[2] Johanna Friederike Carillon was born into a family originally of Huguenot provenance in the Sachsenhausen quarter of Frankfurt am Main,[3] on the south side of the river.

[5] Following the birth of her youngest son, Carl, in 1902, Johanna began to engage in political activities, initially at a local level.

1919 also saw the birth of what came to be known (albeit not till 1929 when Adolf Hitler coined the term as an expression of contempt) as the Weimar Republic.

[1] Parliamentary records show that she contributed to debates on matters that included household welfare legislation ("Haushaltshilfengesetz") and the 1923 budget.

In October 1935 Carl Tesch, who had engaged in (now illegal) trades union training work, was obliged to emigrate to Switzerland.

[3] Richard and Johanna Tesch lived on in retirement at their home in Frankfurt's recently built Riederwald quarter.

During this time she was able to have meetings with a number of exiled German trades unionists and with leaders of the Swiss Social Democratic Party.

[1] Her husband had tried, without success, to obtain her release on grounds of her poor health, sending written appeals for clemency to the Gestapo, the commandant of the Ravenbruck camp and even the Führer's office.

[5] Johanna died on 13 March 1945[1] probably from a combination of the medical conditions from which she had been suffering at the time of her arrest and the malnutrition which was endemic in the concentration camp.

In August 1945 Lore Wolf, one of the inmates newly released from Ravensbruck, brought Johanna's farewell letter to Richard in Frankfurt.