Barbara Goette (26 July 1908 – 23 October 1997) was a German academic. She lived in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

and then Australia. From 1935 to 1943, she was the private secretary of

Ludwig Roselius Ludwig Roselius (2 June 1874 – 15 May 1943) was a German coffee merchant and founder of the company Kaffee HAG. He was born in Bremen and is credited with the development of commercial decaffeination of coffee. As a patron, he supported arti ...

, creator of Böttcherstraße and Café HAG, and financier of

Focke-Wulf Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG () was a German manufacturer of civil and military aircraft before and during World War II. Many of the company's successful fighter aircraft designs were slight modifications of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190. It is one of the ...

Early life

Barbara Goette matriculated in

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2 ...

in 1928 and began studying mathematics,

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which rel ...

and philosophy at Freiburg University and then

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland pe ...

where she took her state examinations in 1934-35. She met Dr.

through the marriage of her brother to his youngest daughter. He suggested she work for the concern. Goette became his companion, carer, confidante and collaborator.

Career

In September 1936 during a meeting in

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

, the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (German Aviation Ministry) recommended reconstruction of Focke-Wulf with 50% going to the state and 50% to a large electronics concern. A short time later the Roselius conglomerate became majority shareholder with 46% and

Lorenz Lorenz is an originally German name derived from the Roman surname Laurentius, which means "from Laurentum". Given name People with the given name Lorenz include: * Prince Lorenz of Belgium (born 1955), member of the Belgian royal family by hi ...

(

ITT ITT may refer to: Communication * Infantry-Tank Telephone, a device allowing infantrymen to speak to the occupants of armoured vehicles. Mathematics *Intuitionistic type theory, other name of Martin-Löf Type Theory *Intensional type theory B ...

) secured 27.8%. The aircraft company was reconstituted as

Flugzeugbau GmbH. Goette was instrumental in assisting with this and the '' Böttcherstrasse'' was reclassified as 'degenerate art'. Roselius survived and consequently had the new

FW 200 Condor The Focke-Wulf Fw 200 ''Condor'', also known as ''Kurier'' to the Allies (English language, English: Courier), was a Nazi Germany, German all-metal four-engined monoplane originally developed by Focke-Wulf as a long-range airliner. A Japanese req ...

fitted with 26 passenger seats (she was born on the 26th), safeguarding her legacy, in 1937. After Dr. Roselius died in May 1943, Goette lectured in English at the Humboldt Hochschule in Berlin until the premises were demolished during a bombing raid. In 1944 she started her Ph.D. in philosophy at Kiel. There she met Dr. J. P. Leidig, whom she married in February 1945. Shortly after the war she acted as an interpreter for the military police in

Gunzenhausen Gunzenhausen (; bar, Gunzenhausn, link=no) is a town in the Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen district, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated on the river Altmühl, northwest of Weißenburg in Bayern, and southwest of Nuremberg. Gunzenhausen is a nationa ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total l ...

. In 1950 the family settled in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater A ...

, Australia. Dr. Leidig died in 1957 and Goette was left with two sons. She never remarried and taught mathematics at Woodlands Church of England Girls Grammar School for 23 years. One year she had 4 of the top 10 students in South Australia in her class. She received a congratulatory call from the

Adelaide University The University of Adelaide (informally Adelaide University) is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university's main campus is located on N ...

Mathematics Department. She worked as mathematics teacher until she was 81 at the Muirden College matriculation centre. A comprehensive posthumous interview by the ''Australian Our Time'' channel 44 program (episode 188) on her life was broadcast in 2015.

Publications

While employed by the Roselius concern, Goette wrote many articles on Dr. Roselius including, '

creates the Böttcherstraße' and 'Politics and Propaganda'. An unpublished essay 'Ludwig the Philosopher' appears in the book that her son wrote with Kevin Lower as researcher and Karen Collins as main editor. This book is a biography dealing primarily with Goette's life in Germany during the

Third Reich Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. A massive dose of

digitalis ''Digitalis'' ( or ) is a genus of about 20 species of herbaceous perennial plants, shrubs, and biennials, commonly called foxgloves. ''Digitalis'' is native to Europe, western Asia, and northwestern Africa. The flowers are tubular in sh ...

was allegedly injected by

Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and the ...

's henchmen into Roselius on 15 May 1943 in the

Hotel Kaiserhof (Berlin) Hotel Kaiserhof was a luxury hotel in Wilhelmplatz, Berlin, Germany. It opened in October 1875. It was located next to the Reich Chancellery in what was at the time the city's "government quarter". Berlin's first "grand hotel" it was the cre ...

. On 26 May 1944 Goette travelled to Bad Eilsen to meet with

aircraft designer and engineer Professor Kurt Tank in order to obtain his written contribution for a memorial publication on Roselius' life. Reichsführer

Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...

saw her English books at Mittersill Castle in

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

and the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one or ...

launched an investigation in August 1944. Goette conducted extensive

WWII World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

correspondence with Senator

Alfred Faust Alfred Faust (15 December 1883, Soultzmatt – 14 June 1961, Bremen) was a German advertising executive, journalist, editor, and left-wing politician. Biography Born in Alsace (today part of France) in 1883, Faust was the son of a master plumbe ...

and in 1998 the Bremen State Archives purchased 80 original items from Ludwig Leidig in Australia. Mitzi Bergel was Goette's best friend in Australia and every year Goette hosted a Christmas party in North Adelaide attended mostly by Jewish friends. In 1944 Goette risked her life by writing the things that had infuriated Hitler in 1936 while attacking Dr. Roselius and the ''Böttcherstrasse'' at the September Nuremberg Party Rally. This ten page essay was approved in September 1944 and was eventually published by the Bremen Yearbook in 1951 and is included in the reference section. The controversial aspects were: * The Paula Becker-Modersohn museum which was the first museum in the world dedicated to a female artist and labelled 'degenerate art' by the Nazis. * The 'Tree of Life' by Bernhard Hoetger depicting a Nordic sacrifice. * Hoetger's architecture again 'degenerate'. In late 1935 the SS newspaper ''Das Schwarze Korps'' launched a vitriolic attack on Roselius' ''Böttcherstrasse''.Das Schwarze Korps; 24/10/1935; pages 11,34

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goette, Barbara 1908 births 1997 deaths Mathematics educators German emigrants to Australia