Frieda Rosenthal

Frieda Rosenthal (born Frieda Schrinner: 9 June 1891 – 15 October 1936) was a Berlin local politician and, after 1933, active in resisting the Nazi régime. Concerned that, under interrogation, she had inadvertently implicated a fellow activist, she died by hanging herself, using a radiator, in her prison cell.

Life Frieda Schrinner was born into a working-class family. At the time of her birth her father was working on the manufacture of horse-trams. She grew up in an artisanal quarter of south-east Berlin, in what is today the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district. She attended school locally and then trained for work in the garments industry. Relatively little is known of her early years, but she continued to work in a garment factory till 1919, by which time she had in 1916 married and had a child with Richard Rosenthal, a clerical worker from whom she was later divorced. It was an unconventional career decision at a time when nursing was seen as a middle-class preserve.

In 1919 Frieda Rosenthal joined the Independent Social Democratic Party ("Unabhängige Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands" / USPD). In 1920 she was elected to the party's Lichtenberg district committee ("Bezirksversammlung"). As the USPD itself split apart, later in 1920 Rosenthal was part of the left wing majority that now joined the newly formed Communist Party ("Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands" / KPD). Nevertheless, despite being happy to "name the guilty men" her greater concern was with the clouds of social deprivation which had never really lifted in the years of acute economic hardship that had followed the war, and in that sense her practical approach was never entirely aligned with the more theoretical and doctrinaire concerns that underpinned the party leadership.

In 1929, representing the Communist Party, she took a full-time job as a councillor in central Berlin. However, the party conflicts and accompanying purges in Moscow, reflecting Stalin's conviction - not entirely incorrect - that he might be surrounded by political rivals, found powerful echoes in the German sister party. In February 1930 Frieda Rosenthal was one of the signatories of the "Letter of the 60", organised by Erich Raddatz (and others). The letter criticised the direction being taken by the Soviet party leadership under Stalin. However, the party leaderships in the two countries were at this time closely aligned, and after signing the declaration Rosenthal was excluded from the party by the leadership in Berlin.

Inaugurated in 2009 the Frieda Rosenthal prize is awarded annually to recognise and honour people from Berlin-Lichtenberg who have made an outstanding contribution, notably in the social and welfare spheres. Any resident of Lichtenberg can nominate a potential recipient.