Lilo Ramdohr

{{Infobox person

| name = Lieselotte Fürst-Ramdohr

| image =

| image_size = 180px

| alt =

| caption = Lilo Ramdohr at the registry office with Carl G. Fürst in Munich, February 1944

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1913|10|11}}

| birth_place = Aschersleben, Germany

| death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|2013|05|13|1913|10|11}}

| death_place = Starnberg, Germany

| nationality =

| other_names =

| occupation =

| known_for = member of the White Rose resistance group in Nazi Germany

}}

Lieselotte "Lilo" Fürst-Ramdohr (11 October 1913 – 13 May 2013){{cite web|url=http://white-rose-studies.org/May_31_2013.html|title=May 31, 2013}} was a member of the Munich branch of the student resistance group White Rose (Weiße Rose) in Nazi Germany. She was born in Aschersleben.

Early life

Ramdohr was a descendant of a merchant family from Aschersleben. After half a year in England and one year at the boarding school of Fritz Weiß in Weimar where her long year friendship with Falk Harnack began, she moved to Munich in 1934 to become a stage designer.{{cite book|url={{Google books |plainurl=yes |id=WOPfM-0hz1AC |page=RA5-PA24-IA1 }} |title=White Rose History, Volume I |access-date=2012-02-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151128175234/http://www.billboard.com/artist/302879/girlicious/chart?f=344 |archive-date=2015-11-28 }} From March 1935 to February 1936, she learned book illustration at the Württembergische Kunstgewerbeschule in Stuttgart. In 1936, she moved to Dresden to attend dance school until the Nazis closed it. Ramdohr switched to a state-run school in Stuttgart, and later ran a private school in Heilbronn. She eventually married Otto Berndl, son of a Bavarian architect.{{cite web|url=https://www.archive.org/stream/diekunstmonatshe34mnuoft/diekunstmonatshe34mnuoft_djvu.txt |title=Full text of "Die Kunst: Monatsheft für freie und angewandte Kunst" |year=1899 |publisher=München F. Bruckmann |access-date=2012-02-04}} Her religious preference was Lutheran.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WOPfM-0hz1AC&q=ramdohr+lutheran&pg=PA31|title=White Rose History, Volume I [Academic Version]: Coming Together (January 31, 1933 – April 30, 1942)|first=Ruth Hanna|last=Sachs|date=1 November 2003|publisher=Exclamation! Publishers|isbn=978-0-9710541-9-6|via=Google Books}}

The White Rose

In the autumn of 1941, she befriended Alexander Schmorell,{{cite book|url={{Google books |plainurl=yes |id=XJ8iAQAAIAAJ |page= }} |title=Sophie Scholl and the White Rose |author=Annette Dumbach |author2=Jud Newborn |access-date=2012-02-04}} Christoph Probst and Hans Scholl, and later Traute Lafrenz, Sophie Scholl and Willi Graf.{{cite web|url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/8550237/Inge-Scholl-Die-Weisse-Rose |title=p. 139 |publisher=Scribd.com |access-date=2012-02-04}} After her husband was killed in Russia in May 1942, she began storing documents and a duplication apparatus in her flat in Neuhausen-Nymphenburg. In November 1942, she expanded the group's underground activities by joining forces with more powerful groups in Berlin such as the Kreisauer Kreis and the Christian resistance leader Dietrich Bonhoeffer through the help of Falk Harnack.{{cite book|url={{Google books |plainurl=yes |id=YfBRqddIXikC |page=690 }} |title=White Rose History, Volume II (Academic Version): Journey to Freedom (May 1 ... |author=Ruth Hanna Sachs |page=690 |access-date=2012-02-04}}

Escape from Munich

On 2 March 1943 Ramdohr was arrested, but was released for lack of evidence.[http://www.ns-dokumentationszentrum-muenchen.de/veranstaltungen/veranstaltungen-zum-ns-dokumentationszentrum/files/tagungsband-gendertagung.pdf p.65 et seq.]{{dead link|date=February 2012}}

Later that month, Heinrich Himmler ordered her arrested again and sentenced to death, but she managed to escape.{{cite book|url={{Google books |plainurl=yes |id=iyBoAAAAMAAJ |page= }} |title=Gegen Hitler: Deutsche in der Resistance, in den Streitkräften der ... |author=Gottfried Hamacher |author2=Andrι Lohmar |access-date=2012-02-04 }} Ramdohr married German-born, Brazilian-raised medical student Carl Gebhard Fürst (1920–2010) in February 1944 in Munich, and escaped to her hometown of Aschersleben, using the name Lieselotte Fürst.

Post-war era

Ramdohr survived the war and in 1948 fled with her four-year-old daughter, Doma-Ulrike, out of the Soviet occupation zone back to Bavaria, where she became a sports instructor in boarding schools in Upper Bavaria.{{cite web|last1=Simkin|first1=John|title=Lilo Ramdohr|url=http://spartacus-educational.com/Lilo_Ramdohr.htm#source|website=Spartacus Educational|publisher=Spartacus Educational Publishers Ltd.|access-date=4 October 2016}} In 1995, she published her memoirs "Friendships in the White Rose". Up until her death, she lived in a small town outside Munich.{{cite news |last=Burns |first=Lucy |title=White Rose: The Germans who tried to topple Hitler |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21521060|access-date=February 22, 2013 |newspaper=BBC World Service |date=February 21, 2013}} The BBC described her as a "spry 99-year-old".

Documentaries

In 1996, Bavarian Broadcasting, BR, televised a biography of Ramdohr as a part of its series Lebenslinien. The director was Hans-Sirks Lampe.
In 1995, Geschichtswerkstatt Neuhausen televised interviews with Ramdohr in the documentary Davon haben wir nichts gewusst...Neuhausen unter der Nazi-Zeit.
In 2008, interviews with Ramdohr were featured in the documentary Die Widerständigen – Zeugen der Weißen Rose.

Works by Lilo Fürst-Ramdohr

Freundschaften in der Weißen Rose. Verlag Geschichtswerkstatt Neuhausen, Munich 1995, {{ISBN|978-3-931231-00-2}}
Die Weiße Rose (by Inge Scholl); p. 139. Frankfurt/M. 1994, {{ISBN|978-3-596-11802-1}}
Seiltanz (Lyrics of the Munich Catacombe); Ed. Nanette Bald, Roman Kovar, Munich 1991. {{ISBN|978-3-925845-20-8}}

References

External links

[https://web.archive.org/web/20110718194239/http://www.aladinfilm.de/ramdor.php Lilo Ramdohr's biography]
{{Google books |id=WOPfM-0hz1AC |page=RA5-PA24-IA1 |title=White Rose History, Vol.I. (Academic Version) by Ruth H. Sachs, Utah }}
[http://shop.deheap.com/product.sc?productId=2 English version of Friendships in the White Rose by Lilo Ramdohr, unpublished]
[http://www.cinefacts.de/kino/film/50430/6/die_widerstaendigen_zeugen_der_weissen_rose/katrin_seybold_ueber_lilo_fuerst_ramdohr_/infodetails.html Discussion of Lilo Ramdohr's historical role by Katrin Seybold]
[https://www.scribd.com/doc/8550237/Inge-Scholl-Die-Weisse-Rose On-line version of 'Die Weiße Rose' by Inge Scholl]
[http://www.basisfilm.de/basis_neu/pdf/wied_pr.pdf Abstract of 'Die Widerständigen', cf. p. 14: Essay on Lilo Ramdohr] (PDF-file in German; 3,93 MB)
[http://www.channel3000.com/mildred-fish-harnack/14587164/detail.html Article about Lilo Ramdohr being the fiancée of Falk Harnack]{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
{{Google books |id=TG6mAAAAIAAJ |title=The Way of the Sixth White Rose leaflet, cf. p.166 in W. Breyvogel et al., Bonn 1991 }}
Sabine Bader, [http://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/2.1168/lilo-fuerst-ramdohr-die-ueberlebende-der-weissen-rose-1.1008150 "Die Überlebende der "Weißen Rose"] Süddeutsche Zeitung (May 9, 2011). Retrieved February 16, 2012 {{in lang|de}}
BBC World Service: [http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p014knxl episode of Witness broadcast on February 22, 2013.]