Emmy Damerius-Koenen

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Emmy Damerius-Koenen as a speaker in 1947.

Emmy Damerius-Koenen (née Zadach , divorced Damerius ; born March 15, 1903 in Berlin-Rosenthal ; † May 21, 1987 in Berlin ) was a German politician ( KPD , SED ) and 1948/49 chairwoman of the Democratic Women's Association of Germany .

Life

Zadach's parents were workers and had four children. Emma Zadach attended elementary school and two and a half years of commercial evening school. She then worked as a workshop clerk in the Heymann & Schmidt GmbH Berlin art print shop and as an employee in various publishing houses. Until 1923 she was involved with nature lovers and pacifists. In 1923 he joined the Communist Youth Association and in 1924 the KPD . They were married to Helmut Damerius from 1922 to 1927, and their child died at a young age.

Until 1934 she worked on a voluntary and full-time basis for the KPD district leadership Berlin-Brandenburg, u. a. as political employee or head of the women's department, in illegal work since 1933. In 1934 she worked in Moscow in the women's secretariat of the Communist International , in 1935 and 1936 she studied at the Communist University of the National Minorities of the West (KUNMS) in Moscow under the code name Emmy Dublin. After the university was closed in 1936, he was employed in the KPD leadership in Prague, Zurich and Paris. From Prague in 1937 she lived in partnership with Wilhelm Koenen . In January 1939 she emigrated to England. She was a worker in London, a founding member of the Free German Movement (FDB) in London in 1943 and co-initiator of the FDB's women's commission in 1944. From 1940 to February 1941 he was interned on the Isle of Man.

In December 1945 she returned to Germany together with Wilhelm Koenen. She worked as an editor in Halle and Dresden. Since her return to Saxony in 1945, she was committed to the creation of municipal women's committees, and since 1946 she was the second chairwoman of the women's committee of the state of Saxony.

Emmy Damerius-Koenen (r.) At the founding congress of the Democratic Women's Association of Germany on September 7–9. March 1947 with Else Lüders (left) and Hilde Benjamin (far right in the second row)

When the Democratic Women's Association of Germany (DFD) was founded, she played a dominant role in the preparatory committee. At the German Women's Congress for Peace from March 7 to 9, 1947 in Berlin's Admiralspalast, the founding congress of the DFD, she gave the main speech on international issues and became one of the four deputy chairmen of the new women's organization. In April 1948 she replaced the former DFD chairwoman Anne-Marie Durand-Wever , her election as DFD chairwoman took place at the DFD national congress on 29/30. May 1948. She successfully used her international experience for the admission of the DFD to the International Democratic Women's Federation (IDFF), founded in Paris in 1945 primarily by women communists and anti-fascists.

As a result of the SED resolution on emigrants from the West in 1949 and at the same time as a result of internal disputes with the SED women's secretariat headed by Elli Schmidt and Käthe Kern , she had to relinquish the DFD chairmanship in spring 1949. In May 1949 Elli Schmidt took over the post of DFD chairwoman.

Grave site (2017)

After a long illness, Emmy Damerius-Koenen was an editor, manager and deputy editor-in-chief at Die Wirtschaft in Berlin from 1950 to 1958 . After 1958 she worked as a freelance journalist and worked for Wilhelm Koenen until her husband's death in October 1963. Emmy Koenen left numerous articles in the women's press in the Soviet occupation zone and published detailed memoirs on the history of the SED and the history of the DFD.

She died on May 21, 1987 in Berlin-Friedrichshagen. Your urn was in the grave conditioning Pergolenweg the Memorial of the Socialists in the Central Cemetery Friedrichsfelde buried.

Fonts

  • Emmy Damerius-Koenen: New World Movement of Women for Peace and Social Progress. Public lecture, held under the title “The International Democratic Women's Federation and Us.” Ed .: State Women's Committee, State Government Dresden. Sachsenverl., Dresden 1946.
  • Emmy Damerius-Koenen: About the anti-fascist women's work in Saxony in the years 1946/47. In: Contributions to the history of the German labor movement, special issue 1965/66.
  • Under the sign of the red star. Memories. Dietz Verlag Berlin 1974, p. 249ff.
  • Emmy Damerius: memories. Exile in England. In: Contributions to the history of the German labor movement, issue 4/1978.
  • The first years. Memories. Dietz Verlag Berlin 1979, p. 258ff.

literature

swell

  • Federal Archives SAPMO SgY30 / 1308/1

Web links

Commons : Emmy Damerius-Koenen  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Democratic Women's Federation of Germany (ed.): History of the DFD, Verlag für die Frau, Leipzig 1989, p. 9.89, ISBN 3-7304-0223-4 .
  2. ↑ Democratic Women's Federation of Germany (ed.): History of the DFD, Verlag für die Frau, Leipzig 1989, p. 9.89, ISBN 3-7304-0223-4 .
personal data
SURNAME Damerius-Koenen, Emmy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Damerius, Emmi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (KPD, SED), MdV, journalist, co-founder of the DFD
DATE OF BIRTH March 15, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin-Rosenthal
DATE OF DEATH May 21, 1987
Place of death Berlin-Rosenthal