Liselotte Herrmann (called "Lilo", 23 June 1909 – 20 June 1938,
executed
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
) was a
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
Communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
Resistance
Resistance may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Comics
* Either of two similarly named but otherwise unrelated comic book series, both published by Wildstorm:
** ''Resistance'' (comics), based on the video game of the same title
** ''T ...
fighter in
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
.
Life
Born in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
, Liselotte Herrmann, an engineer’s daughter, had a
middle class
The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Commo ...
liberal upbringing. After completing her ''
Abitur
''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...
'' exams in 1929, she went to work as a laboratory assistant in a chemical factory to prepare her studies in
chemistry
Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...
. Later that year, her family moved to
Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...
, where she attended the
Technical College
An institute of technology (also referred to as: technological university, technical university, university of technology, technological educational institute, technical college, polytechnic university or just polytechnic) is an institution of te ...
. In 1931, she switched to
biology
Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...
, studying at the
Humboldt University
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of ...
in Berlin.
As a schoolgirl, she joined the
Young Communist League of Germany
The Young Communist League of Germany (, abbreviated KJVD) was a political youth organization in Germany.
History
The KJVD was formed in 1920 from the Free Socialist Youth () of the Communist Party of Germany, A prior youth wing had been forme ...
in 1928, and also became a member of the Red Students’ League (''Roter Studentenbund''). She also joined the
Revolutionary Union Opposition (''Revolutionäre Gewerkschafts Opposition'') in 1931, and in the same year became 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 ...
(KPD).
Opposition activities
Soon after the ''
NSDAP
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 ...
'' won the election in 1933, she together with 111 other students signed a "Call for the Defence of Democratic Rights and Freedoms" and was therefore reprimanded and expelled by the university on 11 July 1933. From that time, she worked illegally against Germany's
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
government and socialized with the armed resistance within the KPD organisation.
She temporarily took a job as a nanny and on 15 May 1934, her son Walter was born. The boy's father, Fritz Rau, a KPD official, had died in
Gestapo
The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...
custody. In September of the same year, she once again moved to Stuttgart, where she worked as a shorthand typist at her father's engineering office and re–established contacts with the banned Communist Party. From late 1934, she worked as a technical aide to the
Württemberg
Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart.
Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Würt ...
KPD leader, Stefan Lovász, until his arrest in June 1935. She obtained information about
German re-armament
German rearmament (''Aufrüstung'', ) was a policy and practice of rearmament carried out in Germany during the interwar period (1918–1939), in violation of the Treaty of Versailles which required German disarmament after WWI to prevent Germa ...
concerning secret weapons projects — munitions production at the
Dornier aircraft factory in
Friedrichshafen
Friedrichshafen ( or ; Low Alemannic: ''Hafe'' or ''Fridrichshafe'') is a city on the northern shoreline of Lake Constance (the ''Bodensee'') in Southern Germany, near the borders of both Switzerland and Austria. It is the district capital (''Kre ...
and the building of an underground ammunition factory (''Muna'') near
Celle
Celle () is a town and capital of the district of Celle, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town is situated on the banks of the river Aller, a tributary of the Weser, and has a population of about 71,000. Celle is the southern gateway to the Lü ...
— which were relayed to the KPD's office in exile that had been set up in
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
.
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 and , were sentenced to death by the Second Senate in Stuttgart on 12 June 1937 for "
treason
Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...
in concomitance with preparation of
high treason
Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...
in aggravating circumstances".
Death sentence copy
/ref> Herrmann's fellow party member, Lina Haag
Lina Haag née ''Jäger'' (18 January 1907 – 18 June 2012) was a German anti- Fascist activist.
Early life
Haag was born in Hagkling, and was a member of the Youth movement of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in the small Württembergis ...
, 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 , she was transferred to Plötzensee Prison
Plötzensee Prison (german: Justizvollzugsanstalt Plötzensee, JVA Plötzensee) is a juvenile prison in the Charlottenburg-Nord locality of Berlin with a capacity for 577 prisoners, operated by the State of Berlin judicial administration. The d ...
for execution. Despite international protests, Hermann was sent to the guillotine on 20 June 1938. Lovász, Steidle and Göritz were also put to death the same day.
Controversy
In East Germany
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
, many schools, streets, and institutions were named after her, but after German reunification
German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...
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.
Literature
* Alfred Behr: ''Ein schwäbischer Streit der Historiker um ein Denkmal. Ende einer DDR-Legende über Lilo Hermann'', in: ''FAZ'', Nr. 29 vom 4. Februar 1993, S. 4
* Max Burghardt: ''Briefe, die nie geschrieben wurden. Lilo Hermann zum Gedächtnis'', Verl. Neues Leben, Berlin, 1966
* Ditte Clemens: ''Schweigen über Lilo. Die Geschichte der Liselotte Hermann'', BS-Verl., Rostock 2002,
* ''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
References
External links
*
Tribute to Lilo Herrmann from the Marxist Library
University of Stuttgart alumnal record
* ttp://www.gdw-berlin.de/bio/ausgabe.php?id=38 A brief biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Herrmann, Liselotta
1909 births
1938 deaths
Communist Party of Germany politicians
Executed communists in the German Resistance
People from Berlin executed at Plötzensee Prison
Female resistance members of World War II
People condemned by Nazi courts
People executed by guillotine at Plötzensee Prison
Executed German women
Communists in the German Resistance