Ullrich, Volker Helmuth James von Moltke oder: Wie man den Mut zum Widerstand findet

Resistance to Hitler's dictatorship demanded everything a person had. It was a matter of life and death. It meant renouncing the temptations of a carefree family life and a promising career. It meant overcoming fear and preparing oneself every day for the fight against a regime that despised humanity. All this required great courage, great inner independence, a sure sense of right and wrong, and a reliable moral compass. Helmuth James von Moltke, born on 11 March 1907 on the family estate in Kreisau, Silesia, was one of the few who possessed these qualities. Unlike most members of the bourgeois-conservative and military opposition to Hitler, he was an uncompromising opponent of National Socialism from the very beginning. And he was the guiding spirit of the Kreisau Circle, the resistance group that, like no other, agreed on a detailed programme for a new order after Hitler in a years-long, laborious discussion process. How did Moltke become the man he was? Where did he find the strength and courage to resist? Volker Ullrich asks these questions in his biography and remembers a man whose example has more to say to our times than we might like.