Rudolf Pechel was a German liberal, journalist, publisher of Deutsche Rundschau, and resistance fighter against the Nazi regime. In 1950, he was the President of the German Academy in Language and Poetry. Pechel was well-known for both his writings on the German resistance movement and his literary publications. He earned a PhD in 1908 from the University of Berlin. From 1919, he edited Deutsche Rundschau, which he continued as a member of the resistance in Nazi Germany until he was interned for his work. Pechel spent the years between 1942 and 1945 in a concentration camp. His wife was also imprisoned for her role in the resistance movement. He later returned as editor of Deutsche Rundschau. After the Second World War, he worked with a new newspaper, the Neue Zeit. During this period, his journalism was committed to restoring Germany. In 1948, he compiled several of his essays from the Deutsche Rundschau into the book Between the Lines: A Magazine’s Struggle for Freedom and Justice. He received several awards, including the Great Cross of Merit of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (1952) and the Goethe badge of the city of Frankfurt am Main (1957). He died in 1961.
Pechel’s lectures centered on the philosophical problems of freedom in the face of tyranny, with reference to his experience as a member of the German resistance movement. Pechel claimed that there is a moral obligation to fight for freedom, and he believed it was important to share his experiences with non-German audience who had not experienced the loss of their freedom. In his first lecture, he explained the motives and moral obligation to resist the Nazis, and how he justified his resistance. Pechel outlined varied methods of resistance, from least noticeable (hiding jeopardized persons such as Jews) to the most noticeable (acts of forceful resistance). In his second lecture, “The German Opposition to Hitler,” Pechel gave an account of the German resistance and his own role in it as a publisher. He also explained the secret code used to communicate amongst the resistance. Pechel emphasized that resistance grew from all classes and peoples in Germany. In his third lecture, “From Resistance to the Struggle for Freedom of Today,” Pechel urged all free peoples to consider it their duty to work together to achieve freedom throughout the world. Focusing on the recent resistance in Eastern Europe to Communist rule, he admired the ability of youth raised under communism to understand and see the importance of resistance and work toward their own freedom. He urged Western individuals and governments to sympathize with the struggle in Eastern Europe, instead of writing it off as intra-Communist fighting.
While at Queen’s, he also gave a talk at Hillel about the Holocaust and the reparation of Jewish-German relations.
Listen to an excerpt from his lectures or read the full transcript below.