HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Meta Preuß (born Meta Kroll; 18 January 1903 – 25 December 1981) was a German politician (
KPD The Communist Party of Germany (german: Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, , KPD ) was a major political party in the Weimar Republic between 1918 and 1933, an underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and a minor party in West Ge ...
,
SED sed ("stream editor") is a Unix utility that parses and transforms text, using a simple, compact programming language. It was developed from 1973 to 1974 by Lee E. McMahon of Bell Labs, and is available today for most operating systems. sed w ...
). In November 1930 she was elected one of seven
Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of '' The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...
members in the Parliament (''"Volkstag"'') in the quasi-independent
Free City of Danzig The Free City of Danzig (german: Freie Stadt Danzig; pl, Wolne Miasto Gdańsk; csb, Wòlny Gard Gduńsk) was a city-state under the protection of the League of Nations between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gda ...
. It is not clear from sources when her first marriage, which took place in 1924 and was to Hermann Totzki, ended, but on account of that marriage, sources relating to her career during the 1920s and 1930s sometimes identify her as Meta Totzki.


Life

Meta Kroll was born into a working-class family in Danzig which at that time was the capital of the
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
province of
West Prussia The Province of West Prussia (german: Provinz Westpreußen; csb, Zôpadné Prësë; pl, Prusy Zachodnie) was a province of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and 1878 to 1920. West Prussia was established as a province of the Kingdom of Prussia in 177 ...
. By 1917 she was 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 ...
, working as an assistant in a
pharmacy Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medication, medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it ...
. In May 1924 she married Hermann Totzki (1894–1965) and with him moved back to her birth city, which following frontier changes mandated in 1919 had now become the so-called "
Free City of Danzig The Free City of Danzig (german: Freie Stadt Danzig; pl, Wolne Miasto Gdańsk; csb, Wòlny Gard Gduńsk) was a city-state under the protection of the League of Nations between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gda ...
", neither part of the newly reduced German state nor of the newly reinstated Polish state, but still, at this stage, overwhelmingly German in terms of language and ethnicity, and included in a customs union with
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...
. In 1927 she joined the
Communist Party of Germany The Communist Party of Germany (german: Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, , KPD ) was a major political party in the Weimar Republic between 1918 and 1933, an underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and a minor party in West German ...
, and the next year she became the leader locally of the "Red Women's and Girl's League" (''"Der Rote Frauen und Mädchenbund "'' / RFMB), established during a violent decade as the female section of the quasi-military wing of the Communist Party. In 1929, still aged only 26, she became a member of the party leadership team (''"Bezirksleitung"'') for Danzig, with particular responsibility for women's matters. On 16 November 1930 she was elected to the Danzig parliament (Volkstag). The communists received 10.2% of the votes cast in the election, which placed them in fifth place and entitled them to 7 places in the 72 seat assembly. (The composition of the chamber was dominated by the
Social Democrats Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote s ...
with 25.2% of the vote and the
Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...
with 16.4%.) Although the party had 7 seats, the Communist group in the Volkstag was dominated by three of them:
Anton Plenikowski Anton Plenikowski (19 November 1899 – 3 March 1971) was a German communist politician of the Free City of Danzig and East Germany. Biography Plenikowski was born in Zoppot, then a German town on the country's "North Sea" coast. He se ...
, Helene Kreft and Meta Totzki herself.Wolfgang Gippert: ''Kindheit und Jugend in Danzig 1920 bis 1945. Identitätsbildung im sozialistischen und im konservativen Milieu''. Klartext, Essen 2005, , p. 175. During June 1931 she attended a training at the party's national "Rosa Luxemburg" Academy in
Fichtenau Fichtenau is a community of several villages, in the district of Schwäbisch Hall, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous ...
on the edge of Berlin. Already, by the end of 1932, she was working illegally as a party instructor in Danzig. In January 1933 the backdrop changed with the Nazi power seizure in Germany which was followed, there, by a rapid switch to one- party dictatorship. During the early summer of 1933 many communists in Germany were arrested or fled abroad. Despite its semi-detached legal status, the
Free City of Danzig The Free City of Danzig (german: Freie Stadt Danzig; pl, Wolne Miasto Gdańsk; csb, Wòlny Gard Gduńsk) was a city-state under the protection of the League of Nations between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gda ...
was subject to many of the changes and pressures sweeping Germany: on 2 April 1934 Meta Totzki was arrested and sentenced by a Danzig court to three years in prison for "illegal political activities". At a
Volkstag The Volkstag (English: ''People's Diet'') was the parliament of the Free City of Danzig between 1919 and 1939. After World War I Danzig (Gdańsk) became a Free City under the protection of the League of Nations. The first elections to a const ...
session on 2 May 1934 the assembly (where following a further election on 28 May 1933 the
Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...
held a small overall majority) agreed to the implementation of the sentences against Totzki and against Felix Raschke, another communist assembly member.Marek Andrzejewski: Opposition und Widerstand in Danzig 1933–1939. Dietz, Berlin 1994, , p. 73. Slightly more than three weeks later, on 26 May 1934, the Chief of Police Hellmut Froböß issued a decree which had the effect of dissolving the Danzig
Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of '' The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...
. The
Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...
Senate President
Hermann Rauschning Hermann Adolf Reinhold Rauschning (7 August 1887 – February 8, 1982) was a German politician and author, adherent of the Conservative Revolution movement who briefly joined the Nazi movement before breaking with it. He was the President of the ...
endorsed this step with the assertion that in various criminal trials against leading officers of the
Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of '' The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...
in Danzig, the illegal holding of guns had been established. Party members had used these weapons to fight against government orders. Another justification provided involved the production and distribution by communists of "illegal printed matter", which called for civil disobedience in the face of official orders. Meta Totzki was released in November 1935 because of an
amnesty Amnesty (from the Ancient Greek ἀμνηστία, ''amnestia'', "forgetfulness, passing over") is defined as "A pardon extended by the government to a group or class of people, usually for a political offense; the act of a sovereign power offic ...
. She next sold advertising space for a still semi-legal communist newspaper in Danzig. In June 1936 she fled to
Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is official ...
where, for some of the time, she was able to support herself by working at the
Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
embassy. In September 1938 she emigrated to Sweden where she joined the growing group of exiled German communists. She returned at the start of June 1946. Much had changed during and following the
war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
. In Sweden she had married her second husband, Karl Preuß (1904–1981). Further frontier changes had left Danzig inside Poland, while ethnic cleansing on a massive scale meant there was no question, for ethnic Germans, of "returning" to
Gdańsk Gdańsk ( , also ; ; csb, Gduńsk;Stefan Ramułt, ''Słownik języka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego'', Kraków 1893, Gdańsk 2003, ISBN 83-87408-64-6. , Johann Georg Theodor Grässe, ''Orbis latinus oder Verzeichniss der lateinischen Benen ...
. Meta Preuß and her husband settled instead in the Berlin region, now at the heart of the
Soviet occupation zone The Soviet Occupation Zone ( or german: Ostzone, label=none, "East Zone"; , ''Sovetskaya okkupatsionnaya zona Germanii'', "Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany") was an area of Germany in Central Europe that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a c ...
(relaunched in October 1949 as the Soviet sponsored
German Democratic Republic German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
). She joined the newly created Socialist Unity Party (''"Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands"'' / SED) and became the party's head of Social Welfare for central Berlin. In March 1947 she was a co-founder of the Union of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime (''"Vereinigung der Verfolgten des Naziregimes "'' / VVN) and was elected to a senior position (''"Schriftführerin"'') within it. Later she became chair of the local party group in
Sangerhausen Sangerhausen () is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, central Germany, capital of the district of Mansfeld-Südharz. It is situated southeast of the Harz The Harz () is a highland area in northern Germany. It has the highest elevations for that region ...
, a small town in the southwestern part of the Soviet zone. However, in 1949 she became seriously ill, and in 1950 she went into retirement. Meta Preuß died on Christmas Day, 1981.


Awards and honours

* 1968
Patriotic Order of Merit The Patriotic Order of Merit (German: ''Vaterländischer Verdienstorden'', or VVO) was a national award granted annually in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). It was founded in 1954 and was awarded to individuals and institutions for outstanding ...
in bronze


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Preuß, Meta 1903 births 1981 deaths Politicians from Gdańsk People from West Prussia Communist Party of Germany politicians Socialist Unity Party of Germany politicians Members of the Volkstag of the Free City of Danzig Union of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime members Exiles from Nazi Germany Recipients of the Patriotic Order of Merit