Christine Teusch

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Christine Teusch

Christine Teusch (born October 11, 1888 in Cologne-Ehrenfeld , † October 24, 1968 in Cologne ) was a German politician of the Center Party and the CDU and minister of culture in North Rhine-Westphalia . She was the first female minister in the Federal Republic of Germany.

Life

After visiting the Lyceum of the Sisters of the Poor Child Jesus and the Queen Luise School in Cologne , Christine Teusch passed the teacher examination in 1910.

Professional activity in school service and in women's work

Christine Teusch initially worked at the Marienberg Lyceum in Neuss . After she had passed the rector's examination in Koblenz in 1913, she switched to teaching in the city of Cologne in 1913. In 1915 she became the chairwoman of the Catholic teachers' association in Cologne. In 1917, Teusch switched to the women's subsidiary in Essen and in 1918 became head of the workers' secretariat at the general secretariat of the Christian trade unions in Cologne. After the National Socialists came to power , she returned to school in 1933. In 1936 she retired for health reasons. She was involved in the Catholic resistance group Kölner Kreis . During the Nazi era, she found refuge with the Olper Franciscan Sisters in the Karolinenhospital in Arnsberg- Hüsten and lived there incognito.

From 1923 to 1965 she was chairwoman of the German National Association of Catholic Girls 'Protection Associations, Freiburg im Breisgau (today: IN VIA Catholic Association for Girls' and Women's Social Work). She brought her ideas of a Catholic women's movement into the association and political decision-making bodies.

Party: Center Party and CDU

Teusch had belonged to the center since the imperial era . In 1945 Christine Teusch joined the CDU and in 1946 was elected to the party's executive committee for the British zone of occupation .

Member of the German National Assembly, the Reichstag and the Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia

Christine Teusch was elected to the National Assembly in 1919 . From 1920 to 1933 she was a member of the Reichstag .

The British occupying power appointed Teusch to the appointed state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia in 1946 , after having been appointed to the Cologne city council a year earlier. In 1947 she was elected to the state parliament, to which she belonged until 1966. There she represented the constituency of Cologne City III.

Minister of Education in North Rhine-Westphalia

On December 19, 1947, Teusch was appointed minister of education by Prime Minister Karl Arnold against the will of Konrad Adenauer , the then CDU parliamentary group leader in the state parliament, who dubbed her Tristine Keusch; she held this office until 1954. On January 23, 1954, at the 99th session of the Federal Council, she was the first woman to give a speech in the regional chamber. Before that, in the first meeting in 1949, she had already explained the voting behavior of her state in the election of the president, which, strictly speaking, can be considered her first request to speak.

The NRW School Ministry writes to her u. a .: When she ran for the office of minister of education, she faced strong resistance, also from her own political ranks (e.g. from Konrad Adenauer, the parliamentary group leader at the time) and from the churches. One reason may have been the prevailing view that women are unsuitable for prominent political government offices - in this case leading a ministry. In particular, the Ministry of Education and Culture feared at the time that, in conjunction with the five speakers who were already active, the 'female influence (...) would probably rise immeasurably', so that the then Prime Minister Arnold felt compelled to explain to C. Teusch that 'he do not wish for female rule in the ministry '. Christine Teusch's educational policy work was - despite all contrary assumptions - very far-reaching and formative for the North Rhine-Westphalian educational structure. Their school policy was aimed at the need for social change. a. the idea of ​​the second educational path, the development of evening grammar schools and adult education centers, the reduction of class sizes in elementary schools and special schools, the anchoring of parents' rights in the fundamentals of the school constitution and the promotion of new school buildings for their initiatives. One of her personal priorities in political work was - probably due to her experience as a compulsory head of the Essen office for women's work in the military administration during the First World War - the education of women and girls.

As minister of education, Teusch was co-founder of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation and the German Academic Exchange Service and for a time chaired the West German Conference of Ministers of Education . In 1954 she left the office of minister of education.

In February 1954, it issued a decree that "from now on" graduates of women's high schools were not allowed to be given a "school leaving certificate" as had been the case for decades, but only a "final certificate". The senior primans in women's high schools were in the middle of their exams at this time. Without prior warning, the degree they were aiming for was devalued, mainly because it no longer entitles them to take up certain studies. There was uproar in the country's over 60 women's high schools. Parents' councils and school caretakers felt offended because the school law stipulates that parents should be asked about important changes in the structure of the school system. The minister had to give in for the current year of exams.

Melaten graveyard

She lived with her twin sister Käthe until her death at the age of 80 in October 1969 in Cologne-Ehrenfeld . Christine Teusch was buried in the Melaten cemetery in Cologne-Lindenthal .

Honors

  • "In grateful recognition of her great services to the external and internal structure of the Rheinisch Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen after the war, as well as her tireless care for the social institutions of the student body", RWTH Aachen appointed her honorary senator on November 11, 1954.
  • On September 7, 1956, she was the first woman to be awarded the Great Cross of Merit with Star and Shoulder Ribbon of the Federal Cross of Merit .
  • The University of Cologne made her an honorary citizen in 1963.
  • On November 13, 1986, the Deutsche Bundespost dedicated a stamp in honor of Christine Teusch as part of the definitive series Women in German History . The stamp had a face value of fifty pfennigs and is under the number Michel no. Cataloged in 1304.
  • Various streets and squares are named after Christine Teusch, especially in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Publications

  • Care of the center for the weak and needy , Berlin 1924.
  • The Christian woman in current political events , Dortmund 1946.
  • The Christian ideal of education . In: Political Yearbook of the CDU / CSU, ed. from the General Secretariat of the CDU / CSU Working Group for Germany, 1st year, Frankfurt 1950.

See also

Literature and Sources

Web links

Commons : Christine Teusch  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ I have to confess on Saturday , Der Spiegel December 15, 1949
  2. ↑ schulministerium.nrw.de (as of June 2010) ( Memento of the original from March 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.schulministerium.nrw.de
  3. ^ The pudding high school diploma . In: Die Zeit , No. 9/1954.
  4. ↑ Teusch, Christine , kas.de
  5. ↑ briefmarken-sammlung.com
personal data
SURNAME Teusch, Christine
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (center, CDU), MdR, MdL and minister of education in North Rhine-Westphalia
DATE OF BIRTH October 11, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne-Ehrenfeld
DATE OF DEATH October 24, 1968
Place of death Cologne-Ehrenfeld