Wolfgang Hammerschmidt lived with his parents in Cottbus. He was classified as a “first-degree mischling” (half-breed). In 1944, aged 19, he was drafted into the Organisation Todt (OT) in Rixheim, Alsace. He fled and hid at his brother’s home in Berlin-Wilmersdorf.
In November 1944 Hammerschmidt was placed on a nationwide wanted list. With the aid of his brother’s janitor, he hid in the building’s basement. After that he had to change hiding places several times. Maria Gräfin von Maltzan sent him to the Swedish pastor Erik Myrgren from the Swedish Victoria congregation. Hammerschmidt was sheltered on the church’s premises. When he could no longer stay there, the pastor’s wife Agnes Wendland and her daughter Ruth took him in for a time. He also spent many nights on S-Bahn trains.
On February 24, 1945, Wolfgang Hammerschmidt was arrested in a bar and taken to the OT barracks camp in Eichkamp. He managed to escape on March 10, after which he slept in bombsites and basements. When he came down with a high fever, the veterinarian Maria Gräfin von Maltzan took him in and nursed him. He experienced his liberation in the home of Ruth Wendland on April 29, 1945.
After the war, Wolfgang Hammerschmidt became a dramaturg for the ZDF television station.
Letter from the local police to Wolfgang Hammerschmidt’s father, Cottbus, January 11, 1943. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
Declaration by Ruth Wendland identifying Wolfgang Hammerschmidt, Berlin, May 4, 1945. Source: Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand, Sammlung Wendland
The television dramaturg Wolfgang Hammerschmidt, 1975. Source: Privatbesitz/Private
Wolfgang Hammerschmidt, Erik Myrgren, and ZDF editor Heinar Michel (left to right) at the award ceremony for the Robert Geisendörfer Prize, Frankfurt am Main, 1986. Source: Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand, Sammlung Myrgren
