Annemarie Oestreicher (born Annemarie Hinze: 14 December 1875 – 1945) was a German politician. She died following her internment, aged 69, in the

Ravensbrück concentration camp Ravensbrück () was a Nazi concentration camp exclusively for women from 1939 to 1945, located in northern Germany, north of Berlin at a site near the village of Ravensbrück (part of Fürstenberg/Havel). The camp memorial's estimated figure of 1 ...

although the precise circumstances of her death remain unknown.

Life

Annemarie Hinze was born in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. Her father was a businessman. She trained for clerical work and then, till 1910, worked as an assistant nurse and as a freelance "dentist". Her first husband was a commercial director with

Siemens-Schuckert Siemens-Schuckert (or Siemens-Schuckertwerke) was a German electrical engineering company headquartered in Berlin, Erlangen and Nuremberg that was incorporated into the Siemens AG in 1966. Siemens Schuckert was founded in 1903 when Siemens & H ...

. She came to politics, and membership of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) thanks to her second husband who became editor in chief of the "Königsberger Volkszeitung" (''" Königsberg People's Newspaper"''). By 1921 she was describing herself not as a nurse or a dentist but as a "housewife". During the early 1920s she also worked as an author. She was elected a member of the Prussian parliament (''"Landtag"'') in 1921, representing an electoral district in

East Prussia East Prussia was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1772 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1871); following World War I it formed part of the Weimar Republic's ...

and dividing her time between

and

Königsberg Königsberg (; ; ; ; ; ; , ) is the historic Germany, German and Prussian name of the city now called Kaliningrad, Russia. The city was founded in 1255 on the site of the small Old Prussians, Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teuton ...

. By this time she was a widow. Her political focus was on health, the arts, agriculture and questions involving farm workers. She also served as a member of the Prussian Regional Health Council. She continued to sit as a member of the Landtag till 1932, after which she settled in Osterode, to the south of

.Annemarie Oestreicher. In: Franz Osterroth: Biographisches Lexikon des Sozialismus. Verstorbene Persönlichkeiten. vol. 1. J. H. W. Dietz Nachf., Hannover 1960, p. 235. After the

Nazis came to power The rise to power of Adolf Hitler, dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, began in the newly established Weimar Republic in September 1919, when Hitler joined the ''German Workers' Party, Deutsche Arbeiterpartei'' (DAP; German Workers' Par ...

she moved back to

. On 20 July 1944 there was a plot to assassinate the leader which came close to success. Government authorities had already prepared a list of former politicians from the Weimar years to be rounded up in the event of intensified domestic opposition. The

mass arrest A mass arrest occurs when police apprehend large numbers of suspects at once. This sometimes occurs at protests. Some mass arrests are also used in an effort to combat gang activity. This is sometimes controversial, and lawsuits sometimes result. ...

was implemented on the night of 22/23 August 1944. There being no longer significant numbers of former Communist Party politicians at liberty in Germany, roughly 4,000 former officials and members of mainstream centre and left-wing "Bourgeois" parties were detained. Annemarie Oestreicher was one of them. Many of the detainees were released after a few weeks, but others, including Oestreicher, were taken to the

. It was here, under circumstances that have never become clear, that she died, probably early in 1945.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oestreicher, Annemarie Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians Members of the Prussian House of Representatives People who died in Ravensbrück concentration camp Politicians from Berlin 1875 births 1945 deaths