The German resistance to Nazism () included both unarmed and armed opposition and disobedience to the Nazi regime by various movements, groups, and individuals by various means, including attempts to assassinate Adolf Hitler or to overthrow his regime, defections to the Allies, acts of sabotage against the German Army and the apparatus of repression, attempts to organize an armed struggle and open protests, the rescue of persecuted persons, the harboring of dissidence, and acts of "everyday resistance".
It was not a united resistance movement, unlike the more organised efforts in other countries, such as Italy, Denmark, the Soviet Union, Poland, Greece, Yugoslavia, France, the Netherlands, Czechoslovakia, and Norway. It consisted of small, isolated groups that were unable to mobilise mass opposition, which severely limited their operations. It had no unified leadership or common agenda because its members had a wide spectrum of backgrounds and goals. The resistance included members of the Polish minority, who formed resistance groups like Olimp.
Some leaders of the Wehrmacht considered attempting a coup d'état against the regime; the 20 July plot of 1944 against Hitler was intended to trigger such a coup. Although the plot was more a rebellion against Hitler than Nazism per se, there was still opposition to his ideas in the Wehrmacht even before the war. Hundreds of thousands of Germans deserted from the Wehrmacht, many defecting to the Allies or anti-fascist resistance forces. After 1943, the Soviet Union made attempts to launch guerrilla warfare in Germany with such defectors and allowed the members of the National Committee for a Free Germany, which consisted mostly of the German prisoners of war, to participate in the military operations of the Red Army and form small military units.
As World War II turned against the Axis, secret peace negotiations with the Allies floundered. The German resistance made unreasonable demands—sometimes including retention of some of the conquered territories—while the Allies insisted on unconditional surrender.
It has been estimated that during the course of the war, 800,000 Germans were arrested by the Gestapo for resistance activities. It has also been estimated that between 15,000 and 77,000 Germans were executed. Resistance members were usually tried, mostly in show trials, by Sondergerichte (Special Courts), courts-martial, People's Courts, and the civil justice system. Many of the Germans had served in government, the military, or in civil positions, which enabled them to engage in subversion and conspiracy. The Canadian historian Peter Hoffmann counts unspecified "tens of thousands" in Nazi concentration camps who were either suspected of or engaged in opposition.Peter Hoffmann The History of the German Resistance, 1933–1945, p. xiii
Overview
Historiographical debates on the subject on Widerstand (resistance) have often featured intense arguments about the nature, extent, and effectiveness of resistance in the Third Reich. There has been debate about what to define as Widerstand. During the Cold War, West Germany (BRD) and East Germany (DDR) developed different images of the German resistance, as in the BRD the conservative groups, namely the White Rose and the 20 July plotters, were canonized, while the other groups and individuals were barely appreciated or denied; in the DDR, the Communist resistance was idolized to create a mythos in the foundation of the self-image of the DDR.
The German opposition and resistance movements consisted of disparate political and ideological factions that represented different classes of German society who seldom were able to work together. For much of the time, there was little or no contact between these groups. Although some civilian resistance groups developed, they were unable to launch a full-scale movement. There was no alternate pole of loyalty (such as a government in exile) that could legitimise resistance. Conservative historians of the German resistance contended that the Army was the only organisation with the capacity to overthrow the government and that the only valid strategy of the resistance was an elitist one that suggested "eliminating Hitler in a single stroke"; a few officers came to present the most serious threat to the Nazi regime.Anton Gill; An Honourable Defeat; A History of the German Resistance to Hitler; Heinemann; London; 1994; p. 2 On the other hand, the Marxist-Leninist historians from the DDR argued that lack of democratic support was one of the reasons why the attempts of the army to assassinate Hitler had failed. However, the relationship between the army and the civil resistance were more complex and gradually evolved; while the representatives of the workers' movement sought contacts with the army, at first, the plotters did not even question whether public support was needed, but eventually they came, partly due to the reaction on the activities of the National Committee for a Free Germany, to the conclusion of the necessity of a democratic "people's movement" () which would turn the assassination into a starting point of political resistance and break the loyalty of the population to the Nazi system, although the plotters had no concrete plans or personnel consequences. This may be seen as the various resistance movements adapting and coming together.Cristoph Klessmann. "Problem der 'Volksbewegung' im deutschen Widerstand," // Der Widerstand gegen National-Sozialismus (Munich: Piper, 1986) The Foreign Office and the Abwehr (Military Intelligence) also provided support to the movement.Anton Gill; An Honourable Defeat; A History of the German Resistance to Hitler; Heinemann; London; 1994; p. 4 Many of those in the military who ultimately chose to seek to overthrow Adolf Hitler had initially supported the regime, if not all of its methods. Hitler's 1938 purge of the military was accompanied by increased militancy in the Nazification of Germany, a sharp intensification of the persecution of Jews, homosexuals, trade union leaders, and aggressive foreign policy, bringing Germany to the brink of war; it was at this time that the German resistance emerged.Theodore S. Hamerow; On the Road to the Wolf's Lair – German Resistance to Hitler; Belknap Press of Harvard University Press; 1997; ; pp. 217–19
Those opposing the Nazi regime were motivated by such factors as the mistreatment of Jews, harassment of the churches, and the harsh actions of Himmler and the Gestapo.Joachim Fest; Plotting Hitlers Death: The German Resistance to Hitler 1933–45; Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1996 p. 309 In his history of the German resistance, Peter Hoffmann wrote that "National Socialism was not simply a party like any other; with its total acceptance of criminality it was an incarnation of evil, so that all those whose minds were attuned to democracy, Christianity, freedom, humanity, or even mere legality found themselves forced into alliance."Peter Hoffmann; The History of the German Resistance 1933–1945; 3rd Edn (First English Edn); McDonald & Jane's; London; 1977; p. 20 Banned underground political parties were one source of opposition. These included the Social Democrats (SPD)—with its paramilitary group the Iron Front and activists such as Julius Leber, the Communists (KPD), and the anarcho-syndicalist group the Freie Arbeiter Union (FAUD), that distributed anti-Nazi propaganda and assisted people in fleeing the country. Another group, the Red Orchestra (Rote Kapelle), consisted of anti-fascists, communists, and American Mildred Harnack. The individuals in this group began to assist their Jewish friends as early as 1933.
Whereas the German Christian movement sought to create a new, positive Christianity aligned with Nazi ideology, some Christian churches, Catholic and Protestant, contributed another source of opposition. Their stance was symbolically significant. The churches, as institutions, did not openly advocate for the overthrow of the Nazi state, but they remained one of the very few German institutions to retain some independence from the state and were able to continue to co-ordinate a level of opposition to Government policies. They resisted the regime's efforts to intrude on ecclesiastical autonomy, but from the beginning, a minority of clergy expressed broader reservations about the new order and gradually their criticisms came to form a "coherent, systematic critique of many of the teachings of National Socialism".Theodore S. Hamerow; On the Road to the Wolf's Lair – German Resistance to Hitler; Belknap Press of Harvard University Press; 1997; ; p. 133 Some priests—such as the Jesuits Alfred Delp and Augustin Rösch and the Lutheran preacher Dietrich Bonhoeffer—were active and influential within the clandestine resistance, while figures such as Protestant Pastor Martin Niemöller (who founded the Confessing Church), and the Catholic Bishop Clemens August Graf von Galen (who denounced Nazi euthanasia and lawlessness), offered some of the most trenchant public criticism of the Third Reich—not only against intrusions by the regime into church governance and to arrests of clergy and expropriation of church property but also to the fundamentals of human rights and justice as the foundation of a political system.Theodore S. Hamerow; On the Road to the Wolf's Lair – German Resistance to Hitler; Belknap Press of Harvard University Press; 1997; ; pp. 288–89 Their example inspired some acts of overt resistance, such as that of the White Rose student group in Munich, and provided moral stimulus and guidance for various leading figures in the political Resistance.
In Austria there were Habsburg-motivated groups. These were the special focus of the Gestapo, because their common goal—the overthrow of the Nazi regime and the re-establishment of an independent Austria under Habsburg leadership—was a special provocation for the Nazi regime, especially because Hitler bristled with hatred of the Habsburg family. Hitler diametrically rejected the centuries-old Habsburg principles of "live and let live" with regard to ethnic groups, peoples, minorities, religions, cultures, and languages.Timothy Snyder "The Red Prince: The Secret Lives of a Habsburg Archduke" (2008).James Longo "Hitler and the Habsburgs: The Fuhrer's Vendetta Against the Austrian Royals" (2018).Bob Carruthers "Hitler's Violent Youth: How Trench Warfare and Street Fighting Moulded Hitler" (2015).On Habsburg and the diversity of religions: Pieter M. Judson "The Habsburg Empire. A New History" (Harvard 2016).