Maria Wachter

Maria Wachter (born April 21, 1910 in Düsseldorf ; † August 18, 2010 there ) was a German communist who was active in the resistance against National Socialism . Maria Wachter was honorary chairwoman of the Association of Victims of the Nazi Regime - Association of Antifascists (VVN-BdA) in North Rhine-Westphalia and honorary member of the Friends of the Dusseldorf Memorial .

Life

In 1930 Maria Wachter joined the KPD , since 1931 she played in the agitprop group "Nord-West-Ran" founded by Wolfgang Langhoff , among others with Hilarius Gilges . From 1933 to 1935 Maria Wachter was in the illegal resistance in Düsseldorf, then from 1935 to 1937 she went to the Lenin School in Moscow , where she met Herbert Wehner, among others .

From 1937 to 1939 she worked in Amsterdam for the West Section of the KPD and during this time repeatedly traveled to Germany with forged papers to lead resistance groups in the Bielefeld area. In 1939 Maria Wachter was arrested and interned in Paris, like many German citizens, as an "enemy foreigner". Wachter was taken to the Rieucros internment camp . After her transfer to Germany in 1942, she was given a prison sentence , which first took her to Anrath prison and then to forced labor in an armaments factory in Steinhagen . The approaching end of the war saved her in April 1945 from being taken to the Ravensbrück concentration camp .

After the liberation from fascism , Wachter worked again in the KPD and was therefore arrested again after it was banned. She was also denied a victim's pension as a victim of the Nazi regime. For many years she worked full-time in the federal office of the VVN / BdA in Frankfurt / Main. She lectured to school classes and at events about her time in the resistance against the Nazi regime into old age .

Since 1982 Wachter lived in Düsseldorf again and was one of the co-founders of the Friends of the Mahn- und Gedenkstätte Düsseldorf e. V. In September 2008, the council of the state capital Düsseldorf refused to make Maria Wachter an honorary citizen. Only the left-wing parliamentary group voted for the motion. Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen and an SPD council member abstained.

literature

• Hermann Weber , Andreas Herbst : German communists. Biographical Handbook 1918 to 1945 . 2nd, revised and greatly expanded edition. Dietz, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-320-02130-6 ( online [accessed January 6, 2013]).

Web links

• Greetings from the party Die Linke in North Rhine-Westphalia on the 100th birthday
• DIE LINKE. Düsseldorf mourns Maria Wachter
• On the 100th birthday of Maria Wachter, honorary chairwoman of the VVN-BdA NRW: Interview with Maria Wachter about Nazism, women in resistance, camp detention and anti-fascism today (1996)
• Hans Daniel: Upright against Nazis. Life of an “incorrigible”: On the death of the Düsseldorf anti-fascist and communist Maria Wachter. (PDF; 903 kB)