Marianne Kühn (17 November 1914 - 13 June 2005) was a German politician.(

SPD The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together wi ...

). In her later years she made a new career for herself in the world of the arts, and as a painter of

Naïve art Naïve art is usually defined as visual art that is created by a person who lacks the formal education and training that a professional artist undergoes (in anatomy, art history, technique, perspective, ways of seeing). When this aesthetic is ...

Life

Marianne was born in

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

a few months after the outbreak of the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. After leaving school she trained as a legal assistant. When she was 15 she joined the Rote Falken, a youth group for the children of socialist leaning families. Three years later, on 1 November 1932, she joined the Social Democratic Party (SPD). Less than a year later, 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 ...

took power in January 1933 and lost little time in

converting Conversion or convert may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''The Convert'', a 2023 film produced by Jump Film & Television and Brouhaha Entertainment * "Conversion" (''Doctor Who'' audio), an episode of the audio drama ''Cyberman'' * ...

the ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

German state The Federal Republic of Germany is a federation and consists of sixteen partly sovereign ''states''. Of the sixteen states, thirteen are so-called area-states ('Flächenländer'); in these, below the level of the state government, there is a ...

into a one-

party dictatorship A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system or single-party system is a governance structure in which only a single political party controls the ruling system. In a one-party state, all opposition parties are either outlawed or en ...

. Party political activity (unless in support of the Nazi party) became illegal. Marianne was already involved with

Heinz Kühn Heinz Kühn (18 February 1912 – 12 March 1992) was a German Social Democratic Party (SPD) politician and the 5th Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia between 8 December 1966 and 20 September 1978. He was born and died in Cologne ...

, who had already also been involved in the Rote Falken. He was a railway worked who helda position of some prominence in the SPD locally, and whom she would marry in 1939. Rejecting the reassurances of friends that things would return to normality within a few months of the Nazi power grab, the two of them emigrated to

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

from where they continued to work against the German

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

. After the

war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

ended, she returned to

with her husband, remaining politically engaged. With her husband and

Susanne Miller Susanne Miller (born Susanne Strasser: 14 May 1915 – 1 July 2008) was a Bulgarian-born left wing activist who for reasons of race and politics spent her early adulthood as a refugee in England. After 1945, she became known in West Germany as ...

she was a co-founder of the Socialist Education Association (''Sozialistischen Bildungsgemeinschaft '') in Cologne. Between 1952 and 1973 she was a city councillor, representing the Dellbrück district of

, where she had her home along the Roteichenweg. It was nevertheless her husband who had the more stellar political career.

served as the regional prime minister of

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

from 1966 till 1978. In 1979 Marianne Kühn opened a small art gallery at the couple's home in the Cologne garden suburb of Dellbrück. It was described as a ''"Naive-Kunst-Galerie"'' and the focus was on

. She presented 65 exhibitions of art from across the world, including pieces from Eastern Europe, Israel, Ethiopia, Argentina, China and Tanzania, but at the centre was a core of around 250 exhibitors from the historic German lands. She also produced paintings herself and built up her own art collection. After her home city had rejected her offer to donate her collection to Cologne, in 2003 Marianne Kühn gifted her collection of approximately 650 pieces to the Vestische Museum in nearby

Recklinghausen Recklinghausen (; ) is the northernmost city in the Ruhr-Area and the capital of the Recklinghausen district. It borders the rural Münsterland and is characterized by large fields and farms in the north and industry in the south. Recklinghaus ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuhn, Marianne Politics of Cologne Politicians from Cologne Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians 20th-century German painters 1914 births 2005 deaths Artists from Cologne Emigrants from Nazi Germany to Belgium German expatriates in Belgium 20th-century German women painters