Charlotte "Lotte" Garske (born Charlotte Schaepe: 4 December 1906 - 16 December 1943) was a German political activist who resisted the country's Nazi Government. She was executed in Plötzensee Prison on 16 December 1943.

Life

Charlotte "Lotte" Schaepe was born in Berlin. Following a commercial apprenticeship she took a job as an accountant. When, in 1933, she married the building worker (later a builder's draftsman)

Erich Garske Erich Garske (21 November 1907 - 13 December 1943) was a German political activist (KPD) and, after 1933, a resistance activist. He was executed by the Nazis in December 1943. Biography Erich Garske was born in 1907. He was a technical drafts ...

, it was her second marriage. She already had a child from her first marriage which in 1930 had ended in divorce. Lotte Garske was a member of the

Communist Party of Germany The Communist Party of Germany (german: Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, , KPD ) was a major political party in the Weimar Republic between 1918 and 1933, an underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and a minor party in West German ...

. It was through party work, and shared membership of the Fichte Sports Association, that she had met Erich. Following abrupt régime change in January 1933 Germany was rapidly transformed into a one-party dictatorship. After the

Reichstag fire The Reichstag fire (german: Reichstagsbrand, ) was an arson attack on the Reichstag building, home of the German parliament in Berlin, on Monday 27 February 1933, precisely four weeks after Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of ...

at the end of February 1933, the government instantly blamed "communists" and targeted for surveillance or arrest people who had been listed as Communist party members before the rules had been changed. However, the Garskes neither stopped being communists nor emigrated. Indeed, when the Communist Party in exile smuggled people back into Germany from Moscow or Paris to work on party matters, one of the places where they might be hidden and accommodated was in the Garskes' apartment in central Berlin. As early as 1934 they secretly accommodated , a close party colleague of

Robert Stamm Robert Stamm (16 July 1900 – 4 November 1937) was a German politician, a Communist (KPD) member of the Reichstag from Bremen, and a victim of the Nazi régime. Already by the age of 14, Robert Stamm had become involved with the Socialist You ...

. From 1942 their Berlin apartment was the work-place and a communications hub for

Wilhelm Knöchel Wilhelm Knöchel (; 8 November 1899 – 24 July 1944) was a German Communist Party activist and organizer who after 1933 became an anti-government resistance activist. His trial lasted ten minutes. He was executed/murdered at the Brandenbur ...

, an exceptionally effective communist resistance organiser, whose alias was "Alfred". Erich Garske was able to help Knöchel in his work by producing satirical drawings and other art work for illegal party publications, notably with a news journal called "Der Friedenskämpfer" (''"The Fighter for Peace"''). Gestapo reports indicated that Charlotte Garske was suspected of being significantly more important to the political work of "Alfred" than her husband. She acted as a courier, delivering illegal published material to

Willi Seng Willi Seng (11 February 1909 – 27 July 1944) was a German communist activist who became a resistance fighter during the Nazi period. He was captured in 1943 and faced trial in 1944, following which he was convicted and two months later executed. ...

, a communist party instructor and co-ordinator in the economically and politically crucial Ruhr region. She also organised meetings of others operating on behalf of the exiled communist party central committee. By the end of 1944 none of the people named above was alive. Erich Garske and Knöchel were arrested at the Garskes' home by the Gestapo on 30 January 1943. Charlotte was arrested on 17 February 1943. On 9 November 1943 the People's Court (Germany), special "People's Court" sentenced Erich and Charlotte Garske to death. Erich was killed - sources use the verb "murdered" - on 13 December 1943, Charlotte Garske on 16 December 1943, both at the Plötzensee Prison at Charlottenburg-Nord, Berlin-Plötzensee.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garske, Charlotte 1906 births 1943 deaths People from Berlin executed at Plötzensee Prison German resistance members Communist Party of Germany politicians Executed communists in the German Resistance Member of the Knöchel-Seng-Group