Karl Erich Rudolf Formis was a German engineer and radio engineer at the Suddeutsche Rundfunk AG subsidiary of Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft.
22 Facts About Rudolf Formis
1.
2.
Rudolf Formis was murdered by the Sicherheitsdienst on the orders of Reinhard Heydrich.
3.
Rudolf Formis's grandfather, Christian Friedrich von Leins, was a well-known architect, who designed the Villa Berg in Stuttgart, among others.
4.
In World War I, Rudolf Formis belonged to the German Asia Corps and fought alongside Ottoman Empire troops in Arabia.
5.
Rudolf Formis worked at the company for over 10 years and reached the position of technical director for South German Radio.
6.
In 1925 Rudolf Formis introduced the German amateur radio designation DE.
7.
Rudolf Formis's call sign as a broadcast amateur was K-Y4.
8.
From January 1932 Rudolf Formis was head of the SURAG technical department.
9.
Rudolf Formis gave a speech in support of the National Socialists without previously being publicly known as a national socialist, and turned against the previous director Bofinger.
10.
Rudolf Formis later came into conflict with the Nazis, as his grandmother, the wife of Christian Friedrich von Leins, was Jewish.
11.
In Prague, Rudolf Formis joined the Black Front, an opposition group run by Otto Strasser that had split from the National Socialists.
12.
Rudolf Formis directed the distribution of Strasser's newspaper, Die Deutsche Revolution and built an underground broadcasting station in the former Hotel Zahori near Slapy nad Vltavou in November 1934.
13.
The shortwave transmitter had been built by Rudolf Formis and was brought from his Stuttgart workshop to Czechoslovakia by himself or his friends.
14.
Rudolf Formis's transmitter was the first German clandestine radio transmitter to be detected by the Nazis.
15.
Rudolf Formis used similar operating frequencies to the Konigs Wusterhausen radio transmitter and operated in a manner that made receivers believe the signal was transmitted from Berlin.
16.
Rudolf Formis drew his information from press compilations of the Prague office of the Black Front and from self-scanned broadcasts.
17.
Rudolf Formis had tuned the antenna of the transmitter so most of the power went up into the sky.
18.
On 23 January 1935, contrary to the plan, Rudolf Formis stayed in the broadcasting room and fired at Naujocks when he entered.
19.
Rudolf Formis was shot dead in the subsequent firefight, killed by two pistol shots.
20.
Rudolf Formis's grave is still well tended to this day.
21.
Rudolf Formis is considered a hero within the community of amateur Czech radio operators.
22.
The radio station used by Rudolf Formis was preserved for posterity.