Liselotte Herrmann

Liselotte Herrmann (called “Lilo”, born 23 June 1906 or 1909 in Berlin; died 20 June 1938 in Berlin-Plötzensee, executed) was a German Communist resistance fighter during the Third Reich.

Early years

Liselotte Herrmann, an engineer’s daughter, had a middle-class liberal upbringing. After completing her "Abitur", she went to work in a chemical factory to support her studies in chemistry, starting in 1929, and later also in biology as of 1931. She took these programmes at the "Technische Hochschule Stuttgart" (now the University of Stuttgart) and the University of Berlin. She joined the "Kommunistischer Jugendverband Deutschlands" (“Communist Youth Federation of Germany”) in 1928 or 1930, and also became a member of the "Roter Studentenbund" (“Red Students’ League”). From 1931, she was a member of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD).

Opposition activities

Early in 1933, she signed a “Call for the Defence of Democratic Rights and Freedoms” at the university in Berlin, and was therefore, together with 111 other students, reprimanded and debarred by the university on 11 July 1933. From that time, she worked illegally against Germany's fascist dictatorship. On 20 December 1933, her husband was slain in Gestapo custody.

She took a job as a nanny and socialized with the armed resistance within the KPD. In 1934, Liselotte's son Walter was born. From September of the same year, she lived once again in Stuttgart, where she worked as a shorthand typist at her father's engineering office.

She reestablished contacts with the now banned KPD. From late 1934, she worked as a technical aid with Stefan Lovasz, the Württemberg KPD leader. She obtained from Arthur Göritz information about secret weapons projects — munitions production at the Dornier factory in Friedrichshafen and the building of another, underground munitions factory near Celle — which she relayed to the KPD's office that had been set up in Switzerland.

Arrest, trial, death

On 7 December 1935, Liselotte Hermann was seized. For 19 harrowing months she was held in remand custody, whilst her young son had to be cared for by his grandparents. Charged before the "Volksgerichtshof", Herrmann was sentenced to death by the Second Senate of the "Volksgerichtshof" in Stuttgart on 12 June 1937 for "treason and conspiracy to commit high treason". 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'.

After a year in the Berlin Women's Prison, she was transferred to Plötzensee Prison, also in Berlin, for execution. Despite international protests, Liselotte Hermann was beheaded on 20 June 1938. Her political friends Stefan Lovasz, Josef Steidle and Arthur Göritz were also put to death the same day.

Controversy

In East Germany, many schools, streets, and institutions were named after her, but after German reunification in 1990, many were given new names in the rush to erase all references to Communism.

Indeed, even in Stuttgart, where Liselotte 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 bit of 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 balked at the idea.

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, ISBN 3-89954-013-1
* "Deutsche Widerstandskämpfer 1933-1945. Biographien und Briefe", Dietz, Berlin, 1970 (vol. 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

*
* [http://www.marxistische-bibliothek.de/liloherrmann.html Tribute to Lilo Herrmann from the Marxist Library] (in German)
* [http://www.uni-stuttgart.de/alumni/infoservice/namen.php University of Stuttgart alumnal record] (in German — scroll down)
* [http://www.vvn.telebus.de/anachric/an9807/9807a4.htm Article about controversy over Lilo Herrmann memorials in Stuttgart] (in German)
* [http://www.gdw-berlin.de/bio/ausgabe.php?id=38 A brief biography] (in German)

Source