Adam von Trott was a German diplomat who used his many travels to gain foreign
support against Hitler beginning in 1939. The majority of foreign officials that Von
Trott spoke with treated him with distrust believing him to be a German spy or
would not listen to him at all. The reason for this was three fold. The first was that
Germans were well known to take jobs and orders very seriously so to many, the
idea that a German would be working against Hitler was seen as being impossible.
The second was because Von Trott was very patriot and had a deep love for his
country, while being firmly against Hitler and his regime. The third reason why
many foreign politicians did not work with him was not only was he not trusted, but
some high ranking foreign individuals tended to not want to listen to him. For many,
the ultimate goal was the complete and unconditional surrender of Germany. Von
Trott sought the end of Hitler’s rule and of the Reich, and to protect Germany.
Because of this some were uninterested in speaking to him since he had little
information he could give. Despite this difficulty, Von Trott used his travels to
establish many contacts throughout the world in countries such as The United
States of America, China, India, Britain, and others.
Von Trott had spent six months in The United States of America and fourteen
months in China when he saw that his work in gaining support against Hitler was
not working, he returned to Germany to join the Nazi Party so he could use the party
information to assist his goals. In 1940 Von Trott was appointed to the German
Foreign office and began to work under Admiral Canaris while seeking to establish
connections in other nations who would be willing to listen. During this time, Von
Trott also worked to find German military officers who were against the Reich. This
lead him to Von Stauffenberg and the Kreisau Circle which was a group of people
under the leadership of Moltke who worked towards fighting against the Reich. He
acted as the foreign advisor to the Kreisau Circle. The work of Von Trot continued
up until he was arrested after the assassination attempt of Hitler carried out by von
Stauffenberg and the rest of the Kreisau Circle. He was executed by hanging