Charlotte Bischoff

Charlotte Bischoff, née Charlotte Wielepp, (October 5, 1901, Berlin – November 4, 1994) was a German Communist and Resistance fighter against National Socialism.

Biography

Charlotte Wielepp attended a commercial school and then worked as a clerk and steno-typist in Halle, Hamburg and Berlin from 1915-1930. She joined the Freie Sozialistische Jugend (Free Socialist Youth) and the Young Communist League of Germany. In 1923, she joined the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and the same year, married Fritz Bischoff, a founding member of the KPD, then working as a clerk with the Soviet trade mission. After 1930, Charlotte Bischoff was a steno-typist and publicist in the Prussian Landtag faction and in the Central Committee of the KPD.

The Nazi era

The Reichstag Fire Decree pushed by Adolf Hitler in response to the Reichstag Fire on February 27, 1933 and signed into law by President Paul von Hindenburg withdrew civil liberties and enabled the Nazis, then in key positions in government, to arrest anyone they deemed to be an enemy. This became first and foremost a confrontation with the KPD, but in effect, outlawed all political parties in Germany, other than the Nazi Party. The Enabling Act of March 27, 1933 consolidated their power and authority. In the first weeks of March 1933, there were 11,000 Communists arrested and by June 1933, more than half of the KPD district leaders were in detention.^[1]

In this environment, Bischoff went to work for the propaganda department of the KPD. In 1934, her husband was arrested by the Nazis and sentenced to eight years at hard labor in a Zuchthaus, then afterward held in "protective custody" at Sachsenhausen concentration camp and finally, at Neuengamme concentration camp. He was shot on May 3, 1945 by the SS, as he tried to save himself on the Cap Arcona.

Charlotte Bischoff went to Moscow in 1934, where till 1937, she worked for the International Relations department of the Communist International. This involved travel abroad to Denmark and the Netherlands. In 1938, she requested to be allowed to carry out illegal work in Germany. She was sent to Stockholm, where important leaders of the KPD were then in exile.^[1] She was arrested there in 1939 as an illegal and was threatened with deportation to Germany, but was soon released. The Third Reich then withdrew her German citizenship. Bischoff then worked for the International Red Aid taking care of emigrated German Communists, collecting money and having discussions with unionized construction workers on construction sites in Sweden.

In 1941, on behalf of the exiled leadership of the KPD, then under Herbert Wehner, Bischoff was successful in entering Germany illegally on board a freight ship. The trip took a month, from June 29 to the end of July. Bischoff then worked in Berlin with various resistance groups, especially with Red Orchestra-connected groups, such as with people involved with Kurt and Elisabeth Schumacher, with the group around Wilhelm Knöchel and around Robert Uhrig. She also worked on the magazine, Die Innere Front ("The Internal Front") with the Saefkow-Jacob-Bästlein Organization. Acting as a courier, she gave "micro materials" to contact people in these groups.^[2]

Bischoff was one of the few members of the German Resistance who was able to evade arrest and she remained in Berlin, unknown, till the war's end. Die Innere Front was able to continue publication and distribution, even after numerous resistance fighters had been arrested, because of the work of Bischoff, Otto Grabowski and Ernst Siebert^[3]

Nach dem Krieg übte Bischoff verschiedene Tätigkeiten im Freien Deutschen Gewerkschaftsbund der DDR aus und wurde Mitglied der Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). Nach Auseinandersetzungen innerhalb des FDGB arbeitete sie in den folgenden Jahren für die „Sozialhilfe Groß-Berlin“, eine in ganz Berlin tätige, der SED nahestehende Wohlfahrtsorganisation. Ab 1957 war sie ehrenamtliche freie Mitarbeiterin am Institut für Marxismus-Leninismus beim ZK der SED. Dort war sie an der Erarbeitung einer DDR-offiziellen „Geschichte der deutschen Arbeiterbewegung“ beteiligt;^[4] ihr Name taucht in diesem Band wiederholt als „Beauftragte des ZK“ auf. Bischoffs für diese Arbeit erstellte Aufzeichnungen und gesammelte Dokumente sind zu DDR-Zeiten unveröffentlicht geblieben – wie Eva-Maria Siegel vermutet, weil sie „diverse Richtigstellungen zur offiziösen Geschichtsideologie“ enthalten, insbesondere was die Rolle von Karl Mewis angeht.^[5]

Bischoff was in the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) for 90 years.

Legacy

Peter Weiss described the Resistance activity of Charlotte Bischoff in exile and in Germany in his novel, Die Ästhetik des Widerstands ("The Aesthetic of the Resistance"). In particular, in the third volume of his novel, which tells of the Red Orchestra, she is the central protagonist. Weiss drew upon conversations he had with Bischoff in 1972, as well as a correspondence with her between 1974 and 1976.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Wolfgang Benz. "Opposition und Widerstand der Arbeiterbewegung" ("Opposition and Resistance of the Workers' Movement") Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung. Retrieved March 27, 2010. (German)
2. ^ Bischoff's handwritten biography, 1961-1962, reprinted in "An ihrem Lachen kann man eine Frau doch erkennen", Eva-Maria Siegel (1996), p. 49 (German)
3. ^ Robert Cohen. Bio-Bibliographisches Handbuch zu Peter Weiss' „Ästhetik des Widerstands“. Berlin: Argument (1989) p. 65.
4. ^ Institut für Marxismus-Leninismus beim Zentralkomitee der SED: Geschichte der deutschen Arbeiterbewegung. Band 5: Von Januar 1933 bis Mai 1945. Berlin 1966.
5. ^ Siegel 1996, p. 57.

Bibliography

• Nachlass Charlotte Bischoff bei der Stiftung Archiv der Parteien und Massenorganisationen der DDR im Bundesarchiv, NY 4232, bearbeitet von Max Bloch. (German)
• Eva-Maria Siegel. An ihrem Lachen kann man eine Frau doch erkennen. Documents and notes on the relationship of fiction and authenticity in Peter Weiss' Ästhetik des Widerstands am Beispiel Charlotte Bischoffs. From the Peter Weiss Journal 5, Opladen (1996) pp. 37–69 (German)
• Simone Barck. Widerstandsgeschichte „von unten“ schreiben: Charlotte Bischoff und Peter Weiss. Article titled, "Antifa-Geschichte(n). Eine literarische Spurensuche in der DDR der 1950er und 1960er Jahre". Cologne/Weimar/Vienna, Böhlau (2003) pp. 229–258 (German)

Persondata
Name	Bischoff, Charlotte
Alternative names
Short description	German Resistance fighter
Date of birth	October 5, 1901
Place of birth	Berlin
Date of death	November 4, 1994
Place of death	Berlin