Christine von Dohnanyi


Christine von Dohnanyi was the sister of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the wife of Hans von Dohnanyi.

Life

Christine Bonhoeffer attended the Grunewald-Gymnasium. In September 1921, Bonhoeffer and Hans von Dohnanyi got engaged. In 1924 she abandoned her studies of zoology. In 1925 they married. Her daughter Barbara von Dohnanyi was born in 1926. Her first son Klaus von Dohnanyi was born in 1928, her second son Christoph von Dohnányi in 1929.
Christine von Dohnanyi took part in all resistance activities of her husband Hans von Dohnanyi and supported his activities. He had informed her about all activities and was in active exchange with her.
Beside her husband and her brother Dietrich Bonhoeffer, she was also arrested by the Gestapo in the house in Sacrow on April 5, 1943 on suspicion of treason. For a long time Hans von Dohnanyi knew nothing about the arrest of the wife and her brother and tried to send letters to the wife from prison. Christine von Dohnanyi, still stricken by a stomach operation at the beginning of 1943, was first taken to the Charlottenburger Kaiserdamm police prison and then imprisoned together with Josef Müller's wife in the Alexanderplatz police headquarters. However, she was released after a few weeks. After her release, she tried to obtain the release of her husband and brother. She smuggled diphtheria bacilli several times to enable him to escape interrogations, but also secret messages into her husband's prison. Any contact was made through the examining magistrate Manfred Roeder, who had a considerable influence on the possibilities of visiting and writing.
After Berlin's capitulation, the Allies granted her the status of a "victim of fascism" on 27 June 1945. She desperately tried to find out something more about the whereabouts of her husband and worked with the Allies for an appropriate appreciation of the resistance.
Her grave is on the Dorotheenstädtischer Friedhof. Son Klaus von Dohnanyi founded the foundation "Zivilcourage Hans und Christine von Dohnanyi".

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