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Soon after the [[National Socialism|Nazis]] won the election in 1933, the KPD was outlawed after the [[Reichstag Fire Decree]] and formally banned on 6 March 1933. |
Soon after the [[National Socialism|Nazis]] won the election in 1933, the KPD was outlawed after the [[Reichstag Fire Decree]] and formally banned on 6 March 1933. |
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In an attempt to resist the Nazis, she together with 111 other students signed the "Call for the Defence of Democratic Rights and Freedoms" declaration.{{sfn|Voight|2019}} She was reprimanded and for political reasons expelled by the university on 11 July 1933.{{sfn|Voight|2019}} From that point forwards, she was excluded from all German universities.{{sfn|Voight|2019}} From then on, she worked illegally against Germany's [[Nazism|Nazi]] government and socialized with the armed resistance within the KPD organisation. When the KPD was banned, Herrmann hid the KPD official {{ill|Fritz Rau (resistance fighter)|de|Fritz Rau (Widerstandskämpfer)}}, eventually having a relationship by him.{{sfn|Voight|2019}} She temporarily took a job as a nanny and on 15 May 1934, her son Walter was born. The boy's father was arrested in December 1933 and died in the same month, while in [[Gestapo]] custody{{sfn|Adams|2009|p=184}} in Moabit prison.{{sfn|Bade|2021}} In September of the same year, she moved back to Stuttgart to be with her family and found work as a shorthand typist at her father's engineering office. She re–established contact with the KPD.{{sfn|Letsche|2018}} From late 1934, she worked as a technical aide to the [[Free People's State of Württemberg|Württemberg]] KPD district leader, {{ill|Stefan Lovász|de}}, until his arrest in June 1935. She obtained information about [[German re-armament]] concerning secret weapons projects — munitions production at the [[Dornier Flugzeugwerke|Dornier]] aircraft factory in [[Friedrichshafen]] and the building of an underground ammunition factory (''Muna'') near [[Celle]] — which were relayed to the KPD's office in exile that had been set up in [[Switzerland]]. |
In an attempt to resist the Nazis, she together with 111 other students signed the "Call for the Defence of Democratic Rights and Freedoms" declaration.{{sfn|Voight|2019}} She was reprimanded and for political reasons expelled by the university on 11 July 1933.{{sfn|Voight|2019}} From that point forwards, she was excluded from all German universities.{{sfn|Voight|2019}} From then on, she worked illegally against Germany's [[Nazism|Nazi]] government and socialized with the armed resistance within the KPD organisation. When the KPD was banned, Herrmann hid the KPD official {{ill|Fritz Rau (resistance fighter)|de|Fritz Rau (Widerstandskämpfer)}}, eventually having a relationship by him.{{sfn|Voight|2019}} She temporarily took a job as a nanny and on 15 May 1934, her son Walter was born.{{sfn|Steinbach|Tuchel|1998|p=92}} The boy's father was arrested in December 1933 and died in the same month, while in [[Gestapo]] custody{{sfn|Adams|2009|p=184}} in Moabit prison.{{sfn|Bade|2021}} In September of the same year, she moved back to Stuttgart to be with her family and found work as a shorthand typist at her father's engineering office. She re–established contact with the KPD.{{sfn|Letsche|2018}} From late 1934, she worked as a technical aide to the [[Free People's State of Württemberg|Württemberg]] KPD district leader, {{ill|Stefan Lovász|de}}, until his arrest in June 1935. She obtained information about [[German re-armament]] concerning secret weapons projects — munitions production at the [[Dornier Flugzeugwerke|Dornier]] aircraft factory in [[Friedrichshafen]] and the building of an underground ammunition factory (''Muna'') near [[Celle]] — which were relayed to the KPD's office in exile that had been set up in [[Switzerland]]. |
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=== Arrest, trial, and death === |
=== Arrest, trial, and death === |
Revision as of 23:23, 16 March 2024
Liselotte "Lilo" Herrmann | |
---|---|
Born | Liselotte Herrmann 23 June 1909 Berlin, Germany |
Died | 23 June 1938 Plötzensee Prison, Berlin, Nazi Germany | (aged 29)
Occupation | Stenographer |
Children | Walter Herrmann |
Liselotte Herrmann (called "Lilo", 23 June 1909 – 20 June 1938, executed) was a German Communist resistance fighter in Nazi Germany.
Life
Born in Berlin, Liselotte Herrmann had a middle class liberal upbringing.[1] Her father, Richard Hermann was an engineer who had to move several times to his job.[2] In 1929 she completing her Abitur exams. Her essay was on Friedrich Hebbel's tradegy, "Herodes and Mariamne".[3] After high school she initially planned to become a painter due the influence of Käthe Kollwitz but her father was against it and persuaded her to become a chemist instead.[4] So she went to work as a laboratory assistant in a chemical factory to prepare her studies in chemistry.[2] Later that year, her family moved to Stuttgart, where she attended the Technical College to study chemistry.[2] As a schoolgirl, she was influenced by socialist ideas in Frankfurt and eventually joined the National Socialist Schoolchildren's League (SSB) and the Young Communist League of Germany in 1928,[2] and also became a member of the Red Students’ League (Roter Studentenbund). In the summer of 1930, she was fined for distributing leaflets in Esslingen.[2] She also joined the Revolutionary Union Opposition (Revolutionäre Gewerkschafts Opposition) in 1931,[4] and in the same year became a member of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in Stuttgart.[2]
When I am asked about the goal of communism as I know it. I can express it in one sentence, and that is: the greatest happiness of the greatest number. If I am further asked how I have imagined the way to this goal, I answer: By convincing the masses and creating a majority for communism.
Liselotte Herrmann, 1936
In 1931, she moved to Berlin to study biology at the Humboldt University in Berlin.[2] In Berlin, she became actively involved in volunteering with the KPD and began her political education by attending classes at the Marxist Workers' School.[5]
Opposition activities
Soon after the Nazis won the election in 1933, the KPD was outlawed after the Reichstag Fire Decree and formally banned on 6 March 1933.
In an attempt to resist the Nazis, she together with 111 other students signed the "Call for the Defence of Democratic Rights and Freedoms" declaration.[5] She was reprimanded and for political reasons expelled by the university on 11 July 1933.[5] From that point forwards, she was excluded from all German universities.[5] From then on, she worked illegally against Germany's Nazi government and socialized with the armed resistance within the KPD organisation. When the KPD was banned, Herrmann hid the KPD official Fritz Rau (resistance fighter) , eventually having a relationship by him.[5] She temporarily took a job as a nanny and on 15 May 1934, her son Walter was born.[6] The boy's father was arrested in December 1933 and died in the same month, while in Gestapo custody[1] in Moabit prison.[7] In September of the same year, she moved back to Stuttgart to be with her family and found work as a shorthand typist at her father's engineering office. She re–established contact with the KPD.[2] From late 1934, she worked as a technical aide to the Württemberg KPD district leader, Stefan Lovász , until his arrest in June 1935. She obtained information about German re-armament concerning secret weapons projects — munitions production at the Dornier aircraft factory in Friedrichshafen and the building of an underground ammunition factory (Muna) near Celle — which were relayed to the KPD's office in exile that had been set up in Switzerland.
Arrest, trial, and death
On 7 December 1935, Hermann was arrested in her family's apartment. For three months, she was interrogated at the Stuttgart police prison, and from February 1936 she was held for 16 harrowing months in remand custody, whilst her young son had to be cared for by his grandparents. Charged in the People's Court (Volksgerichtshof), Herrmann and Stefan Lovász, together with KPD officials Josef Steidle and Arthur Göritz , were sentenced to death by the Second Senate in Stuttgart on 12 June 1937 for "treason in concomitance with preparation of high treason in aggravating circumstances".[2] Herrmann's fellow party member, Lina Haag, was held in the same remand prison at that time, and remembers the night she was sentenced in her book A Handful of Dust or How Long the Night.
Deported to Berlin, after another year in the Barnimstrasse women's prison, she was transferred to Plötzensee Prison for execution. Despite international protests, Hermann was executed by guillotine on 20 June 1938.[8] Lovász, Steidle and Göritz were also put to death the same day.[8] The bodies of the five people were not buried, instead were handed to anatomy professor Hermann Stieve of Charité Anatomical Institute for medical research.[2]
Controversy
In East Germany, many schools, streets, and institutions were named after her, but after German reunification in 1990, many were given new names to erase all references to Communism.
Indeed, even in Stuttgart, where Herrmann studied, she has been a controversial figure. In 1988, unknown persons placed a simple memorial stone to her on the University of Stuttgart campus, which caused a stir. "Lilo-Herrmann-Weg" was the city's tribute to her, but it is little more than a 100 m-long blind alley affording access to public and private parking. No one lives there. In the 1970s, students at the university tried to get a new residence named after her, but the university administration refused.[citation needed]
See also
References
Citations
Bibliography
- Adams, Jefferson (2009). Historical dictionary of German intelligence Historical dictionary of German intelligence. Historical dictionaries of intelligence and counterintelligence. Vol. 11. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810863200. OCLC 667274329.
- Bade, Sabine (8 November 2021). Ausflüge gegen das Vergessen: NS-Gedenkorte zwischen Ulm und Basel, Natzweiler und Montafon (in German). Tübingen: UVK Verlag. p. 42. ISBN 978-3-7398-8106-5.
- Fischer, Christina (20 June 2008). "Stuttgarter Antigone". Aufbau (in German). Zurich. Retrieved 10 March 2024.
- Letsche, Lothar (20 June 2018). "Schweigend Leben gerettet" [Silently saving lives]. KONTEXT: Verein (in German). Stuttgart: KONTEXT: Association for holistic journalism e. V. Archived from the original on 27 February 2024. Retrieved 27 February 2024.
- Letsche, Lothar (2006). "Liselotte Herrmann". In Ruckert, Maria Magdalena (ed.). Württembergische Biographien : unter Einbeziehung Hohenzollerischer Persönlichkeiten (in German). Vol. 1. W. Kohlhammer. pp. 106–108. ISBN 3170185004. OCLC 654247517.
- "Liselotte Herrmann". Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand (in German). Berlin. Retrieved 27 February 2024.
- Nitzsche, Almut (23 June 2019). "Liselotte Herrmann". fembio e.V. (in German). Hannover/Boston: Institut für Frauen-Biographieforschung Hannover/Boston. Archived from the original on 27 February 2024. Retrieved 27 February 2024.
- Voight, Lisa (July 2019). "Liselotte (Lilo) Herrmann (1909–1938)". Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Baden-Württemberg (in German). Stuttgart. Archived from the original on 29 February 2024. Retrieved 29 February 2024.
- Kurz, Jörg (March 2008). "Lilo Herrmann, Hölderlinstr. 22". Gegen das Vergessen: Stolpersteine für Stuttgart (in German). Stuttgart: Stolpersteine Stuttgart. Archived from the original on 29 February 2024.
Further reading
- Alfred Behr: Ein schwäbischer Streit der Historiker um ein Denkmal. Ende einer DDR-Legende über Lilo Herrmann, in: FAZ, Nr. 29 vom 4. Februar 1993, S. 4
- Max Burghardt: Briefe, die nie geschrieben wurden. Lilo Herrmann zum Gedächtnis, Verl. Neues Leben, Berlin, 1966
- Ditte Clemens: Schweigen über Lilo. Die Geschichte der Liselotte Herrmann, BS-Verl., Rostock 2002, ISBN 978-3-89954-013-0
- Deutsche Widerstandskämpfer 1933–1945. Biographien und Briefe, Dietz, Berlin, 1970 (vols. 1–2)
- Stephan Hermlin: Die erste Reihe, Verl. Neues Leben, Berlin, 1959
- Karl-Heinz Jahnke (Hrsg.): Niemals vergessen! Aus dem antifaschistischen Widerstandskampf der Studenten Europas, Verl. Neues Leben, Berlin 1959
- Lothar Letsche (Hrsg.): Lilo Herrmann. Eine Stuttgarter Widerstandskämpferin, Vereinigung der Verfolgten des Naziregimes, Stuttgart 1993
External links
- Liselotte Herrmann in the German National Library catalogue
- Left Center Lilo Herrmann
- Tribute to Lilo Herrmann from the Marxist Library (in German)
- University of Stuttgart alumnal record (in German)
- Article about controversy over Lilo Herrmann memorials in Stuttgart (in German)