Auguste Adenauer

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Auguste Amalie Julie Adenauer , née Zinsser; briefly Gussie Adenauer (* December 7, 1895 in Cologne , † March 3, 1948 in Rhöndorf ) was the second wife of Konrad Adenauer .

Life

Auguste Zinsser was born in 1895 as the eldest daughter of Wilhelmine Zinsser, b. Tourelle (1870–1952) and the dermatologist , university professor and later rector of the University of Cologne , Ferdinand Zinsser (1865–1952) born in Cologne. After finishing school she received an artistic and musical training. In 1911 Konrad Adenauer and his first wife Emma moved into the villa at Max-Bruch-Strasse 6 in Cologne-Lindenthal . In the years that followed, the two families enjoyed good neighborly relations.

Gussie and Konrad Adenauer in the garden of the Villa Max-Bruch-Strasse 4-6 in Cologne-Lindenthal
Adenauer house in Rhöndorf

Emma Adenauer died in October 1916 at the age of 36, leaving behind three minor children. According to his own statements, the widower Konrad Adenauer was heavily burdened by the loss of his wife and worries about the upbringing of his children. Eleven months after the death of his wife, the Cologne city ​​council elected Konrad Adenauer as Lord Mayor of Cologne on September 18, 1917 . Auguste Zinsser and Konrad Adenauer got to know each other better through common interests. After converting to the Catholic faith , the couple married on September 25, 1919 in Cologne.

The marriage resulted in four surviving children in the following years: Paul (1923–2007), Charlotte ( Lotte , * 1925), Elisabeth ( Libet , 1928–2019) and Georg (1931–2020). The eldest son Ferdinand died on June 8, 1920 four days after he was born. Maria Weyer, Emma Weyer's sister, supported Auguste - called Gussie - Adenauer in bringing up the children. In the 1920s, Auguste Adenauer accompanied her husband on official occasions and was the district chairwoman of the Catholic German Women's Association .

From 1929 she was a member of the executive working committee of the women's council of the Cologne Center Party . In the following years she supported social and artistic associations and organizations such as the Catholic Association for Child and Youth Welfare. Along with Alice Neven DuMont , Margarete Tietz , Nina Andreae, Dora Pferdmenges, Margarete Zanders, Edith von Schröder and Flossy von Oppenheim, she was one of the supporters and founding members of the Cologne women's art association Gedok , which was founded by Ida Dehmel and in which women from different social classes were organized.

At the end of February 1933, she and five other women signed an appeal by the Center Party for local elections on March 12, 1933, which spoke out against the radicalization of the German people, against hatred and street terror.

After Konrad Adenauer had been deposed as Lord Mayor of Cologne by the National Socialists on March 13, 1933, he went into hiding in order to avoid the threat of arrest . Gussie initially stayed in Cologne with the seven children. When the National Socialists confiscated her house, she moved with the children to the St. Elisabeth Hohenlind hospital. On May 1, 1934, she followed her husband to Neubabelsberg and moved with him to Rhöndorf in 1935, after his application to the Reich Ministry of the Interior under Wilhelm Frick had been rejected in 1934 . Augustes brother, the architect Ernst Zinsser , built a home in Rhöndorf , which the Adenauer family was able to move into in 1937. The family lived on the proceeds from the sale of the Cologne town house and on the reduced Konrad Adenauer pension .

Grave site of the Adenauer family in the forest cemetery in Rhöndorf

After the failed assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler on July 20, 1944 , Konrad Adenauer was arrested on August 23, 1944 as part of the Grid Action and imprisoned in the Cologne exhibition center in Deutz . During a hospital stay in Cologne-Hohenlind, he was able to escape with the help of helpers and go into hiding in the Westerwald . Gussie Adenauer was arrested in Rhöndorf and interrogated in the Cologne Gestapo headquarters EL-DE-Haus by Kurt Bethke , the head of the special unit of the action grid for the Cologne Gestapo area . On September 24, 1944, under the pressure of interrogation and mistreatment, she revealed the whereabouts of Konrad Adenauer and the names of his escape helpers Fritz and Klaus Schliebusch. Both escape helpers were arrested by the Gestapo and died in March 1945 as a result of illnesses they had contracted while in custody. She was then imprisoned in the women's prison in Brauweiler Abbey . Konrad Adenauer was arrested in the early morning of September 25, 1944 and also brought to Brauweiler. Desperate about her betrayal, Gussie Adenauer attempted suicide in Brauweiler , which resulted in a permanent deterioration in her health. She was released from prison in Brauweiler on October 3, 1944. Due to the successful intervention of Max Adenauer, his father Konrad was released from prison on November 26, 1944 and returned to Rhöndorf.

Auguste Adenauer died on March 3, 1948 in Rhöndorf at the age of 52 from the late effects of the suicide attempt of 1944. She was buried in the forest cemetery in Rhöndorf .

literature

  • Hans Peter Mensing : Emma, ​​Gussie and Konrad Adenauer. With the daughters of Ria Reiner, Lotte Multhaupt and Libet Werhahn, in: Dieter Zimmer (Ed.): Germany's First Ladies. The women of the Federal Presidents and Federal Chancellors from 1949 to the present day , Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-421-05125-9 , pp. 33–62.
  • Libet Werhahn : The rollercoaster of history - Gussie Adenauer , in: Marlene Zinken (Hrsg.): The undisguised look. Our mothers, marked by the period 1938 to 1958 , Budrich, Opladen 2007, ISBN 978-3-86649-136-6 , pp. 80-89.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Konrad Adenauer 1917–1933. Documents from the Cologne years . In: Günther Schulz / Landschaftsverband Rheinland (Hrsg.): Documents and representations on the history of the Rhenish provincial administration and the Landschaftsverband Rheinland . tape 15 . SH-Verlag, Cologne 2007, ISBN 978-3-89498-161-7 , p. 27 .
  2. ↑ Paul Adenauer: Konrad Adenauer - The father, the power and the legacy: The diary of Monsignore Paul Adenauer 1961-1966 . Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2017, ISBN 978-3-657-78853-8 , pp. 26 .
  3. ↑ Konrad Adenauer: Konrad the Great - About my grandfather . In: Rita Wagner, Cologne City Archives (ed.): Konrad the Great - The Adenauerzeit in Cologne 1917–1933 . Accompanying volume for the exhibition in the Cologne City Museum. Nünnerich - Asmus, Mainz 2017, ISBN 978-3-96176-006-0 , p. 23 f .
  4. ↑ Irene Franken : Gussie Adenauer - The woman at his side . In: Rita Wagner, Cologne City Museum (ed.): Konrad the Great - The Adenauerzeit in Cologne 1917–1933 . Nünnerich-Asmus, Mainz 2017, ISBN 978-3-96176-006-0 , p. 25-27 .
  5. ↑ Irene Franken: Women in Cologne . In: The historical city guide . JP Bachem, Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-7616-2029-8 , pp. 186-190 .
  6. ↑ Paul Adenauer: Konrad Adenauer - The father, the power and the legacy: The diary of Monsignore Paul Adenauer 1961-1966 . Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2017, ISBN 978-3-657-78853-8 , pp. 23 .
  7. ↑ a b Adenauer, Gussie :: Konrad Adenauer. Retrieved July 2, 2017 .
  8. ^ Michael Fuchs: NS Documentation Center: Exhibition illuminates the history of the EL-DE house . In: Kölnische Rundschau . January 31, 2013 ( rundschau-online.de [accessed July 2, 2017]).
  9. ↑ Werner Biermann: Konrad Adenauer: Ein Jahrhundertleben, Rowohlt Verlag, 2017 [1]
  10. ↑ P. Guide: Memorial Book Brauweiler - LVR-Kulturzentrum Brauweiler Abbey. Retrieved July 2, 2017 .
  11. ^ Hermann Daners, Josef Wißkirchen: What happened in Brauweiler - The Nazi era and its consequences in the Rheinische Provinzial-Arbeitsanstalt . In: Landschaftsverband Rheinland / Verein für Geschichte eV Pulheim (Hrsg.): Documents and presentation on the history of the Rhenish Provinacial Administration and the Landschaftsverband Rheinland . tape 16 . Pulheim 2006, ISBN 3-927765-39-2 , pp. 93-95 .
  12. ↑ TV documentary: How Konrad Adenauer prepared for death - WELT. Retrieved July 2, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Adenauer, Auguste
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Adenauer, Auguste Amalie Julie (full name); Adenauer, Gussie; Zinsser, Auguste (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION second wife of Konrad Adenauer
DATE OF BIRTH December 7, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne
DATE OF DEATH March 3, 1948
Place of death Rhöndorf