Rolof, Helmut

Helmut Rolof was born on October 9, 1912 in Giessen, in the German Empire. His father, Gustav Rolof , a professor of history at the university, was an ardent opponent of Nazism . Helmut studied law in Leipzig and Hesse . In 1935, he got a job as a clerk in the Butzbach City Court. However, he soon decided to leave the profession, and entered the Berlin Academy of Music (University of Music) in the piano class, where he studied under Richard Rüssler . In 1938, in Berlin, he took private lessons from the famous pianist Vladimir Horbovsky .

Through the friends of John Graudenz and Helmut Himpel, he came into contact with the Berlin group of the Resistance movement, led by Harro Schulze-Boysen and Arvid Harnack , and in 1940 became a member of the Red Chapel organization. He was entrusted with a suitcase with a short-wave transmitter, which he hid behind a piano in his parents' apartment in Berlin.

On September 17, 1942, the Gestapo searched the apartment and found a suitcase. Helmut was arrested. For two weeks he was kept in the basement with his hands tied behind his back. During interrogation, he stated that he did not know about the anti-Nazi activities of his friends, and that they met solely for the purpose of listening to music. The Gestapo could not prove his complicity in the actions of the Red Chapel, because, despite the torture, not one of his comrades betrayed Helmut. He was transferred to a military prison in Spandau , and was released from prison on January 26, 1943 due to a lack of evidence.

In 1945, he joined the newly opened Academy of Music in Berlin, where he served as a professor since 1950 (since 1953 as an ordinary professor and since 1978 as an honorary professor). From 1970 to 1978 he was the director of this educational institution.

He made a series of recordings at Deutsche Grammophon .

From his wife, Inge Rolof, he had three children: Stefan (historian), Johann (pianist) and Ulrich (flutist).

Helmut Rolof died on September 2001 in Berlin. ^[one]

• Christine Fischer-Defoy: KUNST MACHT POLITIK Die Nazifizierung der Kunst- und Musikhochschulen in Berlin (S. 298), Berlin: Hochschule der Künste, Presse und Informationsstelle 1996 (Lizenz des Elefanten-Press-Verlags). ISBN 3-89462-048-X
• Gert Rosiejka: Die Rote Kapelle, “Landesverrat” als antifaschistischer Widerstand , ergebnisse-Verlag, Hamburg 1986, ISBN 3-925622-16-0
• Stefan Roloff: Die Rote Kapelle. Die Widerstandsgruppe im Dritten Reich und die Geschichte Helmut Roloffs. Ullstein-Verlag: Berlin 2004 ISBN 3-548-36669-4

• Helmut Rolof at the Red Chapel
• Helmut Rolof's last interview