Hammerstein’s Daughters: An Aristocratic Family Caught Between Tradition and Resistance

Historical consensus is largely unanimous in viewing the German nobility under the Weimar Republic as completely enthralled by fascism. In this enlightening chronicle of General Kurt von Hammerstein and his family, Hammerstein’s Daughters provides an important counter example to this paradigm. A staunch opponent of Hitler and his policies, Kurt von Hammerstein’s daughters, Marie Louise, Maria Therese, and Helga, notably renounced their status and privileges, enabling resistance to the Nazi regime through their support of persecuted Jews and the KPD intelligence service. By documenting the heroic efforts of these overlooked women, Gottfried Paasche offers a fascinating view of his family’s personal history which spotlights an alternative story of tradition, resistance, adaptation, and rebellion under National Socialism.

Gottfried Paasche is Professor Emeritus and Senior Scholar in the Department of Sociology at York University in Toronto. Born in Japan, he emigrated to the US in 1948, studying at UC Berkeley, Antioch College and the University of Michigan, before accepting his position at York in 1961. His research on his family history has appeared in publications such as The New York Review of Books and Jacobin, as well as in the book, Hammersteins Töchter: Eine Adelsfamilie zwischen Tradition und Widerstand (Metropol Verlag, 2022).