Fritz Gerlich

Carl Albert Fritz (Michael) Gerlich (15 February 1883 – 30 June 1934) was a German journalist and historian, and one of the main journalistic resisters to Adolf Hitler.

Gerlich was born in Stettin, Pomerania, and grew up as the eldest of the three sons of wholesale and retail fish monger Paul Gerlich and his wife Therese. In Autumn 1889 Gerlich was enrolled in the Marienstiftungymnasium (Our Lady's Grammar School). Four years later he changed to the senior level. In 1901 he received his school leaving certificate. On the 9th October 1920 he married Sophie Stempfle in Munich.

Already before 1933 Gerlich opposed Nazism and Hitler's Nazi Party as "murderous". In the early 1920s he had seen proof of Nazi tyranny already in Munich.

In 1931, Gerlich converted from Calvinism to Catholicism. From that year until his death, his resistance became inspired by the social teachings of the Catholic Church. In 1931 he had also become a prayerful friend of Therese Neumann, the mystic and visionary of Konnersreuth in Bavaria, who supported Gerlich's resistance activities.

After the Nazis seized power in Germany, they quickly decided to remove Gerlich. He was arrested on March 9 1933 and brought to the Dachau concentration camp, where he was murdered on July 1 1934 during the Night of the Long Knives. After his death his wife received confirmation of her husband's death when his blood-spattered glasses were delivered to her home.

He was portrayed in the TV movie "" by actor Matthew Modine. In the film, as he dictates a front page article that warns of the danger that Hitler poses, Gerlich finishes with "the worst thing we can do, the absolute worst, is to do nothing." This line is inspired by a quote often incorrectly attributed to Edmund Burke: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." [cite book |author= Paul F. Boller; John George |title= They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, and Misleading Attributions |publisher= Oxford University Press |date=1990 |isbn=0195064690]

References

External links

* [http://www.gerlich.com/ Fritz Gerlich memorial website]