Margaretha Rothe

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Margaretha Rothe

Margaretha (Gretha) Rothe (born June 13, 1919 in Hamburg , † April 15, 1945 in Leipzig ) was one of the central figures of the resistance group of the White Rose Hamburg .

Life

Margaretha Rothe, who had been a student at the Hamburg Lichtwark School for four months since November 1936 , temporarily took part with her friends Traute Lafrenz and Heinz Kucharski in a privately organized reading group of the teacher Erna Stahl , who had taught at the Lichtwark School until 1935. In 1937, after her coeducation at the Lichtwarkschule was canceled, she and Lafrenz moved to the monastery school , where they both graduated from high school in 1938. After that she had to do her compulsory year and Reich Labor Service . Then, like Lafrenz, she began studying medicine and got to know other oppositional fellow students at the University of Hamburg . At the University Hospital in Eppendorf , she also made contact with doctors and students who were critical of National Socialism , who were aware of their role and called them “candidates of humanity”. The young people met in discussion groups and discussed cultural and political issues. Margaretha Rothe became active beyond the talks in protest against the ever increasing restrictions on freedom of expression. Together with Heinz Kucharski, with whom she had a love affair, she printed and distributed scatter slips on which the frequencies and broadcast times of foreign radio stations were noted.

From 1941/1942 onwards, the opposition circle of friends grew stronger; Via Karl Ludwig Schneider , who had also been a student at the Lichtwark School, she met the chemistry student Hans Leipelt and the bookseller Hannelore Willbrandt , which in turn led to contacts with the medical student Albert Suhr and his friend Reinhold Meyer , German studies student and junior manager of the bookstore Agency of the Rauhen Haus on Jungfernstieg. From 1943 onwards, Margaretha Rothe's group preferred to meet in the bookstore's basement. When the group around the Scholl siblings , Willi Graf and Alexander Schmorell, which was active in similar activity in Munich, expanded its networks to other cities at the end of 1942, the leaflets from Munich were also distributed in Hamburg. Traute Lafrenz, who was in contact with Alexander Schmorell, Hans and Sophie Scholl in Munich, brought some Munich White Rose leaflets to Hamburg. These were copied and distributed by the Freundeskreis.

The meetings and activities were betrayed by the Gestapo spy Maurice Sachs . The Frenchman was given the task of establishing closer contact with Hamburg's opposition and resistance groups. To this end, he had specifically installed a contact point. In this way he managed to get in touch with the people of the White Rose in Hamburg around Heinz Kucharski, Margaretha Rothe and Reinhold Meyer. In August 1943 he took part in their discussions in the bookstore of the Rauhen Haus agency. They had included him in their circle because they hoped to get in touch with French resistance groups through him. On November 9, 1943, the Gestapo arrested Margaretha Rothe together with her friend Heinz Kucharski. A total of over 30 people were arrested in connection with the White Rose in Hamburg and taken to the Fuhlsbüttel police prison . In October 1944 he was transferred to the Hamburg remand prison on Holstenglacis . Because of the air raids on Hamburg in November 1944, Rothe was brought to the custody department of the Cottbus women's penitentiary via Berlin . In February 1945, the Reich Public Prosecutor brought charges against 24 members of the group for preparing for high treason , favoring the enemy, and degrading military strength . Margaretha Rothe, along with Heinz Kucharski, Karl Ludwig Schneider, Gerd Spitzbarth, Bruno Himpkamp and the student councilor Erna Stahl, were the main culprits. During the onward transport in the cattle wagon to Leipzig in the very cold February 1945, Rothe fell ill. After a short stay in the women's prison in Leipzig-Meusdorf , she was transferred to the prison hospital and finally to the St. Jakob Municipal Hospital, which was relocated to the grounds of the Leipzig sanatorium in Dosen .

Margaretha Rothe died there on April 15, 1945 of the consequences of pulmonary tuberculosis and pleurisy .

Public honor

Memorial stone for Margaretha Rothe and Erna Stahl in the women's garden
Stumbling block for Margaretha Rothe in front of the Klosterschule grammar school in Hamburg

On December 3, 1987, the Rothe-Geussenhainer-Haus was inaugurated on the grounds of the Eppendorf University Hospital. In memory of Margaretha Rothe, a street was named after her on August 30, 1982 in Hamburg-Niendorf . Her work is also honored with the memorial table with 12 chairs inaugurated in Niendorf in 1987 to commemorate Hamburg resistance fighters. Since October 1988 a school in Hamburg-Barmbek-Nord has been called Margaretha-Rothe-Gymnasium . In this same school, fourteen picture panels on the life of Margaretha Rothe were developed in 2002 through the basic fine arts course and awarded the Bertini Prize . The exhibition has been listed in the directory of Hamburg memorials since 2008.

To commemorate Margaretha Rothe together with Erna Stahl, a commemorative stone has been placed in a commemorative spiral inside the women's garden at the Ohlsdorf cemetery . It is a sandstone with an opening symbolizing a cell window and a white rose leaflet shaped into a metal swallow. Stumbling blocks have been laid for her both in front of the Heinrich Hertz School in Winterhude (the former Lichtwark School) and in front of the Klosterschule grammar school in St. Georg and in front of her house in Winterhude .

On December 10, 2013, a memorial was opened in the former Cottbus prison, in which original documents such as letters and Margaretha Rothe's study book can be seen.

On December 1, 2016, a student housing complex in Hamburg-Winterhude, which was previously named after the National Socialist doctor Paul Sudeck , was renamed Margaretha-Rothe-Haus .

See also

literature

  • Hendrik van den Bussche : The Hamburg University Medicine under National Socialism , here: Angela Bottin and Hendrik van den Bussche: 7.3 Opposition to the regime and persecution in medical and student circles in Eppendorf , Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin Hamburg, 2014, p. 367 ff., ISBN 978- 3-496-02870-3
  • Peter Normann Libra: Long live freedom! - Sweet Lafrenz and the White Rose. Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 978-3-8251-7809-3
  • Herbert Diercks : Freedom lives. Resistance and persecution in Hamburg 1933–1945. Texts, photos and documents. Published by the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial on the occasion of the exhibition of the same name in the Hamburg City Hall from January 22 to February 14, 2010.
  • Ingeborg Staudacher: Margaretha Rothe, a Hamburg student and resistance fighter. published by Gunther Staudacher, Balingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-00-033234-0
  • Angela Bottin: Tight time. Traces of displaced and persecuted people at the University of Hamburg. Catalog for the exhibition of the same name in the Audimax of the University of Hamburg from February 22 to May 17, 1991. Hamburg Contributions to the History of Science Volume 11, Hamburg 1992, ISBN 3-496-00419-3 .
  • Ursel Hochmuth , Gertrud Meyer : Streiflichter from the Hamburg resistance. 1933-1945. 2nd Edition. Frankfurt 1980, ISBN 3-87682-036-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ingeborg Staudacher: Margaretha Rothe, a Hamburg student and resistance fighter, Balingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-00-033234-0 , p. 20
  2. ↑ Ulrike Sparr: Stolpersteine ​​in Hamburg-Winterhude. Biographical search for traces. Published by the State Center for Political Education, Hamburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-929728-16-3 , pp. 225f.
  3. ↑ Ingeborg Staudacher: Margaretha Rothe, a Hamburg student and resistance fighter, Balingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-00-033234-0 , p. 44 (letter from M. Rothe to her parents)
  4. ↑ Ralf Forsbach: The Medical Faculty of the University of Bonn in the "Third Reich".
  5. ↑ Margaretha Rothe. In: Website of the Margaretha-Rothe-Gymnasium. Retrieved October 17, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Memorials in Hamburg .
  7. ↑ Margaretha Rothe House .
personal data
SURNAME Rothe, Margaretha
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rothe, Gretha
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH June 13, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH April 15, 1945
Place of death Leipzig