Elisabeth von Thadden

Elisabeth Adelheid Hildegard von Thadden ( Morąg or Mohrungen, Prussia , 29 of July of 1890 - Berlin , 9 of September of 1944 ) was a member of the nobilityGerman founder of a school and teacher, fierce opposition to the regime Nazi was executed for alleged connections With the plot of July 20, 1944.

Biography

Elisabeth von Thadden was the daughter of Adolf von Thadden-Trieglaff (1858-1932) and Ehrengard von Gerlach (1868-1909), the oldest of five in 1905 moved to Pomerania , growing as a Protestant and Christian .

His brother was an important theologian Reinold von Thadden (1891-1976), and his nephew the well-known historian Rudolf von Thadden (* 1932) and his brother the politician Adolf von Thadden (1921-1996).

On the death of his mother, he took over the family from 1909, also organizing the conferences Trieglaffer Konferenzen that attracted an important group of thinkers.

His father remarried in 1920 - with Barbara Blank (1895-1972) - and she attended in Berlin the Soziale Frauenschule where she graduated in progressive education gained experience after educators like Hermann Lietz and Kurt Hahn .

Living in 1926 at the Schloss Wieblingen castle in Heidelberg , in 1926, he formed the Evangelisches Landerziehungsheim für Mädchen , a school for Christian girls.

During Nazism it was ardent opposition, in 1940 had problems with the Gestapo when the school was denounced by opposing activities evacuating it to Tutzing in Bavaria and later closed.

Von Thadden returned to Berlin joining the Red Cross , contacted opponents such as Helmut Gollwitzer , Martin Niemöller and Elly Heuss-Knapp and was part of the Solf Circle . At one of those meetings where he hosted, on September 10, 1943 , Dr. Paul Reckzeh , informant of the Gestapo that betrayed them.

She was arrested on January 12, 1944 , in Meaux , France . She was interrogated for months at Ravensbrück concentration camp .

After the plot of July 20 was taken before Judge Roland Freisler , sentenced to the guillotine and executed in Plötzensee Berlin in September 1944.

A street takes its name as well as the school that founded and others in Leverkusen, Karlsruhe, Kiel, Leverkusen, Fulda, Mannheim and Wesel.

Composer Christopher Fox wrote an opera about his process and performance ¹

Literature

• Manfred Berger: Thadden, Elisabeth von ; In: Hugo Maier (Hrsg.): Who is who of Sozialen Arbeit ; Freiburg / Br. 1998, S. 588 f
• Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels. Adelige Häuser A ; Bd. 25, S. 519, Bd. 117 der Gesamtreihe; Limburg (Lahn): CA Starke, 1998; ISSN 0435-2408
• Irmgard von der Lühe: Elisabeth von Thadden. Ein Schicksal unserer Zeit ; Eugen Diederichs Verlag Düsseldorf-Köln, 1966
• Irmgard von der Lühe: Ein Frau im Widerstand. Elisabeth von Thadden und das Dritte Reich ; Freiburg ua: Herder, 1983; ISBN 978-3-451-07785-2 ; Lax Verlag, 1989 ⁴ ; ISBN 978-3-7848-7012-0
• Matthias Riemenschneider u. Jörg Thierfelder (Hg.): Elisabeth von Thadden. Gestalten - Widerstehen - Erleiden ; In : Edition Zeitzeugen ; Hans Thoma Verlag, 2002; ISBN 3-87297-148-4
• Martha Schad: Frauen gegen Hitler. Schicksale im Nationalsozialismus ; München 2001, S. 145 ff
• Günther Weisenborn: Der lautlose Aufstand. Hamburg 1953

References