Von Cramm Cooperative Hall

Our primary source for evidence about the life of Friedrich Sigismund, Freiherr von Cramm, is from Von Cramm, A Memorial, by Thomas Gilchrist - a Cornell alumnus from the class of 1906. This source is revisionist and cites that Cramm fell in the "war against bolshevism". It is possible that Gilchrist chose to paint Cramm in this light due to the political circumstances of the time. The United States had turned its focus away from denazification and towards building up West Germany as a bulwark against Communist influence. In the context of the Marshall Plan he may have done so to avoid broaching the subject of Nazi Germany at the time, as Von Cramm Hall was intended not only for providing students with financial assistance but also to promote friendship between American and West German Youth. (Gilchrist, p. 23-24) Early in its history the house regularly hosted a German exchange student from the University of Heidelberg. The hall was initially men only and became co-ed sometime in the 1970s as part of a shift towards co-ed housing on campus.

Cramm's American mother (Elizabeth von Elverfeldt, née Notman (b, 1890, New York City) married the German aristocrat Freiherr (Baron) Albrecht von Cramm (b. 1888, Berlin) in 1913 and their son, Friedrich Sigismund, was born in 1916. Albrecht v. Cramm died in 1919 as a result of injuries sustained in WWI. The Cramm family was aristocratic and members had a record of service in the German military and civil service. This branch was originally from Braunschweig. (The Cram Sourcebook, by Michael A. Cram) Elizabeth Notman married Carl, Freiherr von Elverfeldt in 1924. The Elverfeldts' family seat was in Bentheim, and they were a Catholic, Westphalian family. According to Thomas B. Gilchrist Sr. (Cornell class of 1906), Friedrich von Cramm joined the German armed forces (Wehrmacht) in fall of 1936, after passing his final school examination earlier that year. Hitler had consolidated power after the death of President Paul von Hindenburg in August 1934 and ordered conscription for all able-bodied German men in March 1935. All German men were eligible for conscription under the Wehrgesetz (Defence Law), and would be called up for service in the calendar year they turned 20. (http://www.documentarchiv.de/ns/1935/wehrgesetz.html) As was typical for members of the German lesser nobility, Cramm entered the armed forces as an officer candidate and was commissioned as a Lieutenant in 1939. He died in October 1941 during the campaign at Mariupol. His rank at the time was Lieutenant, a junior officer rank.

Gilchrist provides a photo of Cramm in a uniform with a Nazi armband (p. 19, Gilchrist). Gilchrist labels this uniform as "Student Training Uniform". He felt that this photograph was most suitable for drawing a portrait. This photo apparently dates to 1933. Though Gilchrist does not provide specific dates, he states that "For a while, he [F. S. v. Cramm] attended a provincial educational institute, the so-called Hermann Lietz School, near Brandenburg on the Havel." and that "He passed his abiturium (final school examination) in 1936, at the Knights' Academy, in Liegnitz". We have found evidence that the headmaster of the Ritterakademie (literally "Knight's Academy" but actually refers to a school for young males of the nobility) in Brandenburg an der Havel at which Cramm was studying was a Nazi sympathizer. Cramm's Nazi Party membership card dates to this time. The membership card is stamped 1 December 1934 on the line 'eingetreten' (entered). The same record has what appears to be "W W Wes.-E. 12/36/29" on the line 'ausgetreten' (exited), and 'O.K.D. 25.1.37'. These likely indicate an exit application in December 1936 shortly after Cramm joined the Wehrmacht as an officer candidate, approved later in January of 1937. Weser-Elms is the administrative region in which Bentheim (the district in which their family lived) is located. The National Service Law of 25 Jan. 1935, which reintroduced conscription, carried on the older rule that servicemen were not to belong to political parties. However, the administrative directive of the Ministry of Defense (10 Sept. 1935) permitted membership in the NSDAP; it only forbade serving as a Party official [Martin Broszat, The Hitler State, 250]. Therefore, legally, von Cramm could have retained his Party membership. The fact that he chose not to, suggests that he used his Wehrmacht service on purpose to leave the Party. Cramm joined the Wehrmacht in the year he was due for conscription.

On 22 June 1941 Germany invaded the U.S.S.R. On 6 October 1941, during this advance, First Lieutenant F. v. Cramm was killed by a Soviet tank shell near the Black Sea in Southern Russia. He was a member of the Panzer (tank) Grenadier Regiment 79, 16th Panzer Division. We have found no evidence that either F. v. Cramm or the units he was involved in during World War Two were involved in any war crimes or other atrocities. This information is due to a statement from the Militaergeschichtliches Fortschungsamt (Military History Research Office - Germany), that was prepared with the help of Thedel von Cramm, who is a cousin of Friedrich Sigismund and former military attaché of the Federal Republic of Germany in Pakistan. His school (Ritterakademie in Brandenburg an der Havel) records him and other sons of the nobility as 'victims of war and violence' (Opfer des Krieges und der Gewalt)[4]

• List of condominiums and housing cooperatives in New York

• Von Cramm Official Website
• Banquet Clean-Up 2007 on YouTube

• Friedrich Sigismund Von Cramm - A Memorial, by Thomas Gilchrist