Paul Hatschek (11 March 1888 – 15 May 1944) was a Czech engineer of optical and film technology and a member of the German Resistance against Nazism during the Third Reich. He was involved with Robert Uhrig and then became a leading member of the resistance group, the European Union. According to Robert Havemann, Hatschek was under Gestapo surveillance for years. He was arrested in 1943 and subjected to intensive interrogation, resulting in him giving the Nazis numerous names of fellow resistance members. His daughter and his wife were among those arrested. All three were brought before the Volksgerichtshof and sentenced to death. He was executed at Brandenburg-Görden Prison in May 1944; his wife and daughter were executed at Plötzensee Prison, his daughter in May 1944, his wife in December 1944. Work and biographical details Hatschek was granted a Canadian patent for a "projection apparatus" on 27 July 1926. On 3 January 1928 he received an American patent for an "optical projection apparatus" for which he filed on 2 October 1923. In 1931, he began publishing articles on sound film technology in German technical journals. Hatschek was first listed in the Berlin directory in 1934. In 1935, he lived in a small apartment in Berlin-Wilmersdorf. Though he followed the 1936 Summer Olympics, apparently without criticism of the Third Reich, by 1939, he had decided to join the resistance group, the European Union. The group was formed by Robert Havemann, a scientist and Georg Groscurth, a medical doctor. He was recruited by the GRU and tried to pass information along to the Soviet Union. The German historian Bernd Florath writes, "The Czech citizen Hatschek was an engineer in optics and film technology. His research and inventions were primarily concerned with sound film technology. Among others, he worked with Manfred von Ardenne and Hugh John Gramatzki, who corresponded with Albert Einstein. [Hatschek] published a series of books, that were reprinted and translated, even after his death. In Prague in 1937, he offered the Soviet Union some inventions and was afterward recruited as a contact for the GRU. Hatschek worked in Berlin for the Tobis Filmgesellschaft as a patent engineer. He was in contact with the Robert Uhrig Group and as a result, in spring 1942, was briefly arrested, though quickly released." The Gestapo considered the European Union to be especially dangerous because the organization was multi-national and the members were intellectuals. According