ADVERTISING
Mayor Hanno Benz commemorates the Darmstadt resistance fighter and companion of Wilhelm Leuschner
Darmstadt. On the 125th anniversary of Elly Deumer's on July 28, 2025 , the city of Darmstadt commemorates an important, yet little-known, woman of the German resistance against the Nazi regime. In his tribute,
Hanno Benz "Elly Deumer is one of the unjustly forgotten women of the attempted coup of July 20, 1944, who fearlessly stood up to the Nazi dictatorship."
Life stages and resistance
Born on July 28, 1900, in Darmstadt , Elly Deumer was, from at least 1928, the close confidante and lover of Wilhelm Leuschner , one of the leading figures of the German resistance. After the failed assassination attempt on Hitler, Deumer hid her partner for several days to protect him from arrest by the Gestapo. After Leuschner was denounced and arrested in August 1944, Deumer attempted to secure his pardon—among other things, by arranging a meeting with the Darmstadt SS General Karl Wolff . However, the meeting never took place.
In her diary, Elly Deumer noted resignedly on September 11, 1944:
“Verdict on Helm. The noose.” – a few weeks later, on September 29, 1944 , Leuschner was executed in Berlin-Plötzensee .
Survival and life in post-war Germany
Elly Deumer survived the Nazi era, partly because Leuschner himself refused to reveal any names, even under severe torture. After the war, she resumed her medical studies in Berlin. She received support from, among others, Leuschner's son after losing her apartment at Herdweg 67 in the firebombing of Berlin in 1944.
She lived in Darmstadt until her death in 1985 – largely forgotten. Her writings and diary entries are now archived in the Hessian State Archives in Darmstadt .
(DARMSTADT – RED/PSD/fre/stip)
