All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days summary

By the start of 1930, Mildred and Arvid had some reasons to feel hopeful about the future. While disparity still existed, the economy had been on the mend since 1923. Plus, there were the tenets of the 1919 Weimar Constitution, which in many ways was a progressive document that guaranteed a lot of freedoms and equalities between the sexes. Women had the right to vote, censorship was largely banned, and there was religious freedom – all of which had brought about an artistic and intellectual renaissance in the country.

But, on the other hand, there was no ignoring the pulse of the street: an underlying tension was brewing. One German writer in Berlin explained that despite the “extraordinary freedoms,” there was a persistent feeling that “someday all of this will suddenly burst apart.”

There were some warning signs about the Nazi party’s true intentions. By 1932, Hitler had already published his manifesto, Mein Kampf. Though few people had actually read it, both the left- and right-wing press had dismissed it as little more than unhinged ravings. Still, it did offer insight into the antidemocratic motivations behind the Nazi party, including Hitler’s rampant anti-Semitism.

In 1932, the Münchener Post published even more worrying news about Hitler’s agenda: a story about the Nazi Party’s “Cell G,” a secret death squad created to murder Hitler’s enemies. Given alarming reports like these, as well as the mockery that Hitler had faced in the press, it wasn’t surprising that the Nazi party quickly worked to outlaw free press and free speech.

Once she’d left the University of Berlin, Mildred didn’t stay jobless for long. She soon found work teaching English at the Berlin Night School for Adults – or the BAG, as it was known by locals. In a way, the job suited Mildred. Both she and Arvid were dedicated to helping the working class, and BAG students were exactly that. Many were unemployed, some were Jewish, and more than a few were unhappy about the recent political shift in Germany. The school itself was pioneering; before it opened, the only schools for working-class adults had been vocational and trade schools. The BAG wanted to help people escape poverty by teaching them things like history, philosophy, literature, and science – things that could potentially broaden their horizons.

At the BAG, Mildred continued to speak openly about politics, much to the surprise of some students. Along with discussions about Ralph Waldo Emerson, Shakespeare, and Charles Dickens, she sang folk songs like “John Brown’s Body,” about the abolitionist who died trying to free slaves in the American South. And she wasn’t afraid to make connections with current events in Germany; a discussion about slavery could lead to her asking a student, “Do you believe Hitler should be chancellor?”

 In 1933, the Nazi government rounded up 20,000 political prisoners. Like many other people, Mildred and Arvid asked themselves, Should we stay or should we go? After all, with Arvid’s ties to Moscow, he could have easily been branded a communist and become a prisoner himself. Even so, they decided to stay and fight for as long as they could. They were at the center of the Circle, organizing leaflet campaigns to try and inspire people to rise up against the Nazi government.

Meanwhile, new and increasingly oppressive laws kept getting passed. On September 15, 1935, the “Reich Citizenship Law” and the “Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor” stripped Jewish people of their citizenship as well as their civil and human rights. Suddenly, it was against the law for a Jewish person to marry or have sex with a non-Jewish person. The growing marginalization, segregation, and confinement were all leading up to the larger Nazi plan of extermination.

The Circle’s efforts didn’t go unnoticed. In 1934 alone, the Gestapo confiscated more than a million of their leaflets. But by that time, more resistance groups had emerged. 

One important figure in the Berlin resistance was Harro Schulze-Boysen, a young officer in the Ministry of Aviation, who led the Gegner Kreis resistance group. Another, former magazine editor Adam Kuckhoff, led a small group called Tat Kreis. And John Rittmeister, a neurologist, led one called Rittmeister Kreis. These were just a few of the resistance groups in Berlin that occasionally interconnected with Mildred and Arvid’s own Circle.

Hitler wanted “peace.” That’s what he said again and again when asked about why he was defying the orders of the WWI armistice that forbade Germany from stockpiling arms, building tanks, and making weapons of war. Of course, he was lying through his teeth. In their positions at the finance and aviation ministries, both Arvid and Harro Schulze-Boysen could see that the Führer was gearing up for a large-scale war. 

The Soviet Union was becoming concerned; it wanted good intel. Alexander Hirschfeld, an old friend of Arvid’s from his days in ARPLAN, was working for Moscow Center – the Soviet foreign intelligence agency’s headquarters. Hirschfeld arrived in Berlin and tried to recruit Arvid to be a Soviet agent, but Arvid refused – for the most part. He wouldn’t take any money, and he wouldn’t be controlled or answerable to Moscow Center, but he would provide information.

As the war escalated, the leaflet campaign continued, with anti-Nazi flyers urging arms factory workers to sabotage ammunitions and bombs. Some resistance groups also got more aggressive, targeting the railroads with explosives. And as early as 1938, high-ranking members of the German and Austrian military plotted ways to kill Hitler. Their efforts became known as the Oster Conspiracy, named after General Hans Oster, one of the group’s masterminds. Their efforts culminated in Operation Valkyrie, an attempt to assassinate Hitler by planting a bomb that, in the end, only partially detonated and left Hitler with minor wounds. 

So many executions took place in Nazi Germany that beheadings were reintroduced. At one prison in Berlin in 1935, there were over 80 beheadings. These were performed with an axe, until a steel guillotine was brought in to make the process more clean and efficient. Execution was the threat that loomed large over the Berlin resistance – and it became all too real when, on July 14, 1942, Nazi decoders cracked the message. The names and addresses of three key resistance leaders were laid bare.

After arresting 76 people who would stand trial, the Gestapo branded them the Red Orchestra – even though the various resistance groups in Berlin were never that organized. On December 15, 1942, Mildred and Arvid Harnack began a trial that lasted four days. It was the first time they’d seen each other in months. And when the trial ended, it became the last. While they weren’t allowed to speak to each other, Arvid was able to get a letter passed along to Mildred. It contained his last words.

The trial was mostly a formality – Hitler had the final say when it came to sentencing. Oddly enough, he believed that women should be beheaded rather than hung, so many women in the resistance died this way.