Kate Stresemann

Käte Stresemann around 1906 with her eldest son Wolfgang

Käte Stresemann , née Käthe Kleefeld (also called Kate Stresemann in the USA ; * July 15, 1883 in Berlin-Lankwitz ; †  July 23, 1970 in Berlin), was the wife of the German politician Gustav Stresemann (1878-1929).

Life

Gustav, Käte and Wolfgang Stresemann in 1927 in the Hotel Métropol in Geneva

Gravestone for Käte Stresemann and Hans-Joachim Stresemann at the Dahlem forest cemetery in Berlin-Zehlendorf

Käthe Kleefeld came from an assimilated Jewish merchant family. Shortly before their birth, the family had moved from Kassel , the hometown of their father Adolf (also Arthur, originally Aaron) Kleefeld (1856–1902), to Berlin in December 1882 . The father ran a cotton business together with his older brother Hermann and later became involved in lignite mining . Käthe was born in a villa in Lankwitz in the Teltow district near Berlin, the hometown of her mother Antonie (* 1850, called "Toni"), daughter of the horse dealer Julius Heinemann.

The parents had their children Kurt , Käthe, Selma Eva (1884–1973) and Elsa (* 1887) baptized Protestants . After the early death of their father, they and their mother were left on their own. While Kurt began studying law , the three exceptionally good-looking daughters were swarmed in Berlin social circles.

Käthe Kleefeld married on October 20, 1903 in the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin Gustav Stresemann, a federal brother of her brother Kurt from the Suevia reform fraternity in Leipzig . At that time Stresemann was working as managing director for the Association of German Chocolate Manufacturers and had lived in Dresden since 1901 . The sons Wolfgang (1904–1998) and (Hans-) Joachim (1908–1999) emerged from the marriage, both of whom were born in Dresden and baptized in the family home. In 1910 the family moved their main residence back to Berlin.

Kate's sisters married officers : Eva 1905 the son of the national liberal editor August Heinrich Braß , Friedrich Braß (* 1870), who died in the First World War in 1914 ; second marriage in 1919 to Kurt Theodor Sorge (* 1886), the only son of long-time Krupp director Kurt Sorge . Elsa (also Elsa-Maria) married in 1907 Hans Karl Simon von Winterfeld (* 1883) from the well-known Prussian landowner and officer family Winterfeldt , who was largely related to the Prussian poet Franz von Gaudy (1800–1840) through his mother .

Kate's Jewish descent brought her husband to various political issues. His party, the national liberal DVP , was attacked by the right-wing nationalist DNVP , among others, with the anti-Semitic accusation that its chairman Stresemann was “ Jewish-like ”. Stresemann tried to defend himself against accusations made against him as early as the imperial era and also demonstrated a certain ability to adapt: ​​For example, he underlined Kätes Jewish family history in contacts with the Jewish Central Association , but raised the fact against DNVP chairman Oskar Hergt in 1919 showed that his wife was not Jewish. For Gustav Stresemann, the bond with Käte was one argument among many to always reject a closer alliance with the DNVP. Stresemann's rival Paul Moldenhauer from the right wing of the DVP was convinced in his memoirs that the majority in their own party also thought racially and anti-Semitically and took offense at Stresemann's marriage.

Kate Stresemann knew how to represent it. When her husband took over the Foreign Ministry in 1923, her apartment at Tauentzienstrasse 12a became a meeting place for diplomats and Berlin's better society. Her talent as a skilful hostess received laudatory recognition, for example in Time Magazine on the occasion of the 25th International Advertising Congress in Berlin: She was “not a housewife, but a young, elegant, cosmopolitan, English-speaking Jew, with the ability to communicate on the social floor, in the salon as well as in the night club. "

After the death of her husband in October 1929, she and her son Wolfgang moved into an apartment at Bismarckstrasse 99. The years in the Third Reich were marked by a lengthy legal battle over the inheritance of her brother Kurt von Kleefeld, who died in 1934, against which corruption allegations were raised. The civil lawsuit in which Wolfgang Stresemann represented the Kleefeld heirs (Kate, her sisters and their spouses) ended in 1936 with a settlement . The Nazis avoided at this time to exploit the inheritance discussion of Jewish descent family propaganda because they did not appear opportune a campaign against the memory of Gustav Stresemann due to the international image of the late politician and the good relations of his family abroad. In the fall of 1939 , Käte Stresemann and her son Wolfgang emigrated to the United States to live with their second son Joachim (1908–1999), who went to New York after completing his studies in 1937 and worked for the Chase Manhattan Bank .

Käte Stresemann was the bearer of the Red Cross Order and the Royal Bulgarian House Order.

Trivia

In the German feature film Stresemann from 1956, Käte Stresemann was portrayed by Susanne von Almassy .

literature

• John P. Birkelund: Gustav Stresemann. Patriot and statesman. A biography. Translated from American English by Martin Ruf . Europa-Verlag, Hamburg 2003.
• Wolfgang Stresemann : Times and Sounds. A life between music and politics. Ullstein, Berlin 1997.
• Karl Heinrich Pohl : Gustav Stresemann: Biography of a border commuter. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2015, ISBN 978-3-647-30082-5 .

Web links

Commons : Käte Stresemann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Wolfgang Stresemann : Times and Sounds. Ullstein, Berlin 1994, p. 10 ( online ); see. Marriage Register Berlin III, year 1903, no. 810, viewed on July 4, 2016 in the Berlin State Archives via Ancestry.de , p. 1657; Kate Stresemann Death Record  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as broken. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.   , accessed on July 4, 2016 in the Social Security Death Index via Mooseroots.com , Record count: 92,554,687.
2. ↑ DNB : Kleefeld, Adolf (idn = 1082046078) .
3. ↑ Wolfgang Stresemann: Times and Sounds. Ullstein, Berlin 1994, p. 10.
4. ↑ ^{a b c d} Eberhard Kolb : Gustav Stresemann. Beck, Munich 2003, p. 26 f.
5. ↑ Kurt Koszyk : Gustav Stresemann: The democrat loyal to the emperor. A biography. Kiepenheuer & Witsch , Cologne 1989, p. 81 f.
6. ^ Holger Starke : Dresden in the prewar period. Fields of activity for the young Gustav Stresemann. In: Karl Heinrich Pohl (ed.): Politicians and citizens: Gustav Stresemann and his time. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2002, pp. 86–113 (here: p. 99; 105 and note 93).
7. ↑ Jonathan Wright : Gustav Stresemann. Weimar's greatest statesman . Oxford et al. a. 2002, p. 137.
8. ↑ Jonathan Wright: Gustav Stresemann , p. 142 f.
9. ↑ Jonathan Wright: Gustav Stresemann , p. 138.
10. ^ Advertisement 1929 , chroniknet, accessed on September 17, 2015.
11. ^ "No housewife, but a young, elegant, cosmopolite, English speaking Jewess, a woman equipped with the conversation of the polite world, equal to parlor or nightclub." In: Time Magazine . August 19, 1929 ( viewed online January 10, 2015; now subject to a charge).
12. ^ Kurt Koszyk: Gustav Stresemann. Cologne 1989, p. 357.
13. ↑ Paid Notice: Deaths STRESEMANN, JOACHIM. In: The New York Times . October 5, 1999, accessed July 3, 2016.
14. ^ Eberhard Kolb: Stresemann, Gustav. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 25, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-428-11206-7 , pp. 545-547 ( digitized version (PDF; 3.7 MB)).
15. ^ Robert Volz: Reich manual of the German society . The handbook of personalities in words and pictures. Volume 2: L-Z. Deutscher Wirtschaftsverlag, Berlin 1931, DNB 453960294 , p. 1870 f.