Aenne Kurowski-Schmitz

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Aenne Kurowski-Schmitz (born March 26, 1894 in St. Tönis near Krefeld , † November 13, 1968 ) was a German lawyer and diplomat.

Live and act

Aenne Kurowski-Schmitz was born as Aenne Schmitz in 1894. After graduating from high school in 1913, she studied mathematics and natural sciences in Munich from 1914. In 1914/15 she studied law at the Universities of Freiburg , Berlin and Bonn . In 1919 she received her doctorate in Bonn. jur.

In 1920 Schmitz married the lawyer and center politician Bruno Kurowski . In the 1920s and 1930s, the couple ran a joint law firm in Gdansk . In addition, Kurowski-Schmitz was appointed Austrian Vice-Consul on May 17, 1935 to support her husband, who in addition to his business as a lawyer also performed the duties of an Austrian consul for Danzig . After her husband was arrested by the National Socialists and expelled from the city in 1937, Kurowski-Schmitz continued to run the joint office in Gdansk on his own until 1945. In the years from 1937 to 1945 she used her extensive relationships to organize hiding places (for example in her parents' house in St. Tönis and in the convent of the Gray Sisters near Danzig) and jobs (a law firm in Pomerania) for her husband, who since 1937 lived successively in Austria, Italy and Germany. In addition, Kurowski-Schmitz also provided help to others persecuted by the Nazi regime, including Jews. In 1944 she succeeded in getting the Gdańsk police chief to cancel the ban on her husband, who was now seriously ill, so that he could seek treatment in a Gdańsk hospital. After the death of her husband, who died in 1944, Kurowski-Schmitz continued to work as a lawyer until the occupation of Danzig by the Red Army .

After her flight from Danzig Kurowski-Schmitz settled in her native city. There she again worked as a lawyer, and she also took on tasks in the city administration. She became one of the first female government commissioners in Germany. As assistant to Walter Siemers and Kurt Peschke, Kurowski-Schmitz participated in the criminal defense of Eduard Houdremont in the Krupp trial from 1947 to 1948 . Houdremont was her sister Marian's husband and was charged as special commissioner for metal conversion and sentenced to ten years in prison.

In 1952 Kurowski-Schmitz was appointed to the diplomatic service of the Federal Republic of Germany . In the following years she represented the Federal Republic of Germany as consul in Basel (1955), Los Angeles and Amsterdam .

Fonts

  • The right of the Franconian Queen , Bonn 1919. (Dissertation)

literature

  • Oda Cordes: Marie Munk (1885-1978). Life and Work , Cologne: Böhlau, 2015, ISBN 978-3-412-22455-4 , pp. 859–861.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Date and place of birth according to: Historical Commission for East and West Prussian State Research: Old Prussian Biography , 1961, p. 1848 (contained in the entry on her husband). Date of death according to information from the Political Archive of the Foreign Office in Berlin from November 2008.
  2. ↑ See Archives of the City of Danzig .
  3. ↑ Historical Commission for East and West Prussian State Research: Old Prussian Biography , 1961, p. 1847.
  4. ↑ Records of the United States Nuremberg War Crimes Trials , Vol. 9, United States Government Printing Office , District of Columbia 1950, p. 6 ( Memento of September 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). (Volume 9 of the "Green Series")
  5. ↑ US Government Printing Office: Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals Under Control Council Law No. 10 , 1949, p. 1001.
  6. ^ Wilhelm Matull: Ostdeutschlands Arbeiterbew Movement , 1973, p. 457. Also, Die Bundes Republik Deutschland , 1962, p. 67.


personal data
SURNAME Kurowski-Schmitz, Aenne
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer and diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH March 26, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Tönis near Krefeld
DATE OF DEATH November 13, 1968