Half the world is ours - When women fought for the right to vote

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
Original title Half the world is ours - When women fought for the right to vote
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 2018
length 90-104 minutes
Age rating FSK 14
Rod
Director Annette Baumeister , Carsten Gutschmidt
script Annette Baumeister,
Stefan Wilke
production Reinhardt Beetz
music Nils Kacirek ,
Milan Meyer-Kaya ,
Lies Buchtmann
camera Jörg Adams ,
Jürgen Rehberg ,
Dirk Heuer ,
Johannes Straub
cut Christoph Senn ,
Malte Hadeler
occupation

Half the world is ours - As women the right to vote-won is the title of a historic television - docudrama from the year 2018 introduced 100 years ago German women's suffrage . That of Annette Baumeister responsible documentary with scenes follows Esther pig in the role of the British suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst , Jeanette Hain as a French journalist and suffragette Marguerite Durand and Paula Hans as a German social reformer and feminist Marie Juchacz and Johanna Gastdorf in the role of Anita Augspurg , a German lawyer and activist of the women's movement, on her long rocky road. Harald Schrott plays the fictional journalist Leonard Kern.

content

“We were ridiculed and ridiculed, we were shadowed and arrested, we were beaten and imprisoned. We fought all over the world - for women's suffrage. We were ready to sacrifice everything. Our money, our family and our life. "

  • Anita Augspurg

The film begins with the photographer, actress and lawyer Anita Augspurg giving an interview to a fictional journalist, here called Leonard Kern, in 1919. It becomes obvious that Kern is not against women's suffrage in principle, but often reacts rather bitterly, which probably has to do with his war injury, which left him with a stiff leg. The man, who comes from a rather simple social background, cannot hide his reservations about the wealthy and self-confident activist. Augspurg tries to show him that there have been and are women in different parts of the world who, like them, no longer want to accept the given situation. It is unreasonable that mothers of children born out of wedlock have no rights, she explains, and are put by the state with their babies in poor houses, where they have lived a miserable existence. Women's rights activists no longer wanted to accept the fact that many mothers had their children simply taken away. Augspurg then comes to speak of Emmeline Pankhurst and that she was far ahead of the German suffragettes in terms of propaganda . She advertised the cause of women and at the same time made money by selling emblems. Kern then smugly says that there is still a shopkeeper in the most benevolent Englishwoman. "Of course," replies Augspurg, "if men make money, then they are entrepreneurs, women do the same, then they are shopkeepers."

Augspurg quotes the men's statement: "I think the female brain is unsuitable for real abstraction on an academic level." She explains to Kern that she decided to study law because it was necessary and in order to have a say. Kaiser Wilhelm II wanted a new civil code at the time . Since women in Germany were not allowed to study, she enrolled at the university in Zurich. From there she went to Germany and gave lectures in women's associations. One dreamed of a milestone in jurisprudence: a civil code that completely equates men and women - which seemed within reach. When the commission submitted the draft in 1888, it was as excited as a child at Christmas. The first lines would have sounded good: “A woman of legal age is of age and is allowed to determine her own place of residence and occupation. She has legal capacity and is allowed to conclude contracts and do financial transactions. ”Marriage law, however, is a disgrace. As soon as a woman marries, all of these rights pass to the husband. He's even allowed to spend her money without asking her. The woman is practically incapacitated with the wedding. She still clearly remembers the vote when she sat in the Reichstag stand. The SPD's application was hopeless. A historic opportunity had been wasted. “It is now 1919. We have lost the war. The emperor abdicated, "says Augspurg bitterly," but the civil code is as if set in stone and untouched, because women still give up all rights with the wedding. "

Augspurg's partner, the women's rights activist Lida Gustava Heymann , interrupts the conversation by putting freshly baked cake on the table in order to then briefly participate in the conversation. The women say that they met during a women's congress and Heymann adds that she has never met a speech as deeply as her friend's: "Where is the right of women?"

After further descriptions of what women had to take on themselves in order to fight for a bit of freedom, Kern shows little understanding, pointing out that there are also men who have to be very happy. He was sorry, he was afraid that his editor-in-chief would have to forego the article. However, Anita Augspurg makes him sit down again. She says that the First World War thwarted women's hopes because all suffragettes withdrew, which initially thwarted feminism . The different views of the two regarding the war now completely collide. Kern notes that it was the men who put their heads out in the trenches . The atrocities of war were barbaric. When Augspurg countered Kern that the men in the trenches had paid for their naivety, their arrogance and their stupid male pride, the measure for Kern was full, he rose and hobbled out of the house. Augspurg follows the man who is staring at the lake and partly agrees with him. Nevertheless, there is another dispute. Augspurg warns Kern to spare her with his self-pity that she did not shoot him in the knee. Kern ended his indictment against Augspurg by stating that it was Marie Juchacz who was now sitting in the Reichstag and doing politics, while she (Augspurg) only wrote about it. Augspurg says she is sorry, it wasn't about being right, she just wanted all of this not to happen in the first place.

  • Emmeline Pankhurst

Flashbacks tell the story of Emmeline Pankhurst, who dropped bombs in England. Pankhurst prophesied to her fellow activists that politicians would hate them, as well as journalists, and that the police would treat them like criminals. “If we women can't stand it, then we have no chance of winning.” Emmeline Pankhurst, who is married to a lawyer, tries again and again to convince politicians that a child belongs to its mother, but is taught by them that that it is not that easy, that depends on the mother, since not all women are able to look after their children. After her husband Richard died in surprise, she and her daughter Christabel founded the women 's political movement, Women's Social and Political Union , which her daughters Sylvia and Adela soon joined. Pankhurst is certain that the men will never give up their supremacy voluntarily and says to their daughter Sylvia that she must be forced to do so - by force! “We wanted to wear down the politicians and bring them to their knees.” Pankhurst declares war on the government. She was then declared in England the most dangerous woman whom the Prime Minister wanted to be eliminated. Pankhurst quickly realizes that she is being watched by Scotland Yard , but she doesn't care. She organized the largest demonstration of the time, to which she invites suffragettes from all over the world. On June 21, 1909, the time had come when 500,000 people demonstrated in London. The world has never seen that before. Pankhurst is certain that Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith will now have to give in. However, this means that one cannot hold a world empire together with feelings and he cannot allow the British Empire to be questioned by hysterical women. On the contrary, he is demanding that Mrs. Pankhurst put an end to the trade. It wasn't long before the first arrests were made. Pankhurst is sentenced to three months in prison for sedition. Before doing this, she must endure a humiliating examination.

With the death of King Edward in 1910, it seems like everything is changing in England. The grief makes liberals and conservatives willing to compromise. You propose the right to vote for wealthy women. However, Asquith throws the proposed law in the trash unread. A declaration of war on Pankhurst! Again she goes with her wives on the street and into the lower house, where the police are waiting for the women. Policemen on horseback drive them through the streets, slapping them in the face and also kicking them. Many of the women are seriously injured. November 18, 1910 is the darkest day of the movement. Emmeline Pankhurst is arrested again. Since the women behind the prison walls are as good as powerless, they resort to the last resort, the hunger strike . Asquith then orders force-feeding . Women who were martyred was the last thing the politicians needed. Force-feeding with a funnel and with the help of a stick is life-threatening.

When David Lloyd George came to power in England in December 1916, he reacted to the pressure on the streets. First, all men aged 21 and over are given the right to vote. Then on January 8, 1918, all British women aged 30 and over. However, Pankhurst wants to continue fighting to ensure that women are given the right to vote from the age of 21.

  • Marguerite Durand

The story of Marguerite Durand, who founded the feminist newspaper “La Fronde” in Paris, is also shown in flashbacks. The bourgeois daughter is trying in her own way to promote women's rights in France. In 1896 she decided to found a feminist women's newspaper. It is argued against her who wants to read about exploited workers, beaten wives, seduced maids, etc. The newspaper quickly became a success, however, with a circulation of 40,000. Duras believes that men should be shown that they should not be afraid of women, on the contrary, because a France in which women are worth as much as men, in which they have the same rights, is a better France. Durand, who started a poll among her readers as to whether they would like to vote, is so encouraged by the overwhelming number of yes votes that she dares to march on parliament in 1914. Paris has never seen anything like it. 6,000 women march from the Quai de Conti to the Jardin des Tuileries and sing patriotic songs. Durand runs at the head of the demonstration. Although the march made headlines, the French parliamentarians were unimpressed. Nothing is changing in the country. The Prime Minister explains to Durand that women are too great a factor of political uncertainty in elections. Durand thinks he can postpone the revolution, but cannot stop it.

  • Marie Juchacz

The career of SPD MP Marie Juchacz, who on February 19, 1919 was the first female parliamentarian to give a speech to the Weimar National Assembly, is also shown. The woman, who came from a family of craftsmen, who was working in a factory at the time, tells how she was first consciously confronted with what it meant to be a woman and without rights. When Josefine, one of the workers, scalds herself with hot water in the factory because the buckets that the women have to carry are far too heavy and they are completely unprotected, she is approached by her superior Adamek, asking if she could be more careful. and threatened her with dismissal. When Juchacz stands up for her, she is horrified to see that Josefine is under so much pressure that she accepts the blame without complaint, and even goes one step further in her submission in order to keep her job. “Collapse or protest, this was the choice millions of us women faced at the time. Since a worker couldn't support his family with his wages, we too toiled. And after work the household and the children were waiting. Most of us have worked harder than our men. We didn't even earn half as much. "

After Marie Juchacz has made the decision to get a divorce because her husband has beaten her, she leaves her old life behind and fights for the SPD with the aim of helping women in constitutional and economic life to the position that is theirs. “For women seeking freedom, cities like Berlin were places of longing. Here we escaped from our families, husbands and the narrowness of the village. Here we lived anonymously and unsupervised. Sleep in on Sundays, swap the corset for comfortable clothes, cut your hair, smoke or do gymnastics. ”When Juchacz wants to advertise a lecture, she is roughly turned away at the doors. The new husbands slam the door in her face.

Marie Juchacz's decades of struggle for the SPD bears fruit in the end. Friedrich Ebert is now on the Council of People's Representatives. He said to Juchacz that the party owed it a great deal of thanks and would like it to run for the Reichstag. “Gentlemen and ladies”, Juchacz begins her speech on February 2, 1919, it is the first time in Germany that women are allowed to speak to the people as free and equals.

  • Addendum

In January 1919, 17 million German women exercised their right to vote. One month later they entered the German National Assembly for the first time. They made up 41 of 423 MPs.

production

Production notes

On behalf of WDR (editors: Christiane Hinz and Barbara Schmitz), NDR (editors: Ulrike Dotzer (also for Arte )) and BR (editors: Andrea Bräu) in cooperation with the Franco-German broadcaster Arte, a Gebrüder Beetz film production was created in cooperation with the Filmstiftung Nordrhein-Westfalen and Nordmedia Creative Europe, funded by Creative Europe Media with funds from Nordmedia -Film- und Mediengesellschaft Niedersachsen / Bremen mbH. under the scientific advice of Dr. Kerstin Wolff and Lydia Struck and with the help of historical film material from the archive of the German women's movement that was cut into the film story .

Filming

Half the world is ours - when women fought for the right to vote , the film was shot between April 5 and April 17, 2018. The working title of the film was You Had No Choice - 100 Years of Women's Suffrage , alternatively The Victory of Women .

Annette Baumeister said in an interview on Deutschlandfunk that she was very impressed by the courage and verve of the activists Marie Juchacz, Anita Augspurg, Emmeline Pankhurst and Marguerite Durand, who are at the center of their film. It has become clear to her that what she is doing herself today and the life that she is leading is largely thanks to these women.

publication

The premiere of the film took place on October 2, 2018 at the Hamburg Film Festival. It will also be shown during the Nordic Film Days Lübeck . It was first broadcast on television on November 13, 2018 on the Franco-German broadcaster Arte. On November 26, 2018, the film ran for the first time in the ARD program. In France it was published under the title Quand les femmes s'émancipent .

The film was released on DVD by Lingua Video Medien GmbH on March 26, 2019, playing time 104 minutes.

Open letter on the late ARD slot

The film, which was broadcast on Arte in prime time at 8:15 p.m., was first broadcast on ARD from 11:30 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. The director Annette Baumeister and the four actresses who wear the film took this as an opportunity to send an open letter to those responsible for the ARD program Das Erste . They asked why "such an important film is shown so late" and pointed out that working people have to get up early the next morning. This question was among the most frequently asked questions that they would now like to pass on: “Why is a docu-drama about four strong women who have made world history hidden? If films about supermarket founders and real estate fraudsters are broadcast at prime time, why not - despite all the programming constraints that certainly exist - a film about four heroines who have changed our lives forever? "You pointed out that the public service broadcaster" the privilege " have "not having to face the market", which "the fee payers would accept" as long as one "is not only oriented towards quota expectations, but also prominently places substantial contributions on current topics in the program".

Historical background

In the 19th century, women across Europe were still oppressed and controlled by others. They are mocked, imprisoned and tortured. They are not allowed to vote, get a divorce, raise their illegitimate children themselves, nor are they allowed to participate in elections. Many of them do not want to take this any longer. Sun founded Emmeline Pankhurst (1858-1928) in England, the "Women's Social and Political Union" and Marguerite Durand (1864-1936) in France and a newspaper for women, the feminist magazine "La Fronde". The German social reformer and women's rights activist Marie Juchacz (1879–1956) tried to promote women's rights in Germany. The German lawyer and pacifist Anita Augspurg (1857–1943) was also active in the bourgeois radical women's movement .

The politicians in power, all male, cracked down on the activists. From 1906, a wave of unrest spread in Manchester and London, which spilled over to Berlin and Paris: the women were determined to fight for the right to vote against all odds. In June 1909 nearly 500,000 people gathered in London to demonstrate for women's rights. When the First World War broke out in 1914 and drove Europe into disaster, the struggle of the suffragettes was suddenly interrupted. It was only towards the end of the war that women in Germany, England, France and other countries succeeded in asserting a right to vote for themselves. On November 12, 1918, the Council of People's Representatives introduced women's suffrage in Germany. Women's suffrage was introduced in the United Kingdom in 1928 and in France in 1944.

Note : see also article → Women's suffrage movement in Germany

reception

Audience ratings

In the program Das Erste, the film still had 480,000 viewers at the late airing time, which corresponds to a market share of 4.7 percent, in the Arte program it was 230,000 viewers with a market share of 0.8 percent.

criticism

Anja Rützel from Spiegel Online wrote: "A constant, piercing, extremely current memory, which works excellently in this interplay - and makes this docudrama so vivid that it makes you pleasantly angry when you look back from a secure, at least legally equal position."

Manfred Riepe dealt with the docudrama in Tagesspiegel and said that the film was "worthy of the pioneering deeds of Emmeline Pankhurst, Marguerite Durand, Anita Augspurg and Marie Juchacz", whose "changeful struggles" had already been told "in documentaries and feature films" . The “suffragettes were only portrayed as lone fighters”. Annette Baumeister has “found a new approach to this topic” by cleverly interweaving the biographies of the pioneers. “Feminism” becomes “tangible as an international phenomenon”. “Above all, the tricky situation of women's rights activists”, who “had been caught between all stools at the turn of the century”, becomes “tangible”. In conclusion, Riepe concluded: “Despite the game scenes that took some getting used to, 'Half the world is ours' is convincing. The film is well researched and vividly shows that the struggle for the right to vote is only the culmination of a systematic disadvantage of women in all areas of life. "

Joachim Heinz wrote in the Konradsblatt , the weekly newspaper for the Archdiocese of Freiburg on the Internet, that the docudrama “relies less on an abundance of facts and historical images”. Instead, "the events are staged by actors" who "in their best moments" let the audience "understand the verbal battles of that time, but also deprivations and physical confrontations with great immediacy". Half of the world belongs to us, Heinz continues, is “not easy fare; Jumps in time and changing the narrative perspective required a certain amount of attention ”. In return, the docudrama offers “plenty of material to reflect on the excesses of power and false morality that are still functioning, about loyalty to principles and moral courage”.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Half the world belongs to us - As women won the right to vote, see page nordmedia.de
  2. Half the world belongs to us - When women fought for the right to vote at crew united
  3. Kerstin Zilm: Arte docudrama "Half the world belongs to us" - "We stand on the shoulders of giant women" see page deutschlandfunk.de, November 12, 2018. Accessed on August 21, 2019.
  4. Half of the world is ours - when women fought for the right to vote, see page gebrueder-beetz.de
  5. Half the world belongs to us - When women fought for the right to vote, see page luebeck.de
  6. Half the world belongs to us - When women fought for the right to vote Fig. DVD case Lingua Video Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion
  7. a b Open letter on ARD slot for the film “Half the world belongs to us. When women fought for the right to vote ” see page medienkorrespondenz.de. Retrieved August 21, 2019.
  8. ^ Anja Rützel : Documentary drama on women's suffrage. Well roared lioness! see spiegel.de, November 12, 2018. Accessed August 21, 2019.
  9. Manfred Riepe: Half of the world belongs to us In: Der Tagesspiegel , November 12, 2018. Retrieved on August 21, 2019.
  10. Joachim Heinz: Half of the world belongs to us see page konradsblatt.de. Retrieved August 21, 2019.