Johanna Niederhellmann

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Johanna low Hellmann (* 6. February 1891 in Moenchengladbach , † 18th April 1956 in Duisburg ) was a German women's rights activist , SPD - Reichstag candidate and resistance fighter against the Nazis .

Life

Niederhellmann came from a Christian family. After attending primary school and a secondary educational institution, she studied pedagogy and became a teacher at the Free School in Duisburg-Beeck . The teacher was removed from her in September 1933 and she was released from the Nazi authorities from schools.

The experience of the First World War led her to join the German Peace Society after 1918 . She also became a member of the International Women's League for Peace and Freedom and the League for Human Rights . She joined the union and became a member of the SPD in 1926. She campaigned in the Duisburg local SPD association with lectures, especially for women's rights , and became known beyond the city limits. Her sister Herta had joined the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany (SAPD).

Immediately after the transfer of power to the NSDAP in March 1933, house searches were carried out. She was also physically visited on the street . After being banned from working in September, she moved to live with her parents in the old town of Ruhrort. This apartment became an illegal meeting place for like-minded members of the SPD resistance, including Sebastian Dani and Hermann Runge . From here, the friends organized the distribution of illegal educational material. A particularly effective project was also developed here: the conversion of the Hamborner bread factory "Germania" into a distribution center for calls for resistance that were baked into the loaves of bread here. When the Gestapo resistance center became known, Niederhellmann was arrested in June 1935 and severely tortured. In the so-called bread factory trial in Duisburg , she received a three-year prison sentence . Why she wasn't transferred to a concentration camp afterwards has never been fully clarified. According to certain reports, her three brothers, as part of the NSDAP , were able to prevent her from being transported to the concentration camps.

After liberation from National Socialism, Niederhellmann helped rebuild the SPD. In the provisional citizens' council of Duisburg, she became the only female mayor for the Ruhrort district. From 1945 to 1948 she chaired the housing committee for other districts: for Beeck , Beeckerwerth and Laar . She also campaigned for the re-establishment of trade unions - specifically as a member of the “Committee for the re-establishment of a unified trade union ”.

For health reasons - imprisonment and torture had hit her badly - she retired from all political offices and functions in 1948.

Honors

In 2004 a square in Ruhrort was named after Johanna Niederhellmann.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Report on street naming.Retrieved August 12, 2011

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Niederhellmann, Johanna
BRIEF DESCRIPTION social democratic resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH February 6, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Ruhrort
DATE OF DEATH April 18, 1956
Place of death Duisburg