Hilde Radusch

Hilde Radusch (6 November 1903 – 2 August 1994) was a German political activist (KPD, SPD) who became involved in anti-fascist resistance. As the 20th century progressed, she became increasingly prominent as a feminist and lesbian activist.

Throughout her life Radusch kept a diary. Accessed by researchers after she died, her own writings have provided an insightful, and at times engagingly laconic, commentary on her eventful life. In 1932 she was no longer listed as a communist candidate for the city council elections, due to the scandalising impact of her disinclination to conceal her lesbian private life.

The attempt to assassinate Hitler on 20 July 1944 failed in its primary objective, but it did greatly unsettle the Nazi leadership. Some years earlier, the Nazis had compiled a list of communist and socialist politicians and activists from the Weimar years who might be rounded up in the event of a deterioration in the domestic political situation. By 1944, the list was somewhat out of date, many of those named on it having been murdered or died from natural causes, but Hilde Radusch, whose name was also on the list, was alive, and by this stage, working in a bank. The mass roundup of political opponents was implemented overnight on 22/23 August 1944. Fortunately Eddy Klopsch had a friend in the police service who warned the women of the government's intentions, and they were able to escape in time to avoid capture.

In 2012, a memorial was set up at the corner of Eisenacher Straße (Eisenach Street) and Winterfeldtstraße (Winterfeld Street), consisting of three tablets dedicated to her. It is the first public memorial in Berlin commemorating a lesbian victim of Nazi persecution.