Dismissal on Political Grounds


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Ina Gschlössl did not keep silent in religion class either in the face of anti-Semitic Nazi propaganda. After being interrogated before an entire class following a pupil’s denunciation, she was dismissed from municipal service by the mayor on August 1, 1933. Superintendent Klingenburg informed the church government about this occurrence on September 15, 1933, which asked him to make more detailed inquiries.


On November 8, 1933, the mayor notified Superintendent Klingenburg of the reasons for her dismissal: In a religion class on July 3, 1933, Gschlössl had made inappropriate remarks about the Reich Chancellor and other statesmen and spoken about the Jewish Question in a way that lacked any understanding of the national point of view.


Although Gschlössl could have resumed being a parish vicar, this path was blocked for her because the church council in Cologne was dominated by pro-Nazi German Christians. Instead, she taught and cared for the handicapped child of a Jewish married couple, both of whom were physicians, in return for room and board and thus secured her modest livelihood.


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  • 1: © Sammlung Joachim Schmidt, Troisdorf; 2 + 3: © Landeskirchliches Archiv Düsseldorf, Bestand Evangelisches Konsistorium der Rheinprovinz B VIIa 32