Erwin Planck

Erwin Planck (12 March 1893 – 23 January 1945) was a German politician, and a resistance fighter in the Third Reich.

Born in Berlin, Erwin Planck was the fourth child of theoretical physicist Max Planck and his first wife. After his Abitur in 1911, Planck went into the military and pursued a career as an officer. In the First World War, Erwin rather quickly found himself a prisoner of the French in 1914. After the war ended Erwin came back to Germany, where he was active on the General Staff. While there he would also meet Major Kurt von Schleicher for the first time, someone who became a lifelong friend of his.

Schleicher, who headed the political branch, called Planck into the Reich Defence Ministry in 1920 and sent him as a liaison man to the Reich Chancellery, where he also became a government advisor after he left the Reichswehr in 1926.

In 1932, he became a deputy minister under Franz von Papen, and later also Rüdiger Schleicher in the Reich Chancellor's Office.

After Hitler seized power in 1933, Planck left government work and went to East Asia for a year. Shortly after he came back to Germany, Schleicher was shot by the Gestapo. Planck tried in vain to get an explanation for his friend's murder.

In 1936, Planck changed career paths and went into business, becoming a leading employee at the Otto-Wolff-Konzern, a large conglomerate, in Cologne. In 1939, he took over leadership of the Berlin branch office.

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