Alma Wartenberg

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Alma Wartenberg

Wilhelmine Catharina Alma Wartenberg (born Stähr ; born December 22, 1871 in Ottensen , † December 25, 1928 in Altona ) was a German social democratic politician and women's rights activist .

Life

Alma Wartenberg came from a social democratic cigar maker family with a total of twelve children. She worked as a maid until she married the locksmith Ferdinand Wartenberg . The marriage had four children.

In Ottensen she was instrumental in building the proletarian women's movement. From 1902 to 1906 she was elected every year at women's meetings as the social democratic shop steward in the constituency of Ottensen / Pinneberg . As an agitator among working-class women, Wartenberg traveled through Schleswig-Holstein and took part in women's conferences and party conventions as a delegate. In 1905 she and others initiated a protest campaign against the scandalous verdict of the Altona jury court, which acquitted four young men from middle-class circles after he had convicted them of raping a servant girl. During and after the protest campaign, Wartenberg advocated cooperation with the so-called “radicals” of the bourgeois women's movement. This went against the party's line and brought it into conflict with the party leadership. A party expulsion process against her was set, but she was dismissed as a shop steward.

Subsequently, Wartenberg became particularly involved in the areas of maternity protection , birth control and sexual education . They were alarmed by the high infant mortality rate , widespread “women's ailments” as a result of many births, miscarriages and the frequently practiced illegal abortions , ignorance of working women in sexual matters and a lack of government support. She went around with slide shows to explain the female build, contraception and maternity leave. Her lectures were well attended, and hundreds of listeners were not uncommon. Following her lectures, she publicly sold contraceptives, although “selling or passing on hygienic rubber items” was a criminal offense in the German Empire . In doing so, she turned against her not only the judiciary of the empire, but also the medical profession and, above all, church circles. Several times she was threatened with prison terms for "offenses against morality". However, she always stated that women alone have the right to determine their body and the number of their births.

Again in contradiction with the official party line, Wartenberg supported the hotly debated idea of ​​a “ childbearing strike ” as a protest against the state's “forced labor ” within the Social Democrats . This idea was particularly popular with working women.

During the First World War , Wartenberg was involved in war relief.

From 1919 Alma Wartenberg was a member of the SPD in the Altona city council. In 1925 she was elected as the only female member of the Schleswig-Holstein Provincial Parliament.

After suffering a stroke , she resigned from all offices in 1927. She died the following year at the age of 57. She is buried in the Altona cemetery .

Honors

Alma-Wartenberg-Platz

A square in Ottensen has been named after Alma Wartenberg since 1997.

literature

Web links

Commons : Alma Wartenberg  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alma Wartenberg, b. Stähr at garten-der-frauen.de
personal data
SURNAME Wartenberg, Alma
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stähr, Wilhelmine Chatharina Alma (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician and women's rights activist
DATE OF BIRTH December 22, 1871
PLACE OF BIRTH Ottensen
DATE OF DEATH December 25, 1928
Place of death Altona