Wisconsin at Madison, where he met Mildred Fish, who became his
wife. With advanced degrees in law and economics, he entered the
Reich Economics Ministry in 1933.
The previous year, however, during a study tour of the Soviet
Union, he was recruited as a clandestine agent (code name cor-
sican). Known for his very serious and industrious demeanor,
Harnack proved to be a highly motivated agent, even joining the
Nazi Party in 1937 to add to his cover. Two years later, he began
to coordinate his efforts with Harro Schulze-Boysen based in the
Air Force Ministry. Despite her literary orientation, Mildred also
played a major role in his resistance and intelligence activities.
Yet once the Abwehr discovered the existence of the Rote Kapelle
in July 1942, their lives were doomed. On 7 September, Arvid
and Mildred Harnack were arrested and brought to trial several
months later. Harnack, defiantly proclaiming his allegiance to the
Soviet Union, was found guilty and executed at Plötzensee Prison
on 22 December. Although found complicit as well, Mildred was
retried at Adolf Hitler’s insistence because the death sentence had
not been initially imposed. She died on 16 February 1943. Both
became objects of veneration in the Soviet Union and the German
Democratic Republic.HASCHKA, LAWRENCE LEOPOLD (1749–1827). The author
of the Austrian national anthem and a spy in the service of the
Habsburgs, Lawrence Leopold Haschka was born in Vienna on 1
September 1749. As a youth, he joined the Society of Jesus but re-
signed following its suppression in 1773 and supported himself as a
journalist and poet. After a brief period of anticlericalism, he rallied
to the Habsburg cause in the wake of the French Revolution and was
recruited as an informer by Count Franz Josef von Saurau. The
creation of an Austrian national anthem also became the responsibil-
ity of Sarau, who commissioned Haschka to provide a patriotic text
to accompany the music of Franz Josef Haydn. The anthem was first
performed on 12 February 1797—the birthday of Emperor Francis
II—in theaters throughout Austria. Besides writing a large number
of odes, Haschka held several state posts before his death in Vienna
on 3 August 1827.
164 • HASCHKA, LAWRENCE LEOPOLD