Antonie Langendorf
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Politician
Concentration Camp survivor
Antonie Langendorf | |
|---|---|
)_Bild_1_(4-1384685-1).jpg) Antonie Langendorf in 1929. | |
| Born | Anette Glanzmann 3 January 1894 |
| Died | 23 June 1969 |
| Occupation(s) | Political activist Politician Concentration Camp survivor |
| Political party | SPD USPD KPD |
| Spouse | Rudolf Langendorf (1894-1942) |
| Children | Kurt Langendorf (1920-2011) Hans Langendorf |
Antonie Langendorf (born Anette Glanzmann: 3 January 1894 – 23 June 1969) was a German political activist and politician (SPD, USPD, KPD).[1]
Anette Glanzmann was born in Leipzig. She attended junior and middle schools locally before obtaining clerical work. In 1910 she relocated to Mülhausen, at that time in the extreme southwest of Germany, where her father worked as a senior trades union official. 1910 was also the year in which she joined the Social Democratic Party ("Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands" / SPD), which had been permitted to participate in national elections since 1890, but was nevertheless still regarded by most members of the mainstream political establishment as an extreme left-wing organisation. She moved again in 1914, crossing the river to nearby Lörrach where she took a job with the AOK (health insurance mutual insurance operation). It was while in Lörrach that she met Rudolf Langendorf[2] with whom she would share her life till his execution in 1942. The two of them married, though it is not clear whether they did this before or after they moved away from Lörrach.[1]
During the revolutionary turmoil that followed military defeat, Rudolf Langendorf participated in the Soldiers' and Workers' councils. The two of them were among the co-founders of the Lörrach Communist Party branch in 1919/1920. By 1921 they had two sons, and the family relocated to Friedrichsfeld, a suburb of Mannheim.[1] During the next few years Rudolf Langendorf was sentenced, in 1925,[2] to three years imprisonment in connection with his role in the political unrest in the region. While he was away Antonie kept the family afloat, working as a contributing editor with the "Mannheimer Arbeiterzeitung" ("Mannheim Workers' Newspaper").
The political backdrop changed dramatically in January 1933 when the Nazis took power and converted Germany into a one-party dictatorship. Political activity (except in support of the Nazi party) became illegal. In 1933/34 Antonie Langendorf was taken into "protective custody". On her release she fled to Switzerland, but she then returned to Germany and continued her now illegal party activities and communist resistance work. In 1942 the Langendorfs were both arrested in connection with the betrayal of the Lechleiter Group, in which her husband was a leading figure.[2] Antonie Langendorf was released, but her husband was executed on 15 September 1942. Three days after that Antonie Langendorf was re-arrested and by December 1944 she had been interned in the Ravensbrück concentration camp. Their son Kurt Langendorf, by now aged 22, was allocated to a Punishment squadron (but survived the experience).[1]
