German Association for Women's Suffrage

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The German Association for Women's Suffrage was an umbrella organization for German voting rights associations that was founded in October 1911. In contrast to the German Association for Women's Suffrage, the association demanded equal suffrage for women and men, but did not reject class suffrage . In 1916, the association and the association merged to form the German Reich Association for Women's Suffrage, whereby the rights of the Reich Association were closer to those of the previous association.

founding

With the liberalization of the association laws , the number of voting associations and the women involved in them increased sharply. They were motivated to do this when in 1907 the German Association for Women's Suffrage laid down in its statutes for both sexes the demand for general , equal, direct and secret suffrage . The Cologne member club of the association then resigned from the association in 1908/09. In addition, the Silesian Association for Women's Suffrage was founded in 1908 on the initiative of Else Hilscher and Marie Wegner . In 1909 Li Fischer-Eckert and the national liberal Elsbeth Krukenberg followed with the founding of the Rhenish-Westphalian voting rights association . In 1911, a corresponding new women's suffrage association was finally founded in northern Germany. What these associations had in common was that they demanded the same citizenship rights for men and women, but no specific right to vote, in particular not the abolition of the three-class suffrage in Prussia. In 1911 the three associations formed the German Association for Women's Suffrage , chaired by Li Fischer-Eckert.

The direction of the new association was laid down in the statutes:

“The German Association for Women's Suffrage is an amalgamation of all women's suffrage associations in the German Reich that strive for equal citizenship rights for men and women. The purpose of the association is to promote an understanding of women's suffrage through practical and theoretical work, without tying its members to a specific political program. "

In 1912 the women's suffrage association had approx. 2,000, two years later 3,500 members in 37 local groups and four regional associations, making it significantly smaller than the women's suffrage association with 9,000 members. The magazine Frau und Staat , which appeared as a supplement to the Centralblatt of the Bund Deutscher Frauenvereine , became the organ of the association .

There were now three three civil women's suffrage umbrella organizations (in addition to the association and the association, the German Women's Suffrage Association ), which was described by Minna Cauer a year later :

“There is now enough choice so that everyone can choose their field; the conservative, the moderate and the democratic. So now women have to reckon with these three directions of the bourgeois women's suffrage movement in Germany. "

- Minna Cauer 1914 : Zeitschrift für Frauenstimmrecht 8 (1914) 4, p. 11.

The historian Kerstin Wolff emphasized in 2018 that the conflicting opinions in the voting rights movement cannot simply be interpreted with for and against women's suffrage. Rather, they could be explained with tactical considerations and the problem that a partisan issue was dealt with for the first time within the otherwise politically neutral women's movement.

Attempt of a cartel

At the suggestion of Anita Augspurg and Lida Gustava Heymann , the German Association for Women's Suffrage , the German Association for Women's Suffrage and the German Association for Women's Suffrage agreed a cartel in 1914 with the aim of showing a “closed front” to the outside world. The cartel was supposed to facilitate cooperation in demonstrations, petitions and representation in the International Women Suffrage Alliance . The common denominator was the demand for women's suffrage. Details on the design of this right to vote were not given.

Merger to form the German Reich Association for Women's Suffrage

In 1916 the cartel was abandoned. Instead, the German Association for Women's Suffrage and the German Association for Women's Suffrage, led by Marie Stritt, merged to form the German Reich Association for Women's Suffrage . The executive board consisted of Ida Dehmel , Li Fischer-Eckert and Illa Uth, who came from the association, and Rosa Kempf, Luise Koch, Alma Dzialoszynski and Emma Nägeli from the previous association. Section 3 of the voting rights association in the wording of 1911 was abandoned. Instead, the Reich Association represented limited women's suffrage. Several member associations of the previous association then resigned. Three of them joined the Women's Suffrage Association. In the new Reich Association, the members of the previous association had a majority, but the demands of the new association corresponded more to those of the women's suffrage association.

After the introduction of women's suffrage in 1918, the German Reich Association for Women 's Suffrage was dissolved in 1919.

See also

literature

  • Richard J. Evans: The feminist movement in Germany 1894-1933 (=  Sage studies in 20th century history . Volume 6 ). Sage Publications, London 1976, ISBN 0-8039-9951-8 (English).
  • Barbara Greven-Aschoff: The bourgeois women's movement in Germany 1894-1933 (=  critical studies on historical science . Volume 46 ). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1981, ISBN 3-525-35704-4 , urn : nbn: de: bvb: 12-bsb00052495-9 .
  • Christina Klausmann: Politics and culture of the women's movement in the empire. The example of Frankfurt am Main (=  history and gender . Volume 19 ). Campus, Frankfurt am Main 1997, ISBN 3-593-35758-5 .
  • Ulla Wischermann: Women's movements and publics around 1900. Networks - counter-publics - protest stagings (=  Frankfurt Feminist Texts / Social Sciences . Volume 4 ). Helmer, Königstein 2003, ISBN 3-89741-121-0 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Greven-Aschoff 1986, pp. 134-136
  2. ↑ Evans 1976, pp. 100-101.
  3. ↑ a b Wischermann 2003, p. 112.
  4. ↑ Wischermann 2003, p. 112.
  5. ↑ Evans 1976, p. 107.
  6. ↑ Wischermann 2003, p. 114.
  7. ↑ quoted from Wolff 2018, p. 51.
  8. ↑ Kerstin Wolff: Again from the beginning and told anew. The history of the struggle for women's suffrage in Germany . In: Hedwig Richter, Kerstin Wolff (Hrsg.): Women's suffrage Democratization of democracy in Germany and Europe . Hamburg 2018, ISBN 978-3-86854-323-0 , pp. 35–56, here 53 .
  9. ↑ Greven-Aschoff 1986, pp. 137-140.
  10. ↑ Evans 1976, pp. 106-107.
  11. ↑ Greven-Aschoff 1986, pp. 137-140.
  12. ↑ Evans 1976, pp. 106-107.
  13. ↑ Angelika Schaser: On the introduction of women's suffrage 90 years ago on November 12, 1918 . In: Feminist Studies . tape 27 , no. 1 , January 1, 2009, ISSN  2365-9920 , p. 97-110, here 53 , doi : 10.1515 / fs-2009-0109 ( degruyter.com ).