Herbert Engelsing

Herbert Enke Wilhelm Engelsing (born 2 September 1904 in Overath, died 10 February 1962 in Konstanz) was a right-wing German Catholic lawyer in Berlin and resistance fighter against the Nazi regime.

When the Nazi regime began, Engelsing found himself unable to work in law.

Instead he found work in the German film industry, becoming a very successful film producer with Tobis Film.

In 1935, he became a lawyer at the Tobis Film company, after the Nazis took over the courts.

The couple were engaged in 1936, however Kohler was classified as half-Jewish or Mischling, a pejorative term.

When she went for her race characteristics exam, and although the photographer attempted to portray her as tall, blond and slim, she was refused permission to marry.

The couple began to look for help and received it, in the form of the actor Käthe Dorsch.

Dorsch was a childhood friend of Hermann Göring and through her advocacy managed to persuade Goring to present the couple's case to Hitler.

He was responsible for distribution the films, such as Willi Forst's upbeat comedy Tomfoolery (Allotria) produced in 1936.

Finally in September 1937, permission was received from Hitler and the couple married in England.

When Tobis was purged by the Nazis he was offered a position in 1937 as a director of production groups (Herstellungs-Gruppenleiter) that involved retraining.

Engelsing retained the right to practice as a lawyer, by joining the firm of Carl Langbehn, a well known and prominent law firm.

Engelsing's films include the Forst productions Serenade (1937) and the 1939 film Bel Ami, but also the Nazi propaganda films The Fox of Glenarvon (Der Fuchs von Glenarvon), My Life for Ireland (Mein Leben für Irland) and Jakko.

Between 1937 and 1944, Engelsing was executive producer on thirty-four films.

In 1938, Engelsing and his wife Ingeborg became close friends with Libertas and Harro Schulze-Boysen who were part of a resistance organisation against the Nazis.

Engelsing maintained a high profile in the film business and low profile in the resistance, but made his mark by introducing many new people into the organisation, brokering deals and providing secure locations for meetings.

In 1938, Engelsing married Ingeborg Engelsing née Kohler.

Kohler came from a prominent Berlin based legal family.

The couple had a son, Thomas (16 August 1938) and a daughter, Catherine (9 September 1941).

In 1938, the Engelsings met the couple Harro Schulze-Boysen and Libertas Schulze-Boysen at a party, held by a mutual friend.

From that point forward they became good friends and began to meet frequently.

Ingeborg became particularly close friends with Libertas, who confided in her about her slightly scandalous past; about her mother running away with her art tutor and her parents divorcing.

Ingeborg was largely kept in the dark about the groups resistance activities, as being both a young mother and Jewish made her particularly vulnerable.

In 1939, the Engelsing's introduced Maria Terwiel and her future fiancé Helmut Himpel into the group.

Himpel had been the Engelsings family dentist for a number of years.

His work was so good that Engelsing had recommended him to his film friends and that led to him to build a career as a dentist to German film stars.

Engelsing also introduced the industrialist Hugo Buschmann to the group.

Buschmann, an ardent anti-nazi, rented one of Engelsings apartments, in the house at 2 Bettinastraße in Grunewald that the Engelsings moved into in 1939.

In 1940, Adam and Greta Kuckhoff met Harro and Libertas Schulze-Boysen at the home of the Engelsing's. In 12–13 May 1940, the couple spent the weekend at Liebenberg castle, the family home of Libertas Schulze-Boysen, where they were joined by the Schumachers, Günther Weisenborn and other friends in the group.

He was sufficiently successful to maintain his own division in 1942 when Tobis Films lost its independence when it was merged with Terra, Bavaria Film and Wien-Film to form UFA GmbH by the Nazis.

Engelsing friends included the actors Heinz Rühmann and Theo Lingen Engelsing was close to many members of the Babelsberg film community, the home of the Babelsberg Studio.

Many of them opposed the Nazis and worked to help the victims of the regime.

Both Herbert and Ingeborg Engelsing were anti-Nazis who were active during the war in resisting the Nazis.

They collected and distributed food to dispossessed Jews and other people who didn't possess ration-cards and identity papers.

Beginning in 1943, the couple began to change their address, moving numerous times over the next two years, so that Ingeborg wasn't drafted into a Reich women's work unit (Berufsausbildungsprogramm Ost).

These women's work units were introduced by the Reich Minister of the Economy Walther Funk in 1943 and would have meant Ingeborg being assigned to a farming unit in occupied Poland.

He held a similar position at several film companies until the end of the war in 1945.

The couple survived the war and moved to the United States in 1947.

Engelsing did not receive permanent residency due to false accusations of being the head of a Soviet sleeper cell.

Engelsing studied law, literature and art history and earned a doctorate in law.