Maple of Suhl

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The case of the card reader from Suhl ( Charlotte Marquardt ; * 1902 in Berlin , † 1975 in Suhl ) describes a judgment passed by the GDR judiciary in 1955 . The amateur fortune teller was sentenced to a prison sentence of twelve years because of favorable prognoses for families willing to flee and an astrological manual smuggled in from an excursion to West Berlin on the grounds of " boycotting " .

The judgment, which was perceived as barbaric, was mentioned several times as an example of systematic perversion of the law in the GDR in relevant collections.

prehistory

Charlotte Marquardt grew up as the daughter of a metalworker in Berlin-Weißensee , worked as a telephone operator and typist and in 1927 married an officer of the protection police who was transferred to Suhl. Marquardt was a housewife and had two sons with her husband. After her husband was transferred to Litzmannstadt (Łodz) in occupied Poland , her Polish housekeeper introduced her to fortune-telling by reading cards and began to enjoy it. The marriage broke up during the war; the older son died as an anti-aircraft helper, she was evacuated to Suhl with the younger son. She worked as an unskilled worker in a factory in Suhl and passed on the cards to friends, probably not for money, but in exchange for donations in kind such as food. Corresponding reports by disgruntled neighbors initially fizzled out.

Display and process

In 1954 an unknown source reported to the Stasi again with the suspicion of having "advised" people who had "fled the republic ". The Stasi lieutenant Stoschek identified 18 adults and their families whom they had advised between 1951 and their arrest in autumn 1955. She was therefore accused of “poaching through boycott and war incitement under Article 6 of the Constitution of the German Democratic Republic ”. The Suhler SED district newspaper Free Word published a corresponding report on April 20, 1956 under the headline “Righteous Punishment for Unscrupulous Solicitation”. To make matters worse, when she was arrested she was carrying a “Lorcher Astrological Calendar for 1956” (from the folk publisher Karl Rohm ), a gift from her brother that was still wrapped.

The national horoscope of the Federal Republic of Germany contained therein was interpreted as a further incitement to war and boycott , which assigned it a decisive role in a reunified Germany on September 12, 1956 due to a lucky trigon between Jupiter, sun and moon. The fact that many of the counseled already had the decision to flee was in no way used to reduce judgment. A prison sentence of twelve years was applied for and so decided. West German media also mentioned the case.

Punishment and parole

Marquardt had to begin her sentence in the notorious Hoheneck women's penitentiary near Stollberg in the Ore Mountains . Several applications for early release were denied until she was granted parole two years after the Wall was built. The dismissal took place with reservations and with explicit reference to the fact that after the building of the wall no longer possible induction to escape. In the company of Ilse Gratz's family, a former inmate, she was able to recover a little. Nevertheless, Marquardt remained in need of care due to the prison conditions and a back pain. She died of cancer in 1975.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Petra Weber: Justice and dictatorship: justice administration and political criminal justice in Thuringia 1945–1961: publications on SBZ / GDR research in the Institute for Contemporary History . Oldenbourg, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-486-56463-3 ( online [accessed October 22, 2015]).
  2. ↑ Federal Ministry for All-German Issues (ed.): Injustice as a System: Documents on planned legal violations in the Soviet occupation area . 1954 ( online [accessed October 22, 2015]).
  3. ^ Karl Theodor Lieser: Soviet Zone Criminal Law and Ordre Public . Alfred Metzner, 1962 ( online [accessed October 22, 2015]).
  4. ↑ Federal Ministry for All-German Issues (ed.): Documents of Injustice: The SED Regime in Practice . 1957 ( online [accessed October 22, 2015]).
  5. ↑ a b c d Baldur Haase: When laying cards, "Advertising for the unit" - Charlotte M., the card reader from Suhl . Retrieved October 22, 2015.
  6. ↑ Dietrich Müller-Römer: The basic rights in Central Germany . Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik, 1965 ( online [accessed October 22, 2015]).
  7. ↑ The reasons for the judgment usually remain secret. Hamburger Abendblatt, July 19, 1958, accessed on October 22, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Maple of Suhl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Marquardt, Charlotte
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German fortune teller, victim of the GDR dictatorship
DATE OF BIRTH 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH 1975
Place of death Suhl