Theodor Korselt Ernst Julius Theodor Korselt ( 24 November 1891 , Annaberg - Buchholz , Kingdom of Saxony – 25 August 1943 ) was a German jurist , genealogist , and " homeland researcher " ( " Heimatforscher " ) . The government councillor was sentenced to death for negatively influencing Germany ' s fighting forces – an offence called " Wehrkraftzersetzung " in German – after he publicly uttered his opinion that Hitler ' s resignation was the only way to avoid defeat . Life . Korselt came from a long - established family from Mittelherwigsdorf . His father , Prof . Dr . Ernst Julius Korselt , was the headteacher at the " Realgymnasium " in Zittau . His mother Elisabeth , née Koch , was Theodor Koch ' s daughter . He himself was a jurist , a member of the " Landtag " , the mayor and a freeman of Buchholz , Kingdom of Saxony . Theodor Korselt was the eldest of four siblings and his parents ' only son . He grew up in Buchholz and went to the " Realgymnasium " in the neighbourhood of Annaberg , where his father had been teaching since 1886 . After finishing school , he studied law and economics at the universities of Leipzig and Geneva . After his father ' s appointment as headteacher at the " Realgymnasium " in Zittau , his parents and sisters moved back to his father ' s hometown in 1911 . After graduating with a doctorate , he had himself trained as an infantry man in Zittau , and fought as a volunteer in the First World War on the Western Front , where he was gravely wounded . Later , Korselt was employed in the administrative service . After the War , the jurist worked as an official of the higher state service in various government offices in Berlin , Leipzig , Chemnitz , Dresden , Freiberg and Rostock , where he was a government councillor in the war damage office . Besides his professional activities , Korselt had fostered since his time in university an interest in his family ' s and his homeland ' s history , and he published many written works . After the Nazis seized power in 1933 , it became apparent to Korselt that to further his career , he would need to join the NSDAP . In his 1934 application to join the Party , Korselt wrote that he would undertake " to further represent his conservative , aristocratic view of the state and the furthering of individualism . " His application to join the Party was turned down . After Germany occupied France came Korselt ' s deployment in the war administration service , from which he was soon recalled after allegations of fraternizing with the local people . The " Crime " . After Benito Mussolini was deposed on 25 July 1943 , Korselt openly said that " The German people ' s and the fatherland ' s salvation from the present difficult situation lies only in a similar reversal to the one in Italy . . . " . This did not sit well with Rostock ' s mayor , Walter Volgmann , who had reached his position by being , as Korselt put it , a " pure " Party man . The mayor declared that Korselt belonged in a concentration camp . Arrest , trial , and death . The month had not even ended when Korselt was arrested by the Gestapo . On 18 August , he was transferred from the court prison in Rostock to the detention centre in Berlin - Moabit . On 23 August , Korselt ' s case was heard by the First Senate of the " Volksgerichtshof " , presided over by the president Roland Freisler and judges Storbeck , Canabis , Aumüller and Bodinus as well as the accuser Dr . Schultze . Korselt was found guilty of " Wehrkraftzersetzung " for uttering his remark on a tram in Rostock as to how Hitler needed to step down owing to the unlikelihood of Germany ' s winning the war with him in charge . The sentence was the loss of his civil rights , and death . On 25 August at 19 : 15 , the sentence was carried out at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin . After the Second World War , in August 1946 , Georgstraße in Zittau was given the new name " Theodor - Korselt - Straße " . Another street in Annaberg - Buchholz also bears his name .