Greta Kuckhoff

Greta Kuckhoff
Greta Kuckhoff (1947)
Born	Margaretha Lorke 14 December 1902 Frankfurt (Oder), Brandenburg, Germany
Died	11 November 1981 Frankfurt (Oder), Brandenburg, GDR (East Germany)
Nationality	Germany
Occupation	Politician Bank President
Political party	KPD SED
Spouse(s)	Adam Kuckhoff
Children	Ule Kuckhoff

Greta Kuckhoff (December 14, 1902 – November 11, 1981) was a member of the German Resistance group, the Red Orchestra during the Nazi era. She was married to Adam Kuckhoff, who was executed by the Third Reich. After the war, she lived in the German Democratic Republic, where she was president of Deutsche Notenbank from 1950 to 1958.

Kuckhoff was born Margaretha Lorke in Frankfurt on the Oder into a poor Catholic family. Her father was a carpenter and built musical instruments; her mother was a seamstress. She later wrote warmly about her childhood; she attended Kleist School, wrote poems for the archbishop and attended the Lyzeum and Oberlyzeum in her hometown.

After training to be a teacher, in 1924, Kuckhoff began to study sociology and economics at Humboldt University in Berlin and at the University of Würzburg. From 1927 to 1929, she studied abroad in the United States at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where, at the "Friday Niters Club", Friday evening gatherings organized by John R. Commons, she met Mildred and Arvid Harnack. While in Madison, she became an honorary fellow of the sociology department. She graduated in 1929. Between 1930 and 1932, she lived in Zurich, Switzerland, working for R. Rosendorf, a lawyer and as a language teacher and freelance translator in the area of business law. Returning to Germany, she became Karl Mannheim's secretary at the Institut für Sozialforschung in Frankfurt am Main. In 1933, she studied briefly at the London School of Economics and made arrangements in preparation for Mannheim's escape from Germany. In 1933, she met the writer Adam Kuckhoff. They were married on August 28, 1937; their son, Ule was born on January 8, 1938.