Maria Von Wedemeyer

Maria von Wedemeyer-Weller (23 April 1924 – 16 November 1977) was a German-American computer scientist, who emigrated to the US from Germany after the Second World War. She was known in the field of computer science for her role in developing emulation capability. She was also notable as the fiancée of the German Protestant theologian and Resistance worker Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Life

Maria von Wedemeyer was born in 1924 at Pätzig in the Neumark area of Brandenburg to Hans von Wedemeyer, a landowner / gentleman farmer, and his wife Ruth (née Kleist). Maria was the third of their seven children. Relatives came from the Bismarck family and other Prussian noble families. She grew up on her parents' estate at Pätzig.

Relationship with Bonhoeffer

Von Wedemeyer first met Bonhoeffer in the urban home of Ruth von Kleist-Retzow, her maternal grandmother, when she was 12 years old. He was conducting confirmation classes for Maria's elder brother and cousins; and the grandmother asked if Maria could be included. Bonhoeffer interviewed her and refused to have her join the class due to her "immaturity".

Bonhoeffer and von Wedemeyer were reintroduced seven years later when Bonhoeffer was on a writing retreat at Ruth von Kleist-Retzow's country home, Klein Krössin. Notwithstanding their age difference of 18 years — she was 18 years old and he was 36 — they developed a rapport. They became engaged on 13 January 1943.

Less than three months after their engagement, Bonhoeffer was arrested for his activities in resisting the Nazi government. He and von Wedemeyer corresponded during his imprisonment in Tegel Prison and she was permitted to visit him
"fairly regularly, at least once a month". After he was implicated in the 20 July 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler, Bonhoeffer was transferred to a Gestapo high security prison and was permitted no further contact with her or his family.

Bonhoeffer, and most of the other incarcerated members of the 20th of July plot, were ultimately executed just before the end of the war. Bonhoeffer was hanged at the Flossenbürg concentration camp on 8 April 1945. Bonhoeffer's remaining possessions from his time in prison were returned to his parents, including the letters that Maria had written to him. His parents returned those letters to her and, as result, she possessed their (essentially) complete correspondence.

Computer science career and marriages

Following the war, von Wedemeyer began studying mathematics at the University of Göttingen (1945-1947); then at the University of Frankfurt (1947-1948). From 1948-1950, she continued her studies on a scholarship to Bryn Mawr College near Philadelphia, graduating from with an MA in 1950.

In 1949, she returned to Germany to marry Paul-Werner Schniewind (born 1923), son of the theologian Julius Schniewind, and they decided to emigrate to the United States. They had two children before their marriage ended in divorce in 1958.
During this time, she initially was employed as a statistician, but soon moved on to writing code (in machine language) at the pioneering computer company, Remington Rand UNIVAC. Following her divorce from Schniewind, she married an American semiconductor manufacturer, Barton L Weller, but they divorced in 1965.

Following the divorce, she returned to the computer industry, joining Honeywell Information Systems, which was based near Boston, and advanced from being a technical employee to a series of management positions.

In 1974, she gave a presentation on the development of the decompiler at the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).

Donation of Bonhoeffer letters

In 1966, von Wedemeyer-Weller donated the Bonhoeffer letters and manuscripts that she possessed (including '' Faithfully and Quietly Surrounded by Good Powers'', ''Jonah'', ''The Death of Moses'' and ''The Past'') to the Houghton Library of Harvard University, with access to them restricted until 2002. She published selected excerpts from the letters in 1967 under the title 'The Other Letters From Prison' in the journal of the Union Theological Seminary. The publication of this article resulted in extensive coverage in the media - with articles on the front page of the ''New York Times'', and in ''TIME'', ''Newsweek'' and other publications.

Death

Von Wedemeyer-Weller died of cancer, in 1977, at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. She was survived by her two sons and one stepdaughter.
Her ashes are buried at the Wedemeyer family gravesite in Gernsbach, Germany, where a memorial tablet to her, created by Andreas Helmling, was placed in the cemetery chapel in September 2009. ''Gedenktafel für Maria von Wedemeyer-Weller.'' In: ''IBG-Rundbrief.'' Nr. 90, November 2009, p. 59–60.
Fifteen years after her death, the complete correspondence with Bonhoeffer was published by her elder sister, Ruth-Alice von Bismarck (wife of Klaus von Bismarck) as ''Brautbriefe Zelle 92 - Dietrich Bonhoeffer / Maria von Wedemeyer 1943-1945''. This book has subsequently been translated into English, French, Japanese and other languages.

Bibliography

* in the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek catalogue
* Ruth-Alice von Bismarck, Urich Kabitz (ed.): ''Brautbriefe Zelle 92 – Dietrich Bonhoeffer / Maria von Wedemeyer 1943–1945.'' C.H. Beck, München 1992, .
* Ruth-Alice von Bismarck, Urich Kabitz (ed.)
Love Letters from Cell 92: The Correspondence Between Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Maria Von Wedemeyer
* Renate Wind: 'Liebe als Produktivkraft.' In: ''Dietrich Bonhoeffer – Allein in der Tat ist die Freiheit.'' Publik-Forum Dossier; Publik-Forum Verlagsgesellschaft, Oberursel März 2005.
* Paavo Rintala: ''Marias Liebe. Ein biographischer Roman.'' Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2006, .
* Renate Wind: ''Wer leistet sich heute noch eine wirkliche Sehnsucht? Maria von Wedemeyer und Dietrich Bonhoeffer.'' Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 2006, .
* Birgit Schlegel: ''Maria von Wedemeyer, Nachfahrin Katlenburger Amtmänner und Braut Dietrich Bonhoeffers.'' In: Northeimer Jahrbuch 82.2017, p. 115–124

References

Further reading

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{{DEFAULTSORT:von Wedemeyer-Weller, Maria
1924 births
1977 deaths
Scientists from Brandenburg
German women computer scientists
German computer scientists
German statisticians
Bryn Mawr College alumni
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
German letter writers
Deaths from cancer in Massachusetts
German emigrants to the United States