HAMPEL POSTCARD
Roger Moorhouse
Otto and Elise Hampel were supposed to be the sort of people who formed the very backbone of the Nazi national community – the Volksgemeinschaft. They were solid, ordinary, working-class Germans; he worked for Siemens in the Berlin suburb of Reinickendorf, she was a member of the National Socialist Women’s League.
However, something happened to change their reflexive loyalty to the Third Reich. In the summer of 1940, Elise’s younger brother Kurt was killed in the invasion of France. His death hit the childless couple hard, shaking them out of their complacency. That autumn, they began to actively resist Nazi rule.
With little money and no political connections, the Hampels did not have the means to make much of an impact, but they found a simple solution; they would write postcards with anti-Nazi slogans, which they would then distribute in public areas – such as stairwells – around their home suburb of Wedding in north Berlin. Their cards were crudely written, with sometimes disjointed, misspelled text. They often called for civil disobedience, or demanded that their fellow Germans ‘wake up’, or denounced the Nazi Winter Aid scheme as fraudulent.
This example – dating from 1941 – is typical. It begins with the heading “Free Press” – thereby proclaiming itself to be a counterpoint to Nazi propaganda – and goes on to demand a popular struggle against the “Hitler regime” (which is spelled wrong). On the reverse, the Nazis are described as “exploiters”, “riff-raff” and “murderers” who are dragging the German people “into the abyss”. “Down with the despicable Nazi regime!” it demands, “Down with the Hitlerite war!”
For almost two years, the Hampels continued their counter-propaganda campaign, writing over 200 postcards in the process. They left their last one on October 20, 1942, in Nöllendorfplatz, where they were spotted by a passer-by, who called the police. Under interrogation by the Berlin Gestapo both proclaimed that they were “happy” with the idea of protesting against the Nazi regime. They were less happy with what followed. On January 22, 1943, they were sentenced to death by the People’s Court for undermining military morale and preparing high treason. They were executed, by guillotine, on April 8, 1943.
The Hampels would have languished in total obscurity were it not for the fact that their story was picked up after the war by the novelist Hans Fallada, and – at the request of the incoming Communist administration in Berlin – was woven into what was intended to be the definitive novel of wartime resistance. The Hampels became the Quangels, the brother became a son – but otherwise Fallada remained reasonably true to the original. The book – published in English as “Alone in Berlin” – would be Fallada’s last, but would become a posthumous bestseller.
Aside from its remarkable publishing history, what is most astonishing about the case is the petty nature of the Hampels’ crime versus the severity of its punishment. It reminds us that totalitarian systems could tolerate no contradiction; there was no capacity for the airing of discontent – however justified – everyone had to march in lock-step. It also reminds us that, under such regimes, “resistance” could have an extremely broad definition – even extending to brave, futile acts of littering.
A chapter of "The Third Reich in 100 Objects" by Roger Moorhouse