Albrecht Haushofer

Ever since it was founded, the Ernst Freiberger Foundation has been seated in Berlin-Moabit. In this district stood the prison where Albrecht Haushofer was detained and not far from the foundation’s headquarters is the location where Albrecht Haushofer together with other prisoners was shot by an SS unit.
The small cemetery where he was buried is also nearby. However, this neighbourhood context was only a subordinate reason for engaging with Albrecht Haushofer. The real incentive was provided by the ‘Moabit Sonnetts’ that Albrecht Haushofer wrote while he was in prison. On the one hand they present a panomaric view of world history of the 1940s, on the other hand they are the testimony of how a German searched his soul, a man who for a long time ‘was part of’ the NS regime because he believed that he was able to prevent the worst. He had issued admonitions and warnings – but he reproaches himself for not having done this in a loud and clear enough manner.

The foundation’s director and board of trustees have decided that this man should again be properly appreciated in his historical context – and his remembrance is to be accompanied and consolidated by a monument in Berlin visible to all. This book as well as Haushofer’s statue on the busy Spree-Bogen site are presented to the public simultaneously.
By doing so, the foundation intends to make a contribution to furthering people’s engagement with Berlin history and the history of Germany. This effort is based on the conviction that understanding the past is essential for understanding the present. In this context, Albrecht Haushofer is an eminent figure.
Ernst Freiberger


Including contributions by:

Ernst Haiger
Albrecht Haushofer’s Resistance against National Socialism

Amelie Ihering
The Literary Work of Albrecht Haushofer

Albrecht Haushofer
The ‘Moabit Sonnetts’ – Annotations to the Poems

Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker
Albrecht Haushofer and Young People

Hardcover, 160 pages, Berlin 2002
Verlag Langewiesche-Brandt KG, Ebenhausen
ISBN 9-78496-0179-0
This book can be obtained in any book store.
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