Greta Wehner

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Greta Wehner (born October 31, 1924 in Harxbüttel as Greta Burmester ; † December 23, 2017 in Dresden ) was a German social democrat .

Career

Greta Burmester was born as the daughter of the ship's carpenter and communist resistance fighter Carl Burmester and his wife Charlotte, née Clausen (born August 20, 1903 in Flensburg - † 1979 as wife of Herbert Wehner ), in the rural commune of Harxbüttel founded by Hans Löhr and Hans Koch . That any information on the rural commune Harxbüttel were known, Günter Wiemann later acquaintance with Greta Wehner, who informed him in a letter of 11 June 2006 on the background of their birth in Harxbüttel owes:

“My mother worked in the gardens of the banker Max Warburg in Hamburg. My parents met in an SAJ group in Blankenese that met at the Jewish social democrat Berendsohn . They loved each other and absolutely wanted to have children, but for the time being they did not want to get married in order to put the Youth Welfare Act that came into force in 1924 to the test.
That was also the reason why we ended up in Harxbüttel, because an unmarried, expectant mother was a bad role model for the daughters of the Warburgs.
There were apparently political connections to the 'Harxbüttel rural community', where young people were to be prepared for emigration to Brazil through agricultural work. Harxbüttel was the third place when I was on the road.
There was plenty of work there for a skilled gardener, and vegetables were grown, especially asparagus, which was processed in the own canning factory. For a skilled man like my father, there was also a lot to do - but there was no money! My parents were starving and I with them. "

Greta Burmester did not stay long in Harxbüttel, and her parents, probably in 1925, got married after all.

She was ten years old when her father was overthrown to death by officers after being questioned by the Gestapo . Her mother fled to Sweden with her and her brother Jens-Peter . There they met Herbert Wehner from Dresden , whom their mother married in 1944. Greta Wehner trained as an infant nurse in Sweden and was employed at the University Hospital in Uppsala .

The Wehner family returned to Germany in 1947; Greta became a member of the SPD in August 1947 and joined the public services, transport and traffic union . She qualified as a social welfare worker in Kiel and was active in this profession even after additional training.

In 1953 the family moved to Bonn, where they worked for their stepfather, who had meanwhile been elected to the Bundestag , for the first time. She was at his side as a secretary, chauffeur, housekeeper and cook. She later gave up this job to take care of her seriously ill mother. In 1979 her mother died. In 1983 Greta Burmester and Herbert Wehner married. She nursed him until his death in January 1990.

In 1992 Greta Wehner was a co-founder of the Herbert Wehner Educational Center in Dresden. In June 1996 she moved to Dresden and became honorary chairwoman of the Neue Gesellschaft Sachsen e. V.

From 1997 Greta Wehner was a member of the board of trustees of the German Alzheimer's Society .

In May 2003, she set up the Herbert and Greta Wehner Foundation, which also supports the Herbert Wehner Educational Institute.

At the end of 2010 she was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit, 1st class.

Fonts

  • Greta Wehner, Christoph Meyer (Ed.): Experiences: From a life in the middle of politics. Ed. Sächsische Zeitung, Dresden 2004, ISBN 978-3-910175-14-3 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christoph Meyer: On the death of Greta Wehner. Herbert and Greta Wehner Foundation, December 27, 2017, accessed on December 27, 2017 .
  2. ^ Letter from Greta Wehner to Günter Wiemann dated June 11, 2006, in: Günter Wiemann, Hans Löhr and Hans Koch - political walks , p. 11
  3. ^ Günter Wiemann, Hans Löhr and Hans Koch - political walks , p. 13
personal data
SURNAME Wehner, Greta
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Burmester, Greta (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German social democrat
DATE OF BIRTH October 31, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Harxbüttel
DATE OF DEATH 23rd December 2017
Place of death Dresden