Harald Poelchau

{{short description|German prison priest and resistance fighter}}

{{Infobox religious biography

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| image = Dorothee und Harald Poelchau (cropped).jpg

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| caption = Dorothee and Harald Poelchau

| religion = Protestant

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| birth_name = Harald Poelchau

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1903|10|05|df=y}}

| birth_place = Potsdam, Germany

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1972|04|29|1903|10|05|df=y}}

| death_place = West Berlin, West Germany

| father = Harald Poelchau

| mother = Elisabeth Riem

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{{Righteous Among the Nations}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2021}}

{{Use British English|date=November 2021}}

Harald Poelchau (5 October 1903 – 29 April 1972) was a German prison chaplain, religious socialist and member of the resistance against the Nazis.{{cite web |title=Harald Poelchau |url=https://www.gdw-berlin.de/en/recess/biographies/index_of_persons/biographie/view-bio/harald-poelchau/?no_cache=1 |website=German Resistance Memorial Center |publisher=Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand |access-date=26 November 2021 |location=Berlin |archive-date=26 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211126170055/https://www.gdw-berlin.de/en/recess/biographies/index_of_persons/biographie/view-bio/harald-poelchau/?no_cache=1 |url-status=live }}{{cite book |last1=Hammerstein |first1=Franz v. |title=Neue deutsche Biographie |date=2001 |publisher=Duncker & Humblot |location=Berlin |isbn=3-428-00201-6 |page=561 |url=https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/gnd118595318.html#ndbcontent |volume=20 |access-date=26 November 2021 |archive-date=26 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211126170411/https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/gnd118595318.html#ndbcontent |url-status=live }} Poelchau grew up in Silesia. During the early 1920's, he studied Protestant theology at the University of Tübingen and the University of Marburg, followed by social work at the College of Political Science of Berlin. Poelchau gained a doctorate under Paul Tillich at Frankfurt University. In 1933, he became a prison chaplain in the Berlin prisons. With the coming of the Nazi regime in 1933, he became an anti-fascist. During the war, Poelchau and his wife Dorothee Poelchau helped victims of the Nazis, hiding them and helping them escape. At the same time, as a prison chaplain he gave comfort to the many people in prison and those sentenced to death. After the war, he became involved in the reform of prisons in East Germany. In 1971, Yad Vashem named Poelchau and his wife Righteous Among the Nations.

Life

Poelchau was the son of Harald (1866–1938) and Elisabeth Poelchau ({{née|Riem}}; 1871–1945) and was brought up in the Silesian village of Brauchitschdorf. His father was a Lutheran pastor in the village. Poelchau attended the Ritterakademie Gymnasium in Liegnitz, where he participated in Bible classes and became involved in the German Youth Movement (Jugendbewegung), which influenced him to turn away from a rural conservative piety.

At the University of Tübingen, Harald Poelchau met the librarian Dorothee Ziegele (1902–1977).{{cite web |title=Dorothee Poelchau |url=https://www.gdw-berlin.de/vertiefung/biografien/personenverzeichnis/biografie/view-bio/dorothee-poelchau/?no_cache=1 |website=German Resistance Memorial Center |publisher=Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand |access-date=27 November 2021 |location=Berlin |archive-date=27 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211127105037/https://www.gdw-berlin.de/vertiefung/biografien/personenverzeichnis/biografie/view-bio/dorothee-poelchau/?no_cache=1 |url-status=live }} The couple married on 12 April 1928, lived in Berlin and cultivated a large group of friends and acquaintances, that proved highly valuable after the handover of power to the Nazis. In 1938 the couple's son, also baptised Harald, was born, and in 1945 Harald's daughter Andrea Siemsen.{{cite book |last1=Schuppener |first1=Henriette |title="Nichts war umsonst": Harald Poelchau und der deutsche Widerstand |date=2006 |publisher=LIT Verlag Münster |isbn=978-3-8258-9315-6 |page=120 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OrtBuqzOHZcC&pg=PA120 |language=de}}

Education

After graduating from the Ritterakademie Liegnitz in 1921, he studied Protestant theology at the {{Interlanguage link|Kirchliche Hochschule Bethel|de|Kirchliche Hochschule Bethel}}, at the University of Tübingen, and the University of Marburg from 1922. In Tübingen he was secretary of the youth organisation {{Interlanguage link|Köngener Bund|de|Bund der Köngener}}. The Christian socialist philosopher Paul Tillich, who taught in Marburg in 1924, was the decisive, intellectual influence on him. Tillich became a lifelong friend and mentor. As a work student at Robert Bosch company in Stuttgart, he gained an insight into the world of workers and industry. After his first theological exam in 1927 in Breslau, he studied social welfare and state welfare policy at the German Academy for Politics in Berlin.{{cite web |title=Wer war ... ... Harald Poelchau ? |url=http://www.charlottenburg-nord.de/Ploetzenseer_Totentanz/Geschichte_Widerstand_33_bis_45/Strassennamen/Poelchau.html |website=Suhne Christian Church |access-date=26 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090701035206/http://www.charlottenburg-nord.de/Ploetzenseer_Totentanz/Geschichte_Widerstand_33_bis_45/Strassennamen/Poelchau.html |archive-date=1 July 2009 |location=Berlin |language=German |date=29 April 1972}}

Career

File:Gedenktafel Afrikanische Str 140b (Wedd) Harald Poelchau.JPG]]

File:Gedenktafel Seidelstr 39 (Tegel) Harald Poelchau.jpg in Berlin]]

Poelchau served as executive director of the {{Interlanguage link|German Association for Juvenile Courts and Juvenile Court Assistance|de|Deutsche Vereinigung für Jugendgerichte und Jugendgerichtshilfen}} in Berlin and as assistant to Paul Tillich at Frankfurt University. In 1931, he passed his second state exam in Berlin and wrote his doctoral thesis under Tillich titled: Die sozialphilosophischen Anschauungen der deutschen Wohlfahrtsgesetzgebung (The Social Philosophical Views of German Welfare Legislation). The paper was published in 1932 as a book titled Das Menschenbild des Fürsorgerechtes: Eine ethisch-soziologische Untersuchung (The Image of Man in the Law of Welfare: An Ethical-Sociological Investigation).{{cite book |last1=Schie |first1=Gerhard |title=Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung |date=1933 |publisher=Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag |page=130 |url=http://www.archive.org/download/ZeitschriftFrSozialforschung2.Jg/ZeitschriftFrSozialforschung21933.pdf |access-date=28 November 2021 |chapter=Poelchau, Harald, Das Menschenbild des Fürsorgerechts. Al/red Protte. Potsdam 1932. Book review}}

Poelchau applied for a position as prison chaplain at the end of 1932 and was instated on 1 April 1933{{cite book |last1=Beck |first1=Verlag C. H. |title=Der Aquädukt 1763-1988: ein Almanach aus dem Verlag C.H. Beck im 225. Jahr seines Bestehens |date=1988 |publisher=C.H.Beck |isbn=978-3-406-33197-8 |pages=149–158 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qULNGSJ7quwC&dq=Brief+an+Dorothee+Poelchau&pg=PA149 |language=de|oclc=873358963}} as the first clergyman in a prison appointed under the Nazi regime. As an official in the Justice Department he worked at Tegel Prison in Berlin as well as at several other prisons such as Plötzensee and Moabit.{{cite web |title=Harald Poelchau (1903-1972) |url=https://www.kreisau.de/kreisau/kreisauer-kreis/mitglieder/harald-poelchau/ |website=Kreisau-Initiative e. V. |publisher=Allianz AG |access-date=27 November 2021 |location=Berlin |language=German |archive-date=5 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211005080446/https://www.kreisau.de/kreisau/kreisauer-kreis/mitglieder/harald-poelchau/ |url-status=live }} He was opposed to the Nazis from the beginning, but did not join the Confessing Church (Bekennende Kirche).

World War II

With the beginning of the World War II in 1939, death sentences against opposition members increased. Poelchau soon became an important source of support for the victims of Nazi persecution, and gave spiritual comfort to hundreds of people sentenced to death as they faced execution After the unsuccessful coup attempt of 20 July 1944, many of his close friends were sentenced to death. To help their families, he would smuggle letters and messages in and out of the prison cells.

In 1937, the first political prisoners began to appear that were members of the prohibited Communist Party.{{cite book |last1=Poelchau |first1=Harald |last2=Stenbock-Fermor |first2=A |title=Die letzten Stunden. Erinnerungen eines Gefängnispfärrers, aufgezeichnet von A. Stenbock-Fermor. |date=1949 |location=Berlin |language=de|pages=50–80}} Poelchau cared for Robert Stamm and Adolf Rembte who were executed in november of that year, in Plötzensee.

In October 1941, the deportation of Jews from Germany began. Poelchau knew early on that only an escape into hiding would ensure survival. The refugees were supposed to call him at his office in Tegel and only talk if he answered with the code word "Tegel". But the actual conversation took place in his office, deep inside the prison walls. Supported by his wife, he arranged accommodations among his large group of acquaintances. These included Gertie Siemsen, a long-time friend from his student days, Willi Kranz, canteen manager in the Tegel and Plötzensee prisons and his partner Auguste Leißner, Hermann Sietmann and Otto Horstmeier, two former political prisoners, the couple Hildegard and Hans Reinhold Schneider who worked in social welfare and taught school (they were the parents of [Gesine Schwan] who later became a political scientist). They also included {{Interlanguage link|Agnes Wendland|de|Agnes Wendland}}, a pastor's wife (who were also named Righteous Among the Nations for hiding Jews), and her daughter {{ill|Ruth Wendland|de}}, the prison doctor Hilde Westrick, and the physicist {{ill|Carl Friedrich Weiss|de}} and his wife Hildegard.{{cite book |title=Gedenkstätte Stille Helden Widerstand gegen die Judenverfolgung 1933 bis 1945 |date=2009 |publisher=Gedenkstaette Stille Helden in der Stiftung Gedenkstaette Deutscher Widerstand |location=Berlin |isbn=9783926082367 |pages=17–18 |edition=2nd |language=German|oclc=970986725 |author1=Johannes Tuchel|author2=Gedenkst©Þtte Stille Helden in der Stiftung Gedenkst©Þtte Deutscher Widerstand}}

In 1942, the Soviet led Red Orchestra espionage network was uncovered by the Abwehr in Germany, France and the Low Countries{{cite web |title=Red Orchestra (espionage) |url=https://www.gdw-berlin.de/en/recess/topics/14-the-red-orchestra/ |website=Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand |publisher=German Resistance Memorial Center |access-date=31 March 2022 |location=Berlin |archive-date=29 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220529084510/https://www.gdw-berlin.de/en/recess/topics/14-the-red-orchestra/ |url-status=live }} and many of its members were imprisoned and executed. Poelchau provided support for Arvid and his American wife Mildred Harnack, John Rittmeister, Harro and Libertas Schulze-Boysen, Kurt and Elisabeth Schumacher, Walter Husemann, Adam Kuckhoff, and many others.

Only a few of those rescued or helped by the Poelchaus are known by name. One Jewish family, Manfred and Margarete Latte with their son Konrad, fled from Breslau after they learned they were to be deported, to Berlin where they went into hiding. Through a family friend, Ursula Teichmann, they made contact with Poelchau in late February 1943 and turned to him for help.{{cite book |last1=Benz |first1=Wolfgang |title=Überleben im Dritten Reich: Juden im Untergrund und ihre Helfer |date=2003 |publisher=C.H.Beck |isbn=978-3-406-51029-8 |page=117 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j7oXM8BB4_0C&pg=PA117 |language=de}}{{cite web |title=Konrad Latte |url=https://www.gdw-berlin.de/en/recess/biographies/index_of_persons/biographie/view-bio/konrad-latte/?no_cache=1 |website=German Resistance Memorial Center |publisher=Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand |access-date=2 December 2021 |location=Berlin |archive-date=2 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211202224204/https://www.gdw-berlin.de/en/recess/biographies/index_of_persons/biographie/view-bio/konrad-latte/?no_cache=1 |url-status=live }} He provided them with ration cards, cash and found accommodation for the family. He also found work for Manfred Latte, who became an ice delivery helper, and later gardener. As Konrad Latte was of a typical age to be conscripted Poelchau filled in a registration card for the Volkssturm, a national militia that was independent of the German army, to provide a cover ID.

Konrad Latte, established contact between Poelchau and Ruth Andreas-Friedrich,{{cite news |last1=Schneider |first1=Peter |title=Saving Konrad Latte |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/02/13/magazine/saving-konrad-latte.html |access-date=2 December 2021 |agency=The New York Times Magazine |date=13 February 2000 |archive-date=2 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211202225721/https://www.nytimes.com/2000/02/13/magazine/saving-konrad-latte.html |url-status=live }} the co-founder of the resistance group {{Interlanguage link|Onkel Emil|de|Onkel Emil}}, along with the conductor Leo Borchard.{{cite book |last1=Westerfield |first1=Lillian Leigh |title='This Anguish, Like a Kind of Intimate Song': Resistance in Women's Literature of World War II |date=2004 |publisher=Rodopi |isbn=978-90-420-1148-9 |page=82 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7UVQUYRwx7kC&pg=PA82 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Kleibert |first1=Kristin |title=Die Juristische Fakultät der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin im Umbruch: die Jahre 1948 bis 1951 |date=1 January 2010 |publisher=BWV Verlag |isbn=978-3-8305-1824-2 |page=158 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TMP7pQFpf_0C&pg=PA158 |language=de}} The resistance group was motivated more by humanitarian concerns, rather than ideology and was made up on middle-class professionals. They began to work with Poelchau, who could arrange accommodations, forged identity papers, and food ration stamps. The Gestapo apprehended the Latte family in October 1943. Manfred and Margarete Latte were immediately deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp.{{cite book |last1=Heim |first1=Susanne |title=German Reich 1938–August 1939 |date=4 June 2019 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG |isbn=978-3-11-052390-4 |page=1327 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yiyaDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT1327 |language=en}} Konrad Latte managed to escape the Große Hamburger Straße deportation center and went back into hiding.

Rita Neumann{{cite web |title=Ralph Neumann |url=https://www.gdw-berlin.de/en/recess/biographies/index_of_persons/biographie/view-bio/ralph-neumann/?no_cache=1 |website=German Resistance Memorial Center |publisher=Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand |access-date=26 November 2021 |location=Berlin |archive-date=5 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211205090147/https://www.gdw-berlin.de/en/recess/biographies/index_of_persons/biographie/view-bio/ralph-neumann/?no_cache=1 |url-status=live }} had been in hiding with the resistance fighter and Protestant pastor's wife {{Interlanguage link|Agnes Wendland|de|Agnes Wendland}} since August 1943.{{cite book |last1=Gutman |first1=Israel |last2=Fraenkel |first2=Daniel |last3=Borut |first3=Jacob |title=Lexikon der Gerechten unter den Völkern: Deutsche und Österreicher |date=2005 |publisher=Wallstein Verlag |isbn=978-3-89244-900-3 |page=284 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UQK4-L64zfgC&pg=PA284 |language=de}} Her brother Ralph Neumann joined Wendland. The siblings worked as bicycle couriers for Poelchau. In February 1945, they were arrested along with Wendland. The siblings managed to escape the Große Hamburger Straße deportation collection camp and make their way back to Poelchau's door.{{cite book |last1=Paldiel |first1=Mordecai |title=Churches and the Holocaust: Unholy Teaching, Good Samaritans, and Reconciliation |date=2006 |publisher=KTAV Publishing House, Inc. |location=Jersey City, N.J |isbn=978-0-88125-908-7 |page=62 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=psleDQml1WsC&pg=PA62 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Tuchel |first1=Johannes |title=Gedenkstaette Stille Helden : Widerstand gegen die Judenverfolgung 1933 bis 1945 |date=2009 |publisher=Gedenkstaette Stille Helden in der Stiftung Gedenkstaette Deutscher Widerstand |location=Berlin |isbn=978-3-926082-36-7 |pages=17–18 |edition=2nd Revised|language=German |chapter=Verlangen sie „Tegel}} Other people Poelchau helped were Ilse Schwarz and her daughter Evelyne, a young stenographer Ursula Reuber, Anna Drach, Edith Bruck,{{cite web |title=Edith Fürst |url=https://www.gdw-berlin.de/en/recess/biographies/index_of_persons/biographie/view-bio/edith-fuerst/?no_cache=1 |website=German Resistance Memorial Center |publisher=Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand |access-date=26 November 2021 |location=Berlin |archive-date=7 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211207130604/https://www.gdw-berlin.de/en/recess/biographies/index_of_persons/biographie/view-bio/edith-fuerst/?no_cache=1 |url-status=live }} Charlotte Paech, part of the Baum group{{cite book |last1=Brothers |first1=Eric |title=Berlin ghetto : Herbert Baum and the anti-fascist resistance |date=2012 |publisher=Spellmount |location=Stroud, Gloucestershire [England] |isbn=978-0752476865}} and Charlotte Bischoff.

From 1941, Poelchau belonged to a resistance group of people around Helmuth James Graf von Moltke known as the Kreisau Circle.{{cite book |last1=Roon |first1=Ger van |last2=Ludlow |first2=Peter |title=German resistance to Hitler: Count von Moltke and the Kreisau Circle. |date=1971 |publisher=Van Nostrand Reinhold Co |location=London |isbn=0-442-08975-9}} He took part in the first meeting of the group. After the attempted coup of 20 July 1944, the prison chaplain cared for many of those involved in the assassination. Harald Poelchau's extensive resistance involvement remained undiscovered until the end of the war.

After the war

In 1945, he co-founded the {{Interlanguage link|Aid Organisation of the Protestant Churches|de|Evangelisches Hilfswerk}} (Hilfswerk der Evangelischen Kirchen) in Stuttgart, together with the theologian and resistance fighter Eugen Gerstenmaier{{cite book |last1=Scholtyseck |first1=Joachim |title=Die Überlebenden des deutschen Widerstandes und ihre Bedeutung für Nachkriegsdeutschland |date=2005 |publisher=LIT Verlag |location=Munich |isbn=978-3-8258-8317-1 |page=79 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6TweyKq_-3IC&pg=PA79 |language=de |series=Schriftenreihe der Forschungsgemeinschaft 20. July 1944 e.V. |volume=6 |oclc=905014378 |access-date=15 December 2021 |archive-date=3 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240103191453/https://books.google.com/books?id=6TweyKq_-3IC&pg=PA79#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }} and became its General Secretary. The Aid Organisation took care of the problems of refugees, the construction of apartments (settlement work) and homes for the aged and apprentices, and emergency churches. After returning to Berlin in 1946, Poelchau became involved in reforming the prison system in the Soviet occupation zone as councillor of the Central Administration of Justice. This was connected with a teaching assignment for criminology and prison science at the Humboldt University of Berlin. Together with Ottomar Geschke and Heinrich Grüber he sat on the central board of the {{ill|Association of Political Prisoners and Persecutees of the Nazi System|de|Vereinigung der Verfolgten des Naziregimes – Bund der Antifaschistinnen und Antifaschisten}} (Vereinigung der Verfolgten des Naziregimes – Bund der Antifaschistinnen und Antifaschisten).{{cite web |last1=Schneider |first1=Ulrich |title=Was wollte und was tat die Gründungsgeneration der VVN? |url=https://vvn-bda.de/was-wollte-und-was-tat-die-grundungsgeneration-der-vvn/ |website=Vereinigung der Verfolgten des Naziregimes – Bund der Antifaschistinnen und Antifaschisten e. V |access-date=11 December 2021 |language=German |date=19 March 2012 |archive-date=11 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211211225503/https://vvn-bda.de/was-wollte-und-was-tat-die-grundungsgeneration-der-vvn/ |url-status=live }} When Poelchau was unable to push through his ideas for prison reform in the east, he resigned his position. From 1949 to 1951, he was again appointed as the prison chaplain at Tegel Prison.{{cite book |last1=Benz |first1=Wolfgang |last2=Pehle |first2=Walter H |last3=Garmer |first3=Lance W |title=Encyclopedia of German resistance to the Nazi movement |date=1997 |publisher=Continuum |location=New York |isbn=9780826409454 |page=308|oclc=895192195}} In 1951, Bishop Otto Dibelius appointed him as the first social and industrial pastor of the Protestant Church in Berlin-Brandenburg (Industrie- und Sozialpfarramt) with the mission to connect the church to the industrial workers.{{cite book |last1=Schuppener |first1=Henriette |title="Nichts war umsonst": Harald Poelchau und der deutsche Widerstand |date=2006 |publisher=LIT Verlag Münster |isbn=978-3-8258-9315-6 |page=147 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OrtBuqzOHZcC&pg=PA147 |language=de |access-date=15 December 2021 |archive-date=3 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240103191356/https://books.google.com/books?id=OrtBuqzOHZcC&pg=PA147#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }} Harald Poelchau dedicated himself to this task until his death in 1972. He is buried in the Zehlendorf cemetery in Berlin.

Awards and honours

File:2016-08-31 Grab-Harald-Poelchau.jpg

  • On 30 November 1971, Harald and Dorothee Poelchau were recognised by the Yad Vashem memorial as Righteous Among the Nations.{{cite web |title=Poelchau Harald & Dorothee |url=https://righteous.yadvashem.org/?searchType=righteous_only&language=en&itemId=4022278&ind=0 |website=Yad Vashem |publisher=The Authority in Memory of the Martyrs and Heroes of the Holocaust |access-date=26 November 2021 |date=30 November 1971 |archive-date=26 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211126175406/https://righteous.yadvashem.org/?searchType=righteous_only&language=en&itemId=4022278&ind=0 |url-status=live }}
  • In 1973, an elite sports school bearing the Poelchau name, the Poelchau-Oberschule was opened in the Charlottenburg-Nord district of Berlin.{{cite web |title=Sportschule im Olympiapark-Poelchau-Schule |url=https://www.berlin.de/ba-charlottenburg-wilmersdorf/ueber-den-bezirk/gebaeude-und-anlagen/schulen/artikel.158785.php |website=Bezirksamt Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf |date=4 November 2021 |publisher=BerlinOnline Stadtportal GmbH & Co. KG betrieben.A |access-date=26 November 2021 |language=German |archive-date=26 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211126181136/https://www.berlin.de/ba-charlottenburg-wilmersdorf/ueber-den-bezirk/gebaeude-und-anlagen/schulen/artikel.158785.php |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=https://www.sportschule-olympiapark.de/ |website=Sportschule im Olympiapark - Poelchau-Schule |publisher=Senatsverwaltung für Bildung, Jugend und Wissenschaft |access-date=26 November 2021 |location=Berlin |language=German |title=Eliteschule des Sports - Eliteschule des Fußballs |archive-date=26 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211126181410/https://www.sportschule-olympiapark.de/ |url-status=live }}
  • By resolution of the Senate of Berlin on 6 October 1987, the couples burial place at the Zehlendorf cemetery was converted into an honorary grave of the State of Berlin.{{cite web |title=Friedhöfe und Begräbnisstätten |url=https://www.berlin.de/sen/uvk/natur-und-gruen/stadtgruen/friedhoefe-und-begraebnisstaetten/ |website=Senatsverwaltung für Umwelt, Verkehr und Klimaschutz |date=2 August 2021 |publisher=BerlinOnline Stadtportal GmbH & Co. KG betrieben.A |access-date=26 November 2021 |location=Berlin |page=65 |language=German |archive-date=26 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211126183013/https://www.berlin.de/sen/uvk/natur-und-gruen/stadtgruen/friedhoefe-und-begraebnisstaetten/ |url-status=live }}
  • On 17 November 1988, a Berlin memorial plaque was affixed to the house at Afrikanische Straße 140b in Wedding in Berlin, where the couple lived from 1933 to 1946.{{cite web |title=Poelchaustraße |url=https://berlin.kauperts.de/Strassen/Poelchaustrasse-12681-Berlin#Geschichte |website=Kaupert |publisher=Luisenstädt Education Association |access-date=26 November 2021 |location=Berlin |language=German |archive-date=3 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240103190349/https://berlin.kauperts.de/Strassen/Poelchaustrasse-12681-Berlin#Geschichte |url-status=live }}
  • On 31 January 1992, Karl-Maron-Straße in the Marzahn district of Berlin, was given the name Poelchaustraße, as was the Berlin S-Bahn station named after the street.
  • On 29 April 1992, an asteroid discovered by Freimut Börngen at the Karl Schwarzschild Observatory was named Poelchau (10348) in honour of the couple.{{cite web |title=Discovery Circumstances: Numbered Minor Planets (10001)-(15000) |url=https://minorplanetcenter.net//iau/lists/NumberedMPs010001.html |website=Minor Planet Center |publisher=International Astronomical Association |access-date=26 November 2021 |archive-date=18 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210918064013/https://minorplanetcenter.net//iau/lists/NumberedMPs010001.html |url-status=live }}{{cite web |title=Citation for (10348) |url=https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/cgi-bin/showcitation.cgi?num=010348 |website=Minor Planet Center |publisher=International Astronomical Association |access-date=26 November 2021}}
  • On 18 September 2017, a memorial stele for Harald and Dorothee Poelchau was dedicated at the corner of Poelchaustraße, Märkische Allee in the Marzahn district of Berlin.{{cite web |title=Übergabe der Poelchau-Erinnerungsstele in Marzahn |url=https://www.berlin.de/ba-marzahn-hellersdorf/aktuelles/pressemitteilungen/2017/pressemitteilung.621000.php |access-date=26 November 2021 |language=German |date=28 August 2017 |publisher=BerlinOnline Stadtportal GmbH & Co. KG betrieben.A |website=Bezirksamt Marzahn-Hellersdorf |archive-date=26 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211126192044/https://www.berlin.de/ba-marzahn-hellersdorf/aktuelles/pressemitteilungen/2017/pressemitteilung.621000.php |url-status=live }}{{cite news |title=Stele erinnert an Eheleute Poelchau |url=https://www.nd-aktuell.de/artikel/1064180.stele-erinnert-an-eheleute-poelchau.html |website=Neues Deutschland |publisher=Neues Deutschland Druckerei und Verlags GmbH |access-date=26 November 2021 |location=Berlin |language=German |date=19 September 2017 |archive-date=26 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211126191258/https://www.nd-aktuell.de/artikel/1064180.stele-erinnert-an-eheleute-poelchau.html |url-status=live }}
  • On 5 October 2018, a memorial created by the artist Katrin Hattenhauer and the inmates of Tegel Prison on the prison walls, was inaugurated for Harald Poelchau.{{cite web |title=Denkmal für Widerstandskämpfer Harald Poelchau eingeweiht |url=https://www.berlin.de/sen/justva/presse/pressemitteilungen/2018/pressemitteilung.746206.php |website=Senatsverwaltung für Justiz, Verbraucherschutz und Antidiskriminierung |date=27 January 2020 |publisher=BerlinOnline Stadtportal GmbH & Co. KG betrieben.A |access-date=26 November 2021 |location=Berlin |language=German |archive-date=26 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211126191650/https://www.berlin.de/sen/justva/presse/pressemitteilungen/2018/pressemitteilung.746206.php |url-status=live }}

Bibliography

  • {{cite book |last1=Poelchau |first1=Harald |title=Das Menschenbild des Fürsorgerechts. Eine ethisch-soziologische Untersuchung. |date=1932 |publisher=Alfred Protte |location=Potsdam}}
  • {{cite book |last1=Poelchau |first1=Harald |title=Die letzten Stunden: Erinnerungen eines Gefängnispfarrers. |date=1949 |publisher=Volk u. Welt |location=Berlin|isbn=9783353000965 |oclc=74854117}}
  • {{cite book |last1=Poelchau |first1=Harald |title=Die Ordnung der Bedrängten – Erinnerungen des Gefängnisseelsorgers und Sozialpfarrers (1903-1972). |date=2004 |publisher=Hentrich & Hentrich |location=Teetz|isbn=3-933471-50-8|oclc=54825307}}

References

{{Reflist}}

Further reading

  • {{cite book |last= Bitter |first=Stephan |editor-last=Angermann |editor-first=Norbert |editor-last2=Garleff |editor-first2=Michael |editor-last3= Lenz|editor-first3=Wilhelm |chapter=Harald Poelchau als Theologe des 20. Jahrhunderts |title=Ostseeprovinzen, Baltische Staaten und das Nationale|location=Munich |publisher=LIT-Verlag |pages=513–534|date=2005|volume=14}}
  • {{cite book |last1=Harpprecht |first1=Klaus |title=Harald Poelchau : ein Leben im Widerstand |date=2004 |publisher=Rowohlt |location=Reinbek bei Hamburg |isbn=3-498-02969-X |edition=1st |language=German|oclc=54777865}}
  • {{cite news |last1=Harpprecht |first1=Klaus |title=Ein stiller Kämpfer |url=https://www.zeit.de/2003/41/Poelchau |access-date=26 November 2021 |agency=Die Zeit |issue=41 |publisher=Zeit-Verlag Gerd Bucerius GmbH & Co. KG |date=1 October 2003}}
  • {{cite book |last1=Kruger |first1=Ralph |title=Dr. Tegel - Miracle Worker of Berlin: Harald Poelchau in Nazi Germany |date=2013 |publisher=Tate Publishing |location=Mustang, OK |isbn=978-1-628-442-854}}
  • {{cite book |last1=Maser |first1=Werner |title=Pfarrer am Schafott der Nazis : der authentische Bericht des Mannes, der über 1000 Opfer des Hitler-Regimes auf ihrem Gang zum Henker begleitete |date=1982 |publisher=Moewig |location=Rastatt |isbn=3811831550 |edition=Originalausg |language=de|series=Moewig, 3155|oclc=611415237 }}
  • {{cite book |editor1-last=Mehlhorn |editor1-first=Ludwig |title=Ohr der Kirche, Mund der Stummen : Harald Poelchau : eine Tagung zu seinem 100. Geburtstag |date=2004 |publisher=Wichern-Verlag |location=Berlin |isbn=3-88981-166-3 |language=German|oclc=250024383}}
  • {{cite book |last1=Noss |first1=Peter |title=Biographisch-bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon / 7 Patočka, Jan bis Remachus. |date=1994 |publisher=Bautz |location=Herzberg |isbn=3-88309-048-4 |pages=769–775 |language=de |chapter=Poelchau, Harald|volume=7|oclc=61946381}}
  • {{cite book |title=Einzigartig : Dozenten, Studierende und Repräsentanten der Deutschen Hochschule für Politik (1920-1933) im Widerstand gegen den Nationalsozialismus : Begleitband zur Ausstellung |date=2008 |publisher=Lukas Verlag |location=Berlin |isbn=978-3-86732-032-0 |pages=302–309 |edition=1st |chapter=German|oclc=314107425|author1=Siegfried Mielke|author2=Marion Goers|author3=Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand (Berlin, Germany)|author4=Freie Universität Berlin}}
  • {{cite book |title=Biographisch-bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon / 7 Patočka, Jan bis Remachus. |date=1994 |publisher=Bautz |location=Hamm |isbn=3-88309-048-4 |pages=769–775|oclc=873794573|language=German|volume=7}}
  • {{cite book |last1=Schuppener |first1=Henriette |title="Nichts war umsonst" : Harald Poelchau und der deutsche Widerstand |date=2006 |publisher=LIT |location=Münster |isbn=3-8258-9315-4 |language=German|oclc=494666960}}
  • {{cite book |last1=Maier |first1=Hugo |title=Who is who der sozialen Arbeit |date=1998 |publisher=Lambertus |location=Freiburg |isbn=9783784110363 |pages=473–475|oclc=40933946}}
  • {{cite book |last1=Thorun |first1=Walter |editor1-last=Maier |editor1-first=Hugo |title=Who is who der sozialen Arbeit |date=1998 |publisher=Lambertus |location=Freiburg |isbn=3-7841-1036-3 |pages=473–475 |chapter=Poelchau, Harald}}