Maria Elisabeth Epstein

Maria Elisabeth Epstein , called "Else Epstein" (* December 22, 1881 in Frankfurt am Main ; † December 13, 1948 ) was a German politician ( DDP , CDU ) and a member of the Advisory State Committee .

Education and family

Else Epstein, née Beling, was born as the daughter of the Reichsbank director Johann Heinrich Beling and his wife Maria Elisabeth Beling née Rhumbler. In 1886 the family moved to Strasbourg, where the father became head of the Reichsbank headquarters in Strasbourg. In 1894 the family returned to Frankfurt after their father became head of the Reichsbank headquarters there. In the same year her brother Bernhard Beling was born.

From 1897 Belling attended the higher girls' school in Frankfurt. Then she attended a course for household teachers and studied economics for 2 years at the Frankfurt Academy for Social and Commercial Sciences . She did not graduate because she did not have a high school diploma. In 1911 she married Wilhelm Epstein , a Jewish chemist.

Popular education work

Else Epstein was active in Frankfurt's popular education work from 1906 to 1930. Before the First World War she worked for the Rhein-Mainischer Verband für Volksbildung and later as managing director of the Frankfurt Association for Popular Education . From 1930 to 1933 she was a member of the working and central steering committee of the Federation for Popular Education, the forerunner of today's Volkshochschule Frankfurt am Main .

Between 1919 and 1933 she was a member of the DDP and in the 1920s city councilor in Frankfurt am Main.

With the seizure of power by the Nazis they had to finish their work. In 1941, after the death of her husband, she was first taken into police custody after being denounced and then interned in the Ravensbrück women's concentration camp from 1942 to 1943 .

After the Second World War , in 1945 she was one of the founding members of the CDU in Frankfurt am Main.

From February 26, 1946 to July 14, 1946 she was a member of the Advisory State Committee, a forerunner of the Hessian State Parliament . Since the first free local elections in 1946 , she was again a city councilor in Frankfurt until 1948. In the Romans she was chairman of the committee for science and art. From March 1946 until her death she was again head of the re-admitted Frankfurt Association for Popular Education.

Honors / nominations

Honorary grave in the main cemetery

In Frankfurt-Nordend West a street named "Else-Epstein-Weg". Her grave in the main cemetery in Frankfurt am Main is a grave of honor .

literature

• Ingrid Langer (Ed.): Alibi women? Hessian women politicians in the pre-parliaments 1946-1950. 1985, ISBN 3-927164-23-2 , pages 106-128.
• Jochen Lengemann : The Hessen Parliament 1946–1986 . Biographical handbook of the advisory state committee, the state assembly advising the constitution and the Hessian state parliament (1st – 11th electoral period). Ed .: President of the Hessian State Parliament. Insel-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1986, ISBN 3-458-14330-0 , p. 241 ( hessen.de [PDF; 12.4 MB ]).
• Jochen Lengemann: MdL Hessen. 1808-1996. Biographical index (= political and parliamentary history of the state of Hesse. Vol. 14 = publications of the Historical Commission for Hesse. Vol. 48, 7). Elwert, Marburg 1996, ISBN 3-7708-1071-6 , p. 119.

Web links

• Hessian state government: Historical personality pictures - Hesse 60 years ago - June 1945 (PDF file; 59 kB)
• Epstein, Else. Hessian biography. (As of December 13, 2019). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).