{{Short description|German socialist who resisted the Nazis}} {{Infobox person | name = Agnes Asche | honorific_suffix = | image = 1947 Agnes Asche Passfoto.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Agnes Lampe | birth_date = {{Birth date |1891|12|13|df=y}} | birth_place = Harsum, German Empire | death_date = {{Death date and age|1966|01|07|1891|12|13|df=y}} | death_place = Langenhagen, West Germany | other_names = Agnes Bertram and Agnes Jünemann }} '''Agnes Asche''' (13 December 1891 – 7 January 1966), also known as Agnes Bertram and Agnes Jünemann, was a German socialist who resisted the Nazis.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Mlynek|first=Klaus|title=Hannoversches biographisches Lexikon : von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart|date=2002|publisher=Schlütersche|others=Dirk Böttcher|isbn=3-87706-706-9|location=Hannover|pages=33|language=de|chapter=Asche, Agnes|oclc=231977507}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|date=September 29, 2015|title=Liste der beizubehaltenden Straßennamen|url=https://www.hannover.de/content/download/564508/file/Anlage-1-Beizubehaltende+Stra%C3%9Fennamen.pdf|access-date=April 17, 2021|website=Hannover|publisher=Wissenschaftliche Betrachtung namensgebender Persönlichkeiten in Hannover|language=de}}</ref> A street in Hanover is named in her honor.
== Biography == Asche became a widow when her first husband died during World War I.<ref name=":0" /> From 1919 to 1923, she was active in the Sozialverband Deutschland (Social Association of Germany), which assisted war veterans. She was first a volunteer and then became a consultant in the main pension office.<ref name=":0" />
In 1924, she became a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, but by 1932 she was a member of the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />
In the middle of 1933, while known as Agnes Jünemann, she joined the communist-oriented {{Interlanguage link|Komitee für Proletarische Einheit|lt=Committee for Proletarian Unity|de|Komitee_für_Proletarische_Einheit}} and worked to distribute ''Klassenkampf'' (''Class Warfare''), the illegal newspaper put out by Otto Brenner and Eduard Wald.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=Mlynek|first=Klaus.|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/002577359|title=Gestapo Hannover meldet--: Polizei- und Regierungsberichte für das mittlere und südliche Niedersachsen zwischen 1933 und 1937|date=1986|publisher=A. Lax|isbn=978-3-7848-3151-0|series=Veröffentlichungen der Historischen Kommission für Niedersachsen und Bremen. XXXIX, Niedersachsen 1933-1945|volume=1|location=Hildesheim|pages=237|language=de}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite book|last=Zorn|first=Gerda.|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008554464|title=Widerstand in Hannover: gegen Reaktion u. Faschismus 1920-1946|date=1977|publisher=Röderberg-Verlag|isbn=978-3-87682-028-6|series=Bibliothek des Widerstandes|location=Frankfurt am Main|pages=191, 200–201|language=de}}</ref> On 11 September 1934 she was arrested for high treason and taken to the Hanover court prison for pre-trial detention.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> In June 1935, she was sentenced to three years in prison by the Hamm Higher Regional Court as part of the larger procedure against Otto Brenner.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":3" /> She served her sentence in the Ziegenhain Prison near Kassel; she did not see her son for two and a half years.<ref name=":0" />
thumb|left|Asches "Identification Card" for ex-political prisoner ... from 1947
After her release from prison in September 1937, she worked as a machine knitter.<ref name=":0" /> She remained active in resistance circles until the end of World War II.<ref name=":1" />
At the end of 1943, she married Otto Asche, a local to the area who worked at the {{Interlanguage link|EEW Energy from Waste|lt=Braunschweig Coal Mine|de}}; Otto Asche was elected as a socialist member to the town council of Offleben in 1946.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web|last=Chmilewski|first=Rudi|editor-last=Kuessner|editor-first=Dietrich|title=Die UWG (1946-1962)|url=http://bs.cyty.com/kirche-von-unten/archiv/ab/kap14.htm|access-date=2021-04-18|website=Kirche von Unten: Alternatives aus der für die Braunschweiger Landeskirche|language=de}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Matwijow|first=Klaus|title=Herzberg am Harz in alten Ansichten Band 3|url=https://www.europese-bibliotheek.nl/nl/boeken/Herzberg_am_Harz_in_alten_Ansichten_Band_3-Herzberg_am_Harz-Niedersachsen/100-123860/artikel/3#fragment|access-date=2021-04-18|website=Uitgeverij Europese Bibliotheek|page=19|language=nl|quote=Das Mandolinenorchester 'Edelweiß' in zünftiger Bayerntracht vor dem Englischen Hof im Jahre 1928. Mandolinenorchester hatten in Herzberg bis in die siebziger Jahre hinein eine lange Tradition. Die Musiker sind, in der hinteren Reihe von links: Otto Asche, Bruno Wenzel und Heinrich Wölk.}}</ref>
After World War II, she was a member of the Socialist Party of Germany, but she was expelled from the party in 1960.<ref name=":0" />
== Legacy == A street in Ricklingen in Hanover was named in her honor in 1990.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Nöthel|first=Oliver|date=July 15, 2005|title=Wettberger Straßennamen A-J|url=http://www.der-wettberger.de/gegenwart/strassennamen.php|access-date=2021-04-18|website=Wettberger Straßennamen|language=de}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=September 2018|title=Wissenschaftliche Betrachtung von namensgebenden Persönlichkeiten in Hannover|url=https://www.hannover.de/Kultur-Freizeit/Architektur-Geschichte/Erinnerungskultur/ZeitZentrum-Zivilcourage/St%C3%A4dtische-Erinnerungskultur/Wissenschaftliche-Betrachtung-von-namensgebenden-Pers%C3%B6nlichkeiten-in-Hannover#|access-date=2021-04-18|website=Hannover|language=de}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2015|title=Beirat empfiehlt die Umbenennung von zehn Straßen|url=https://www.hannover.de/Kultur-Freizeit/Architektur-Geschichte/Erinnerungskultur/ZeitZentrum-Zivilcourage/St%C3%A4dtische-Erinnerungskultur/Wissenschaftliche-Betrachtung-von-namensgebenden-Pers%C3%B6nlichkeiten-in-Hannover/Beirat-empfiehlt-die-Umbenennung-von-zehn-Stra%C3%9Fen|access-date=2021-04-18|website=Hannover|language=de}}</ref><ref name=":1" />
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== References == {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Asche, Agnes}} Category:1891 births Category:1966 deaths Category:German resistance members Category:German women activists Category:German socialists Category:People from Hanover Category:20th-century German women