Edgar Algernon Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, kurz Lord Robert Cecil und seit 1923 Robert Cecil, 1. Viscount Cecil of Chelwood (* 14. September 1864 in Salisbury; † 24. November 1958 in Tunbridge Wells, Kent) war ein britischer Politiker und Diplomat.
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Hans Achim Litten (* 19. Juni 1903 in Halle (Saale); † 5. Februar 1938 im KZ Dachau) war ein deutscher Rechtsanwalt und Strafverteidiger.
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Fritz Julius Litten (* 22. Februar 1873 in Elbing; † Februar 1940 bei Belfast, Nordirland) war ein deutscher Jurist und Hochschullehrer in Königsberg.
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Henry Wickham Steed (* 10. Oktober 1871 in Long Melford, Suffolk, England; † 13. Januar 1956 in Wootton, West Oxfordshire) war ein britischer Journalist und Historiker.
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Lady Elizabeth Charlotte Lucy Asquith (* 26. Februar 1897 in London; † 7. April 1945 in Corcova, Rumänien) war eine britische Schriftstellerin und durch Heirat Prinzessin Bibesco de Brancovan.
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Adolf Hitler (* 20. April 1889 in Braunau am Inn, Österreich-Ungarn; † 30. April 1945 in Berlin) war von 1933 bis 1945 Reichskanzler und Diktator des Deutschen Reiches.
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Erich Kurt Mühsam (6. April 1878 in Berlin – 10. Juli 1934 im KZ Oranienburg) war ein anarchistischer deutscher Schriftsteller, Publizist und Antimilitarist. Am 10. Juli 1934 von der SS-Wachmannschaft des KZ Oranienburg ermordet.
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Harry Sinclair Lewis (* 7. Februar 1885 in Sauk Centre, Minnesota; † 10. Januar 1951 in Rom) war ein amerikanischer Schriftsteller, der durch seine sozialkritischen und satirischen Romane berühmt wurde.
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Dorothy Thompson (* 9. Juli 1893 in Lancaster, New York; † 30. Januar 1961 in Lissabon, Portugal) war eine amerikanische Schriftstellerin und Journalistin sowie Gründerin der „Weltorganisation der Mütter aller Nationen“ (W.O.M.A.N.).
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Jane Laura Addams (* 6. September 1860 in Cedarville, Stephenson County, Illinois; † 21. Mai 1935 in Chicago, Illinois) war eine US-amerikanische Feministin, Soziologin und engagierte Journalistin der Friedensbewegung Anfang der 1920er Jahre. 1931 erhielt sie zusammen mit Nicholas Murray Butler den Friedensnobelpreis.
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Sir Joseph Austen Chamberlain, KG (* 16. Oktober 1863 in Birmingham; † 17. März 1937 in London) war ein britischer Politiker und von 1902 bis 1903 Postminister, von 1903 bis 1904 bzw. von 1919 bis 1921 Finanzminister sowie von 1924 bis 1929 Außenminister.
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Carl von Ossietzky (* 3. Oktober 1889 in Hamburg; † 4. Mai 1938 in Berlin) war ein deutscher Journalist, Schriftsteller und Pazifist. Als Herausgeber der Zeitschrift Die Weltbühne wurde er im international aufsehenerregenden Weltbühne-Prozess 1931 wegen Spionage verurteilt, weil seine Zeitschrift auf die verbotene Aufrüstung der Reichswehr aufmerksam gemacht hatte. Ossietzky erhielt 1936 rückwirkend den Friedensnobelpreis für das Jahr 1935.
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Ernst Toller (*1. Dezember 1893 in Samotschin, Provinz Posen; gestorben am 22. Mai 1939 in New York City, New York) war ein deutscher Schriftsteller, Politiker und linkssozialistischer Revolutionär.
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#1372 Brief an Robert Cecil
Datierung | 1935-05-25 |
Absendeort | London, Großbritannien |
Verfasser | Toller, Ernst |
Beschreibung | T1: Brief, 3 S., T T2: Brief, 3 S., T mit handschriftlichen Eingriffen
|
Provenienz | T1: International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, Freundeskreis Carl von Ossietzky, Mappe 3T2: British Library, Add MS 51170 – f. 165–167 |
Briefkopf | - |
Publikationsort | D1: In: Frithjof Trapp, Knut Bergmann, Bettina Herre [Hrsg.]: Carl von Ossietzky und das politische Exil. Hamburg: Arbeitsstelle für Deutsche Exilliteratur, 1988 (Veröffentlichungen der Hamburger Arbeitsstelle für Deutsche Exilliteratur, N. F., Bd. 1), S. 34. D2: Carl von Ossietzky: Sämtliche Schriften, Bd. 7: Briefe und Lebensdokumente. Hrsg. v. Bärbel Bold, Gerhard Kraiker, Christoph Schottes, Elke Suhr. Reinbek: Rowohlt 1994, S. 621f. |
Poststelle | - |
Personen |
Cecil, Robert
Litten, Hans Litten, Fritz Steed, Henry Wickham Bibesco, Elizabeth Hitler, Adolf Mühsam, Erich Lewis, Sinclair Thompson, Dorothy Addams, Jane Chamberlain, Joseph Austen Ossietzky, Carl von Toller, Ernst Cecil, Robert |
Institutionen |
The Bodley Head (John Lane)
The Manchester Guardian The Observer (London) The Times (London) Die Weltbühne (Berlin) |
Ernst Toller
c. o. John Lane
Vigostreet
London W. 1.
25.5.35.
Dear Lord Cecil,
thank you so much for the letter of your private secretary. Litten is one of the most sad out of the many sad cases in Nazi-Germany. I know him personally.
His only crime is, that he has done his duty as a lawyer following the law of every civilised state, namely, to defend the accused without looking at their political opinion.
The Nazis hate him especially because he has defended in the famous “Felseneck-process” the workers whose settlement has been raided by a Nazi-terror-group. Several men lost their lives in the fight. Litten has shown the methods of the Nazi-terror-group in spite of threatening letters and threats in open court by the Nazis. The process took place before the Nazis came into power. But they persecuted him ever since.
Litten, the son of a conservative university professor in Königsberg, was one of the first men to be imprisoned in the night of the Reichstagsfire. He has been put for weeks in the notorious “stone coffins”, where the prisoner is not able either to sit down or to lie down.
When, some time ago, he was needed as a witness in a court his former colleagues did not recognise him. He was not even a shade of his former self. Just a trembling, ill-treated human wreck.
Litten’s case has been mentioned in the “Manchester Guardian” and as much as I know in the “Observer” and in the “Times”.
Wickham Steed and Princess Elisabeth Bibesco know also about him. They certainly will give you every further information you want.
I earnestly believe, that Litten is worthy of your help and as Hitler-Germany listens to the public opinion of England, I know, that your voice will be heard.
May I take the opportunity to tell you of another man whom I personally believe to be one of the bravest fighters for the peace and the best journalist of Pre-Nazi-Germany.
He is the bravest and fairest man I know.
His name is Carl von Ossietzky, former Editor of the “Weltbühne”. He too was taken to prison in the night of the Reichstagsfire, he too has been ill-treated physically and mentally. And now his friends fear, that he will have the same fate as Erich Mühsam, who was ordered to commit suicide and when he refused beaten to death and his corpse hanged in a lavatory to pretend suicide.
The wife of Sinclair Lewis, the American Journalist Dorothy Thompson, has published stated particulars.
Ossietzky has been proposed for the “Nobel Peace Prize” by important personalities and peace organisations from all over the world. Among them are Jane Addams and many French, Swedish and English University-Professors.
He too is worthy of your help. If you, dear Lord Cecil use your influence for his release, you will not only help a single man, but also the cause of peace for which he has fought all his life.
Ossietzky was in Pre-Nazi-Germany estimated even by his adversaries, the German Conservatives. They voted for his release when he was in prison for political reasons.
May I assure you, that I always am to your disposition whenever you want informations from me.
Once more many thanks for your letter to Sir Austen Chamberlain. I shall see him on Tuesday.
Yours sincerely
Ernst Toller.