Anna Maria Schulte

Anna Maria Schulte

Aenne Schulte , actually Anna Maria Schulte , b. Mergi , (born July 23, 1886 in Innsbruck ; † October 5, 1973 in Cologne ) was an early social democrat and social activist.

Life

Anna Maria Mergi came to Cologne from Innsbruck with her parents in 1888 when she was two years old. Her father, the tailor Franz Mergi, was a union member. Her mother Josepha Mergi was the second chairwoman of the "Women and Girls Education Association in Cologne", a banned (underground) organization. At the age of fourteen, Anna Maria Mergi became a member of the workers' cycling association “Solidarity”, which distributed campaign material in the countryside. Soon afterwards she became active in the struggle of her union, the “Central Association of Commercial Employees”, for the work-free Sunday. In the process, she met the social democrat Georg August Schulte, whom she married in 1906.

Since 1908 Anna Maria Schulte belonged to the SPD . During the First World War (1914–1918) she worked together with Marie Juchacz , Elisabeth Röhl and Else Meerfeld as a representative of the free trade unions in the home work center . In Cologne, women had taken the initiative to found workers' welfare. In 1915, SPD women's secretary Marie Juchacz developed her ideas in the small hall of the Volkshaus. The women around her - Elisabeth Roehl-Kirschmann, Else Meerfeld, Hede Runovski and Anna Maria Schulte - were delighted. Cologne had thus become the nucleus of workers' welfare in Germany. It was only four years later that it was officially founded in Berlin, where Marie Juchacz had moved. Anna Maria Schulte organized the Upper Rhine district of this large aid organization.

In addition, Anna Maria Schulte was a member of the so-called food commission . This was dissolved by the British occupation forces in 1919 together with the workers 'and soldiers' council in Cologne, of which Schulte was the only female member. In 1919 Anna Maria Schulte became a social democratic city councilor for the city of Cologne. On June 7, 1920, Konrad Adenauer presented her with the Prussian State Government's Cross of Merit for War Aid.

Long before 1933, Anna Maria and Georg August Schulte within the SPD called for lessons to be learned from their Italian experiences and for an anti-fascist organization to be founded in Germany. But German politicians at that time did not understand the impending danger of fascism . The years 1933 to 1945 brought severe disadvantages to the family of Georg August and Anna Maria Schulte, including house searches, confiscation of the library that had been assembled over decades, public book burning, and arbitrary arrests. Georg August Schulte was arrested, interrogated and kept under constant surveillance by the Gestapo several times. On September 16, 1940, Georg August Schulte was found dead in downtown Cologne. The perpetrators and their motive were officially presented as unknown. When asked about this suffering, Anna Maria Schulte said: “I reject the term political victim. The socialist fighter can expect damage. Of all the socialists that I have met in the service of the labor movement, none have coveted the crown of thorns as an award. "

After the collapse in 1945, Anna Maria Schulte immediately devoted herself to serving others and rebuilding. Of the 250,000 apartments in Cologne, around 200,000 apartments were destroyed or partially destroyed. The return flow of evacuees and refugees from the former German eastern regions brought the population in Cologne to around 500,000 at the end of 1946. Anna Maria Schulte used all of her opportunities to rouse people traumatized by the war to help shape public life. This served their membership in associations and clubs, z. B. in the German Peace Society , the Freethinker Association , the Arbeiterwohlfahrt , the Cologne group of the German Women's Ring , which she co-founded, etc. On October 17, 1948 Anna Maria Schulte was re-elected to the Cologne City Council. She worked on the committees: Youth Committee, Housing Committee, Committee on Health, Welfare, Sports, Schools and Police. On the occasion of the state elections in 1947, she campaigned for the abolition of beatings in schools and against the submissive spirit that was bred with it. Mayor Theo Burauen presented her with the Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class in 1965 . The Cologne Workers 'Welfare Association honored Anna Maria Schulte in 1967 with the "Golden Heart" of the Workers' Welfare Association.

Awards

• Winner of the Cross of Merit for War Aid of the Prussian State Government (awarded by Konrad Adenauer )
• Winner of the Federal Cross of Merit , 1st class (awarded in 1965 by Theo Burauen , OB Cologne)
• Winner of the "Golden Heart" of the Arbeiterwohlfahrt (awarded in 1967)
• In Merheim was Änne-Schulte-street named after her.

literature

• Gerhard Brunn: Social Democracy in Cologne. A contribution to the city and party history. Emons Verlag, Cologne.
• Contribution by Anna Maria Schulte: Elli Jüschke, employee of the Institute for Social Research and Social Policy, from 1953 to 1978 chairwoman of the SPD local association Cologne-Deutz