Olga Brandt-Knack

Olga Brandt-Knack (born June 29, 1885 in Hamburg ; † August 1, 1978 there ) was a Hamburg politician for the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and a member of the Hamburg Parliament .

Life and art (dance)

At the age of ten, Olga Brandt began her dance career in the children's dance school of the Hamburg Stadttheater and became a solo dancer in 1907. She was trained in classical ballet and expressive dance. She was a ballet master and organizer of dancers' congresses. From 1900 to 1933 she worked at the Hamburg State Opera .

Gravestone in
the women's garden

In 1908 she founded the German Dance Association, whose spokeswoman she became.

In 1920 she married the social democrat Andreas Knack (1886–1956), who later was the medical director of the General Hospital Hamburg-Barmbeck . The marriage ended in divorce.

In 1933 she was dismissed from the State Opera by the National Socialists because of “political incompatibility” , and she also had to give up her dance school. She was later placed under Gestapo supervision and temporarily detained. During the years in which she was unable to pursue the profession she had learned, she worked with her sister as an office assistant from 1934 to 1942 . Between 1943 and 1945 she lived with friends in the country.

The German Dance Archive Cologne keeps documents of their dance activities . Her tombstone is placed in the women's garden in Ohlsdorf cemetery as a lasting memory .

politics

From 1918 to 1933 she was a member of the SPD and cultural policy advisor of the “Genossenschaft der Bühnenanghnen”. After the war in 1945 she joined the SPD a second time. In 1948 she became a women's officer for the art union and co-founder of the youth organization “ Die Falken ”.

From October 30, 1946 to 1953, Olga Brandt-Knack was an SPD member of the Hamburg parliament. She was then a deputy of the police authority until 1961.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Reviews from the archive for social history online Short description of the husband in the text

Sources and web links

• Estate at the German Dance Archive Cologne , last accessed on November 1, 2018.
• Olga Brandt-Knack in the women's garden at the Ohlsdorf cemetery
• Inge Grolle and Rita Bake : “I practiced juggling with three balls.” Women in the Hamburg citizenship from 1946 to 1993. Verlag Dölling & Galitz, Hamburg 1995, pp. 325–326, ISBN 3-930802-01-5 (im Commissioned by the State Center for Political Education Hamburg ).
• Kurt Peters : Olga - fighter for the rights of dancers. Olga Brandt-Knack died at the age of 94. In: Das Tanzarchiv , Cologne, H. 9 / September 1978, pp. 380–384.