Hertha Sturm (born Edith Fischer, 24 July 1886: died while in state custody before or during 1945) was a German political activist (
SPD
The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany.
Saskia Esken has been the ...
,
KPD
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 ...
) who after
1933
Events
January
* January 11 – Sir Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first commercial flight between Australia and New Zealand.
* January 17 – The United States Congress votes in favour of Philippines independence, against the wis ...
became a resistance activist. She spent most of the
twelve Nazi years in state detention, during which time she was badly tortured and made at least one suicide attempt. She did not outlive the Nazi regime.
Hertha Sturm is the name by which she is identified in most sources referring to her political actions and to her experiences under the Nazis. It was the name she took on for her Communist Party work in January 1920 and retained thereafter. In addition to her birth name, Edith Fischer, she may also be identified after 1912, by her married name, as Edith Schumann.
[
]
Life
Provenance and early years
Edith Fischer was born in Königsberg
Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was named ...
, at that time part of Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, and the capital of East Prussia
East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label=Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 187 ...
. Her father was a book dealer. She attended an all-girls' school in Königsberg till 1902 and then, between 1903 and 1906, the teacher training college
A normal school or normal college is an institution created to Teacher education, train teachers by educating them in the norms of pedagogy and curriculum. In the 19th century in the United States, instruction in normal schools was at the high s ...
. After this, between Easter 1906 and Autumn 1907, she was employed as a home tutor.[ She then passed the necessary exams to gain admittance to the ]University of Königsberg
The University of Königsberg (german: Albertus-Universität Königsberg) was the university of Königsberg in East Prussia. It was founded in 1544 as the world's second Protestant academy (after the University of Marburg) by Duke Albert of Prussi ...
where for five semesters (probably two and a half years) she studied Medicine.[
In 1911 she joined the German Social Democratic Party (SPD).] That year she also transferred to Leipzig University
Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December ...
and embarked on the study of socio-economics ( ''"Volkswirtschaftslehre" / "Nationalökonomie"''), a subject in which three years later, in July 1914, she would obtain her doctorate. Meanwhile, in 1912 Edith Fischer married Hermann Schumann. In 1914 she relocated to the other side of the country and took a job with the regional statistical office in Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...
. The First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
broke out in July 1914, and by October 1915 Edith Schumann was in Berlin, working as an expert advisor and assistant at a surgery and work advice centre for war widows. She stayed in Berlin at least till the end of 1916. Between February 1917 and August 1918 she worked as a volunteer in the women's section of the wartime detention centre in Magdeburg
Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river.
Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebur ...
: after August 1918 she was similarly employed in Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
.[
]
Communist politics
She was still based in Munich in January 1919 when she joined the newly formed Communist Party of Germany (KPD), as a result of which she was dismissed from her wartime work. Military defeat was followed by a succession of uprisings across Germany, and in Munich Edith Schumann worked for the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic
The Bavarian Soviet Republic, or Munich Soviet Republic (german: Räterepublik Baiern, Münchner Räterepublik),Hollander, Neil (2013) ''Elusive Dove: The Search for Peace During World War I''. McFarland. p.283, note 269. was a short-lived unre ...
as a technical assistant to the secretariat of the Executive Council and Economic Council. After the Bavarian Soviet was crushed by a combination of still loyal government forces and "Freikorps
(, "Free Corps" or "Volunteer Corps") were irregular German and other European military volunteer units, or paramilitary, that existed from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. They effectively fought as mercenary or private armies, regar ...
" anti-communist volunteer units she fled from Munich after a warrant for her arrest, invoking the usual charge of "assisting high treason", had been issued. However, at the end of May 1919 she was arrested and then held in investigative custody in Munich's Stadelheim Prison
Stadelheim Prison (german: Justizvollzugsanstalt München), in Munich's Giesing district, is one of the largest Prisons in Germany, prisons in Germany.
Founded in 1894, it was the site of many executions, particularly by guillotine during the Nazi ...
. After two months the authorities closed the investigation, citing "lack of evidence".[
In December 1919 Edith Schumann arrived in Berlin at the national headquarters of the ]Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...
where in January 1920, under the party name Hertha Sturm, she started a job in the party's national women's secretariat. Following the 3rd party congress which took place in February 1920 she became secretary to the national women's secretariat and also managing editor of the party news-magazine "Kommunistin" (''"The emalecommunist"''). In 1921 Sturm participated as a member of the German delegation in the Second World Congress of the Comintern
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...
, held under the chairmanship of Grigory Zinoviev
Grigory Yevseyevich Zinoviev, . Transliterated ''Grigorii Evseevich Zinov'ev'' according to the Library of Congress system. (born Hirsch Apfelbaum, – 25 August 1936), known also under the name Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich Radomyslsky (russian: Ов ...
in Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
during late July and early August. Here she was elected to the International Women's Secretariat (IWS), a position she occupied between 1921 and 1924.
After this she became increasingly high-profile within the party, back in Berlin becoming international secretary of the IWS for Western Europe. However, throughout the 1920s the party proved itself prone to factionalism, and as the decade progressed, both in Berlin and in Moscow, the direction of the party was increasingly dictated by its non-inclusive hardline wing. At the ninth party conference, held in 1924, Hertha Sturm presented a paper on women's work. The left wing party leadership then identified her as "rightist" and removed her from her senior posts. (She was succeeded at the IWS by .) Sturm relocated to Moscow where between October 1924 and October 1928 she worked on IWS and other Comintern matters in close collaboration with Clara Zetkin
Clara Zetkin (; ; ''née'' Eißner ; 5 July 1857 – 20 June 1933) was a German Marxist theorist, communist activist, and advocate for women's rights.
Until 1917, she was active in the Social Democratic Party of Germany. She then joined the ...
.[
After she returned to Germany in 1928 Sturm found she was still identified as "rightist" and so she was not able to work for The Party in its head office.] She nevertheless retained her party membership, while obtaining a job with the state statistical office in Berlin.[
]
Nazi years
In January 1933 the Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...
took power and lost little time in transforming Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
into a one-party
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...
dictatorship
A dictatorship is a form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, which holds governmental powers with few to no limitations on them. The leader of a dictatorship is called a dictator. Politics in a dictatorship are ...
. 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 was promptly blamed on "communists" and those who had been politically active in the (now illegal) 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 ...
either fled abroad or else found themselves targeted by the authorities. On 10 March 1933 Hertha Sturm was arrested in Berlin by members of the ruling party's quasi-military wing (SA): she was held in "protective custody" until 17 January 1934.[
In the summer of 1934 she made contact with Neu Beginnen (''"New Start"'') and, using the cover names Gerda Stein and Ellen Croner, she worked with this left wing socialist group. On 4 September 1935 Hertha Sturm was arrested in ]Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...
. She was badly tortured and made a suicide attempt. Her case was heard on 12 March 1936 when the Berlin state court sentenced her to a five-year prison term. Hertha Sturm's subsequent fate remains unknown. The only available information comes from a letter sent by Ernst Torgler
Ernst Torgler (25 April 1893 – 19 January 1963) was the last chairman of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) faction in the German Reichstag before he worked for the Nazis.
Early life
Torgler was born the son of an urban resident in Berlin. ...
to Ruth Fischer
Ruth Fischer (11 December 1895 – 13 March 1961) was an Austrian and German Communist, and a co-founder of the Austrian Communist Party (KPÖ) in 1918. Along with her partner Arkadi Maslow, she led the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) through b ...
. The letter is dated 27 November 1948, and in it Togler states in a passing comment, and without further elaboration, that Hertha Sturm lost her life in an air raid.[
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sturm, Hertha
1886 births
Politicians from Königsberg
Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians
Communist Party of Germany politicians
People of the German Revolution of 1918–1919
German Comintern people
German feminists
Socialist feminists
German people who died in prison custody
Year of death missing
German civilians killed in World War II
Deaths by airstrike during World War II
Prisoners who died in German detention