Käthe Popall (born Käthe Fürst: 15 February 1907 – 23 May 1984) was a

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...

politician ( KPD). She was the first female member of the Bremen senate. Like many left wing politicians of her generation she spent most of the Nazi years in prison. During that time she was divorced by Hans Lübeck (who also spent many of those years in state detention). She had met Hans Lübeck in 1928 and married him shortly after that, with the result that sources covering the first part of her political career tend to identify her as Käthe Lübeck. She married Reinhold Popall in January 1946: sources covering the second half of her life therefore identify her as Käthe Popall.

Life

Provenance and early years

Käthe Fürst was born in

, one of the six recorded children of a manual labourer. On leaving school she initially took unskilled work, but following a commercial apprenticeship she worked as a book keeper, employed by "Vorwärts", a consumer co-operative. However, after she married, in 1928, she was "released" from her employment with "Vorwärts", spending the next few years unemployed apart from periodic assignments as a casual worker at the jute mill in

Walle Walle is a surname of Norwegian and German origin, which is a variant of the surname Wall. Wall in turn is a topographic name, which meant a person who lived by a defensive or stone-built wall.''Dictionary of American Family Names''"Wall Family Hi ...

quarter.

Politics

She was not quite 12 when

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 in military defeat for

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, followed by a wave of revolutions across the country and a new political structure which was in many ways far more democratic than the previous one. In 1922 Käthe Fürst joined the Young Socialist Workers (''"Sozialistische Arbeiter-Jugend"'' / SAJ) and the Social Democratic Party (''"Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands"'' / SPD). Working at the jute mill she was influenced by Hannes Koschnick, at that time secretary of the Revolutionary trades union opposition (''"Revolutionäre Gewerkschafts Opposition"'' / RGO) movement and editor of the "Workers' Newspaper" The RGO was for most purposes a communist trades union confederation, although it frequently found itself in vigorous disagreement with the (increasingly Moscow-influenced) Communist Party over practical matters. It was also during this period that, increasingly, she was influenced by Robert Stamm, district leader for Northwest Bremen of the Communist Party. In 1927 she switched her membership from the young socialist workers to the Young Communists. Both Koschnick and Stamm saw to it that she attended courses at the trades union and party training academies. In 1929 she joined the Communist Party itself and in 1930, still aged only 23, she was elected as a Communist Party member to the Bremen regional parliament (''"Bremische Bürgerschaft"''). By 1930 she had also become a member of the

works council A works council is a shop-floor organization representing workers that functions as a local/firm-level complement to trade unions but is independent of these at least in some countries. Works councils exist with different names in a variety of re ...

at the jute mill. Her membership of the ''"Bremische Bürgerschaft"'' lasted only till 20 March 1931 because, according to one source, the party instructed her to relocate away from Bremen. In 1927 or 1928 she met a fellow member of the Young Communists, Hans Lübeck, whom she married shortly thereafter. In 1931 the two of them relocated to

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

, where she worked with the Lower Rhineland regional party leadership team (''"Bezirksleitung Niederrhein"'') of the RGO. However, by the summer of 1931 she was in Halle, employed at the consumer-operative there. At the start of 1932 she was appointed a party leader organiser for the women's section of the Young Communists in Halle. In the autumn of 1932, she travelled with her husband to

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

, but according to one source her wish to study at the "Lenin" Party Academy there came to nothing because she failed the entrance exam. Other sources imply strongly that she did indeed study at the party academy. Either way, when 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

, Käthe Lübeck was in Moscow.

Nazi years

The new government lost no time in transforming Germany into a one-

party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a Hospitality, host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will oft ...

dictatorship A dictatorship is an autocratic form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, who hold governmental powers with few to no Limited government, limitations. Politics in a dictatorship are controlled by a dictator, ...

. After the

Reichstag fire The Reichstag fire (, ) was an arson attack on the Reichstag building, home of the German parliament in Berlin, on Monday, 27 February 1933, precisely four weeks after Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany. Marinus van der Lubbe, ...

at the end of February 1933 communists, in particular, were targets of officially sanctioned persecution. Many were arrested or fled abroad. Käthe Lübeck nevertheless returned from Moscow to Germany at the end of 1934, making her base 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 ...

where she worked illegally for the Communist Party leadership, her responsibilities centred on "women's work" (''"Frauenarbeit"''). On 27 March 1935 she was arrested. Other party comrades arrested at the same time included Adolf Rembte, Robert Stamm and Max Maddalena. Unlike these others, Käthe Lübeck would outlive the Nazi regime. The trial process lasted two years, during which time Hans Lübeck, who was himself in prison between 1934 and 1936, divorced her, which hurt her terribly. She never saw him again. Eventually, on 4 June 1937 she was sentenced by the special People's Court to a twelve year prison term. Initially she was held at the

women's prison Approximately 741,000 women are incarcerated in correctional facilities, a 17% increase since 2010 and the female prison population has been increasing across all continents.Lübeck-Lauerhof. In 1941 she was transferred to

Silesia Silesia (see names #Etymology, below) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Silesia, Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at 8, ...

, held in

concentration camp A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploitati ...

s at Jauer and Schweidnitz. Finally, from March 1945, she was held at the large Waldheim detention centre near

Chemnitz Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt (); ; ) is the third-largest city in the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden, and the fourth-largest city in the area of former East Germany after (East Be ...

. For much of the time she was held in solitary detention, but she was able to meet with fellow detainees when she was used for forced labour. Early in May 1945 she was released by allied forces. That month marked the end of the war. The country was to be divided into military occupation zones. Käthe Lübeck was released in 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 ...

: because her record of communist activism in the 1930s the authorities were keen that she should stay and help rebuild a post Nazi society, but she was keen to get home to

, desperate to discover if her mother was still alive. Her mother was alive together with one elder sister. Their other siblings had died in the war.

British occupation zone / German Federal Republic

On 19 January 1946 she married Reinhold Popall who had worked illegally for the Communist Party during the Nazi years until 1935 when he had received a 15 year prison sentence. Käthe Popall became the women's section leader for the party. She joined the local "Fight against Fascism association" (''"Kampfgemeinschaft gegen den Faschismus"''), an organisation dominated by Communists and Social Democrats which at this stage was the only organisation with any resemblance to a political party that the British occupying forces would permit to operate. On 17 April 1946 she was appointed a member of the nominated Bremen regional parliament. In the first free election to that body, held on 13 October 1946, she was elected to membership of the Bremen Bürgerschaft (regional parliament), in which she served as vice president of the small Communist Party group in the assembly. As early as 23 July 1945 the British military authorities installed Käthe Popall as Bremen's first ever female senator. She served

under Under may refer to: Music *''Under'', an album by Savoy, 2024 * "Under" (Alex Hepburn song), 2013 * "Under" (Pleasure P song), 2009 *"Under", a song by Sampha from ''Process'', 2017 People *Bülent Ünder (born 1949), Turkish footballer *Cengiz � ...

Mayor Vagts, between August 1946 and February 1948, as the senator with responsibility for health matters. After Vagts resigned, to be succeeded by

Wilhelm Kaisen Carl Wilhelm Kaisen (22 May 1887 – 19 December 1979) was a German politician from the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) who served as the 2nd President of the Senate and Mayor of Bremen from 1945 to 1965. In 1958/59 he served as the 10th ...

, Käthe Popall became a member of the Kaisen senate, re-elected to senate membership in the local election of 28 November 1946. Again she was responsible for health matters and, later, also for welfare issues. She spoke out to insist that young people born after 1919 should not be held responsible for the Nazi dictatorship that took over during and after 1933. She also campaigned for reform of the

Abortion Abortion is the early termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. Abortions that occur without intervention are known as miscarriages or "spontaneous abortions", and occur in roughly 30–40% of all pregnan ...

laws (§218 of the old constitution which reappeared in the post war Wet German constitution), urging that the abortion should be performed according to medical criteria and not according to political beliefs. Her welfare brief also gave her responsibility for

refugees A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...

from parts of Germany that, since 1945, had become part of

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

and the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, arranging accommodation and ensuring rapid settlement for those who had fetched up in Bremen. Popall was an important member of the Bremen Women's Movement. In 1946 she joined with Agnes Heineken, Anna Stiegler, Anna Klara Fischer and Irmgard Enderle to become a founding member of the Bremen Women's Committee (''"Bremer Frauenausschuss"''), widely recognised as a non-party non-denominational umbrella organisation for women's organisations from all parts of society in the city-state. Till 1951 she participated on the executive board.

Local elections Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Local'' (comics), a limited series comic book by Bria ...

in October 1947 saw an increase in votes for the Bremen Democratic People's Party and a decline in support for the Communist Party. In the western occupation zones the Communist Party was losing credibility because of the political machinations taking place in the

. Popall retained her seat, but the Communists were no longer part of the governing coalition and on 22 January 1948, along with other communist senators, she resigned from the

senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

. Mayor Kaisen was lavish in his tribute: "So if this is the first time in the history of the Berlin Senate that it found itself with a woman elected to its ranks, this woman brilliantly vindicated the experiment". Popall remained a member of the Bremen Bürgerschaft (regional parliament), representing the Communist Party until 1956 when, in the context of wider

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

tensions, the Communist Party was itself banned in the German Federal Republic (West Germany) (of which the British occupation zone had become a part in May 1949). By 1956 Käthe Popall had already become politically isolated and relatively inactive on the wider stage, reflecting increasingly bitter internal conflicts within the party. Following the

Berlin Blockade The Berlin Blockade (24 June 1948 – 12 May 1949) was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. During the multinational occupation of post–World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, roa ...

of 1948/49 the three western occupation zones were relaunched, in May 1949, as the German Federal Republic (West Germany). In response the Soviet sponsored German Democratic Republic (East Germany) was relaunched in October 1949 in what had, till that point, been administered as the

. There was no immediate acceptance in Moscow that the opportunity to create a Soviet sponsored German state including the western occupation zones had been closed off for good. Inside

East Germany 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 ...

the

ruling party The ruling party or governing party in a democratic parliamentary or presidential system is the political party or coalition holding a majority of elected positions in a parliament, in the case of parliamentary systems, or holding the executive ...

became increasingly uncompromising in its interpretation and application of Stalinist communism, especially after the quickly suppressed 1953 uprising. This was reflected in West Germany where the Communist Party had not been rebranded and uncompromising Stalinist-style paranoia and central control over party matters was the order of the times. At the start of 1952 the Bremen branch of the Communist Party initiated an attack against "Enemies of the Party, Infiltrators and Opportunists" (''"Parteifeinde, Agenten und Opportunisten"'') in its ranks. The Popalls were criticised in Bremen's party newspaper, "Tribüne der Demokratie" (''"Tribunes of Democracy"''): "For years, they have had no real links to the party. They have defamed party officials and undermined trust in East Germany and in the Soviet Union". In a move reminiscent of the internal party battles of the later 1920s, in 1952 both Käthe and Reinhold Popall were subjected to a ban from serving on party committees. In 1952 Reinhold Popall was expelled from the party, and Käthe Popall was instructed by the party leadership to divorce him. Opposition from the party membership in Bremen is apparently what prevented her own expulsion from the party when she failed to separate from her husband. Käthe Popall received "only a reprimand": her own party membership ended only when the party itself was banned in West Germany, in 1956.Hendrik Bunke: ''Die KPD in Bremen. 1945-1968.'' Papyrossa-Verlag, Köln 2001, , p. 137–148 By 1956 Käthe Popall's political career was effectively over. In 1967 or earlier she relocated away from Bremen with her family to

Ottweiler Ottweiler () is a municipality, former seat of the district of Neunkirchen, in Saarland, Germany. It is situated on the river Blies, approx. 7 km north of Neunkirchen, and 25 km northeast of Saarbrücken Saarbrücken (; Rhenish Fr ...

in the

Saarland Saarland (, ; ) is a state of Germany in the southwest of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, and the smallest in ...

, where their daughter grew up. The couple were active in the Workers' Welfare (AWO) and

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 ...

movements. Reinhold Popall died in 1981. Back in

the President of the Bremen Senate was by now

Hans Koschnick Hans Koschnick (2 April 1929 – 21 April 2016) was a German politician ( SPD) and elder statesman. He was the President of the Senate and Mayor of Bremen from 1967 to 1985, the President of the Bundesrat in 1970/71 and 1981/82, and afterwards ...

whose father had played an important part in the political awakening of Käthe Lübeck (as she was at the time) more than fifty years earlier when she had worked at the jute mill. In 1982 Koschnick organised a reception in her honour at the

Bremen City Hall Bremen City Hall () is the seat of the President of the Senate and Mayor of Bremen, Germany. It is one of the most important examples of Brick Gothic and Weser Renaissance architecture in Europe. Since 1973, it has been a protected historical ...

. Early in 1984, already suffering from

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

, she moved back to Bremen where, a few months later, she died.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lübeck, Käthe 1907 births 1984 deaths Communists in the German Resistance Politicians from Bremen (city) Members of the Bürgerschaft of Bremen Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians Communist Party of Germany politicians Workers' rights activists German socialist feminists Prisoners and detainees of Germany