Dorothee Poelchau
{{Infobox person
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| name = Dorothee Poelchau
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| image = Dorothee und Harald Poelchau (cropped).jpg
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| caption = Dorothee and Harald Poelchau
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| birth_date = {{Birth-date|6 June 1902|6 June 1902}}
| birth_place = Steinkirchen
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| death_date = {{Death date and age|1977|11|04|1902|06|06|df=y}}
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| resting_place = Zehlendorf cemetery
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| monuments = Memorial stele
Poelchaustraße, Märkische Allee, Marzahn
| nationality = German
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| occupation = Librarian
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| known_for = Resistance fighter
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| spouse = Harald Poelchau
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| awards = Righteous Among the Nations
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}}
{{Righteous Among the Nations}}
{{short description|German librarian and resistance fighter}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=November 2021}}
Dorothee Poelchau (born Dorothee Ziegele; 6 June 1902 in Steinkirchen, 4 November 1977) was a German librarian who together with her husband Harald Poelchau, were resistance fighters against the Nazis. The couple were named Righteous Among the Nations in 1971.{{cite web |title=Poelchau Harald & Dorothee |url=https://righteous.yadvashem.org/?searchType=righteous_only&language=en&itemId=4022278&ind=0 |website=Yad Vashem |publisher=The Authority in Memory of the Martyrs and Heroes of the Holocaust |access-date=26 November 2021 |date=30 November 1971 |archive-date=26 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211126175406/https://righteous.yadvashem.org/?searchType=righteous_only&language=en&itemId=4022278&ind=0 |url-status=live }}{{cite web |title=Dorothee Poelchau |url=https://www.gdw-berlin.de/vertiefung/biografien/personenverzeichnis/biografie/view-bio/dorothee-poelchau/?no_cache=1 |website=German Resistance Memorial Center |publisher=Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand |access-date=27 November 2021 |location=Berlin |archive-date=27 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211127105037/https://www.gdw-berlin.de/vertiefung/biografien/personenverzeichnis/biografie/view-bio/dorothee-poelchau/?no_cache=1 |url-status=live }}
Life
Poelchau was the second daughter of the pastor Paul Eugen Ziegele and his wife Berta from Steinkirchen.{{cite book |last1=Schuppener |first1=Henriette |title="Nichts war umsonst": Harald Poelchau und der deutsche Widerstand |date=2006 |publisher=LIT Verlag Münster |location=Note 18 |isbn=978-3-8258-9315-6 |page=18 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OrtBuqzOHZcC&pg=PA18 |language=de}} After the end of her school education and the first impressions she had received from the German Youth Movement, she began studying German at Leipzig University in the winter semester of 1921/22. Parallel to her studies, she trained at the library school in Leipzig, which she completed in 1923, thereby qualifying her to work for the middle library service. After obtaining employment at the University Library of the University of Tübingen in 1923, she met Harald Poelchau in the same year, who at the time was secretary of the German youth organisation, the {{Interlanguage link|Köngener Bund|de|Bund der Köngener}} in Tübingen. In 1926, she moved from Tübingen to Berlin, where she accepted a position in the library of the {{Interlanguage link|Statistisches Reichsamt|de|Statistisches Reichsamt}} (StRA).
After marrying Harald Poelchau, she was opposed to the Nazi regime from the beginning, just like her husband. After her husband took up a position as a prison chaplain in Berlin on 1 April 1933 and began to look after inmates of the German and foreign resistance as well as Jews threatened with deportation, Dorothee Poelchau became "her husband's secret help".{{cite web |title=Denkmal für NS-Widerstandkämpfer Harald Poelchau |url=https://www.ekd.de/harald-poelchau-ns-widerstand-denkmal-tegel-38253.htm |website=Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland |publisher=EKD-Online-Redaktion |access-date=15 December 2021 |language=German |date=2 October 2018 |archive-date=15 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211215113954/https://www.ekd.de/harald-poelchau-ns-widerstand-denkmal-tegel-38253.htm |url-status=live }} When it came to helping Jews in hiding and relatives of political prisoners, she was actively involved by procuring food and looking after the persecutees taken into her own home. Furthermore, she established contacts for the persons designated for accommodation and prepared meals which she gave to her husband for the prisoners in the various prisons. Towards the end of the Second World War, she left Berlin with her son Harald Stephan, but returned there in the summer of 1945.
Awards and honours
File:2016-08-31 Grab-Harald-Poelchau.jpg
- By resolution of the Senate of Berlin on 6 October 1987, the couples burial place at the Zehlendorf cemetery was converted into an honorary grave of the State of Berlin.{{cite web |title=Friedhöfe und Begräbnisstätten |url=https://www.berlin.de/sen/uvk/natur-und-gruen/stadtgruen/friedhoefe-und-begraebnisstaetten/ |website=Senatsverwaltung für Umwelt, Verkehr und Klimaschutz |publisher=BerlinOnline Stadtportal GmbH & Co. KG betrieben.A |access-date=27 November 2021 |location=Berlin |page=65 |language=German |archive-date=26 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211126183013/https://www.berlin.de/sen/uvk/natur-und-gruen/stadtgruen/friedhoefe-und-begraebnisstaetten/ |url-status=live }}
- On 17 November 1988, a Berlin memorial plaque was affixed to the house at Afrikanische Straße 140b in Wedding in Berlin, where the couple lived from 1933 to 1945.{{cite web |title=Poelchaustraße |url=https://berlin.kauperts.de/Strassen/Poelchaustrasse-12681-Berlin#Geschichte |website=Kaupert |publisher=Luisenstädt Education Association |access-date=26 November 2021 |location=Berlin |language=German |archive-date=3 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240103190349/https://berlin.kauperts.de/Strassen/Poelchaustrasse-12681-Berlin#Geschichte |url-status=live }}
- On 29 April 1992, an asteroid discovered by Freimut Börngen at the Karl Schwarzschild Observatory was named Poelchau (10348) in honour of the couple.{{cite web |title=Discovery Circumstances: Numbered Minor Planets (10001)-(15000) |url=https://minorplanetcenter.net//iau/lists/NumberedMPs010001.html |website=Minor Planet Center |publisher=International Astronomical Association |access-date=26 November 2021 |archive-date=18 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210918064013/https://minorplanetcenter.net//iau/lists/NumberedMPs010001.html |url-status=live }}{{cite web |title=Citation for (10348) |url=https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/cgi-bin/showcitation.cgi?num=010348 |website=Minor Planet Center |publisher=International Astronomical Association |access-date=26 November 2021}}
- On 18 September 2017, a memorial stele for Harald and Dorothee Poelchau was handed over at the corner of Poelchaustraße, Märkische Allee in the Marzahn district of Berlin.{{cite web |title=Übergabe der Poelchau-Erinnerungsstele in Marzahn |url=https://www.berlin.de/ba-marzahn-hellersdorf/aktuelles/pressemitteilungen/2017/pressemitteilung.621000.php |access-date=26 November 2021 |language=German |date=28 August 2017 |publisher=BerlinOnline Stadtportal GmbH & Co. KG betrieben.A |website=Bezirksamt Marzahn-Hellersdorf |archive-date=26 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211126192044/https://www.berlin.de/ba-marzahn-hellersdorf/aktuelles/pressemitteilungen/2017/pressemitteilung.621000.php |url-status=live }}{{cite news |title=Stele erinnert an Eheleute Poelchau |url=https://www.nd-aktuell.de/artikel/1064180.stele-erinnert-an-eheleute-poelchau.html |website=Neues Deutschland |publisher=Neues Deutschland Druckerei und Verlags GmbH |access-date=26 November 2021 |location=Berlin |language=German |date=19 September 2017 |archive-date=26 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211126191258/https://www.nd-aktuell.de/artikel/1064180.stele-erinnert-an-eheleute-poelchau.html |url-status=live }}
References
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Further reading
- {{cite book |last1=Beck |first1= C. H. |title=Der Aquädukt 1763-1988: ein Almanach aus dem Verlag C.H. Beck im 225. Jahr seines Bestehens |date=1988 |publisher=Verlag |isbn=978-3-406-33197-8 |pages=149–158 |language=de|oclc=873358963|trans-title=The Aqueduct 1763-1988: an almanac from the publishing house C.H. Beck in the 225th year of its existence. with notes by Beate Ruhm von Oppen}}
External links
- [http://www.evanonearth.net/featured/poelchau.html A sculptural tribute to WWII resistance heroes Harald and Dorothee Poelchau]
- [https://www.cw-evangelisch.de/blog/48496 Broschüre zu Jugendprojekt erschienen: Gedenken an Dorothee und Harald - Poelchau]
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Category:German Righteous Among the Nations
Category:German women librarians
Category:Leipzig University alumni
Category:Academic staff of the University of Tübingen
Category:Protestants in the German Resistance