Martha Chwalek

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Martha Chwalek (born August 4, 1899 in Breslau as Martha Wende, † February 15, 1986 in Berlin ) was a German trade unionist . She was the wife of Roman Chwalek .

Life

Martha Wende grew up in Breslau, where she attended elementary and commercial school. She then became an accountant and married Roman Chwalek on July 13, 1925. Shortly afterwards she joined the KPD and the RGO in Opole . For the party she became a city councilor in 1928 and a member of the provincial parliament in 1930 , joined the local and district leadership and also became a women's leader in Opole. In 1931/32 she attended a lecturer course at the International Lenin School in Moscow .

After the seizure of power , Martha Chwalek and her husband went underground and offered anti-fascist resistance. While Roman Chwalek and Fritz Schulte tried to continue the work of the banned RGO, Martha Chwalek worked as the secretary of the Reich leadership. Her husband was arrested on September 1, 1933, while she was able to stay in hiding until January 18, 1934 and continued her engagement as a typist for the illegal RGO Reich Committee under the new Pol. Head Wilhelm Agatz . Similar to her husband before, she too was provided with forged papers in the name of "Hildegard Reinecke". Both were arrested together in mid-January 1934. Based on the documents confiscated in the process, the National Socialists succeeded in arresting almost the entire illegal RGO Reich leadership.

Martha Chwalek was sentenced on February 11, 1935 by the “ People's Court ” in Berlin to three years imprisonment for preparation for high treason and forgery of documents. She served her remaining sentence in the Moringen and Lichtenburg concentration camps . In 1938, after the end of her prison term, she moved with her husband to Berlin-Schulzendorf . During the rest of the “ Third Reich ” the couple was under special observation and was arrested again and again.

After 1945 she was employed as administrative director in a hospital in Berlin-Neukölln in the American sector. SED member since 1946 , on June 29, 1948 she received her letter of dismissal from the head of the Neukölln Personnel Office Ernst Scharnowski for political reasons . She then worked as the administrative manager of the Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg hospital and, from December 20, 1948, as the city district councilor and head of the Berlin-Pankow health department . She later acted as deputy head of the health and social affairs department in the magistrate of East Berlin, where she was involved in the party leadership of the company party organization .

In October 1950 she was sent to the GDR Land Chamber as a Berlin representative. She was also deputy chairwoman of the Berlin district board of the Democratic Women's Association of Germany (DFD).

In 1969 she retired and withdrew from all party functions. She died on February 15, 1986. Their urn was in the grave conditioning Pergolenweg the Socialist memorial at Berlin's Central Cemetery Friedrichsfelde buried.

Awards

literature

  • Lydia Dollmann: Chwalek, Martha (1899–1986): Resistance in the husband's shadow . In: Siegfried Mielke (ed.): Trade unionists in the Nazi state: persecution, resistance, emigration . Klartext Verlag, Essen 2008, ISBN 978-3-89861-914-1 , p. 102-104 .
  • Chwalek, Roman in Hermann Weber: German Communists . Biographisches Handbuch 1918 to 1945. Dietz, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-320-02044-7 .
  • Melanie Arndt: Health Policy in Divided Berlin 1948 to 1961 . Böhlau Verlag, Cologne 2009, ISBN 978-3-412-20308-5 , pp. 75 and 92

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stefan Heinz : Moscow's mercenaries? The “Unified Association of Metal Workers in Berlin”: Development and failure of a communist union . Hamburg 2010, p. 325 ff.
  2. ^ New Germany , July 15, 1948
  3. ↑ Berliner Zeitung , December 24, 1948
  4. ↑ Berliner Zeitung , October 4, 1950
  5. ^ Neue Zeit , May 29, 1964
  6. ^ Socialistenfriedhof.de
  7. ↑ Obituary notice. In: Berliner Zeitung , March 8, 1986
  8. ↑ Gold medal for the Patriotic Order of Merit . In: New Germany . October 3, 1984, p. 4 .
personal data
SURNAME Chwalek, Martha
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wende, Martha (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German trade unionist
DATE OF BIRTH 4th August 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Wroclaw
DATE OF DEATH February 15, 1986
Place of death Berlin