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Ilse Stöbe

Ilse Frieda Gertrud Stöbe (17 May 1911 – 22 December 1942) was a German left-wing journalist and anti-Nazi resistance fighter. She was born and died in Berlin.[1][2]

Life[edit]

Ilse Stöbe grew up in a working-class home in Berlin. She was the only daughter of carpenter Max Stöbe and his wife Frieda née Schumann. Stöbe had an eight-year-older half-brother from her mother's first marriage, Kurt Müller.[3] The family spent their first year at Mainzer Straße 1 in Lichtenberg, Berlin,[4] before the couple moved to Jungstrasse 14 in Berlin.[3] Both her parents were communist sympathisers but didn't join the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). Her half-brother was radicalised in the area they lived that was blighted by poverty and unemployment. It led him to became an active KPD member, taking part in bloody battles between the KPD and the SPD.[3]

There is little information about their youth.[5] However, it is likely she attended the local secondary school located about 3 minutes from her house, before receiving a recommendation to move to grammar school, attending School at the Rathaus [de].[6] At Rathaus, she met her life long friend, later publisher and author Helmut Kindler [de].[6] In 1927, her parents had separated and as a single parent her mother couldn't afford the fees, forcing her to leave in 1927. Her father was no longer mentioned in her letters to mother, whom she was close to.[6] Stöbe then attended a trade school to learn a profession as a shorthand typist.[6]

Career[edit]

In April 1929, Stöbe began working in the marketing department of the publishing house of the democrat and liberal Rudolf Mosse and then worked as secretary to the journalist, writer Theodor Wolff who is editor-in-chief of the Berliner Tageblatt.[7] Wolff strongly admired Stöbe and promoted her to an editor with her own office close to his. He would eventually would write a novel "Die Schwimmerin. Ein Roman aus der Gegenwart" (The Swimmer. A novel from the present) that explore's the relationship between bank director Ulrich Faber and his secretary Gerda Rohr.[8] The literary figure of Rohr is based on Stöbe.[9][10] The novel can best be described as a mood inspired by admiration rather than a description of any concrete events.[11] Wolff's homage to Stöbe and his own reputation guarantees Stöbe's anti-Nazi, proletarian and humanist stance.[11]

At the "Berliner Tageblatt" she met the Jewish editor and communist[12] Rudolf Herrnstadt, eight years her senior and became good friends with him.[13] The couple eventually became engaged.[14] Herrnstadt believed that the political ideology of capitalism with its inherent structural problems in the 1920's would be replaced by socialism, or indeed communism.[15] From the beginning, Stöbe shared the same political ideology as Herrnstadt. There was an expectation that both of them would join the KPD and several sources state that Stöbe joined the KPD in 1929.[1][16] However, a study by the German historian Elke Scherstjanoi found that they were told by a KPD official in the Karl Liebknecht house, that they were more useful to the communist party, working outside the KPD.[17][a] In 1930, when Herrnstadt was a correspondent for the Berliner Tageblatt in Prague, he repeatedly tried to join the communist party.[19] His persistance brought him to the notice of Soviet military intelligence, who recruited him as an Red Army GRU agent[19] and gave him the codename "Arbin".[20]

Resistance[edit]

When Herrnstadt returned to Berlin in 1931, he introduced Stöbe to "Dr. Bosch", who in reality was the Soviet rezident in Berlin, the Latvian Jewish communist and historian Yakov Bronin [ru] (1904-1984).[21] Bronin recruited Stöbe as an agent for the GRU and gradually introduced her to intelligence work. Her codename was "Arnim".[b][20] From 1931, she worked with Herrnstadt and collected reports that consisted of discussions with Wolff and editorial reports, that were delivered weekly.[23] Being part of an espionage organisation meant clerking duties for Stöbe, e.g. photographing documents, but also involved working in operational tasks like maintainting contact with agents and communist groups in Berlin.[23]

Journalism[edit]

In early 1933, Stöbe lost her job when Wolff, who was told his name was on the SA death list,[24] fled Germany.[17] However her search for work became a major problem for Stöbe after 1933,[25] as the German economy suffered from the effects of the Great Depression. Stöbe with encouragement from Wolff, decided to become a freelance journalist. In early 1933, Stöbe visted Poprad in the High Tatras in northern Slovakia to interview the Protestant Carpathian German community living there.[26] Stöbe was particularly interested in how German minorities were affected by national policy in Poland and Czechoslovakia.[22] While there, she fell seriously ill with abdominal pain and she was treated by a nephrologist,[27] in an illness, which was the result of rape[25][c] and that was to affect her for the rest of her life.[27]

During this period she would only return to Germany infrequently.[26] In March 1933, her brother was severly beaten by the SA.[28] On the 14 June 1933, she published her first article "Germanness abroad" on the Zipser Germans in the Berliner Tageblatt.[26] In the same month, Bronin left Germany and he was replaced by Oskar Ansovich Stigga [ru].[26] Over the next two years, Stöbe undertook missions for Stiga that involved extensive travel to Austria, France, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Romania.[26]

First impressions of Ilse Stöbe by her controller Oskar Ansovich Stigga

  • Everything indicates that Ilse could become a good, steadfast spy due to her strength of character and emotional temperament if she did the right political work. In the future, she should be a time-honored intelligence officer".[29]

In October 1933, she returned home to Berlin and lived with her mother, due to her illness.[27]

On the 24 February 1934, her article on the peoples of the High Tatras was published in the Swiss newspaper, Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), appearing in the Sunday edition.[27] The NZZ continued to publish her work, e.g. an article on FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Vysoké Tatry was published between the 22 and 25 February 1935.[27] In April 1934, Stöbe was again ill and was admitted to a Berlin hospital. However, the treatment was unsuccessful and June 1934 she travelled to Franzensbad in Switzerland for further treatment.[27] Several sources[30] indicate that by mid-1934 that Stöbe was then a member of the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi Party), principally done to disguise her espionage activities. However a search of the archives of Berlin Document Center found no evidence of this.[31][d]

At the end of 1934, Stöbe moved to Breslau where she temporarily worked as a journalist for the Breslauer Neueste Nachrichten [de] newspaper.[28] In January 1934, the Nazi Schriftleitergesetz [de] law (Editor’s Law) came into effect, that delivered Nazi control of the German press and kept registries of “racially pure” Aryan editors and journalists and excluded Jews.[32] Stöbe had to be a member of the Reichspressekammer [de], a Nazi led organisation run by the Reich Chamber of Culture and completed the application to register with the Reich Press Chamber.[33] However, Stöbe failed in her application to the association on 7 June 1935, as she was considered insufficiently experienced to be a journalist.[33]

Bohemia[edit]

During this period, Stöbe worked as a courier for Stiga and made a number of trips to Bohemia, Czechoslovakia. However, in September 1934, her face became known as she was seen with a Gestapo officer. It resulted in a story being published in the Lidové Listy newspaper, that voiced the suspicion that she was a Gestapo agent.[33] Stöbe was arrested and accused of collaboration by the Czech police. However, she convinced the police she wasn't a collaborator and a retraction had to be printed in the Lidové Listy. The GRU withdrew Stöbe from Prague and sent her to work in Vienna.[33] Although it is not possible to determine how many trips Stöbe made to Bohemia, it is known that some of these trips were for spa treatment for her illness.[34][e]

Warsaw[edit]

In November 1935, Stöbe together with Herrnstadt moved to Warsaw[35] and although they were a couple they lived apart in different parts of the city to reduce unwanted attention.[36] As Herrnstadt was Jewish, it meant that marriage was impossible.[36] There she worked as a foreign correspondent for the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung, likely arranged through Wolff.[37] Her first article in a series of three for the newspaper was "The German minority" that examined German minorities in Poland.[38]

For the new mission she was assigned the new codename "Alta", [39] and helped Herrnstadt establish the new residency in Warsaw, undertook the mundane tasks of intelligence work and worked to establish contact with potential recruits.[40] In Warsaw, Herrnstadt was in contact with a group of left-leaning, liberal anti-nazis.[39] These included folk from the Germany embassy included the ambassador Hans-Adolf von Moltke, the legation councillor Rudolf von Scheliha and the press-secretary Hans Graf Huyn [de].[39] as well as connections to the Polish writer Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, poet Julian Tuwim, the actress Ida Kaminska and the Polish foreign minister Josef Beck.[35]

By 1936, using the Editor’s Law, the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda had removed many foreign Jewish correspondents and only Herrnstadt remained[41] and although Moltke was politically sympathetic to Herrnstadt, he couldn't defend him as Herrnstadt was Jewish.[42] On 12 March 1936, Herrnstadt left the Berliner Tageblatt.[42] Herrnstadt lack of employment would have presented financial problems for the couple as Stöbes odd article for the Swiss newspaper couldn't support them.[42] Stöbe found help through Wilm Stein, the embassy press attaché, who petitioned the Propaganda Ministry but they refused to reconsider her application.[42]

In June 1936, Stöbe covered the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin where she met and became involved with the Swiss publisher Rudolf Huber,[43] and considered marrying him.[44] Huber was the owner of the Swiss newspaper Thurgauer Zeitung, which provided new opportunities for work for Stöbe but also for extensive travel that was useful to the GRU.[39] When Huber died in 7 January 1940 of kidney disease, his death distressed her deeply. In a letter to Herrnstadt in August 1940, she stated that "His last thoughts and words belonged to me".[44] Huber left Stöbe a major part of his fortune in his will,[45] that included his publishing firm Huber and Co that she sells back to Huber's family.[46]

Group Alta[edit]

Memorial plaque, Frankfurter Allee 233, in Lichtenberg, Berlin

In 1939, before the Invasion of Poland, the Warsaw headquarters run by Herrnstadt was dissolved and Herrnstadt fled to Moscow. In August 1930 Stöbe returned to work in Berlin.[47] It had been agreed by Soviet intelligence that Stöbe should maintain contact with both Von Scheliha and the Soviet embassy in Berlin.[48] At the time Stöbe was unemployed and had seek work near Von Scheliha.[48]


According to Helmut Kindler, she remained in contact with him as her childhood friend.[49]

Shortly before the German invasion of Poland, she returned to Berlin from Warsaw and worked in the information department of the Foreign Office. There she met the journalist Carl Helfrich [de], with whom she lived until her arrest in 1942. According to her will, he was the tenant of her flat in Ahornallee 48 in Charlottenburg, Berlin.[50]


Gerhard Kegel, who was an employee of the Foreign Office in Berlin from 1935 to 1943, supported Stöbe in her clandestine intelligence activities after returning from Poland.[51] She allegedly continued this activity until her arrest in 1942.[52]

Arrest[edit]

Stolperstein

Stöbe was arrested on 12 September 1942 by the Gestapo, allegedly for spying for the Soviet Union and for membership of the Red Orchestra (Die Rote Kapelle). A Gestapo report of November 1942, stated a radio message from the Soviet Union informed that a parachuted resistance fighter would come to her address. After seven weeks of torture she was compelled to confess to conspiratorial connections to the Soviet secret service and to people such as Rudolf von Scheliha.[53] He was arrested on 12 October 1942. Both were sentenced to death for treason on 14 December 1942 by the Reichskriegsgericht, and executed on 22 December 1942 in the Plötzensee Prison in Berlin, she by guillotine and he by hanging from a meathook. The Soviet agent, Heinrich Koenen, who had landed in Germany by parachute, was arrested at her house by a waiting Gestapo official. Her mother was also arrested and sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp, where she died in 1943.[54] Stöbe's brother Kurt Müller was able to escape arrest and continue his resistance activities with the resistance group, the European Union Resistance. He was murdered in June 1944.[55]

Awards and honours[edit]

She was the only woman to be featured on a special coin issued by the East German Ministry of State (Stasi) to commemorate important spies in Communist service during the war. The Ilse Stöbe Vocational School in Market Street, Berlin is named in her honour.[56]

In October 2013, the Federal Foreign Office began considering whether Stöbe should be on the honorary staff list of those who resisted Nazism.[57] In July, 2014, Germany's Foreign Ministry honoured Stöbe for her actions against the Nazis.[58]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Herrnstadt joined the KPD in 1 July 1931 with membership number 521173 under the code name Friedrich Brockmann.[18]
  2. ^ Stöbe was registered with Soviet intelligence in December 1932 with a codename of "F".[22]
  3. ^ The evidence for this is based in a brief statement she made in a letter she sent to Carl Helfrich, while she was in prison.[25]
  4. ^ The reason for this was confusion may be person with the same name but different date and place of birth.[31]
  5. ^ Certainly the GRU were cognizant of Stöbes illness and made attempts to accommodate her.

Citations[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Adams 2009, p. 2009.
  2. ^ "Ilse Stöbe". Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand (in German). German Resistance Memorial Center. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
  3. ^ a b c Coppi & Kebir 2013, p. 18.
  4. ^ Müller-Enbergs 1991a, p. 32.
  5. ^ Coppi, Danyel & Tuchel 1994, p. 263.
  6. ^ a b c d Coppi & Kebir 2013, p. 19.
  7. ^ Coppi & Kebir 2013, pp. 20–21.
  8. ^ Coppi & Kebir 2013, p. 21.
  9. ^ Wolff, Theodor (1937). Die Schwimmerin. Ein Roman aus der Gegenwart [The swimmer. A novel from the present]. Zürich.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  10. ^ Coppi & Kebir 2013, p. 14.
  11. ^ a b Scherstjanoi 2014, p. 143.
  12. ^ Coppi & Kebir 2013, p. 24-25.
  13. ^ Coppi & Kebir 2013, p. 27.
  14. ^ Coppi, Danyel & Tuchel 1994, pp. 262–264.
  15. ^ Coppi & Kebir 2013, p. 24.
  16. ^ Müller-Enbergs 1991a, p. 31.
  17. ^ a b Scherstjanoi 2013, p. 14.
  18. ^ Coppi & Kebir 2013, p. 25.
  19. ^ a b Scherstjanoi 2014, p. 148.
  20. ^ a b Coppi & Kebir 2013, p. 29.
  21. ^ Müller-Enbergs 1991b.
  22. ^ a b Scherstjanoi 2013, p. 15.
  23. ^ a b Scherstjanoi 2013, p. 24.
  24. ^ Kühn 2014.
  25. ^ a b c Scherstjanoi 2013, p. 16.
  26. ^ a b c d e Coppi & Kebir 2013, p. 32.
  27. ^ a b c d e f Coppi & Kebir 2013, p. 34.
  28. ^ a b Coppi & Kebir 2013, p. 31.
  29. ^ Coppi & Kebir 2013, pp. 32–33.
  30. ^ Müller-Enbergs 1991a, p. 34.
  31. ^ a b Scherstjanoi 2013, p. 26.
  32. ^ "Editors Law". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Washington. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
  33. ^ a b c d Coppi & Kebir 2013, p. 35.
  34. ^ Scherstjanoi 2013.
  35. ^ a b Coppi & Kebir 2013, p. 40.
  36. ^ a b Coppi & Kebir 2013, p. 41.
  37. ^ Scherstjanoi 2013, p. 17.
  38. ^ Scherstjanoi 2013, p. 5.
  39. ^ a b c d Scherstjanoi 2014, p. 149.
  40. ^ Coppi & Kebir 2013, p. 49.
  41. ^ Müller-Enbergs 1991a, p. 21.
  42. ^ a b c d Coppi & Kebir 2013, p. 42.
  43. ^ Rothenbühler 2006.
  44. ^ a b Coppi & Kebir 2013, p. 37.
  45. ^ Coppi, Danyel & Tuchel 1994, pp. 262–276.
  46. ^ Coppi & Kebir 2013, pp. 37–38.
  47. ^ Kindler 1992, p. 147.
  48. ^ a b Scherstjanoi 2013, p. 18.
  49. ^ Kindler 1992.
  50. ^ Coppi, Danyel & Tuchel 1994, pp. 263–271.
  51. ^ Gerhard, Kegel (1984). In den Stürmen unseres Jahrhunderts : ein deutscher Kommunist über sein ungewöhnliches Leben [In the storms of the century: a German Communist about his unusual life] (3rd ed.). Berlin: Dietz Verlag. ISBN 3-320-00609-6.
  52. ^ Müller-Enbergs 1991a, pp. 264, 274, footnote 20.
  53. ^ Kesaris 1979, p. 151.
  54. ^ Woermann 1991, p. 133.
  55. ^ Coppi, Danyel & Tuchel 1994, p. 265.
  56. ^ Müller-Enbergs 1991a, p. 70.
  57. ^ Wiegrefe 2013.
  58. ^ "Anti-Hitler plot officers honoured". Independent News & Media. Belfast Telegraph. 20 July 2014. Retrieved 27 May 2024.

Bibliography[edit]

  • Adams, Jefferson (1 September 2009). Historical Dictionary of German Intelligence. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-6320-0.
  • Coppi, Hans Coppi; Danyel, Jürgen; Tuchel, Johannes (1994). Die Rote Kapelle im Widerstand gegen den Nationalsozialismus [The Red Orchestra in Resistance to National Socialism]. Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand. ISBN 978-3-89468-110-4.
  • Coppi, Hans; Kebir, Sabine (2013). Ilse Stöbe : wieder im Amt : eine Widerstandskämpferin in der Wilhelmstrasse : eine Veröffentlichung der Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung [Ilse Stöbe: back in office: a resistance fighter in the Wilhelmstrasse: a publication of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation] (in German). Hamburg: VSA. ISBN 978-3-89965-569-8.
  • Kindler, Helmut (1992). Zum Abschied ein Fest : die Autobiographie eines deutschen Verlegers [To leave one party: the autobiography of a German publisher]. Munich: Droemer Knaur. ISBN 3-426-75042-2.
  • Kesaris, Paul. L, ed. (1979). The Rote Kapelle: the CIA's history of Soviet intelligence and espionage networks in Western Europe, 1936-1945. Washington DC: University Publications of America. ISBN 0-89093-203-4.
  • Kühn, Alexander (30 September 2014). "Mut zur Wahrheit". Spiegel Geschichte. 5. Spiegel-Verlag: 108–109.
  • Müller-Enbergs, Helmut (1991a). Der Fall Rudolf Herrnstadt: Tauwetterpolitik vor dem 17. Juni [The case of Rudolf Herrnstadt: Thaw policy before 17 June] (in German). Berlin: Christoph Links Verlag. ISBN 978-3-86153-003-9.
  • Müller-Enbergs, Helmut (1991b). "Welchen Charakter hatte die Volkskammer nach den Wahlen am 18. März 1990?". In Klingemann, HD; Stöss, R; Weßels, B (eds.). Politische Klasse und politische Institutionen. Schriften des Zentralinstituts für sozialwissenschaftliche Forschung der Freien Universität Berlin. Vol. 66. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. pp. 235–255. doi:10.1007/978-3-322-94153-4_10. ISBN 978-3-531-12306-6.
  • Rothenbühler, Verena (21 November 2006). "Rudolf Huber". Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz (in German). Bern: Schweizerische Akademie der Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften. Retrieved 14 June 2024.
  • Scherstjanoi, Elke (2014). "Verräterin oder Patriotin? Ein Gutachten des Instituts für Zeitgeschichte" [Traitor or patriot? An opinion of the Institute of Contemporary History]. Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte (in German). 62 (1). Munich: De Gruyter Oldenbourg (Deutschland): 139–156. doi:10.1515/vfzg-2014-0006. S2CID 199575964.
  • Scherstjanoi, Elke (27 August 2013). "Ilse Stöbe (1911 - 1942) im Widerstand gegen das "Dritte Reich"" (PDF). Institut für Zeitgeschichte. Munich: Leibniz Institute of Contemporary History. Retrieved 11 February 2023.
  • Wiegrefe, Klaus (1 October 2013). "German Ministry Ponders Honoring Soviet Spy". Hamburg: Spiegel-Verlag. Spiegel International. Retrieved 27 May 2024.
  • Woermann, Heinrich-Wilhelm (1991). Widerstand in Charlottenburg (PDF) (in German). Vol. 5 (2nd updated ed.). Berlin.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • "Ilse Stöbe". Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand (in German). German Resistance Memorial Center. Retrieved 23 February 2018.

Further reading[edit]

Witnesses[edit]

  • Gerhard, Kegel (1984). In den Stürmen unseres Jahrhunderts : ein deutscher Kommunist über sein ungewöhnliches Leben [In the storms of the century: a German Communist about his unusual life] (3rd ed.). Berlin: Dietz Verlag. ISBN 3-320-00609-6.

Biographical-historical[edit]

  • Liebmann, Irina (2008). Wäre es schön? Es wäre schön! : mein Vater Rudolf Herrnstadt. Berlin: Berlin Verlag. ISBN 978-3-8270-0589-2.
  • Brüning, Elfriede (2010). Gefährtinnen : Porträts vergessener Frauen [Companions: portraits of forgotten women] (in German) (2nd ed.). Berlin: Dietz-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-320-02242-6.
  • Brüning, Elfriede (18 May 1986). "Kundschafterin für die Sowjetunion. Zum 75. Geburtstag der Kommunistin Ilse Stöbe" [Scout for the Soviet Union. On the occasion of the 75th birthday of Communist Ilse Stöbe] (in German). Berliner Verlag. Berliner Zeitung.
  • Zimmermann, Kurt (1980). The Big Unknown. Berlin: Militärverlag der DDR.
  • Luise Kraushaar and others: Deutsche Widerstandskämpfer 1933–1945. Biografien und Briefe. [German Resistance fighters 1933-1945. Biographies and letters.] edition. vom Institut für Marxismus-Leninismus beim Zentralkomitee der SED; Dietz-Verlag, Berlin 1970, Volume 1, pp. 657ff; Volume 2, pp. 561f

Historical environment[edit]

  • Kraushaar, Luise (1981). Berliner Kommunisten im Kampf gegen den Faschismus, 1936 bis 1942. Robert Uhrig u. Genossen [Berlin communists in the fight against fascism, 1936 to 1942.] (in German). Berlin: Dietz. OCLC 164623936.
  • Rosiejka, Gert (1986). Die Rote Kapelle : "Landesverrat" als antifaschist. Widerstand [Die Rote Kapelle : "Landesverrat" als antifaschist. Widerstand] (in German) (1st ed.). Hamburg: Ergebnisse-Verlag. ISBN 3-925622-16-0.
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilse_St%C3%B6be

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