Lieselotte "Lilo" Fürst-Ramdohr (11 October 1913 – 13 May 2013) was a member of the

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

branch of the student resistance group

White Rose The White Rose (, ) was a Nonviolence, non-violent, intellectual German resistance to Nazism, resistance group in Nazi Germany which was led by five students and one professor at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, University of Munich ...

(''Weiße Rose'') in

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

. She was born in

Aschersleben Aschersleben () is a town in the Salzlandkreis district, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated approximately 22 km east of Quedlinburg, and 45 km northwest of Halle (Saale). Geography Aschersleben lies near the confluence of the ...

Early life

Ramdohr was a descendant of a merchant family from Aschersleben. After half a year in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and one year at the boarding school of Fritz Weiß in

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state (Germany), German state of Thuringia, in Central Germany (cultural area), Central Germany between Erfurt to the west and Jena to the east, southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together w ...

where her long year friendship with

Falk Harnack Falk Harnack (2 March 1913 – 3 September 1991) was a German director and screenwriter. During Germany's Nazi era, he was also active with the German resistance to Nazism, German Resistance and toward the end of World War II, the partisans in Gr ...

began, she moved to Munich in 1934 to become a stage designer. From March 1935 to February 1936, she learned book illustration at the Württembergische Kunstgewerbeschule in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

. In 1936, she moved to

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

to attend dance school until the

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

closed it. Ramdohr switched to a state-run school in Stuttgart, and later ran a private school in

Heilbronn Heilbronn () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany, surrounded by Heilbronn (district), Heilbronn District. From the late Middle Ages on, it developed into an important trading centre. At the begi ...

. She eventually married Otto Berndl, son of a Bavarian architect. Her religious preference was Lutheran.

The White Rose

In the autumn of 1941, she befriended Alexander Schmorell, Christoph Probst and Hans Scholl, and later Traute Lafrenz,

Sophie Scholl Sophia Magdalena Scholl (9 May 1921 – 22 February 1943) was a German student and anti-Nazi political activist, active in the White Rose non-violent German resistance to Nazism, resistance group in Nazi Germany. Raised in a politically engag ...

and

Willi Graf Wilhelm "Willi" Graf (2 January 1918 – 12 October 1943) was a German member of the White Rose resistance group in Nazi Germany. The Catholic Church in Germany included Graf in their list of martyrs of the 20th century. In 2017, his cause for ...

. After her husband was killed in Russia in May 1942, she began storing documents and a duplication apparatus in her flat in Neuhausen-Nymphenburg. In November 1942, she expanded the group's underground activities by joining forces with more powerful groups in Berlin such as the Kreisauer Kreis and the Christian resistance leader

Dietrich Bonhoeffer Dietrich Bonhoeffer (; 4 February 1906 – 9 April 1945) was a German Lutheran pastor, neo-orthodox theologian and anti-Nazi dissident who was a key founding member of the Confessing Church. His writings on Christianity's role in the s ...

through the help of Falk Harnack.

Escape from Munich

On 2 March 1943 Ramdohr was arrested, but was released for lack of evidence. Later that month,

Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician and military leader who was the 4th of the (Protection Squadron; SS), a leading member of the Nazi Party, and one of the most powerful p ...

ordered her arrested again and sentenced to death, but she managed to escape. Ramdohr married German-born, Brazilian-raised medical student Carl Gebhard Fürst (1920–2010) in February 1944 in Munich, and escaped to her hometown of

, using the name Lieselotte Fürst.

Post-war era

Ramdohr survived the war and in 1948 fled with her four-year-old daughter, Doma-Ulrike, out of the

Soviet occupation zone The Soviet occupation zone in Germany ( or , ; ) was an area of Germany that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a communist area, established as a result of the Potsdam Agreement on 2 August 1945. On 7 October 1949 the German Democratic Republ ...

back to

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

, where she became a sports instructor in boarding schools in

Upper Bavaria Upper Bavaria (, ; ) is one of the seven administrative regions of Bavaria, Germany. Geography Upper Bavaria is located in the southern portion of Bavaria, and is centered on the city of Munich, both state capital and seat of the district gove ...

. In 1995, she published her memoirs "Friendships in the White Rose". Up until her death, she lived in a small town outside Munich. The BBC described her as a "spry 99-year-old".

Documentaries

* In 1996, Bavarian Broadcasting, BR, televised a biography of Ramdohr as a part of its series ''Lebenslinien''. The director was Hans-Sirks Lampe. * In 1995, ''Geschichtswerkstatt Neuhausen'' televised interviews with Ramdohr in the documentary ''Davon haben wir nichts gewusst...Neuhausen unter der Nazi-Zeit''. * In 2008, interviews with Ramdohr were featured in the documentary ''Die Widerständigen – Zeugen der Weißen Rose''.

Works by Lilo Fürst-Ramdohr

* ''Freundschaften in der Weißen Rose''. Verlag Geschichtswerkstatt Neuhausen, Munich 1995, * ''Die Weiße Rose'' (by Inge Scholl); p. 139. Frankfurt/M. 1994, * ''Seiltanz (Lyrics of the Munich Catacombe)''; Ed. Nanette Bald, Roman Kovar, Munich 1991.

References

External links

Lilo Ramdohr's biography
*
English version of ''Friendships in the White Rose'' by Lilo Ramdohr, unpublished

* ttps://www.scribd.com/doc/8550237/Inge-Scholl-Die-Weisse-Rose On-line version of 'Die Weiße Rose' by Inge Scholl
Abstract of 'Die Widerständigen', cf. p. 14: Essay on Lilo Ramdohr
(PDF-file in German; 3,93 MB)

* * Sabine Bader
"Die Überlebende der "Weißen Rose"
''

Süddeutsche Zeitung The ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (; ), published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest and most influential daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of ''SZ'' is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and ...

'' (May 9, 2011). Retrieved February 16, 2012 * BBC World Service
episode of Witness broadcast on February 22, 2013.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ramdohr, Lilo 1913 births 2013 deaths German anti-fascists German female dancers German people of World War II German prisoners sentenced to death Munich in World War II Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich People condemned by Nazi courts White Rose members Lutheran pacifists Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 20th-century Lutherans 20th-century German women Women sentenced to death State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart alumni