Else Frobenius

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Else Gaehtgens

Else Frobenius, née Gaehtgens (born May 14, 1875 in Lazdonas, Madona , Russian Empire ; † August 3, 1952 in Schleswig ) was a Baltic German journalist and political lobbyist .

Live and act

Else Frobenius was born in Lasdohn, a small town in Livonia, in 1875 and grew up in Riga from 1882 , which was then the third largest city in Russia. She came from the German Baltic pastor family Gaehtgens; her father was Theophil Gaehtgens . She was the oldest of eight children, including three sisters. Else Frobenius was brought up to be evangelical and religious and educated as a middle class. Accordingly, bans were the order of the day, which was reinforced by the father's motto, "My daughters should become good house plants". Her education consisted of a combination of secondary school for girls and private home tuition. In 1892 she passed the Russian-speaking governess exam, but never practiced her profession.

Frobenius acted in the context of colonial propaganda , diverse political lobbying and women-specific topics and was one of the pioneers in the journalistic profession. In addition, she became increasingly committed to the professionalization of the journalistic profession. She is one of the many German women in the late empire who became active citizens through charitable and national associations from 1919 and who represented a decidedly national and right-wing politics. She has written newspaper articles, essays and several books. Her journalism often dealt with political issues, where she appeared as a propagandist for colonial (revisionist), Baltic German, national (liberal) content. In a fire on November 22, 1943 in Berlin's Hansa district , numerous works in her carefully maintained private archive burned, causing her to lose thousands of books and thousands upon thousands of documents from her career spanning more than 30 years. The documents she was able to save included fragments of her life story, which she had started to write around the turn of 1942/1943. The manuscript was completed in October 1944 but was not published until 2005. Lora Wildenthal published the records previously kept in the family archive, which is one of the reasons why her extensive work has so far not been fully explored. In addition to this, there is also another, previously unpublished manuscript entitled: The Golden Key. Carrying memories of an old woman.

From the Baltic to Berlin

At the age of 23, she married the lawyer Carl von Boetticher in Riga in 1898 and, as a member of the urban upper class, led a radically different life that was abruptly ended by the financial bankruptcy of her husband. In 1908 she then moved to Berlin to study independently and away from the great waves of migration from the Baltic States. In 1915 she married the painter Hermann Frobenius in Berlin . Both marriages ended in divorce (1910 and 1921) and remained childless. However, she continued to carry the family name Frobenius, as it had already been introduced through her numerous journalistic articles. All the more, Else Frobenius had to work out the economic basis herself and in several respects no longer corresponded to the female model biographies of her time. She stayed in Berlin from 1908 to 1945 , where she initially studied German language and literature as a guest student at the university for six semesters . A quote from her manuscript The Golden Key gives an insight into how she saw that time:

“I came to Berlin in the first days of March 1908. […] With a dive, I plunged into the student's life, which was completely new to me. With [...] the fervor of a woman who said to herself: "A person who has no children must create something that surpasses him - otherwise his whole life is without meaning or value!" I took up every work that offered itself to me. "

With a major in “German Literature”, Frobenius turned to a field of study that is over-proportionally frequented by women. At just under 33, it was above the average age of the first generation of female students. She ascribes a central role to the literary historian Erich Schmidt (1853–1913), who was also her mentor . Her autobiography praises awesome admiration for the man and scientist Schmidt. Later she consistently strived for independence through additional journalistic earnings. In Berlin in 1912 Frobenius was accepted into the German Lyceum Club , a powerful women's organization, in which she held various offices during her almost 30-year membership. From 1914 to 1922 she worked as general secretary of the »Women's Association of the German Colonial Society «. In 1916 she co-founded the "Baltic Women's Association" and held the honorary chairmanship until the association dissolved itself in 1936. From the age of 50, she established and intensified relationships with the youth movement . Her writings often dealt with political issues and she appeared in word and deed as a lobbyist for colonial and national-ethnic interests.

Political work in the Weimar Republic (1919–1933)

At the end of the First World War , Else Frobenius joined the right-wing German People's Party in 1919 and remained a member until 1930. She exercised responsibility at the local level, but withdrew increasingly disappointed from the democratic party work since the mid-1920s. The issue of women's suffrage , which emerged strongly at the beginning of the Weimar Republic, played a decisive role for Else Frobenius , on which she also expressed herself in her autobiography with the following quote:

“Universal suffrage [1918] called everyone to the front. […] Women also played a role in these communities [political parties]. Not only the rank of her husband or beauty and wealth were decisive as in the pre-war period, but also her personal achievement. I was probably the first German journalist who tried to advertise border and foreign Germanism in women's and entertainment newspapers. "

At the end of November 1918, she took part in the voting rights discourse with an allegorical poem that was reprinted several times, in which she appealed to her fellow women: "The right to vote is compulsory! Do not disdain Fortuna's gift!" She insisted on the new civic options and at the same time expressed her appreciation for women who had been champions of the new privilege. In the first half of 1919, the publicist for Die Welt der Frau, a supplement to the magazine Die Gartenlaube, wrote four longer articles in which she portrayed politicians from different parliamentary groups with appreciation. She dealt with political participation in the narrower sense, particularly in the early 1920s, for example by writing about parliamentary women’s professions in a national journal and making a plea for women to help shape all parliamentary institutions and hierarchies. Frobenius had high goals and repeatedly expressed this clearly: "We have not yet made it to a female minister, but we do have several female government councilors who might be heading for this post". In her text she urged women to become active as citizens, to take responsibility for "the whole of the people" and therefore, for example, to refuse office offers "not out of comfort or fearfulness". In 1928, Frobenius urged active female participation again in the course of an appeal placed on the front page with the headline To women. Although Else Frobenius again addressed female political participation two years later in a quarter-hour radio report on September 22, 1930 under the title “Die Frau im Staat”, she made the decision that year to end her membership in the DVP. Frobenius combined his active participation in various political interest groups with his journalistic work. Lora Wildenthal characterizes Frobenius as follows:

"Frobenius was a typical woman who embraced a conservative model of women's activism, yet benefited tremendously from the changes that the Weimar Republic brought to women."

Journalistic work during the Nazi era

Long before she went to Berlin, Frobenius felt strongly connected to the German Empire and was one of the first to formulate the role of women in the National Socialist state, despite the dictatorial leadership principle practiced in Berlin , which often involves discrimination against opinions and people was connected. She joined the NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers' Party) on May 1, 1933, for which she wrote a propaganda book entitled »The Woman in the Third Reich«. In it she described the role of women in the Nazi state. Frobenius understood women in the völkisch state unreservedly as “the bearer of the race”. She was also of the opinion that through early marriage and motherhood it could be possible "to withdraw young men from the temptation to a sterile, blood and soul destroying love life". It is downright ridiculous, however, "in view of such high goals, the decadent accusation that National Socialism wanted to degrade women to the 'birthing machine'". But that is exactly what their ideas came down to. Else Frobenius interprets her life as a success story. There are mostly positive aspects in their writings. She does not mention the Holocaust or the annihilation of those who think differently. There is also nothing to be found that could cloud this view.

Else Frobenius' ideas, which she develops in her writing, read like a program for the role of women or the woman's body in the biopolitical-folk dictatorship. After the Berliner was bombed three times during the Second World War , she left the city in 1945 and moved to Schleswig-Holstein . There she again represented Baltic German interests in the context of refugee care . Else Frobenius died in Schleswig in 1952 at the age of 77.

Works

  • Else Frobenius: Memories of a Journalist: Between the German Empire and the Second World War, ed. and commented by Lora Wildenthal. Böhlau, Cologne 2005.
  • Else Frobenius: The woman in the Third Reich. Nationaler Verlag Joseph Haribaldi, Berlin-Wilhelmsdorf 1933.

literature

  • U. Wolfgang Eckart: Woman and gynecology in National Socialism. Comments on the topic, open questions. Georg Thieme Verlag, Stuttgart 2012.
  • Silke Helling: Spotlights on an early journalist and political lobbyist: Else Frobenius (1875–1952). In: Ulrike, Auga u. a. (Ed.): The gender of the sciences. On the history of women academics in the 19th and 20th centuries. Campus, Frankfurt a. M. 2010, pp. 141-156.
  • Silke Helling: women as citizens. Perspectives of the Berlin journalist Else Frobenius (1875–1952). In: Stefan Krammer, Marion Löffler, Martin Weidinger: State in Disorder? Gender perspectives on Germany and Austria between the world wars. Transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2012.
  • Anja Wilhelmi: Worlds of Life for Women of the German Upper Class in the Baltic States (1800–1939). An investigation based on autobiographies. Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 2008. p. 163.
  • L. Carola Gottzmann, Petra Hörner: Lexicon of the German-language literature of the Baltic States and St. Petersburg. Walter de Gruyter Verlag, Berlin 2007. pp. 444-445.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Anja Wilhelmi: Living worlds of women of the German upper class in the Baltic States, p. 163.
  2. ↑ Silke Helling: Women as Citizens, p. 61 f.
  3. ↑ Silke Helling: Schlaglichter auf an early journalist and political lobbyist, p. 142.
  4. ↑ a b Silke Helling: Women as Citizens, p. 63.
  5. ↑ a b c fembio.org
  6. ^ Silke Helling: Schlaglichter auf an early journalist and political lobbyist, p. 149 f.
  7. ↑ Silke Helling: Women as Citizens, p. 65.
  8. ↑ Silke Helling: Women as Citizens, p. 67.
  9. ↑ a b Silke Helling: Women as Citizens, p. 68.
  10. ↑ Silke Helling: Schlaglichter auf an early journalist and political lobbyist, p. 144.
  11. ↑ a b c d Wolfgang Eckart: Woman and gynecology in National Socialism, p. 89.
  12. ↑ Silke Helling: Schlaglichter auf an early journalist and political lobbyist, p. 142 f.
personal data
SURNAME Frobenius, Else
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gaehtgens, Else (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist and political lobbyist
DATE OF BIRTH May 14, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH Lazdonas, Madona , Russian Empire
DATE OF DEATH 3rd August 1952
Place of death Schleswig , Holstein