Clara Siebert

Clara Siebert , b. Ritter, (born August 2, 1873 in Schliengen , † March 23, 1963 in Konstanz ) was a German politician ( center ).

Live and act

Clara Siebert was born as the daughter of a district doctor. She attended elementary school and later a girls' school in Basel and the church teaching institute “Our Lady” in Offenburg . In 1895 she passed her exams as a language teacher for German and foreign languages at the teachers' seminar in Basel. In 1897 she married. The marriage produced a son.

In 1907 Siebert took part in the founding of the Catholic women's association , of which she was second chairman until 1919. Furthermore, Siebert was chairwoman of the Baden state committee of the women's association. From 1911 to 1918 Siebert was a member of the municipal hospital commission in Karlsruhe. She was also a member of the diocesan board of Christian mothers' associations.

During the First World War Siebert worked in a military hospital from 1914 to 1917. From 1917 to 1919 she worked for two years as a consultant for welfare institutions at the War Office of the XIV Army Corps in Karlsruhe. During the war Siebert was awarded the Baden War Aid Cross (1916), the Prussian Red Cross Medal III. Class (1917) and the Prussian War Merit Cross (1918).

In 1919 she became a member of the Baden state parliament for the Catholic Center Party , to which she belonged until 1933. In the Baden state parliament Siebert was temporarily a member of the executive committee of the center group. Politically, the deeply religious Siebert, who defined politics as “applied theology”, stood up primarily for the interests of Catholicism . In 1924 she was for this by Pope Pius XI. awarded the Pontifical Cross of Honor Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice .

In July 1932 Siebert was elected to the Reichstag as her party's candidate for constituency 32 (Baden) , to which she initially belonged until November 1932. In the Reichstag election in November Siebert temporarily lost her mandate, but was able to return to parliament for her old constituency in the March 1933 election.

In March 1933, after long struggles and discussions in the center faction, Siebert voted for the Enabling Act introduced by the Nazi government under threats of violence , which, together with the Reichstag Fire Ordinance of February 1933, should form the basis for the establishment of the National Socialist dictatorship. In November 1933, she finally left the Reichstag and retired into private life. In July 1944 Siebert was detained for a week.

Today a small memorial in the cemetery of the parish of St. Elisabeth near Karlsruhe, which she helped found, reminds of Siebert's life.

Fonts

Marie Ellenrieder 1916.
Woman and People , 1929.
Holy Time of Childhood , 1930.

literature

Clemens Siebler: Siebert, Clara , in: Bernd Ottnad (Hrsg.): Badische Biographien . New episode. Volume 3. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1990, pp. 255 f. ( online )
Ina Hochreuther: Women in Parliament - Southwest German delegates since 1919. Published on behalf of the Landtag by the State Center for Civic Education, Theiss-Verlag, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-8062-1012-8
Michael Kitzing: Siebert, Clara Maria, nee Ritter. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 24, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-428-11205-0 , p. 324 f. ( Digitized version ).

Web links

Literature by and about Clara Siebert in the catalog of the German National Library
Clara Siebert in the database of members of the Reichstag

Individual evidence

↑ Rudolf Morsey (ed.): The “Enabling Act” of March 24, 1933 (Historical Texts / Modern Times, ed. By Reinhart Koselleck and Rudolf Vierhaus), Göttingen 1968, SS 19–54.

personal data
SURNAME	Siebert, Clara
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Ritter, Clara (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German politician (center), MdR
DATE OF BIRTH	August 2, 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH	Schliengen
DATE OF DEATH	March 23, 1963
Place of death	Constancy

[1] Rudolf Morsey (ed.): The “Enabling Act” of March 24, 1933 (Historical Texts / Modern Times, ed. By Reinhart Koselleck and Rudolf Vierhaus), Göttingen 1968, SS 19–54.