Freya von Moltke

A Lawyer from Cologne

Freya von Moltke, born in 1911, grew up in Cologne as the daughter of banker Carl Theodor Deichmann and his wife Ada. After completing secondary school, she first attended an agricultural school for women before later obtaining her high school diploma. She then studied law at the University of Cologne and earned her doctorate from the University of Berlin (now Humboldt University) in 1935. In 1929, she met Helmuth James von Moltke at Lake Grundlsee in Austria.

Her Relationship with Kreisau

Freya von Moltke’s lifelong connection to Kreisau was sparked in 1930 during her first visit there. A year later, she and Helmuth married in Cologne. After the death of her mother-in-law, Dorothy von Moltke, in 1935, Freya accepted responsibility for managing the large Kreisau estate. During the Nazi regime, the estate became a refuge for friends who had been bombed out of their homes or persecuted. Under Freya’s supervision and care, Kreisau became a central meeting point for resistance activities against the Nazis.

Freya’s Resistance against National Socialism

Helmuth James von Moltke and Peter Graf Yorck von Wartenburg established a resistance group early on, uniting people from diverse social, political, and religious backgrounds in opposition to the Nazi dictatorship. Later known as the Kreisauer Kreis (Kreisau Circle), this group developed plans during three meetings held in Kreisau in 1942 and 1943 for rebuilding a democratic Germany deeply rooted within Europe after the end of National Socialism.

Freya’s husband, Helmuth James von Moltke, along with seven other members of the Kreisauer Kreis, was sentenced to death by the Nazi judiciary for his role in the resistance and was executed in Berlin-Plötzensee. Freya von Moltke, herself a member of the Kreisauer Kreis, supported her husband during their resistance activities and his imprisonment. Their correspondence is an invaluable testament to their resistance against the Nazi regime.

• “Every form and every act of resistance against National Socialism was worthwhile. None of it was in vain. Every act against the blatant injustice of the Nazi dictatorship mattered. It was worth it because the German resistance kept European humanity alive within Germany.”

  Freya von Moltke

• „And then what? Dealing with this question, and the belief that there would indeed be a ‘later,’ regardless of how it might unfold, gave many people at the time the courage to go on living. […] Back then, it was a true act of faith to contemplate the future, an act of self-preservation and the preservation of one’s own integrity.”

  Freya von Moltke

• „When everyone thinks alike, they gather around a table and write it down; that isn’t much. Today, what matters is that people who think differently engage in dialogue—this was something the Kreisauer Kreis excelled in.”

  Freya von Moltke

• “Every day, Kreisau fulfils the mission it was destined for: bringing youth together on European soil. Kreisau lives!”

  Freya von Moltke