Background
She was born in Berlin to the noble Zollikofer family, which for centuries had held Altenklingen Castle in the Swiss Thurgau region.
She was born in Berlin to the noble Zollikofer family, which for centuries had held Altenklingen Castle in the Swiss Thurgau region.
However, the couple divorced on 18 December 1930 by mutual agreement, and on 18 October 1932 she was married to the aircraft engineer Baron Josef von Berg, whereafter her name was actually Baroness Benita Ursula von Berg. He made her socialise with employees at the Ministry of the Reichswehr to obtain secret documents concerning the preparations for a German Invasion of Poland. One year later, on 16 February 1935, both women were found guilty of espionage and treason in a trial at the People"s Court and sentenced to death.
Two days later, after appeals for clemency had been turned down, they became two of the last people in Germany to be beheaded by axe, in the courtyard of Plötzensee Prison in Berlin.
In 1936, Adolf Hitler decreed that all future executions should be by the guillotine, although at least one other woman, the Romanian-Jewish communist Olga Bancic, did later die by the axe in Stuttgart in 1944. Benita"s divorced husband Richard von Falkenhayn was also arrested but had to be released after no evidence of his participation could be foundation
