Kuokhoff, Greta (Resistance, German)

(1902-1981)

Member of the anti-Nazi Rote Kapelle (Red Chorus) resistance group in Germany. Greta Lorke was born in Frankfurt on December 14, 1902. She studied in Germany at the University of Berlin under Werner Sombart and Max Weber before attending the University of Wisconsin. There she was part of John Commons’s social-discussion group, the "Friday-niters," and met Avrid Harnack and Mildred Fish, Harnack’s future wife. After returning to Germany, she taught English and worked as a translator. She married Adam Kuckhoff in January 1937 and had a son.

She introduced the Harnacks to Harro and Libertas Schulze-Boysen in 1940. After the Nazis discovered Schulze-Boysen’s espionage network, Greta Kuckhoff was arrested on September 9, 1942. She was sentenced to die, but the sentence was commuted to ten years of imprisonment. She was freed by the Soviets when they took control of Berlin. She remained in East Germany and became director of the Notenbank.

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