Lilo Herrmann

84 years ago tomorrow, the resistance fighter Liselotte (“Lilo”) Herrmann was executed by the National Socialists. Many of you walk past her memorial stone at the Campus Stadtmitte almost every day and may have wondered who Lilo Herrmann actually was.

Lilo was born in Berlin in 1909, her family later moved to Stuttgart. There she began studying chemistry at the Technical University of Stuttgart (now our university) in 1929. She became involved in communist groups, among others joining the KPD. In 1931 she moved to Berlin and studied biology. In 1933, she had to end her studies because of her “communist activities”. She continued to be involved in communist groups and for a time hid Fritz Rau, a Stuttgart resistance fighter, with her. She became pregnant by him, but he was murdered by the National Socialists at the end of 1933 and never knew his son Walter, who was born in May 1934.

Lilo moved back to Stuttgart with her son in 1934 and remained active in the resistance. In December 1935 she was arrested. She was sentenced to death for “treason committed in combination with preparation for high treason”. She spent the time until her execution in a women’s prison in Berlin.

On 20 June 1938, Lilo Herrmann was executed at the age of almost 29. The memorial stone we know of was erected in 1988.

More detailed information and recommended reading is available from the Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Baden-Württemberg at www.hausaufderalb.de/lilo-herrmann.
The picture of the memorial stone is from the SWR.