Courage and Charm: Annedore Leber, German Resistance, and Memory Activism, 1946–9

Interest in memory activism is the methodological starting point for this account of Annedore Leber, Social Democratic politician in post-1945 Berlin and surviving member of the resistance group that plotted the assassination attempt of 20 July 1944 on Adolf Hitler. Beginning in 1946, her memory work entailed a narrative to influence Germans, prone to view that plot as treasonous, to reconsider the resistance. Initially, her often-articulated contempt for the nation that had backed Hitler made this effort problematic: which Germans comprised her intended audience? The Cold War gave her an opening. She compared Nazi Germany to the Soviet Union. She called on Germans who opposed communism to appreciate the courage and love of freedom that informed anti-Nazi resistance. She re-enacted those resistance values by confronting the communists publicly. The other methodological angle regarding this research comes from awareness that the German patriarchy, despite defeat, was largely intact. Comments on Annedore Leber as a woman appeared in press coverage of her confrontation of communist leaders; men challenged her version of the resistance. How she met those challenges, assumed her stance as a politically active woman and expressed the necessity for women to engage in politics are key to understanding her activism.