Neue Straße 32, Bertha Schmeding's home
In 1934, teacher Bertha Schmeding doesn't mince her words, is denounced, sentenced to prison and dies in 1938.
Brown-eyed and well rested, Bertha Schmeding goes shopping in Wolfenbüttel in the summer of 1934. She is a foreign language teacher and loves traveling abroad. During a chat with an acquaintance, the 52-year-old raves about her last boat trip. She said she felt much freer there because she could greet people with "Good morning" or "Good afternoon". She also learned there what a coward Hitler was and that people abroad had a completely different image of the German Chancellor than here. Bertha Schmeding detested the new government and associated her happiest years with the German Empire. Nevertheless, she is a member of the National Socialist Teachers' Association.
Schmeding's comments are passed on, she is denounced and before she can think twice, she serves a prison sentence. After twelve months, she is released on probation. She is banned from working as a teacher and is not even allowed to give private tuition. At the same time, her good pension, of which she was always proud, was cut. Instead, the court costs are borne by her. Bertha Schmeding was left completely penniless and probably only survived the next three years with the help of her brothers, who lived far away.
It was already dark when she said goodbye to a friend after a visit in December 1938. She closes the garden gate of the house and is about to cross the street when she is hit by an approaching streetcar and dies on the spot.
The exact circumstances of her death have never been clarified.
In 1934, teacher Bertha Schmeding doesn't mince her words, is denounced, sentenced to prison and dies in 1938.
Brown-eyed and well rested, Bertha Schmeding goes shopping in Wolfenbüttel in the summer of 1934. She is a foreign language teacher and loves traveling abroad. During a chat with an acquaintance, the 52-year-old raves about her last boat trip. She said she felt much freer there because she could greet people with "Good morning" or "Good afternoon". She also learned there what a coward Hitler was and that people abroad had a completely different image of the German Chancellor than here. Bertha Schmeding detested the new government and associated her happiest years with the German Empire. Nevertheless, she is a member of the National Socialist Teachers' Association.
Schmeding's comments are passed on, she is denounced and before she can think twice, she serves a prison sentence. After twelve months, she is released on probation. She is banned from working as a teacher and is not even allowed to give private tuition. At the same time, her good pension, of which she was always proud, was cut. Instead, the court costs are borne by her. Bertha Schmeding was left completely penniless and probably only survived the next three years with the help of her brothers, who lived far away.
It was already dark when she said goodbye to a friend after a visit in December 1938. She closes the garden gate of the house and is about to cross the street when she is hit by an approaching streetcar and dies on the spot.
The exact circumstances of her death have never been clarified.
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Contact person
Stadt Wolfenbüttel / Abteilung 412
Ms. Lena Simon
Löwentor, Löwenstraße 1
38300 Wolfenbüttel
Author
Lessingstadt Wolfenbüttel
Stadtmarkt 3-6
38300 Wolfenbüttel
Organization
Lessingstadt Wolfenbüttel
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