Elisabeth Pape

Elisabeth Henriette Friederike Pape (born September 5, 1870 in Hamburg ; † February 25, 1964 there ) was a German educator and politician .

Live and act

Elisabeth Pape grew up in a middle-class Hamburg family. After attending a seminary school, she trained at the teachers' seminar . In 1889 she joined the Hamburg school service as a primary school teacher. Due to the laws in force at the time, as a teacher she was not allowed to marry or start a family.

Pape was committed to equality for teachers. She was the first woman to travel at her own expense with her female school class. In the 1920s she succeeded in establishing the class teaching post (ordinariate) in the higher classes at girls 'schools, for which the General German Teachers' Association had fought for a long time. Pape was appointed first ordinaria at a Selekta , for which she had to fight against strong reservations from male teachers. After teaching at several elementary schools, she went to the administration of the Hamburg high school authorities in 1929. During the Weimar Republic she was a member of the teachers 'chamber and the civil servants' council.

In addition to her professional activities, Pape was involved in the women's movement. She belonged to the Hamburg branch of the General German Women's Association , Department "Youth Protection", and in 1919 she founded the Political Women's Community Hamburg together with Emmy Beckmann and Margarete Treuge . The three activists hoped to enable a significantly larger proportion of women to receive a civic education. They wanted to achieve this through the cooperation of women from all parties, regardless of their worldview. Thus, the common intention should be emphasized more strongly. Since they could not find enough fellow campaigners, the work of the women's community ended in 1921.

Memorial stone in
the women's garden

Elisabeth Pape also did charitable work: she cared for orphans during the cholera epidemic of 1892 . During the First World War she co-founded the Hamburg War Aid in Winterhude . She also helped in the war hospital under Max Nun . For this she received the Iron Cross 2nd class on the black and white ribbon . During the turnip winter she helped to quarter 800 starving children with farming families. In 1920 she founded the Hamburg regional association of the German Pensioners' Association , which she headed until 1960. As chairman of this association for the protection of old age , she founded the retirement home Fiefstücke in Winterhude in 1929/31, supported by the Hamburger Sparcasse from 1827 .

From 1921 to 1932 Pape represented the German People's Party in the Hamburg Parliament . From 1928 to 1932 she kept minutes in her parliamentary group. She was a member of the board of the Seehospitals-Nordheim Foundation in Sahlenburg for 40 years and, as an honorary member, of the Association of German Country School Homes for a long time. After the Second World War , Pape joined the SPD and the workers' welfare organization.

For her voluntary work, Pape was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit in 1952.

A memorial stone in the women's garden at Hamburg's Ohlsdorf cemetery today commemorates the former educator and politician .

literature

• Rita Bake : Pape, Elisabeth . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 6 . Wallstein, Göttingen 2012, ISBN 978-3-8353-1025-4 , p. 241-242 .