Marie Henning
Marie Henning was a German activist and politician. After her husband was murdered in 1931 the party nominated her to seek election to the Hamburg Parliament ("Hamburgische Bürgerschaft") in his place. She was successful, and sat as a member of the Hamburg Parliament from September 1931 until democratic institutions were withdrawn during the early summer of 1933.
Life
Marie Caroline Henriette Mahnke was born at Nossentiner Hütte, a small village in the marshy flatlands between Rostock and Berlin. By 1920 she was living in Hamburg and had been married, since 1913, to Ernst Henning. They were both activist members of the recently launched Communist Party. She was a member of the Women's Policy department of the party district leadership for the Wasserkant district lists of people who had been politically active members of political parties before 1933. Marie Henning was one of those who were released in September 1944 after just a few weeks in detention.War ended in May 1945 along with the Nazi régime. Marie Henning lived on for another two and a half years during which she was an active member of the Committee of former political prisoners in Hamburg-Bergedorf. However, during these final years much of her time was spent in hospital, and she died of cancer in Hamburg on 5 January 1948.
Family
Marie Henning was married twice: both her husbands predeceased her, and both died violent deaths. Her first marriage, to Ernst Henning, ended when her husband was murdered on a bus in 1931. This marriage produced one son and two daughters. The couple's son, Otto, was killed on the Russian front in August 1944.Her second marriage was to Carl Rohde, a former leader of the pre-Nazi Black-Red-Gold anti-extremist organisation. He was conscripted into the army and died on 5 June 1944 at a munitions depot in Büchsenschinken when an anti-tank "Panzerfaust" gun exploded.