Ludwig von Brockdorff (1881-1938) Erika von Spalding (1892–1940)
Cay-Hugo Graf von Brockdorff, known as Cay von Brockdorff (9 February 1915 - 17 January 1999) was a German sculptor and art historian who after 1933 became an anti-Nazi resistance activist.[1]
In 1937, he married Erika Schönfeldt (1911-1943). Their daughter Saskia was born towards the end of October 1937.[4] In 1939 he linked up with Hans Coppi who around this time became a member of the so-called Rote Kapelle (inaccurately but conventionally translated into English as "Red Orchestra") resistance group. Erika von Brockdorff would later put her Berlin apartment at the disposal of Coppi for use as a radio communication centre, connecting with Moscow, as a result of which she was arrested and, on 13 May 1943, executed.[5] Meanwhile, war having broken out in September 1939, Cay von Brockdorff found himself serving in the army between July and October 1940, and again between April 1941 and October 1942.[1]
In 1942, while serving on the Russian Front, von Brockdorff was arrested because of his involvement in the Red Orchestra group. He was found guilty of "preparing to commit high treason" and sentenced to a four year prison term before being transferred to serve in a punishment battalion. The time-lines are not entirely clear, but it does appear he never had the chance to communicate with his wife before she died, although a short moving letter of valediction that she wrote to him shortly before her execution does survive.[6] Between 1943 and November 1946 Cay von Brockdorff was held by the British military authorities as a prisoner of war in Italy.[1]
Between 1947 and 1949 Brockdorff was employed as a senior official in the "German Administration for People's Education" ("Deutschen Verwaltung für Volksbildung"). During this period, in 1948, he married the author and former resistance activistEva Lippold (born Eva Rutkowskaya). They set up home together at Kallinchen near Zossen, a short distance to the south of Berlin. In 1950 Cay von Brockdorff received a doctorate.[1]
Towards the end of the 1950s he was excluded from the party.[1]
Output
Cay von Brockdorff wrote a number of books on art history, notably "Soviet Artists, building peace" (1952), "Soviet and pre-revolutionary Russian art" (1953 ), "German Painting" (1954) and "Finnish graphic art" (1954).
^Hans-Jürgen Bracker. "Graf von Brockdorff, Cay-Lorenz". Anthroposophie im 20. Jahrhundert, Biographien Dokumentation. Forschungsstelle Kultimpuls, Dornach (CH). Archived from the original on 2 January 2019. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
^ ab"Von der DDR über Peru in die Bundesrepublik". Erinnerung an eine deutsch-deutsche Wanderungsgeschichte zum 25. Tag der Deutschen Einheit. Deutsches Auswandererhaus Bremerhaven. Archived from the original on 7 November 2017. Retrieved 2 November 2017.