Käthe Dahlem
Käthe Dahlem born Käthe Weber (born March 20, 1899 in Berlin ; † December 25, 1974 there ) was a German KPD functionary, resistance fighter against National Socialism and functionary of the Democratic Women's Association of Germany in the GDR.
Life
Dahlem was born as Käthe Weber and the daughter of a union official and shoemaker. After elementary school she worked as a saleswoman from 1913 to 1919. At the age of 14 she began to get involved in socialist organizations. In 1913 she became a member of the Socialist Workers' Youth (SAJ). In 1917 she joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) and in 1920 the Communist Party of Germany (KPD).
In 1919 she married the communist Franz Dahlem . After the National Socialists came to power , the couple emigrated to France in 1933 . Both worked for the KPD exile leadership in Paris . In 1935 Dahlem became secretary of the operational management of the KPD in Prague , then in Moscow in 1935 and again in Paris in 1936. In 1937 and 1938 she was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Spain in Valencia and Barcelona .
In 1939 Dahlem returned to France and temporarily stayed illegally in Toulouse . There she kept in contact with communist prisoners in the Le Vernet detention center . In 1944 and 1945 she was the organizational secretary of the Committee Free Germany for the West (CALPO). The Dahlem couple returned to Germany in October 1945. Both became members of the SED in 1946 with the forced unification of the SPD and KPD .
From 1946 to 1947 Dahlem was head of the main women's committee at the Magistrate of Greater Berlin and until 1949 also head of the organization of the women's committee in Berlin. From 1947 to 1953 Dahlem was a member of the Berlin district board of the Democratic Women's Association of Germany (DFD).
Honors
- 1958 medal for fighters against fascism
- 1969 Patriotic Order of Merit in Gold
- 1974 Karl Marx Order
- In 1971 Dahlem and her husband became an honorary citizen of the French city of Ivry-sur-Seine .
- A vocational school in Berlin is named after Käthe Dahlem.
literature
- Bernd-Rainer Barth : Käthe Dahlem . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
- Ulla Plener : Women from Germany in the French Resistance. A documentation. Edition Bodoni, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-929390-90-2 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Renée Lugschitz: Foreign women in the Spanish civil war 1936-1939 . LIT Verlag, Münster, 2012, ISBN 978-3-643-50404-3 . ( online )
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Dahlem, Kathe |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Weber, Käthe |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German KPD and DFD functionary |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 20, 1899 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Berlin |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 25, 1974 |
| Place of death | Berlin |