Katharina Kern
Katharina Kern , called Käthe Kern (born July 22, 1900 in Darmstadt , † April 16, 1985 in Berlin ) was a German anti-fascist resistance fighter and politician ( SED / DFD ).
Life
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Kern attended secondary school in her native Darmstadt, where she also completed an apprenticeship as a commercial clerk. In 1919 she became a member of the social democratic youth association SAJ and in 1920 she joined the SPD . After working from 1921 to 1924 as an employee of the President of the Hessen State Insurance Institute in her hometown, from 1925 onwards she worked for the General Free Employees' Association as Otto Suhr's secretary and as an employee of Siegfried Aufhäuser , member of the Reichstag . From 1928 to 1933 Kern was a member of the district executive committee of the SPD in Berlin and headed the women's secretariat there. She was arrested in June 1933. After her release in July 1933, she worked as a secretary in the Berlin Saar Association, and from 1935 again as a secretary for the Prussian mining huts. She maintained contacts with the illegal resistance against National Socialism , especially with Wilhelm Leuschner's resistance group .
After the Second World War , Kern was a member of the central committee of the SPD in Berlin and women's secretary of the SPD. As an advocate of the unification of the KPD and the SPD , enforced by the Soviet occupation forces , she was elected to the SED party executive committee at the unification congress in April 1946 , she headed the party's women's secretariat on equal terms with Elli Schmidt until 1949 and became a member of the FDGB . In 1947 she was one of the co-founders of the DFD , in which she was one of the five honorary deputy chairpersons until 1949. Until her death, Kern also remained a member of the national executive committee of the DFD. From 1946 to 1950 Käthe Kern was a member of the state parliament in Saxony-Anhalt . She resigned from office on April 27, 1950. Frieda Voss became the successor . In 1948 and 1949 she also became a member of the German People's Council .
In the 1949 elections she was given a seat in the People's Chamber . Here she took over the chairmanship of the DFD parliamentary group in 1957, which she headed until 1984. In 1958 she became a member of the Constitutional Committee and in 1963 a member of the Health Care Committee . At the Ministry of Health , she was head of the Mother and Child Department (HA MuK) from 1949 to 1970 .
For her work, Käthe Kern was awarded the Clara Zetkin Medal in 1954, the Patriotic Order of Merit (VVO) in 1955, 1958 and 1960, the VVO with the Honor Clasp in 1970, the Karl Marx Order in 1975 and the Awarded Star of Friendship of Nations .
Kern died in 1985 and her urn was given a place of honor in the Socialist Memorial in Berlin-Friedrichsfelde.
literature
- Andreas Herbst , Helmut Müller-Enbergs : Kern, Käthe (Katharina) . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
- Siegfried Mielke, Peter Rütters: Kern, Käthe (1900–1985) . In: Siegfried Mielke (ed.): Trade unionists in the Nazi state: persecution, resistance, emigration . Essen: Klartext, 2008, ISBN 978-3-89861-914-1 , pp. 209-218
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Democratic Women's Federation of Germany (ed.): History of the DFD, Verlag für die Frau, Leipzig 1989, pp. 68, 83, ISBN 3-7304-0223-4 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kern, Katharina |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Kern, Kathe |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German politician (SED, DFD), MdV |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 22, 1900 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Darmstadt |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 16, 1985 |
| Place of death | Berlin |