Else Niemöller

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Else Niemöller (1919)

Else Maria Elisabeth Niemöller (née Bremer, born July 20, 1890 in Elberfeld ; died August 7, 1961 in Åbenrå , Denmark ) was a German pastor, speaker and activist for women and peace work in the post-war period. She last lived in Wiesbaden .

Family and education

Else Bremer was the first of five children of August Bremer and Helene Borberg. The family lived in the northern part of Elberfeld, one of the poorer districts. Here the father also practiced as a doctor. Politically, she grew up in a nationally conservative Protestant milieu. The mother had been unable to walk since she was 30 years old due to an illness. Therefore, the eldest daughter took on family responsibilities at an early age.

In Elberfeld, Else Bremer attended a middle school and a high school for girls . The high school she could not put there, because that was not possible at that time in all the girls' education institutions. However, from 1907, the qualification entitles her to attend the municipal teacher training institute in Elberfeld. After three years of training, Else Bremer was allowed to work as a teacher . She taught German and singing for a year at a private school in Tunbridge Wells, England . Then she taught at various schools in Elberfeld. Since she wanted to become a student councilor , she began to study German, English and history at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn in 1916 . In the same year she switched to the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Berlin . There she lived in the newly built Victoria Study House in Charlottenburg , which had been designed by Emilie Winkelmann , Germany's first freelance architect .

In 1917 Else Bremer fell in love with Martin Niemöller , a friend and former classmate of her brother Hermann and a sea cadet like him. After the engagement in July 1918, she dropped out of college. In any case, after the marriage, she would have had to give up her desired career as a college teacher, because the celibacy clause still applied , which prohibited married civil servants from working.

New perspectives on life (1918–1933)

Triggered by the end of the war on November 11, 1918 and the subsequent demobilization , Martin Niemöller, who had risen to become a submarine commander, looked for other professional fields. Options included building an agricultural estate in Argentina or Germany. He quit his military service and married Else Bremer on April 20, 1919. An internship in agriculture with relatives in the Tecklenburger Land should give both of them the necessary knowledge for the new job. But in the end there was no money to build up an existence. Martin Niemöller now decided to become a pastor . In October 1919 he began studying theology at the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster . Else Niemöller accepted his decision and wrote in retrospect:

"I myself, who at that time was not so closely connected with my husband, suffered a lot from the tensions of these days, but I had absolutely no influence on my husband's decision about what would sometimes change in later years."

The couple moved to Münster at the end of 1919 . Their first daughter was born on April 2, 1920. Martin Niemöller could not be present for the birth, because at that time he commanded a battalion of the Academic Wehr Münster , with whose support the Kapp Putsch should be put down. For Else Niemöller, that doesn't seem to have been a problem. She was brought up as a national conservative and, like her husband, was rather hostile to democracy. Both were involved in the student group of the DNVP founded in 1919 at the University of Münster, she (for one semester) as a member, he as chairman. Only the following decades and events led to both rethinking.

Else Niemöller organized the household, brought up the children - until 1935 she had seven children - and supported her husband with his studies, e.g. B. when writing the document work. After a shortened vicariate, Martin Niemöller was appointed the first full-time manager of the Inner Mission for the Westphalian church province on December 1, 1923 . He held this office until the end of June 1931. Then he moved to Berlin-Dahlem , initially as the second pastor of the Jesus Christ Church , in 1933 he received the first pastor's position at the St. Anne's Church . As a pastor's wife, Else Niemöller was now more in public and had more responsibility. New social obligations came up, especially visits to the community. She had a great influence on her husband's early sermons . She suggested topics and proofreads for him. She attached importance to comprehensibility, also sensitized by her children and her experiences as a teacher.

Period of Church Opposition (1933–1945)

Like the Protestant church leaderships and many Protestants , Martin and Else Niemöller also believed in a national recovery after Adolf Hitler came to power in January 1933. They welcomed Germany's exit from the League of Nations on October 14, 1933 and later the Saarland's return to the German Reich . At the same time, they were involved in the church opposition, which fought against the German Christians and, after the introduction of the Aryan paragraph in the Evangelical Church in September 1933, initiated the Pastors' Emergency League. Martin Niemöller took over its leadership and was one of the founders of the Confessing Church in May 1934, which many parishioners in Dahlem joined. The rectory became an important point of contact. The Gestapo monitored it accordingly . Martin Niemöller was arrested, interrogated and suspended from duty several times over the next few years, and several legal proceedings were opened against him. There were house searches , and in 1934 a bomb attack in the house failed. Else Niemöller shared the economic and psychological consequences and tried to protect her children from them.

Else Niemöller with her son Martin (right, 1939)

On July 1, 1937, the Gestapo arrested Martin Niemöller again. In his last sermon he had repeatedly criticized the state measures taken against the Confessing Church. At first he was in Moabit prison. The court finally sentenced him on March 2, 1938 to seven months of imprisonment and a fine. Although the prison sentence by the detention was considered served, he was sent after the verdict in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Else Niemöller was his most important spiritual comrade at this time. As a theological discussion partner, she successfully opposed her husband when he wanted to convert to Catholicism . For this she also sought advice from Karl Barth and Hans Asmussen . She also kept in touch between him and the Dahlem community and answered countless letters. She was now solely responsible for the children. She was also repeatedly interrogated by the Gestapo. This had health consequences up to and including hospital stays.

In 1943 Else Niemöller moved with her three youngest children to Leoni on the Starnberger See in the holiday home of Maria Lempp, the widow of the publisher Albert Lempp . This enabled her to visit her husband more quickly, who had been transferred to the Dachau concentration camp on July 11, 1941. Here she learned on May 6, 1945 of his liberation from the hands of the SS in South Tyrol ( liberation of the SS hostages in South Tyrol ). When Martin Niemöller was released from American internment in June 1945, Else Niemöller was still living in Leoni. Together they moved in 1946 at the invitation of the family of the princes of Ysenburg and Büdingen into Schloss Büdingen .

Work in the post-war period (1946–1961)

Grave of Else Niemöller and Dora Schulz at the Südfriedhof Wiesbaden (2019)

The years up to her death were marked by global trips with her husband. They went to conferences and synods , gave lectures, gave interviews and sometimes preached together. Else Niemöller devoted herself above all to women and peace work. The focus of the presentations was on her experiences as the wife of the imprisoned Martin Niemöller, the importance of the Confessing Church in Germany, the role of women in the church opposition during National Socialism and the life of Christians in the Soviet zone of occupation or the GDR . In doing so, she repeatedly warned that Christian women had a special responsibility for peace .

Else Niemöller remained her husband's closest critic, as can be seen in a letter from Princess Marie zu Ysenburg and Büdingen to her sister Princess Olga zur Lippe on December 18, 1945:

“Yesterday [...] I was briefly at Ms. Niemöller's. [...] You were now in Westphalia and there he spoke 18 times in 10 days. Since she has to listen to and criticize all the lectures, she was folded up on Sunday. "

During their first trip to the USA in 1946/47, the couple began organizing donations for needy Germans and arranging sponsorships as part of the CARE campaign . They later expanded these activities to other countries. Martin Niemöller set up a “CARE office” in the EKD's external church office . It existed from 1947 to at least 1955 and was headed by Else Niemöller, initially in Büdingen and from 1948 in Wiesbaden , where the family had lived since Martin Niemöller was elected President of the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau. It was important to them to support Christian needy people in the GDR. After their appearances, both solicited donations and expanded the network of helpers through targeted personal addresses.

Worldwide ecumenism was important to Else Niemöller. For the World Day of Prayer for Women in 1951, she and Hildegard Schaeder , a consultant for the Eastern Orthodox Churches in the external office of the Evangelical Church, prepared the services . In the same year she joined the emerging West German women's peace movement. Else Niemöller supported their actions, gave lectures and was appointed honorary president. With these activities against rearmament, conscription and nuclear weapons , she was, like her husband, under suspicion of having been agitated communistically. Especially since they both campaigned for German reunification and traveled several times to socialist countries.

Else Niemöller died on August 7, 1961 in a car accident while on vacation. The long-time domestic worker of the Niemöller family, Dorothea (Dora) Schulz, was also killed. Both women were buried in the Wiesbaden Südfriedhof .

literature

  • Doris Borchmeyer: The Confessing Church and the foundation of the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau . Dissertation at the Justus Liebig University Giessen 2010. (d-nb.info , pdf).
  • Barbara Okker Hassell: Martyrs at the Hearth. The Social-Religious Roles of Resistance Women During Nazi Germany . Dissertation at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg / Virginia 2014. (vtechworks.lib.vt.edu , pdf).
  • Wolfgang See, Rudolf Weckerling : Women in the church fight. Examples from the Confessing Church in Berlin-Brandenburg 1933–1945 . Berlin 1984, ISBN 3-88981-006-3 , pp. 75-93.
  • Leonore Siegele-Wenschkewitz : My husband's cause. In: Hannes Karnick, Wolfgang Richter: Protestant. The century of the pastor Martin Niemöller. Book accompanying the exhibition of the same name in Wiesbaden and Berlin in spring 1992 . Frankfurt am Main 1992, ISBN 3-88352-033-0 , pp. 137-154.
  • Edita Sterik: The wife of an important man. Else Niemöller b. Bremer 1890–1990. For the 100th birthday. Book accompanying the exhibition of the same name in the Central Archives of the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau in July 1990. Darmstadt 1990, DNB 921197926 .
  • Christoph von Wolzüge : The patroness - Princess Marie zu Ysenburg and the Confessing Church in the Büdinger Kirchenkampf. Correspondence 1934–1965 . Frankfurt am Main 2019. (academia.edu , pdf).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Obituary for Else Niemöller (wife of Martin Niemöller) - group of people - German Digital Library. Retrieved December 5, 2019 .
  2. ↑ On family history cf. Central archive of the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau (ZA EKHN), 62/6077: unfinished life report by Else Niemöller, written after 1946 (hereinafter: life report).
  3. ↑ Ann-Cathrin (ack): The north city - an old quarter over Elberfeld. In: blickfeld-wuppertal.de - the campus newspaper for Wuppertal. February 6, 2013, accessed December 5, 2019 .
  4. ↑ ZA EKHN, 62/6077: certificates.
  5. ↑ ZA EKHN, 62/6077: Certificate of admission from the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, 6.5.1916.
  6. ↑ ZA EKHN, 62/6077: Life report, p. 7.
  7. ^ Benjamin Ziemann: Martin Niemöller. A life in opposition . Munich 2019, p. 92.
  8. ↑ ZA EKHN 62/6077: Life report, p. 13.
  9. ^ Benjamin Ziemann: Martin Niemöller. A life in opposition. 2019, p. 111. The Freikorps was disbanded on April 23, 1920.
  10. ↑ Leonore Siegele-Wenschkewitz: The matter of my husband. 1992, pp. 149/150.
  11. ^ Münster University Archives, Best. 4, No. 684, Bl. 26, 28 (winter semester 1920/21). Else Niemöller was accepted into the student group even though she was no longer a student. On Martin Niemöller's activities in the group, cf. Benjamin Ziemann: Sinking ships. Martin Niemöller's report on the German submarine fleet in the First World War. In: The revolt of the holy damned: literary war processing from the 19th to the 21st century. (= War and literature. 23). V&R unipress, 2017, ISBN 978-3-8471-0772-9 , pp. 21-46. (eprints.whiterose.ac.uk , pp. 1–28, accessed on November 19 , 2019 ).
  12. ↑ Leonore Siegele-Wenschkewitz: The matter of my husband. In: Hannes Karnick, Wolfgang Richter: Protestant. The century of the pastor Martin Niemöller . Frankfurt am Main 1992, pp. 137–154, here p. 145.
  13. ↑ Leonore Siegele-Wenschkewitz: The matter of my husband. 1992, p. 145; Benjamin Ziemann: Martin Niemöller. A life in opposition. 2019, pp. 151/152.
  14. ↑ Wolfgang See, Rudolf Weckerling: Women in the church fight. Examples from the Confessing Church in Berlin-Brandenburg 1933–1945 . Berlin 1984, pp. 75-93, here p. 78.
  15. ^ Matthias Schreiber: Martin Niemöller. Reinbek near Hamburg 2008, p. 79.
  16. ^ Doris Borchmeyer: The Confessing Church and the founding of the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau. Dissertation at the Justus Liebig University Giessen 2010, pp. 120/121.
  17. ↑ ZA EKHN, 62/1750: Diary entry of Elsa Freudenberg on 14/06/1942; Edita Sterik: The wife of an important man. Else Niemöller b. Bremer 1890–1990. For the 100th birthday . Darmstadt 1990, p. 130.
  18. ^ Benjamin Ziemann: Martin Niemöller. A life in opposition. 2019, p. 350.
  19. ↑ Edita steric: The wife of a great man. Else Niemöller b. Bremer 1890–1990. For the 100th birthday . Darmstadt 1990, p. 133.
  20. ↑ Excerpts from letters from Martin and Else Niemöller with Princess Marie zu Ysenburg, in: Christoph von Wolhaben: The Patroness - Princess Marie zu Ysenburg and the Confessing Church in the Büdinger Kirchenkampf. Correspondence 1934–1965 . Frankfurt am Main 2019.
  21. ↑ Claudia Orzechowsky: "We are the Church". On Martin Niemoeller's image of America during his first trip to America in 1946/47. Unpublished master's thesis in the Protestant Theology department of the Johann Wolfgang von Goethe University Frankfurt am Main 2017, p. 21.
  22. ↑ ZA EKHN, 62/6077: Lectures Else Niemöller; Barbara Okker Hassell: Martyrs at the Hearth. The Social-Religious Roles of Resistance Women During Nazi Germany. Dissertation from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Blacksburg / Virginia 2014, pp. 86–89.
  23. ↑ Christoph von Wolzüge: The Patroness - Princess Marie zu Ysenburg and the Confessing Church in the Büdinger Kirchenkampf. Correspondence 1934–1965. 2019, p. 91.
  24. ↑ a b ZA EKHN, 62/73, 62/77: Correspondence CARE office.
  25. ↑ World Day of Prayer Topics and Countries since 1947. In: ekggoenningen.de. Retrieved December 5, 2019 .
  26. ^ A b ZA EKHN, 62/825: Korrespondenz Frauenfriedensbewegung.
  27. ↑ Else Niemöller. In: spiegel.de. March 14, 1956, accessed December 5, 2019 .
  28. ↑ Klara Marie Fassbinder: In memory of our honorary president Else Niemöller. In: Woman and Peace. Volume 10, No. 9, 1961, pp. 8/9.
personal data
SURNAME Niemöller, Else
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Niemöller, Else Maria Elisabeth (full name); Bremer, Else (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pastor's wife, speaker and activist for women's and peace work in the post-war period
DATE OF BIRTH July 20, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Elberfeld
DATE OF DEATH August 7, 1961
Place of death Åbenrå , Denmark