Marta Damkowski
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Marta Damkowski
| image =
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| birth_date = 16 March 1911
| birth_place = Stade, Germany
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1979|08|09|1911|03|16|df=y}}
| death_place = Hamburg, Germany
| other_names =
| occupation = resistance fighter, politician
| children =
}}
Marta Damkowski (also Martha Damkowski, née Marta Bröker; 16 March 1911 – 9 August 1979)Blake and Reimers, So lebten Sie, p. 267. was a German resistance fighter against the Nazis and a Social Democratic politician.
Life
From its foundation in 1923, Marta was a member of the Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft der Kinderfreunde (RAG) ("National Association of Friends of Children"), which was connected with the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).Kopitzsch and Brietzke, Hamburgische Biografie, p. 79. After completing a commercial apprenticeship, Marta joined the Socialist German Workers Youth (SDAJ) in 1927. In 1928 she joined the International Socialist Militant League (ISK).Lemke-Müller, Ethik des Widerstands, p. 22.
After the Nazi party came to power in 1933, Marta was active in the resistance work of the ISK in various places, until she was arrested in 1937. In 1938 she was sentenced in the People's Court to thirteen months in prison. She was released in 1940, and shortly afterwards married Herbert Damkowski (who had been sentenced to prison along with Marta in 1938).Blake and Reimers, So lebten Sie, p. 268. Herbert was later killed in battle in 1944, while part of a penal military unit.{{fact|date=October 2019}}
In 1945 Marta joined the German Social Democratic Party (SPD). She acted as the female secretary of the SPD from 1946 to 1949. Between 1947 and 1953 Marta was elected to the Hamburg Parliament.Blake and Reimers, So lebten Sie, p. 267. She was also a civil servant, working for the department of Justice in Hamburg, and temporarily acting as governor of the women's prison in Hahnöfersand near Hamburg.{{fact|date=October 2019}} Marta was politically engaged with the women's movement (especially regarding sexual education and the law on abortion)Blake and Reimers, So lebten Sie, p. 268. and other socio-political issues. She was active in the Arbeitsgemeinschaft sozialdemokratischer Frauen (Working Group of Social Democratic Women).{{fact|date=October 2019}}
Legacy
File:Marta Damkowski SophieSchollStiftung FriedhofOhlsdorf.jpg
- In 1986 a street in Neuallermöhe in Hamburg was named after Marta Damkowski.
- In Ohlsdorf Cemetery in Hamburg, among the memorials for the victims and opponents of the Nazi regime, there is a memorial stone for Marta Damkowski and her husband, Herbert (grid reference Bn 73 No. 342).[http://grabsteine.genealogy.net/tomb.php?cem=694&tomb=206&b=D&lang=de Kissenstein Herbert und Martha Damkowski] at genealogy.net
Notes
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References
- Jan Foitzik: Zwischen den Fronten. Zur Politik, Organisation und Funktion linker politischer Kleinorganisationen im Widerstand 1933 bis 1939/40. Bonn 1986, S. 262
- Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke, eds., Hamburgische Biografie: Personenlexikon (Wallstein, 2008).
- Rita Blake and Brita Reimers, So lebten Sie! Spazieren auf den Wegen von Frauen in Hamburgs Alt- und Neustadt (Christians Verlag, 2003).
- Sabine Lemke-Müller, Ethik des Widerstands: der Kampf des Internationalen Sozialistischen Kampfbundes (ISK) gegen den Nationalsozialismus: Quellen und Texte zum Widerstand aus der Arbeiterbewegung 1933–1945 (J.H.W. Dietz, 1996)
External links
- [http://verfolgte.spd-hamburg.de/cms-biographien/biographien/index.php?id=47 Hamburger Sozialdemokratinnen und Sozialdemokraten in Verfolgung und Widerstand 1933 - 1945] (in German_
- [http://www.hamburg.de/clp/frauenbiografien-suche/clp1/hamburgde/?BIOID=3112&qN=damkowski Biografie mit Porträt zu Marta Damkowski] bei frauenbiografien hamburg.de (in German)
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Category:Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians