Ria Deeg

Ria Deeg (born October 2, 1907 in Dutenhofen , Wetzlar district ; † August 13, 2000 in Gießen ) was a German resistance fighter against National Socialism .

biography

Ria Deeg and two other siblings were raised by her mother alone. The mother fed the family with work as washing and cleaning lady after the father, a day laborer , shortly after birth Rias was killed. From 1914 to 1922 she attended elementary school in Gießen and then worked as a domestic worker, unskilled worker , volunteer in the book trade and later until 1932 in the Gießen consumer association . In 1923 she joined the Socialist Workers' Youth , in 1925 the SPD and the trade union . In 1932 she left the SPD because, in her opinion, she was too lax towards the emerging National Socialism and became a member of the KPD . Thereupon she was dismissed from the social democratically oriented consumer association. In the same year she worked for the KPD regional newspaper Gießener Echo .

After the seizure of power by the Nazis, she began to work illegally. She distributed leaflets and newspapers, collected money and food for the Red Aid to support the families of those arrested. After the illegal district leadership was arrested, it increasingly issued its own leaflets. The materials were produced and distributed under adventurous circumstances, and she was always in danger of being discovered and arrested. For example, she hid the illegal typewriter in the drawer of an SA man who lived with her mother as a sublet . In November 1934, Ria Deeg was arrested. In July 1935 she was sentenced to 38 months in prison for preparing for high treason . Eight months of detention for “persistent denial” were not taken into account. After her detention stations in Gießen, Darmstadt , Mainz and Aichach / Upper Bavaria , she was under police supervision and had to report three times a week. She had to hand over her house key, was not allowed to leave the city and had to stay in the house from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

In 1940 she married Walter Deeg. The two of you were forbidden to have any contact with one another; both had on release u. a. have to assure in writing that they “do not make contact with like-minded people or with politically convicted persons” - otherwise they will be sent to a concentration camp immediately . New terror by the Gestapo followed , summons and spying on residents. After her husband was drafted into Penal Division 999 in the spring of 1943 , she and three small children - their son Werner, and his children from their first marriage, Edith and Walter - were left to fend for themselves, experienced the war, the bombing raids and the liberation.

After the liberation from National Socialism , in December 1945 she became head of the “Care Center for Politically, Racially and Religiously Persecuted Persons” in Gießen.

After the KPD was admitted, she was on the district executive committee and member of the state executive committee; Together with Anton Kaiser, she was a city ​​councilor until the KPD was banned in 1956. At her last city council meeting, she read a motion "against the registration of compulsory military service " by the Giessen city administration. In 1958 her husband was sentenced to nine months in prison for illegal activity for the now banned KPD. It was about leaflets against conscription and against the procurement of land for military purposes. She was acquitted for lack of evidence. Later, she and her husband took part in campaigns such as the “ Fight against Nuclear Death ” and the Easter marches . She was a key designer in the VVN , which she co-founded in Hesse in 1947 , and in the DKP , which was constituted in autumn 1968.

After the military coup of Augusto Pinochet in Chile in 1973 she was among the first who took care of Chilean refugees. She worked in the Chile committee and supported the anti-fascists in Spain (see Franquism ), Portugal (see Carnation Revolution ) and Greece (see Greek military dictatorship ).

On March 18, 1987, the Lord Mayor of Giessen, Manfred Mutz (SPD) , presented Ria Deeg with the Golden Badge of Honor of the university city of Giessen on behalf of the former SPD / Greens Magistrate , the highest honor the city has to bestow alongside honorary citizenship. In his speech, Mutz emphasized "her tireless commitment to humanity, decency and political morality". Hans Pfeifer (CDU) as representative of the city councilor and for their parliamentary group, Friedel Eidmann (FDP), Günther Becker (SPD) and Heinrich Brinkmann (The Greens), joined the mayor's congratulations.

Throughout her life she took an active part in anti-fascist actions against old and new Nazis. B. at the Gießener Mahngang , which has been held annually since 1978, to commemorate the Reichspogromnacht of November 9, 1938, and as a witness to school classes and organizations reported on her experiences with the Nazi era.

Quote

From the preface to the 4th edition of Signals from the Cell (1993):

“ Now I am 86 years old and have fought for peace and socialism all my life. I do not regret a day. The socialist camp has collapsed, mistakes have been made. But don't let that discourage us. Karl Marx is not dead, his idea is alive, and it is still, and today more than ever, to fight for a better world - against capitalism and war.
Unfortunately, people's memories are very short. "

Publications

• Life memories "signals from the cell". DKP publishing house, Giessen.
• Establishment and foundation of the Hessian regional association of the united persecuted persons of the Nazi regime (VVN) in Gießen in 1946. In: Uta George et al .: The other perspective - a historical review of Gießen in the 20th century. Ricker'sche Univ.-Buchhandlung, Giessen 1997, ISBN 3-925740-19-8 .

literature

• Kurt Heyne: Resistance in Giessen and the surrounding area 1933-45. Announcements from the Upper Hessian History Association, Giessen, New Series 71 (1986), Giessen 1986.

Web links

• [1] Report in the Gießener Zeitung: Memorial event for Ria Deeg, 2016