Gotthard Hoffmann

„A neighbour told me that [...] enquiries had been made about me in the house. Three women had signed a document saying I had a boyfriend, which I did not deny. [...] It was a consequence of my husband's arrest. [...] It had been a good marriage for nine years. I supported my husband because he couldn’t get any work on account of his political activity, as one can see from the disability cards. The main commission acknowledged me, so why was my acknowledgement not given to me? Am I worse than other women because of this? My husband would be living with me again now if he had survived. “

Anna Hoffmann to the Victims of fascism main commission, 1946



Gotthard Hoffmann was born in Bohemia, the son of a worker, and moved to Breslau as a child. He joined the Youth Communist League of Germany in 1920 and became an organisation leader in Silesia two years later. After the failed communist uprising of 1923, he spent some time in detention. In 1925, he joined the KPD. As a known communist, he was unable to find work in Breslau. In 1928, he moved to Berlin with his wife Anna but he could not find employment here either. He was active in the KPD, first as head of a street cell and then as an organisation leader. From January 1933 until his arrest, he worked under the codename Walter as a political leader of a sub-division of the now banned KPD in Berlin. He was elected to the city council in March 1933, but was unseated along with all communists before the first meeting and barred from the council. Hoffmann was arrested in late January 1934 for continuing to run the banned communist party, and was sentenced to three years imprisonment for planning high treason in June 1934. A few weeks after his release in 1937, he was arrested again and sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where he died while deactivating ammunition.

Gotthard Hoffmann was a city councillor in 1933, Constituency 4 Prenzlauer Berg (KPD)