Maria Rentmeister
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Maria Rentmeister (born January 27, 1905 in Sterkrade , † May 10, 1996 in Berlin ) was a German resistance fighter against National Socialism and the first general secretary of the Democratic Women's Association of Germany (DFD).
Life
Rentmeister's father was a tailor by trade. Her mother Käthe Rentmeister was politically active, first in the SPD and from 1930 as a member of the KPD. She was the oldest sister of Franz, Robert, Hans , Willi and Else Rentmeister. After graduating from elementary school and commercial school , Maria Rentmeister completed a commercial training. In 1927 she became a member of the Socialist Workers' Youth . In 1929 she went to the United States , where she worked as a worker. After her return in 1932 she became a member of the KPD and took over the leadership of the women's department in the sub-district management of the KPD Oberhausen; she also became a city councilor for the KPD.
After 1933 she did “illegal” political work in the Saar area for the KPD. In autumn 1934 she emigrated to Paris , where she became a member of the World Committee against War and Fascism . She also took over the management of the magazine of the World Committee World Front , of which Albert Norden was editor-in-chief . In addition, he worked for the World Committee for Women .
In 1936 she moved to the Netherlands , where she conducted courses in political education . At the same time she worked for the KPD section leadership West by helping to produce the "illegally" smuggled into Germany resistance magazine Westdeutsche Kampfblätter . In 1937 she was delegated to Switzerland and worked there for the KPD section leadership south . In 1938 she returned to the Netherlands and took over the coordination of communist women's resistance in West Germany. During the time of emigration, she was the partner of Wilhelm Beuttel (1900–1944).
After the occupation of the Netherlands by the Wehrmacht , she was arrested by the Gestapo in 1940 and convicted in 1941 by the Hamm Higher Regional Court for “preparing to commit high treason”. From 1941 until the liberation in 1945 she was then imprisoned in the penitentiary in Anrath . In 1945 she was one of the co-founders of the KPD in Dessau, which was again operating “legally” .
In the summer of 1945 she worked as a cultural advisor in the KPD district leadership in Berlin. From 1945 until its dissolution in November 1947, she was chairwoman of the Berlin Women's Committee. Through the union of the SPD and KPD , she became a member of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany , of which she was a party executive from 1946 to 1950.
From 1946 to 1948 she was a member of the city council of Greater Berlin . At a meeting of the SED party executive in the autumn of 1948, she made a speech to the SED leadership that there was “a desolate mood among the workers” and that they had “strong anti-Soviet attitudes”. At the 2nd People's Congress on March 17 and 18, 1948 in Berlin, she was elected to the 1st German People's Council.
Rentmeister was a co-founder of the DFD and a member of the first federal executive committee of the DFD and its first general secretary from 1947 to 1949.
From 1949 to 1954 she took over the management of the main department for cultural enlightenment in the ministry for national education and took care of the development of the cultural foreign relations of the GDR . From 1951 to 1954 she was also the deputy chairman of the State Commission for Art Affairs . From 1954 to 1958 she temporarily took over the management of the main art department in the Ministry of Culture and from 1958 to 1960 the management of the press and advertising department at VEB Progress Filmvertrieb . She officially ended her professional activity in 1960 for health reasons and then worked as a volunteer for the Institute for Marxism-Leninism at the SED Central Committee (IML) and the Commission for the History of the Local Labor Movement of the SED district leadership in Berlin. Ultimately, however, with the premature termination of her activity, she only drew the consequences of fifteen years of grueling work in the ministerial administration and constant disputes over competence with party organs. In 1990 she became a member of the Democratic Socialism Party .
Rentmeister's first marriage was to the Oberhausen communist Wilhelm Bettinger and his second marriage to Fritz Rettmann , whom she had met in the 1920s through working together in the DMV . She had a daughter. Your urn was in the grave conditioning Pergolenweg the memorial of the socialists at the Berlin Central Cemetery Friedrichsfelde buried.
Fonts
- A long-cherished hope came true. In: United we are everything. Memories of the founding of the SED. Dietz-Verlag, Berlin 1966 (2nd edition 1971).
- Cultural relations with our friends. In: The first years. Memories. Dietz 1985.
- In exile we opened up the treasures of culture. In: … the beginning of a new era. Memories. Berlin / Weimar 1981.
swell
- Federal Archives SAPMO NY 4159
- Landesarchiv Berlin CRep. 102 No. 164 vol. 1
literature
- Bernd-Rainer Barth : Rentmeister, Maria . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
- We "high and national traitors". Antifascist resistance in Oberhausen. ASSO Verlag: Oberhausen 1983, pages 150–157 ("Resistance of a family. The Rentmeisters from Oberhausen-Sterkrade")
- Beatrice Vierneisel: “For example Maria R.” in the essay: “The memory archive. Life testimonies as a source group in the Institute for Marxism-Leninism at the Central Committee of the SED. ”In: Martin Sabrow (ed.): Managed Past. Historical culture and legitimation of rule in the GDR. Leipzig 1997 (History and culture of history in the 20th century, Vol. 1) ISBN 978-3-931982-02-7
Web links
- Literature by and about Maria Rentmeister in the catalog of the German National Library
Individual evidence
- ↑ cf. website of the great niece of Käthe / niece of Maria Rentmeister , Cäcilia Rentmeister
- ↑ Traces of the women's movement in Oberhausen, p. 5 (PDF; 7.7 MB)
- ↑ Peter Steinbach, Johannes Tuchel, Ursula Adam: Lexicon of Resistance 1933-1945
- ↑ Michael Kubin: From Utopia, Resistance and Cold War. P. 240
- ↑ Beatrice Vierneisel, Rudolf Jahnke. A manager in the GDR. Aspects of cultural policy in the 1950s, Schwerin 2002, p. 125
- ↑ Beatrice Vierneisel's website
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Rentmaster, Maria |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Rentmeister-Rettmann, Maria |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German resistance fighter, women's rights activist and politician (KPD, SED, PDS), MdV |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 27, 1905 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Sterkrade |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 10, 1996 |
| Place of death | Berlin |