Marie Torhorst

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Marie Torhorst (right) with sister Adelheid, 1911

Marie Torhorst (born December 28, 1888 in Ledde , Westphalia ; † May 7, 1989 in East Berlin ) was a German politician and educator .

Training and first professional positions

Marie Torhorst obtained her higher education entrance qualification at the Oberlyzeum and teacher training college at Keppel Abbey in Allenbach, studied geography , mathematics and physics at the University of Bonn and business and economics at the University of Cologne . In Bonn, she received her PhD in 1918 at Hans Hahn Dr. phil .; her dissertation was entitled "On the boundary set of simply connected flat areas". One result of the work is the Torhorst theorem.

After that, as a supporter of the socialist idea, she had difficulties in finding permanent employment. After working part-time as a teacher in Bonn, she trained as a trade teacher and in 1923 took over the management of a private trade school run by the Women's Employment and Training Association in Bremen . With like-minded fellow teachers, Torhorst set up evening courses for young people who had been dismissed from elementary school .

Political development

Marie Torhorst joined the General Free Teachers' Union of Germany and the SPD in 1928 , where she sided with the internal opposition. From 1929 to 1933 taught Torhorst as a secondary school teacher at the of Fritz Karsen led Karl Marx School in Berlin- Neukölln , a reform educational embossed model school could, in, among others, gifted workers' children finish school.

A study visit to the USSR in 1932 left a lasting impression on her. She had been interested in the school system of the Soviet Union for a long time and now she based her political and educational work on the Marxist-Leninist ideology.

During the time of National Socialism, she initially worked as a kitchen helper and commercial clerk. In autumn 1943 she was sent to a labor camp near Watenstedt (Salzgitter) for a few months because a Jewish communist was hiding . Then she returned to Berlin and worked in the archive of the German Society for Business Administration, then until the end of April 1945 in the care of German prisoners of war in the Reichsgruppe Handwerk.

Activity in the GDR

After the end of the Second World War , Torhorst first joined the KPD , after the compulsory merger of the SPD and KPD into the SED in 1946, she was a member of the SED .

Until 1947 she headed a department in the SED central secretariat, then she was appointed Thuringian Minister for Public Education . She held this office from 1947 to 1950. She then worked briefly as a political secretary in the International Women's Democratic Federation (IDFF) in Berlin. In 1952 she became head of the department for cultural relations with other countries in the Ministry of Education. From 1958 to 1965 she taught at the German Central Pedagogical Institute , from 1962 also as a professor. She was honorary deputy chairwoman of the Democratic Women's Association of Germany (DFD) from 1957 to 1960.

Since 1953 Marie Torhorst was under the code name "Sofie" secret employee (GM) or secret informant (GI) of the main department V / 4 of the state security of the GDR . Her family relationships in the Federal Republic of Germany and frequent trips to western countries were of particular interest. So among the people she provided reports on were her cousin Rudolf Smend and Wolfgang Leonhardt . In 1986 she commented on the division of Germany and the inner-German border : “On August 13, 1961, our anti-fascist protective wall was erected at the state border in accordance with the states of the Warsaw Treaty. [...] When [the West German politicians] wanted to take action against it, they encountered the insurmountable resistance of our combat groups and all armed forces. Since we are dealing here with a boundary between the socialist and the capitalist world system, it must be secured with particular care. This has been done for many years by our border troops [...] "

Awards

Marie Torhorst received numerous awards in the GDR, including the 1973 Gold Medal for the Patriotic Order of Merit , the Karl Marx Order in 1978 and the Great Star of Friendship in 1988 . In addition, the Torhorst Comprehensive School in Oranienburg , founded in 1982, was named after her and her sister Adelheid.

family

The father Arnold Torhorst (1841-1909) was a Protestant pastor and married to Luise Smend (1847-1923), the couple had four sons and three daughters. Marie Torhorst and her six siblings grew up in Ledde in the Tecklenburger Land . Marie Torhorst later lived in close association with her sister Adelheid Torhorst (1884–1968); both remained unmarried and childless. Marie was an aunt of Käthe Hanna Luise Torhorst (1911–2019), wife of Hasso von Boehmer . Part of the correspondence between Marie and Käthe from the period after 1945, which also shows the different political attitudes of the two women, has been preserved.

Web links

Commons : Marie Torhorst  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

swell

In the Federal Archives under "SAPMO SgY 30/0944" and "DC 20 I / 4/311"

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lasse Rempe-Gillen: On prime ends and local connectivity . 2014 pdf 195 kB [1]
  2. ^ Wolfgang Buschfort : Marie Torhorst - the first German minister . In: Andrea Gawrich , Hans J. Lietzmann (eds.): "Gute Politik" and their time, Münster 2005, pp. 246-255
  3. ^ Karl-Heinz Günther (Ed.), Marie Torhorst: Pastor's Daughter - Pedagogue - Communist: from the life of the sisters Adelheid and Marie Torhorst . Berlin, Dietz Verlag 1986, 151 pp., 28 illustrations, p. 137
  4. ↑ Neues Deutschland , December 6, 1973, p. 5
  5. ^ New Germany, 25./26. February 1978, p. 5
  6. ↑ Berliner Zeitung , 8./9. October 1988, p. 4
personal data
SURNAME Torhorst, Marie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (SPD, SED), MdV and educator
DATE OF BIRTH December 28, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Ledde
DATE OF DEATH May 7, 1989
Place of death East Berlin