Jens Jessen

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Jens Jessen (c. 1930)

Jens Peter Jessen (11 December 1895 – 30 November 1944) was a German economist. Jessen initially made a career as a committed National Socialist during the Third Empire, but later joined the resistance against the Hitler regime. After the failed 20 July plot, he was sentenced to death by the People's Court and hanged.

Biography

Jens Peter Jessen born at Tingleff, the fifth of ten children born to the landowner Jens Ratenburg Jessen and his wife Maria. He attended the Alte Gymnasium in Flensburg from 1906. After leaving school, he volunteered for the First World War in 1914 and returned seriously wounded as a lieutenant in the reserves. In 1917, Jessen began studying political science at Kiel University under Bernhard Harms, but also studied at the Colonial Institute of the University of Hamburg and at Heidelberg University. In July 1920, he obtained his doctorate in political science under Richard Passow with the topic Die Entstehung und Entwicklung der Gutswirtschaft in Schleswig-Holstein bis zum Beginn der Agrarreformen (The Emergence and Development of the Estate Economy in Schleswig-Holstein up to the Beginning of the Agricultural Reforms). This was followed in August 1920 by the first state law examination at the Higher Regional Court of Kiel and finally, in October 1920, by the dissertation Der Handelskauf nach nordischem Recht (The Commercial Purchase under Nordic Law). After spending time abroad in Copenhagen as a bank employee and in Buenos Aires as director of a foreign trade company, he embarked on an academic career in 1927.

Jessen completed his habilitation at Georgia Augusta in early 1928 with a thesis on Agrarprobleme in Argentinien (Agricultural Problems in Argentina). In the following years, he taught as a private lecturer at the Faculty of Law and Political Science at Göttingen University. Due to his sympathies for National Socialism, he came into contact with party members during this time, including the Gauleiter of Southern Hanover-Braunschweig and later Reich Minister for Science, Education and National Education Bernhard Rust. He joined the NSDAP in 1930. From 1931, Jessen worked in the Empire leadership of the NSDAP in Munich in the economic policy department of the NSDAP, which had been founded by Otto Wagener in 1930. In 1932, he was appointed associate professor in Göttingen.

From the spring of 1933, many professors at Kiel University were forcibly expelled from their posts as part of the National Socialist Gleichschaltung programme because of their political views or racial origins. Their posts were filled by National Socialist-minded, mostly young academics. In the summer semester of 1933, Jens Jessen took over a professorship in Kiel on a deputy basis, and in September he was finally appointed full professor of finance. This position had previously been held by Julius Landmann until his death in 1931. At the same time, Jessen was appointed as the successor to Bernhard Harms, head of the Institute for World Economics and Maritime Transport, who had been removed from his posts. Prior to this, Jessen had brought himself to the attention of the Imperial Minister of Education, Rust, with a letter. In addition, Harms, who feared his dismissal by the new rulers and was worried about the future of his institute, had suggested Jessen as his successor in an exchange of letters with the Prussian Finance Minister Johannes Popitz.

Jessen soon got to know Popitz personally and was friends with him from then on. However, Jessen's career in Kiel was already over in February 1934. The institute's assistant director Otto Ohlendorf, a party member since 1925, had written a negative report on statements made by the Berlin ministerial councillor in the Prussian Ministry of Culture and party comrade Joachim Haupt, which Jessen had forwarded unchecked to NSDAP authorities. In lectures at a training camp, Haupt is said to have spoken disparagingly about the rector of Kiel University and the Minister of the Interior, Wilhelm Frick. However, as an old fighter, Haupt was very influential in the NSDAP and the ministry and took harsh action against this denunciation. A police investigation was initiated against Jessen and Ohlendorf for slandering a member of the Reich government, during which several house searches were carried out and Jessen was also briefly arrested. At the end of February 1934, Jessen had to take a semester's leave of absence. A new head of the Institute for World Economics was appointed in July. On 4 August, Jessen was transferred to the University of Marburg as Professor of Political Science.

Jessen was one of the founding members of the Hans Frank's Academy for German Law in 1933. In April 1935, Jessen was then appointed full professor of political science and economics at the Berlin School of Economics.

In Berlin in 1935, he helped to shape the National Socialist changes to the study of economics and published the textbook Volk und Wirtschaft, which was then heavily criticised by Ottokar Lorenz in the Völkischer Beobachter. In the section "The national economy in the all-encompassing movement of National Socialism", in which he described the development of National Socialism up to the Empire and also mentioned the Röhm revolt, Jessen had misrepresented the "leader principle" from the perspective of the party leadership. The publishing house Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt withdrew the book and published a second edition modified by Jessen at the beginning of 1936. In this new edition, Jessen no longer mentioned the Röhm coup, but focussed instead on the abilities and merits of Adolf Hitler and the views of the NSDAP's chief propagandist Alfred Rosenberg.

In the summer of 1936, Jessen was transferred to Berlin University, where he was to become Managing Director of the Department of Political Science and Statistics, supported by Johannes Popitz. However, a check was carried out on his party membership. This allegedly revealed that Jessen had never joined the party despite statements to the contrary. It was only after favourable assurances, including from Otto Wagener, as well as interventions by Popitz and Otto Ohlendorf, now a consultant in the SD's main office, that Jessen became head of the seminar in February 1939. In 1939, he became editor of the specialised journal Schmollers Jahrbuch für Gesetzgebung, Verwaltung und Volkswirtschaft. In the same year, he was active within the Academy for German Law with a statement on the renewed reform of the study of economics. In 1940, he took over the management of Class IV at the Academy, which was tasked with answering current economic policy questions and considering reorganisation plans for the post-war period. The department was closed in March 1943 as it was not considered important for the war effort. Some members continued to meet in the Erwin von Beckerath working group.

Jessen was invited to the Wednesday Society on 29 November 1939 by Popitz as the successor to the late Harms and thus came into contact with the resistance group around Ludwig Beck and Ulrich von Hassell as well as the Kreisau Circle. Jessen became an active member of the resistance movement.

From 1941, the reserve captain was appointed head of department on the staff of the General Quartermaster of the Army, Eduard Wagner. He was in charge of the Passport Office, which from 1942 was an independent office (Qu 6) in the Bendlerblock in Berlin. Among other things, Jessen was Werner von Haeften's superior until autumn 1943. He organised travel opportunities for the resisters and was the contact person between the conspirators. Claus von Stauffenberg got to know Jessen in the summer of 1942 and was often visited by him at home.

In addition, a meeting with Falk Harnack took place in Jessen's office at around 12 noon on 22 December 1942 through the mediation of his adjutant, First Lieutenant Reinhard Limbach, in which Jessen considered bringing about a stay of execution for the "Red Orchestra" partisan, Arvid Harnack, as a future negotiating partner with the Soviets, by influencing Imperial Economics Minister Walther Funk. Jessen then immediately approached Funk together with General Hans Oster, but he did nothing to save Arvid Harnack.

Jessen's actual role in the underground movement has been underestimated or not portrayed in many accounts of 20 July 1944. The fact that he was a mastermind of the assassination attempt can be seen in the diary of co-conspirator Ulrich von Hassell: For 20 April 1943, there is an entry there by Ilse von Hassell: "That evening, Jessen said desperately: 'It would be so easy in theory to eliminate this criminal (Hitler): The presenting officer brings in a folder containing explosives, puts the folder on Hitler's desk, lets himself be taken out for a prearranged phone call, and Hitler is eliminated!'" In the appendix to the diary, the editor Wolf Ulrich von Hassell writes: "...Professor Peter Jens Jessen was the last of this circle to be taken by the Gestapo. He was still severely weakened by his car accident and could not walk alone. I visited him several times before his arrest. He was really desperate to be taken to his comrades. On the eve of 20 July, Count Stauffenberg had visited him with the main protagonists to go over the plans again. The Gestapo probably never learnt about this, just as they never really understood the background to this attempted coup. They worked with terror, with criminalistic techniques, but without any real insight or intelligence."

After the failed assassination attempt of Hitler on 20 July 1944, an arrest warrant was issued for Jessen on 11 October. On 7 November 1944, he was sentenced to death by the People's Court presided over by Roland Freisler for "failure to report a highly treasonous undertaking" and hanged in Plötzensee on 30 November.

Jessen's body was cremated after his execution. The ashes — like those of other fellow partisans — were scattered outside Berlin. There is a memorial stone in Tingleff which complements the grave of the Jessen family from Stoltelund. The information in the newspaper Der Nordschleswiger, which refers to a "grave", is misleading.

After the end of the war, several of Jessen's works were placed on the list of literature to be eliminated in the Soviet Occupation Zone.

Honours

The Alte Gymnasium in Flensburg gave the school's own villa in the neighbourhood the name Jens-Jessen-Haus in honour of the former pupil. At the same time, the building was given a memorial plaque in honour of Jens Jessen. The house was sold around 2010. The memorial was no longer maintained for a while. The memorial plaque was temporarily removed. However, the villa, which retained its name Jens Jessen House, was finally restored in 2013.

Private life

Jessen had been married to Käthe Scheffer since 1921 and had four sons with her. His son Eike Jessen became a professor of computer science and was head of the German Research Network (DFN) for many years; his grandson Jens Jessen became a journalist and was head of the Zeit-Feuilleton for many years.

See also

• National economy (Germany)

Works

• "Die wirtschaftliche Lage Nordschleswigs und die Abtretung". In: Schleswig-holsteinisches Jahrbuch (1921), pp. 37–39.
• Selbsthilfe oder Untergang. Eine Schicksalsfrage für die deutsche Nation (1931; with Bruno Karl August Jung)
• Volk und Wirtschaft (1935; revised edition 1936)
• Deutsche Finanzwirtschaft. Einschließlich Übersicht über die Geschichte der deutschen Finanzwirtschaft (1937)
• Grundlagen der Volkswirtschaftspolitik (1937)
• Der Handel als volkswirtschaftliche Aufgabe. Ein Beitrag zur Lehre vom Binnenhandel (1940)

References

• Braeuer, Walter (1974). "Jessen, Jens". In: Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). 10. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, p. 424.
• Gessner, Dieter (2021). "„Völkische“ Kapitalismuskritik – der Volkswirt Jens Jessen (1895–1944)," Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft, Vol. LXIX, No. 3, pp. 260–71.
• Hassell, Ulrich von (1946). Vom andern Deutschland: aus den nachgelassenen Tagebüchern 1938–1944. Zürich: Atlantis-Verlag.
• Heesch, Volker (22. August 2008). "Der Planer des gescheiterten Hitler-Attentats," Schleswig-Holsteinische Zeitung, SHZ.
• Scheel, Heinrich (1985). "Die Rote Kapelle und der 20. Juli 1944," Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft, No. 33 (1–6), p. 330.
• Schmölders, Günther (1949). "In Memoriam Jens Peter Jessen," Schmollers Jahrbuch für Gesetzgebung, Verwaltung und Volkswirtschaft, Vol. LXIX, p. 3.
• Schlüter-Ahrens, Regina (2001). Der Volkswirt Jens Jessen: Leben und Werk. Marburg: Metropolis.
• Thun-Hohenstein, Romedio Galeazzo Graf von (1994). Der Verschwörer: General Oster und die Militäropposition. Berlin: 1982, [DTV, München 1994], p. 221.

External links

• Jessen, Jens Peter
• Works by Jens Jessen at German National Library