Anna Bernhardine Eckstein

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Anna B. Eckstein (1907)

Anna Bernhardine Eckstein (born June 14, 1868 in Coburg ; † October 16, 1947 there ) was a German teacher and pacifist of international importance. She was in talks for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1913 ; today the primary school in Meeder in the Coburg district bears her name.

Life

Anna B. Eckstein was born on June 14, 1868 in Coburg as the daughter of the porter and assistant telegraphist Johann Nikolaus Eckstein, who was employed by the Werra Railway Company , and his wife Anna Barbara, born in Götz.

She had two siblings, a younger brother Ernst and an older sister Antonie ( Toni ), who had been severely disabled from birth. Between 1874 and 1882 she attended the girls' school in Coburg . A “higher education institution for girls” like the Alexandrine School was closed to her for financial reasons. She was sponsored by her teacher Ottilie Frese and learned English and French with the aim of becoming a teacher herself.

Eckstein left Germany in September 1884 at the age of sixteen. She traveled to New York to see relatives. The reason for the emigration was probably an "inappropriate relationship" with a noble gentleman, perhaps also the possibility of becoming a teacher in America. After several positions as a nanny and teacher, she was employed from December 1887 to October 1893 by the Jewish businessman Godfrey Mannheimer, who had immigrated from Germany, as a private teacher for his daughter Mamie. During this time she was able to travel to Germany three times with the Mannheimer family.

In 1894 Eckstein moved to Boston , where she lived with the writer Martha ("Mattie") Griffith Browne. Eckstein gave language classes at the Modern School of Languages ​​and Literature. In 1897 she became the director and owner of this school.

In 1898 Eckstein came into contact with the American peace movement and, disappointed by the results of the First Hague Peace Conference in 1899, joined the American Peace Society, of which she was vice-president from 1905 to 1911. In order to arouse interest in the Second Hague Peace Conference, which was convened in 1907, she wrote a short text that called for a “general arbitration procedure” in international conflicts. She organized lecture evenings. Over a million US citizens signed, tens of thousands of Germans and British also joined. On July 4th, American Independence Day, she presented the collection of signatures to the Russian Prince Alexander Ivanovich Nelidov, chairman of the conference.

After the meager outcome of the Second Hague Conference - e.g. B. there was no result with regard to compulsory arbitration - Eckstein organized the “World Petition for the Prevention of War between the States” at his own expense. The aim of the world petition should be threefold, firstly the core issue of the problem of securing peace - the definition and protection of national vital interests under international law - to the foreground of the general interest, secondly a means of propaganda among all political parties and religions, social classes and estates of all states and thirdly on the Third Hague Peace Conference to form a kind of representative body: The opinion and will of the many millions of rulers should have weight in the joint deliberations and decisions of the rulers.

With the support of the American schoolbook publisher Edwin Ginn, Eckstein toured Canada and then Europe. Coburg became her home again in 1909. Until the beginning of 1913 Eckstein lectured in Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Austria-Hungary, Sweden, England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands and France; mostly she wore a white peace dress. She also won supporters in Italy, Norway, Algeria, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and China. She had an extensive correspondence. She worked u. a. with Bertha von Suttner , Alfred Hermann Fried , Ludwig Quidde or Jean Jaurès . But it also experienced opposition, especially in France and Germany. The international importance of Eckstein is evident in her nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1913. Eckstein is the only woman among a total of 15 proposals that affect people from the German Reich between 1901 and 1918.

During the First World War, Eckstein wrote for the “Zeitschrift für internationales Recht” of the Kiel international lawyer Theodor Niemeyer . At his suggestion, she wrote the book “The State Protection Treaty” at the end of the war.

After the First World War, Eckstein worked in the " German League for the League of Nations " and founded the league's district clubs in Coburg, Lichtenfels and Hildburghausen. She was committed to the connection of Coburg to Bavaria and fought against the Nazism that was rapidly emerging in Coburg. In Coburg she participated in the founding of the local association of the German Democratic Party , in the adult education center, in the homeland association, in the society for literature and music and was involved in the Protestant church. She was a Synodal and Coburg delegate at the German Evangelical Church Congress . During the post-war and inflationary period she organized aid deliveries from the USA and gave lessons in English and French. She cared for her disabled sister Toni, who died in 1923, and later her mother, who died in 1926.

On March 16, 1933, Eckstein traveled to Switzerland and stayed there until September 29. So far there is hardly any information about the subsequent time. A publication of their pamphlet “The Will to Harmonize Power” in 1942 prohibited the censorship of the Nazi regime. She died on October 16, 1947 in her apartment at Schillerplatz 4 in Coburg.

Shield Anna-B.-Eckstein-Anlage

The Swarthmore Peace Collection in Philadelphia, USA received your documents. In 1982 Anna B. Eckstein was rediscovered for the public by the Peace Museum in Meeder. In 1987, the city of Coburg honored Anna B. Eckstein as a champion for world peace by naming a green area in the city center after her. In 2013 the primary school in Meeder was renamed Anna-B.-Eckstein-Schule.

Works

  • State protection treaty to secure world peace . Duncker & Humblot, Munich 1919

Web links

Wikisource: Anna B. Eckstein  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Government Gazette for the Duchy of Coburg, July 25, 1868 .
  2. ↑ http://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/peace/nomination.php?action=show&showid=836 .
  3. ↑ http://www.sonntagsblatt-bayern.de/news/aktuell/2013_50_ofr_17_01.htm
  4. ↑ www.region-coburg.tv ( Memento from December 26, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ Ulrike Leis: Liberation from the “tyrannical rule of the war juggernaut”: Anna Bernhardine Eckstein (1868–1947) - “Champion for world peace” . In: "Be reasonable" women of Coburg history , (eds.) Gaby Franger, Edmund Frey and Brigitte Maisch, Initiative Stadtmuseum Coburg eV 2008, ISBN 978-3-9808006-93 , p. 163.
  6. ↑ Harald Sandner: Coburg in the 20th century. The chronicle of the city of Coburg and the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from January 1, 1900 to December 31, 1999 - from the "good old days" to the dawn of the 21st century. Against forgetting . Verlagsanstalt Neue Presse, Coburg 2002, ISBN 3-00-006732-9 , p. 323.
personal data
SURNAME Eckstein, Anna Bernhardine
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Eckstein, Anna B.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pacifist
DATE OF BIRTH June 14, 1868
PLACE OF BIRTH Coburg
DATE OF DEATH October 16, 1947
Place of death Coburg