Marion Freisler

Who was Marion Freisler?

Marion Freisler, née Russegger was the wife of Roland Freisler, the infamous judge and chairman of the Nazi Volksgerichtshof, who died in 1945 during an air raid in Berlin. She is sometimes mistakenly referred to as Anna Freisler.

Marion Russegger was born 10 February 1910 in Hamburg, the daughter of Bernhard Adolf Cajetan Russegger, a merchant in Hamburg and Bremen, and Cornelia Pirscher. On 24 March 1928, she married Roland Freisler, who was a lawyer and city councillor of the Nazi Party in Kassel at the time. They had two sons, Harald and Roland, and both were baptized. On 3 February 1945, her husband was killed during an Allied air raid in Berlin. In his will, dated 1 October 1944, Freisler had decreed that the two houses belonged to his wife.

After the war, Marion Freisler resumed her birth name Russegger and moved to Munich.

In 1985, there was a scandal about Russegger. In 1974, her pension was raised by about 400 DM.