1. Hans-Wedigo Robert Coppi was a German resistance fighter against the Nazis.
21 Facts About Hans Coppi
1. 2.
Hans Coppi was a member of a Berlin-based anti-fascist resistance group that was later called the Red Orchestra by the Gestapo.
3.
Hans Coppi's parents were Robert Coppi, a house painter who specialised in lacquer cutting and gilding and Frieda nee Schon, a seamstress and dressmaker who worked to supplement the family income.
4.
From 1929 to 1932, Hans Coppi attended the Schulfarm Scharfenberg, a left-wing progressive "school-farm" on the island of Scharfenberg in Lake Tegel in Berlin.
5.
In November 1932, Hans Coppi was expelled from the Scharfenberg school after supporting students who had watched Georg Wilhelm Pabst's banned Franco-German solidarity film Kameradschaft and subsequently was transferred to the Berliner Lessing-Gymnasium, a gymnasium in the Wedding area of Mitte, Berlin.
6.
In February 1933, the Hans Coppi family moved to the newly created garden-colony known as Am Waldessaum in Borsigwalde.
7.
Hans Coppi went into hiding and began to live an illegal existence.
8.
In February 1934 Hans Coppi was arrested by the Gestapo for posting illegal leaflets and sent to Oranienburg concentration camp for two months during pre-trial detention, before being sentenced for one year imprisonment in juvenile detention.
9.
In 1935, Hans Coppi met Hilde Hans Coppi nee Rake, a student and receptionist.
10.
Hans Coppi first worked in his mother's ice-cream parlour then as a delivery boy.
11.
In November 1938, Hans Coppi found stable employment as a lathe operator in a small engineering factory while training to be a technician during evening class.
12.
At the start of World War II, Hans Coppi was conscripted, but was classed as "Unworthy of military service" due to his background.
13.
On 14 June 1941, Hans Coppi married Hilde Hans Coppi who at the time worked as a payroll accountant in the Reichsversicherungsanstalt.
14.
Schulze-Boysen persuaded Hans Coppi to establish a radio link to the Soviet Union for the resistance organisation.
15.
Karl Behrens volunteered to deliver the coded message to Hans Coppi and be a backup operator.
16.
Hans Coppi collected the radio from a contact on underground station.
17.
On 26 June 1941, Hans Coppi began transmitting and sent the greeting, "1000 Grusse an alle Freunde".
18.
Hans Coppi failed to send any other messages during that night due to inexperience and dead batteries.
19.
Schulze secured another radio transmitter of the most modern type for Hans Coppi and trained him in its use.
20.
Hans Coppi made several more attempts to contact Soviet intelligence, first from his own apartment.
21.
Three days later, Hans Coppi was hanged along with fellow resistance members Arvid Harnack and Harro Schulze-Boysen at Plotzensee Prison in Berlin.