Greta Kuckhoff's Memories of Resistance in Vom Rosenkranz Zur

5. Clarity and Insight: Greta Kuckhoff’s Memories of Resistance in Vom Rosenkranz zur Roten Kapelle Members of Greta Kuckhoff’s resistance group were arrested in September 1942. At this point she saw for the first time that she was part of a large group of anti-Nazis who had resisted for a multitude of political and religious reasons. Many of this group, including her husband, were executed five months later. Collectively condemned as Communists and traitors by the Gestapo, they were labelled the ‘Rote Kapelle’ [Red Orchestra], a name designed to emphasize a connection to the Soviet Union. Greta Kuckhoff began writing autobiographical articles about her experiences of resistance and imprisonment in the immediate post-war period, but it was not until 1972 that her autobiography of some four hundred pages was first published in East Germany. While there are many historical studies on the circle of resisters to which Greta Kuckhoff belonged, there are no literary investigations of her autobiography. In this chapter I will consider how shifts in the contemporary reception of resistance facilitated the publication of Kuckhoff’s memories of her fight against the fascist system. I will examine the controversy surrounding her resistance group, focusing on how the text from 1972 engages with prevalent discourses about the Nazi past and negotiates issues of resistance and betrayal. Concentrating on the pivotal themes of class, gender and ‘race’, this analysis will explore how narrative tensions arise between a unifying teleological interpretation of the past and a gendered multiplicity of voices. Born on 14 December 1902 in Frankfurt an der Oder, Greta Lorke grew up in a Catholic lower-middle-class family. Her father worked as a carpenter and her mother as a seamstress. During the economic depression of the 1920s her father was made redundant. In 1927, after studying for a degree in economics, Greta went to North America for two years to continue her university studies. On her return she became involved in the resistance activities of the ‘Rote Kapelle’ from 1933, a group which was involved in collecting evidence of Nazi atrocities, producing antifascist leaflets and supporting victims of the Nazi regime. She married the dramatist and novelist Adam Kuckhoff in 1937 and a year later gave birth to a son, Ule. Following their arrests Greta Kuckhoff was also sentenced to death but, for reasons which are unclear, her sentence was commuted to ten years imprisonment. She was freed by the Red Army in May 1945. She lived in East Germany, 210 WOMEN WITHOUT A PAST? becoming president of the East German national bank between 1950 and 1958. She died on 11 November 1981. Vom Rosenkranz zur Roten Kapelle: ein Lebensbericht [From the Rosary to the Red Orchestra: A Life-Story] was published by Verlag Neues Leben with an initial print run of eight thousand. It was subsequently reprinted several times, with ninety thousand copies being produced by 1979. The autobiography was also published in West Germany by the left-wing Röderberg-Verlag in 1974.1 The text tells the story of the protagonist’s childhood, young adulthood, and subsequent participation in the resistance group. The text comprises one continuous narrative with no chapter divisions or headings, thus emphasizing the significance of the title. As indicated by the sub-title, the movement “Vom Rosenkranz zur Roten Kapelle” refers to the protagonist’s personal development. This succinct teleological prolepsis suggests a linear progression of the protagonist’s identity. In referring to the ‘Rote Kapelle’, the title situates the text within a highly contested field of memories about resistance to the fascist system. Numerous historians have pointed to the problematic appropriation of the Nazi terminology in descriptions of the group, given its tendency to unify what was in fact disparate and to emphasize the resisters’ connection to the Soviet Union (Steinbach 1995a; Tuchel 1998, 269; Danyel 1994a, 14). These elements should be borne in mind during the discussion of how the text portrays the relationships within the resistance group. It is my contention that the narrative indicates a more diverse picture than that suggested by the connotations of the title. Given that Kuckhoff herself once expressed her reluctance to use the name ‘Rote Kapelle’ (1948, 60) the reference to it could have been an attempt by the publisher to alter the associations that the readers had with the name, while at the same time exploiting the prominence it enjoyed in public consciousness. Alternatively, Kuckhoff may have come to the same conclusion as another surviving group member, Leopold Trepper, who asserts: “Den Namen ‘Rote Kapelle’ gab uns die Gestapo. Wir haben ihn als Ehrennamen übernommen. Denn ‘Rot’ steht für das Blut, das unsere Mitkämpfer geopfert haben” [The Gestapo gave us the name ‘Red Orchestra’. We adopted it as a name of honour, for ‘Red’ stands for the blood that our fellow fighters sacrificed] (1975, 14). Despite the claim of the subtitle that the autobiography is “a life- story”, the main narrative ends in 1945 with the protagonist’s 1 Unless otherwise stated all quotations refer to this edition and appropriate page numbers follow within the text. All translations are my own. .

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