Honor for Lotte Brainin: New residential yard sets signs against totalitarianism

Honor for Lotte Brainin: New residential yard sets signs against totalitarianism

On May 20, 2025, the new “Lotte Brainin-Hof” was officially named in Vienna, a joint project that includes 76 apartments with a flexible room division and sustainable materials. The naming of the house took place in the presence of the mayor of Vienna Michael Ludwig, the mayor Kathrin Gaál, the City Councilor Veronica Kaup-Hasler and district leader Ernst Nevrivy. Among others included Lotte Brainin's husband, family members and Nobel Prize winners Elfriede Jelinek. The new residential complex is located in Mela-Köhler-Gasse 7, near the Elinor Oststr Park and the U2 station Seestadt.

The "Lotte Brainin-Hof" aims to set a sign against hate and totalitarianism, says Kaup-Hasler. The mayor emphasized the importance of Lotte Brainin's legacy and resistance to National Socialism. Vice Mayor Gaál pointed out that a total of 65 streets, squares, parks and buildings are named after important women in the Seestadt. In the context of this honor, district head Nevrivy emphasized the responsibility to keep the memory of Brainin and the crimes of the Nazi regime awake.

Lotte Brainin's life and resistance

Lotte Brainin, born on November 12, 1920 in Vienna as Charlotte Sontag, was a remarkable resistance fighter against National Socialism and survived significant atrocities of the regime. In her youth, she joined the Red Falken socialist youth organization and joined the Austrian youth association in 1934. After the first arrest, she emigrated to Belgium, where she joined the Austrian Freedom Front resistance group. In the spread of an anti -war newspaper, however, it was arrested in 1943 and deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp. In the warehouse she was active in the storage resistance and tried to blow up a crematorium.

Brainin survived a death march and was able to flee from the Ravensbrück concentration camp at the end of April 1945. After the war she returned to Vienna, where she met her husband Hugo Brainin. The couple had two daughters, Elisabeth and Marianne, who both studied psychology and performed as contemporary witnesses. Brainin was not forgotten even after the war; She appeared as a witness in the Ravensbrück process, which led to the conviction of a perpetrator. Until her death on December 16, 2020, she campaigned for the memory of the atrocities of the Nazi regime.

women in resistance

The story of Lotte Brainin is part of a more comprehensive context in which women played a central role in resistance to the Nazi regime. Many women, including members of the resistance groups such as the "White Rose" or the "Austrian Freedom Front", contributed to combating National Socialism. For example, Sophie Scholl was one of the most prominent characters who paid for her protests against the regime with her life. These women, often dominated by men, took on decisive roles in various forms of resistance and contributed significantly to the opposition to the dictatorship.

Lotte Brainin's life story and her tireless commitment to humanity and against totalitarianism are therefore not only a personal, but also a collective legacy that reminds us to raise the voice against injustice. A digital exhibition on your life is available on www.brainin.at/lotte