Hanne Mertens
Hanne Mertens was a German actress whose life connected Magdeburg, Berlin, Munich and Hamburg. A Stolperstein at Hamburg’s Thalia Theater marks her memory. Born in Magdeburg in 1909, she moved to Berlin with her mother and siblings in 1915. Her father had died during the First World War.
She studied at the Berlin State Drama School from 1928 to 1930. Theatre work then took her to the Berliner Staatstheater and Munich Kammerspiele, where she performed in plays by Friedrich Schiller and others. In 1943, she joined Hamburg’s Thalia Theater, continuing there until theatres closed under a 1944 decree. Her criticism of the Nazi regime and conflicts with the Gestapo led to her arrest in February 1945. Fuhlsbüttel prison and Neuengamme concentration camp became the final places connected with her life. She was murdered at Neuengamme in April 1945, while Hanne Mertens Ring in Hamburg-Niendorf preserves her name in the city.
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