Philomene Steiger

Philomene Steiger (born April 27, 1896 in Freiburg im Breisgau ; † September 8, 1985 there ) was a German seamstress and local politician .

Life

Steiger came as the daughter of the baker Franz Karl Steiger (1864–1930) and Maria Franziska Steiger, nee. Löffler, (1864–1929) to the world. She grew up in a Catholic home. The Catholicism coined Steiger for their lives. She attended elementary school in the Freiburg district of Herdern from around 1902 to 1910 . She completed an apprenticeship in the Werner Blust textile shop in Freiburg, where she worked as a seamstress and later as a parament embroiderer . From 1921 she worked as a tailor and seamstress in her parents' house in Herdern . In 1927 she opened a small textile shop, also in Herdern, in which she offered haberdashery, white and woolen goods, and which she ran until 1968.

In the Third Reich , Steiger consistently distanced himself from the NSDAP and National Socialist ideology; she openly advocated the Catholic faith. In the 1920s she was in contact with Edith Stein .

In the last days of the Second World War , she made a contribution to the rescue of Freiburg. On April 21, 1945, she obtained access to the combat commander Major General Rudolf Bader in the “Jägerhäusle” restaurant near Herdern . She asked him not to defend Freiburg against the advancing French army, and thus saved the city from misery and unnecessary bloodshed. In fact, the major general withdrew with his Volkssturm troops without defending the city to the last drop of blood. Whether it was her sole merit or whether there was a corresponding withdrawal order has never been fully clarified.

After the end of the war she was active in the Herdern Citizens' Association, in the Catholic Women's Association and in the Franciscan Community . In 1946 she was a co-founder of the German Women's Ring in Freiburg. In local politics she was active for the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

In 1981 she was awarded the papal order Pro Bene merenti . In 1985, Steiger was honored with the honorary citizen's letter of the city of Freiburg for "the special services that Steiger had made in saving the city at the end of the Second World War". In 1986 a path was named after her in Herdern.

Honors

• 1970: Federal Cross of Merit
• 1981: Papal Order Pro Bene merenti
• 1985: Honorary citizen of the city of Freiburg im Breisgau

literature

• Renate Liessem-Breinlinger: Philomene Steiger , In: Baden-Württembergische Biographien 2, pp. 443–444
• Walter Preker: Philomene Steiger: 1896-1985 , In: Freiburger Biographien, Freiburg im Breisgau, 2002, pp. 287–288

Web links

• Philomene Steiger - (biography)