Background
Bernhard Letterhaus was born in Barmen, on 10 July 1894.
Bernhard Letterhaus was born in Barmen, on 10 July 1894.
After serving in World War I, where he was severely wounded and awarded the Iron Cross (First Class), Letterhaus was involved in working for the Catholic labour unions.
In 1928 he became Union Secretary of the West German Catholic Workers’ Association and in the same year he was elected as a Centre Party member of the Prussian legislature. After 1933, Letterhaus encouraged underground resistance to the Nazi régime among Catholics. Called up to the army in 1939 he became a Captain in the Abwehr section of the OKW and strengthened his connections with other circles in the Resistance.
Arrested in the wake of the abortive July plot, he was sentenced to death by the People's Court on 13 November 1944. The next day Letterhaus was hanged for his part in the anti-Hitler conspiracy.