"I have been true to my cause in my faith."

Maria Grollmuß

INTRODUCTION

Maria Grollmuß (1896-1944) was a courageous woman who spent her life campaigning for justice and human rights. She grew up in a Catholic family and developed a strong social awareness at an early age. During her studies in Leipzig, she came into contact with socialist ideas and became politically active, including in the SPD, SAP, KPO and KPD. She helped politically persecuted people in the resistance against the National Socialists. She was arrested for her efforts and sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp, where she died in 1944. To this day, she is regarded as a role model for civil courage and courage in the resistance.

THE STORY

Maria Grollmuß was born in Leipzig on 24 April 1896. Her mother came from Baden and her father belonged to the Sorbian minority living in Upper and Lower Lusatia. Maria was surrounded by cultural diversity from an early age. She spent her childhood in a middle-class Catholic home and had a younger sister named Cäcilia. Her family’s Catholicism and her Sorbian roots had a particularly deep impact on her.[1] After school, Maria initially trained as a primary school teacher (1912-1917).[2]From the early 1920s, she studied history, German studies, philosophy and French at the University of Leipzig, and in 1925 she passed the oral state examination for the so-called higher teaching profession in the subjects of history, German and French. The written history examination included topics such as ‘Political currents in the German youth movement’, which would also play a role in her dissertation. In 1932, she completed her studies with a doctorate – her topic was the Catholic publicist Joseph Görres, who had campaigned for democracy and civil liberties in the 19th century. The topic of her thesis was: ‘Joseph Görres in his first period of development’.[3]

The search for a political home

Already during her studies, it became clear how much Maria was moved by political events. The November Revolution of 1918/19 left a lasting impression on her and awakened her political drive.[4] She tried out a lot: From the SPD to the Centre Party to the KPD and finally to the SAP, before she later switched back to the SPD. These party changes reflect her search for the right political path – she wanted to actively change things.

Maria Grollmuß at a wedding celebration (top row, 4th from right), Camina in Upper Lusatia, 1919. © Privatbesitz/ Reproduktion Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand

Detail from the group photo. Maria Grollmuß (left) with her sister Cäcilie. © Privatbesitz/ Reproduktion Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand

Maria Grollmuß also had a varied career. After completing her doctorate, she initially worked as an assistant lecturer in Offenburg before starting a traineeship at the Rhein-Mainische Volkszeitung in Frankfurt am Main.
[5] She wrote courageous and critical articles until she was banned from reporting on domestic politics for political reasons. This was followed by temporary jobs in the teaching profession and at a Berlin labour office, but she was often denied a permanent position. During her time in Offenburg and Frankfurt, she became more involved with Marxism and became increasingly radicalised in her political stance.

In mid-1920 she published the book “Women and the young democracy. A report on women, politics and democracy”[6].  It was about women being particularly suited to politics – in the Weimar Republic, the path to politics was generally open to them, but there were still only a few women who were active in party politics. Grollmuß spoke out in favour of turning away from old role models and in favour of an independent position for women in society: “But the image of the woman who has her own path to the values of life, not just the one through man and man, must shine above every world in which political women are to be born. The housewife ideal of Lutheranism is certainly also a reason for the absence of political women in Prussian Germany.”[7]

Immediately after the National Socialists came to power in 1933, Maria Grollmuß joined the resistance. Within the SPD, she became part of the ‘Revolutionary Socialists’ working group, an influential opposition group
[8]. She moved to Radibor, her father’s birthplace, and from there worked with others to help comrades in danger. In collaboration with socialist exiles in Prague, she helped them to flee to Czechoslovakia. She also smuggled illegal publications to Germany on her courier trips. The group also actively supported the families of political prisoners. In November 1934, she was arrested together with her fellow campaigner Hermann Reinmuth after they had been denounced. The People’s Court sentenced them to six years in prison on 23 November 1935.

© Serbski kulturny archiw

Maria Grollmuß was taken to the Waldheim women’s prison, where she was imprisoned under harsh conditions. Despite this, she kept her courage and supported other prisoners. Her Catholic faith became more important to her again during this difficult time. Her letters to her sister Cäcilia show how deeply rooted her spirituality and humanity were (see below).[9] During her imprisonment in Waldheim, Maria Grollmuß fell ill with cancer. The Nazis saw this as an opportunity to blackmail her and wanted to recruit her as an informer for the Sorbian resistance movement, promising her that she would be operated on in a good hospital. Grollmuß refused and was subsequently sent to the Ravensbrück women’s concentration camp at the beginning of 1940.[10] Conditions there were even more brutal: Hunger, disease and violence were part of everyday life. But even here she helped others: She looked after her fellow prisoners and tried to give them comfort and hope. [11] In Ravensbrück, she also met Germaine Tillion, a well-known French resistance fighter who survived National Socialism and campaigned for human rights after 1945 and published many important writings on National Socialism, including about Ravensbrück. This is how she remembers Maria Grollmuß: ‘I remember Maria Grollmuß, a professor who came from Lusatia and, although at the end of her tether herself, came from the other end of the camp to the very back of our miserable barracks to warn us in perfect French of the dangers that threatened us and to give us tips on how we could try to escape them.’ [12]

The tumour in Maria Grollmuß’ body had progressed in the meantime and on 6 August 1944, at the age of 48, she died of peritonitis.[13]

Today, Maria Grollmuß is remembered as an impressive woman who never stopped standing up for her convictions. Her life shows how much courage and strength there can be in a person – and the high price you sometimes have to pay for freedom and justice.

Stamp from the GDR from 1959 in memory of Maria Grollmuß

Transcript of a letter from Maria Grollmuß in Waldheim prison to her sister Cäcilie, September 8, 1940

Bundesarchiv, DY 55/1259

Bundesarchiv, DY 55/125

Bundesarchiv, DY 55/1259

Author: Asli-Hülya Özbay

Translation: Magdalena Köhler

Contact: info@fritz-bauer-forum.de

Sources:

Grollmuß, Maria. Die Frau und die junge Demokratie. Ein Bericht über Frau, Politik und Demokratie. Leipzig; Frankfurt am Main: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek; 2017 [1925]. URL: https://portal.dnb.de/bookviewer/view/1143235827#page/n0/mode/2up [last retrieved: 16.07.2025].

Kollecker, Kerstin: Dr. Maria Grollmuss. 1896-1944, Politische, frauenbewegte Journalistin, Widerstandskämpferin, URL: https://www.frauenorte-sachsen.de/die-frauen/dr-maria-grollmu%C3%9F/ [last retrieved: 16.07.2025].

Sack, Birgit. Maria Grollmuß. 1896-1944, Biografische Annäherung und Erinnerungsnarrative, Göttingen 2023.

Schäfer, Gerhard. Dr. Maria Grollmuß (1896-1944): eine fast vergessene Grenzgängerin, in: JahrBuch für Forschungen zur Geschichte der Arbeiterbewegung, Jg. 2012, Heft III, S. 104-131.

Footnotes: