Charlotte Eisenblätter (7 August 1903 – 25 August 1944) was a German anti-Nazi activist and freedom fighter.
Biography
Eisenblätter was born at Galvanistraße 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 ...
.
Youngest of eight, from a working-class family she worked as a clerk and secretary. When she was fifteen she joined the ''
Friends of Nature
Friends of Nature (international abbreviation: NFI, for German: Naturfreunde International) is a non-profit organisation with a background in the social democratic movement, which aims to make the enjoyment of nature accessible to the wider commu ...
'' organization. Eisenblätter got the opportunity to hike on weekends. Aware of the implications of poverty Eisenblätter made many friends in the
Communist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany (, ; KPD ) was a major Far-left politics, far-left political party in the Weimar Republic during the interwar period, German resistance to Nazism, underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and minor party ...
(KPD) which was eliminated when the National Socialist Party took power in 1933.
During the Nazi era Eisenblätter got involved in the anti-Nazi communist resistance group associated with
Robert Uhrig,
Beppo Römer and
John Sieg
John Sieg (February 3, 1903 – October 15, 1942) was an American-born German Communist railroad worker, journalist and resistance fighter, who publicized Nazi atrocities through the underground Communist press and fought against National Sociali ...
. She was responsible for disseminating the anti-regime leaflets, creating copies during a time that doing so was punishable by death. By 1939 she was a senior underground activist. By the summer of 1941, Eisenblätter was in contact with the KPD foreign representative
Charlotte Bischoff who passed her illegal and secret documentation that she used to produce the leaflets.
In 1941 she provided room and board to the German Communist leader
Alfred Kowalke. She was arrested in February 1942. Initially she was sent to 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 ...
. She was there for two years before being indicted for high treason on 15 February 1944. During questioning Eisenblätter took full responsibility for the leaflets and is credited with saving the life of
Martha Butte in doing so. Eisenblätter was sentenced on 10 July 1944. As expected, the sentence was death. It was carried out in
Plötzensee prison
Plötzensee Prison (, JVA Plötzensee) is a men's prison in the Charlottenburg-Nord locality of Berlin with a capacity for 577 prisoners, operated by the State of Berlin judicial administration. The detention centre established in 1868 has a lon ...
on 25 August 1944. Before her death Eisenblätter wrote a moving letter asking people not to mourn but recognise that she was reconciled to die for the ideals she held. Her sister took her own life on receiving the news of her execution.
Awards and honors
On 31 May 1951 a street, ''Eisenblätterstrasse'' was named after her in
Niederschönhausen
Niederschönhausen (, literally "Lower Schönhausen") is a Boroughs and localities of Berlin, locality (''Ortsteil'') within the borough (''Bezirk'') of Pankow in Berlin, Germany. It is also known as "Pankow-Schönhausen" to differ it from Alt-Hoh ...
, Pankow, Berlin. Eisenblätter was remembered by a postage stamp issued by the
German Democratic Republic
East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...
on 3 September 1959. A memorial stone was laid in her name at Goebelstrasse on September 12, 2008. Friends of Nature opened a house in her name in
Thuringia
Thuringia (; officially the Free State of Thuringia, ) is one of Germany, Germany's 16 States of Germany, states. With 2.1 million people, it is 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, it is 11th-largest in area.
Er ...
.
Sources
Further reading
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External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eisenblätter, Charlotte
1903 births
1944 deaths
Activists from Berlin
Women in World War II
Resistance members killed by Nazi Germany
Red Orchestra (espionage)