Martha Kuehne

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Martha Kühne (born March 6, 1888 in Leipzig as Martha Hähnel; † January 22, 1961 ibid) was a German politician ( KPD ) and from 1930 to 1933 a member of the Saxon state parliament .

Life

Martha Hähnel initially worked as a domestic servant and textile worker and, after attending commercial school, as a typist for Leipzig lawyers. In 1917 she joined the USPD and after the unification of her party in 1920 the KPD. From March 1930 to December 1932 she was a city councilor of the KPD in Leipzig. From 1930 to 1933 she was a member of the KPD in the Saxon state parliament.

After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists, she and her partner Bernhard Richter fled to Prague in April 1933 . In June of the same year both emigrated to the USSR . Kühne worked there as an employee of the Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute .

As part of the Great Terror , her partner was arrested, accused of "counter-revolutionary activity and espionage for Germany" and shot on August 10, 1938 in Butowo . Because she stood by him, she was expelled from the KPD. In October 1940 she managed to emigrate to Germany, where she was arrested after crossing the border in Tilsit and sentenced on April 19, 1941 by the Dresden Higher Regional Court to one and a half years in prison. In April 1942 she was sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp , from which she was liberated by the Red Army in April 1945.

In 1945 Kühne became a member of the KPD again. Until 1957 she worked in a Leipzig company as a cleaning woman, later as an assistant instructor for business apprentices. Already in March 1946 she was expelled from the KPD because of “criticism of the Soviet Union” and “bad attitude in the Ravensbrück concentration camp”; she was also denied recognition as a victim of fascism . In 1952 she was re-admitted to the SED , but only received the status of persecuted by the Nazi regime again in 1957 , and later the medal “Fighters against Fascism” .

literature

  • Kühne, Martha . In: Hermann Weber , Andreas Herbst : German Communists. Biographisches Handbuch 1918 to 1945. 2nd, revised and greatly expanded edition. Dietz, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-320-02130-6 .
  • Kühne, Martha . In: Horst Stoschek, Erich Zeidler: On the fight of the KPD in the Saxon state parliament against militarism and fascism in the Weimar Republic. Part II: Biographies of the members of the Communist Party of Germany in the Saxon state parliament 1920–1933. Dissertation A. University of Education “Karl Liebknecht”, Potsdam 1976, pp. 63–65.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kühne, Martha. In: Historical minutes of the Saxon state parliament. Saxon State Library - Dresden State and University Library , accessed on March 8, 2019 . , there erroneously stated membership in the state parliament only until 1932.
personal data
SURNAME Kühne, Martha
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hahnel, Martha (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (KPD), MdL
DATE OF BIRTH March 6, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Leipzig
DATE OF DEATH January 22, 1961
Place of death Leipzig