Lehndorf witnessed the massacre of 7,000 Jews in Barysaw, which finally motivated him to actively participate in the resistance movement, together with his wife. In order to not give themselves away, they led a double life, not least also necessitated by the fact that Hitler's Minister of Foreign Affairs Ribbentrop commandeered a wing of Sztynort palace for himself from 1941 onwards.
Martina Gedeck reads from the powerful eyewitness accounts of historic events in Germany and Europe especially since the start of the war in 1939 and the dramatic days and hours around 20 July 1944.
The Lehndorff Society will realise this reading in Polish at Sztynort palace to coincide with the reading in Neuhardenberg, thereby creating a bridge between these two sites of German resistance.
Martina Gedeck is an internationally successful and celebrated actor. She has so acted in over 80 movie and TV productions, although she can also be experienced in the theatre. Joint programmes with musicians occupy a special place in her creative output.
Reading rights: © Aufbauverlag Berlin
