Auguste Kirchhoff

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Auguste Christine Louise Kirchhoff (born June 23, 1867 in Asbach ; † July 12, 1940 in Bremen ) was a German suffragette .

biography

Kirchhoff was the daughter of bourgeois parents from the Rhineland. Her father was the Catholic judiciary Peter Zimmermann (1830–1900), the Protestant mother was Eleonore Colonius (1841–1903).
Until 1884 she attended a secondary school for girls in the Rhineland. In 1888 she married the Bremen lawyer and notary, later a district judge, district court director and senator, Gerhard Heinrich Kirchhoff . Both lived in Bremen on Besselstrasse, Roonstrasse and Graf-Moltke-Strasse and had five children. She gave music lessons and concerts, and she invited artists to her big house.

The women's movement followed her stimulated through the magazine like Die Gesellschaft and in 1904 through her participation in the social democratic women's conference in Bremen. In 1905 she became a member and board member in the Bremen branch of the Association for Women's Suffrage . She joined the German Association for Maternity Protection and Sexual Reform . In 1906, together with Minna Bahnson , she founded the association for mothers and babies and opened three houses for single mothers and their children. In 1909, together with Rita Bardenheuer , she founded an advice center for women and mothers in need and in 1915 the housewives' association in Bremen and the association for protection against usury and the black market . Like Minna Bahnson, she denounced prostitution with her double standards.

In 1914 she spoke out against the First World War at congresses in Germany and found support from her husband. In various articles in magazines and newspapers, on the whole, she expressed her pacifist position against the war. In 1915 she and Adele Schmitz attended the international women's peace congress in The Hague and reported about it in the Bremer Nachrichten. More than 100 women then signed a letter of protest accusing them of a lack of “patriotic sentiments”. Kirchhoff was now under censorship and was no longer allowed to express himself publicly.

In 1919 she and Rita Bardenheuer founded a local branch of the International Women's League for Peace and Freedom (IFFF); she became chairman. In 1922 she organized the IFFF's annual congress in Bremen. There were numerous applications to the German government. "Never again war" was the tenor of a public rally in 1923 at which she gave a speech. In 1924 she warned: "We must recognize the dangers of fascism and swastikaism for our youth and our whole people and turn against these groups who believe in the power of arms, in the power of violence." She fought tirelessly against war, Militarism and anti-Semitism .

When her husband died in 1929, she had a mental and physical breakdown that stopped her activities. She was one of the important women in the Bremen women's movement . She was buried in the Riensberg cemetery .

Honors

  • The Auguste-Kirchhoff-Straße in Bremen- Schwachhausen was named in 1956 after her.

Works

literature

  • Elfriede Bachmann: Auguste Kirchhoff . In: Bremische Biographie 1912–1962 , pp. 271/273. Ed .: Historical Society Bremen and State Archive Bremen , Verlag Hauschild, Bremen 1969.
  • Hannelore Cyrus: Kirchhoff, Auguste Christine Louise, b. Carpenter . In: Frauen Geschichte (n) , Bremer Frauenmuseum (ed.). Edition Falkenberg, Bremen 2016, ISBN 978-3-95494-095-0 .
  • Herbert Black Forest : The Great Bremen Lexicon . 2nd, updated, revised and expanded edition. Edition Temmen, Bremen 2003, ISBN 3-86108-693-X .
  • Christine Holzner-Rabe: From Countess Emma and other Em (m) anzen . Bremen 2007.
  • Johann-Günther König: The women from Bremen who can be struck . Bremen 1981.
  • Henriette Wottrich: Auguste Kirchhoff . Donat-Verlag, 1990, ISBN 3-924444-48-X .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Kirchhoff, Auguste
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kirchhoff, Auguste Christine Louise
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German women's rights activist
DATE OF BIRTH June 23, 1867
PLACE OF BIRTH Asbach (Westerwald)
DATE OF DEATH July 12, 1940
Place of death Bremen