Emmy Damerius-Koenen

Emmy Damerius - Koenen (born Zadach, divorced Damerius; born March 15, 1903 in Berlin -Rosenthal, † May 21, 1987 in Berlin) was a German politician.

Life

Zadachs parents were working and had four children. Emma Zadach attended elementary school and two and a half years, the commercial night school. Then worked as a writer workshop in art printing Heymann & Schmidt GmbH Berlin and as employees in different publishers. By 1923, she became involved with Friends of Nature and pacifists. In 1923 the entry into the Communist Youth League, and in 1924 the KPD. From 1922 to 1927 was her marriage to Helmut Damerius, their child died at a young age.

Until 1934 she worked full-time for honor and the KPD district headquarters in Berlin -Brandenburg, including as a political associate and director of the Women's Department, since 1933, illegal work. In 1934, she worked in Moscow in the Women's Secretariat of the Communist International in 1935 and in 1936 to study at the West University in Moscow under the code name Emmy Dublin. After the dissolution of the University in 1936, an insert was in the KPD lines in Prague, Zurich and Paris. Since she lived in Prague in 1937 in fellowship with Wilhelm Koenen. In January 1939, she went into exile to England. She was a worker in London, in 1943 a founding member of the Free German Movement (FDB ) in London and in 1944 helped launch the Women's Commission of the FDB. From 1940 to February 1941 was an internment on the Isle of Man.

In December 1945, she appeared together with Wilhelm Koenen to return to Germany. In Halle and Dresden, she worked as an editor. Since her return in 1945 in Saxony was a commitment to the creation of local women's committees, since 1946, she was second chairman of the Women's Committee of Saxony.

At the founding of the Democratic Women 's League of Germany (DFD ), she played a dominant role in the preparatory committee. At the German Women's Congress for Peace from 7 to March 9, 1947 in Berlin Admiral Palace, the founding congress of the DFD, they made ​​the main speech on international issues and was one of the four deputy chairmen of the new women's organization. In April 1948, she took over from the former non-party DFD Chair Anne -Marie Durand- Wever, their choice as DFD Chair was on the DFD federal congress on 29-30. Mai 1948. Their international experience she continued successfully for the inclusion of the DFD in the International Democratic Women's Federation ( IDFF ), founded in Paris in 1945 mainly by communists and antifascists, a.

As a result of the SED Decision on West emigrants in 1949 and at the same time as a result of internal disputes with the SED Women's Secretariat headed by Elli Schmidt and Käthe core they had to give the DFD Presidency in spring 1949. In May 1949, Elli Schmidt took over the post as DFD Chair.

Emmy Damerius - Koenen was after a long illness 1950-1958 editor, squad leader or deputy editor in the publishing house, the economy in Berlin. After 1958 she worked as a freelance journalist and was until the death of her husband in October 1963 Associate of Wilhelm Koenen. Emmy Koenen left numerous articles in the women's press in the Soviet zone of occupation and published on the history of the SED and the history of the DFD detailed memories.

She died on 21 May 1987 in Berlin -Friedrich Hagen. Your urn was placed in the grave conditioning Pergolenweg the memorial of the Socialists in the Central Cemetery Friedrichsfelde.

Literature and sources

  • Emmy Damerius: memories. Exile in England. In: Contributions to the history of the German workers' movement, No. 4/1978
  • Emmy Damerius - Koenen: About the anti-fascist women's work in Saxony in the years 1946 / 47th In: Contributions to the history of the German labor movement, Special Issue 1965/66
  • Helmut Damerius: Under a false accusation, Aufbau Verlag Berlin 1990, pp. 284ff.
  • The first few years. Memories, Dietz Verlag Berlin 1979, pp. 258ff.
  • In the sign of the red star. Memories, Dietz Verlag Berlin 1974, pp. 249ff.
  • Federal Archives SAPMO SgY30/1308/1
  • Bernd -Rainer Barth, Helmut Müller- Enbergs: Koenen Damerius, Emmi. In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1 Ch links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4.
  • Damerius ( Koenen ), Emmy. In: Hermann Weber, Andreas Herbst: German communists. Biographical Handbook 1918. 1945 Second revised and greatly expanded edition. Karl Dietz Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-320-02130-6.
Rosenthal (Berlin) Democratic Women's League of Germany Communist Party of Germany Integrated Authority File
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