Ottilie Pohl (née Levit, 14 November 1867 – 2 December 1943) was a

German Jewish The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (''circa'' 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish ...

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

politician and activist who participated in the

German resistance to Nazism Many individuals and groups in Germany that were opposed to the Nazi Germany, Nazi regime engaged in active resistance, including assassination attempts on Adolf Hitler, attempts to remove Adolf Hitler from power by assassination or by overthro ...

. She was born in Schönwald into a Jewish family. She worked as

milliner Hat-making or millinery is the design, manufacture and sale of hats and other headwear. A person engaged in this trade is called a milliner or hatter. Historically, milliners, typically women shopkeepers, produced or imported an inventory of g ...

and moved to

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 ...

. She married Wilhelm Pohl in 1893, they had two children; he died in 1915. In 1890, upon the end of Bismarck's

Anti-Socialist Laws The Anti-Socialist Laws or Socialist Laws (german: Sozialistengesetze; officially , approximately "Law against the public danger of Social Democratic endeavours") were a series of acts of the parliament of the German Empire, the first of which was ...

, she joined the

Social Democratic Party of Germany 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 ...

and became their delegate in

Berlin-Moabit Moabit () is an inner city locality in the borough of Mitte, Berlin, Germany. As of 2016, around 77,000 people lived in Moabit. First inhabited in 1685 and incorporated into Berlin in 1861, the former industrial and working-class neighbourhood is ...

. Being opposed to 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 ...

, she distributed the Spartacus Letters and in 1917 changed affiliations to the

USPD The Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Unabhängige Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, USPD) was a short-lived political party in Germany during the German Empire and the Weimar Republic. The organization was establish ...

. In 1920 she was elected city councillor for that party in

Berlin-Tiergarten Tiergarten (, literally ''Animal Garden'', historically for ''Deer Garden'') is a locality within the borough of Mitte, in central Berlin (Germany). Notable for the great and homonymous urban park, before German reunification, it was a part of We ...

. She was a member of the ''Konsumgenossenschaft Berlin'' supervisory board. After the

Nazi seizure of power Adolf Hitler's rise to power began in the newly established Weimar Republic in September 1919 when Hitler joined the '' Deutsche Arbeiterpartei'' (DAP; German Workers' Party). He rose to a place of prominence in the early years of the party. Be ...

in 1933, Pohl worked with a

Rote Hilfe The Rote Hilfe ("Red Aid") was the German affiliate of the International Red Aid. The Rote Hilfe was affiliated with the Communist Party of Germany and existed between 1924 and 1936. Its purpose was to provide help to those Communists who had bee ...

group to support victims of Nazi persecution and resistance fighters in prison or in hiding. The group also included

Rosa Lindemann Rosa Lindemann (née Liesegang, 21 February 1876 – 13 June 1958) was a German communist and member of the German resistance to Nazism. She was born in Spandau, her family moved to Moabit when she was a child. She married Karl Lindemann in 1895, ...

and other women. Pohl was arrested in August 1940 for aiding the German

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 ...

and resistance fighter . She was sentenced to 8 months in prison, upon her release in 1941 she continued to engage in underground political activities. On 19 November 1942 she was arrested by the

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 ...

, her possessions were seized and she was deported to

Theresienstadt Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the Schutzstaffel, SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (German occupation of Czechoslovakia, German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresienstad ...

, where she died the following year. Today, Ottilie Pohl is remembered with a memorial plaque (Beusselstr. 43). The former ''Ludendorffstraße'' in Tiergarten was renamed to ''Pohlstraße'' in her honour in 1947.

References

19th-century German women politicians 20th-century German women politicians Jewish socialists Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians Independent Social Democratic Party politicians German resistance members German people who died in the Theresienstadt Ghetto 1867 births 1943 deaths Female resistance members of World War II Jews in the German resistance {{germany-SPD-politician-stub