Else Wirminghaus

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Else Wirminghaus (1908)

Else Pauline Marie Wirminghaus (born April 29, 1867 in Oldenburg ; † August 13, 1939 in Cologne-Lindenthal , born Else Pauline Marie Strackerjan ) was a German author , promoter of the women's movement , studied musician and piano teacher.

Life

The Protestant Else Wirminghaus was the daughter of the teacher , Germanist and grammar school director Karl Dietrich August Strackerjan , whose life she wrote down biographically in 1905 and was written by Mathilde Johanna Elisabeth, née. Schröder . She married Alexander Wirminghaus on May 20, 1890 in Oldenburg . They had three children together. Their only son, Helmuth , became a well-known Cologne architect .

At the age of 17 Else Strackerjan went to Leipzig to take up music studies, which she completed as a certified piano teacher. Even after her marriage, she taught private students. In 1892 she moved to Cologne with her husband and firstborn son. Alexander Wirminghaus took up the position of in-house counsel for the Cologne Chamber of Commerce there , which is why the family also lived in their house at Rheingasse 8, the Overstolzenhaus . In 1904 she was advertised by Klara Sander and Margarete Buschhausen for the “Association for the Improvement of Women's Clothing”, which they had founded shortly before and which she took over as chairman in 1905. Klara Sander liked “The coolness and seriousness of the North Germans”. Sander also noted in her memoirs: “When she took over the organization of our association for the improvement of women's clothing, the matter took shape. She herself had no idea how to make clothes, but she was firmly convinced that women would be unable to emancipate as long as the bondage of fashion prevailed and by constricting the core they suffered all sorts of ailments that they could compete with men Together they promoted the reform clothes known in Cologne as “Naakspunjels” (nightgowns) . The board members Margarete Buschhausen and Maria Thierbach ran tailoring studios in Cologne in which they had specialized in reform costume. Lectures, competitions and the distribution of leaflets were among the other activities of the association. Sander and Wirminghaus were also the editors of the club magazine Die neue Frauenkleendung , published from 1905 , the title of which was changed in 1910 to New Women’s Clothing and Women’s Culture . The magazine, which initially appeared quarterly, was printed on art paper and also contained photographs from the start. Doctors like Schneider made contributions to reform clothing from various aspects. As a result, it also became an association journal for other associations founded in other cities and regions, including the “Rhenish-Westphalian Association for the Improvement of Women's Clothing” founded in 1906. While there were still three club papers published in parallel in 1906, the new women's clothing became the central organ of the association in the same year. In 1908 its circulation was 3000, in 1911 6000 and rose to 8700 copies by 1915. From 1910, meanwhile 21 associations were members of the “German Association for the Improvement of Women's Clothing”, founded in 1907, the association's journal was now published 10 times a year at the G. Braunschen Hofdruckerei in Karlsruhe. In 1909 the Cologne “Association for the Improvement of Women's Clothing” was a founding member of the “Association of Cologne Women’s Associations”; Else Wirminghaus also took over the chairmanship there.

Long before it became common practice, she dealt with a natural body culture as the basis for a healthy life and appropriate clothing. The result of her thoughts was the book The Woman and the Culture of the Body , which was published in Leipzig in 1911.

"In general, women walk very badly, and they can hardly walk."

- Else Wirminghaus : The woman and the culture of the body

Another Wirminghaus project was the introduction of the so-called Swedish gymnastics developed by Pehr Henrik Ling , which, unlike the gymnastics practiced in the German Reich , “preferred flowing and harmonious movements”. Her book Bleibe jung , written together with the gymnast Luise Nyber, who trained in Stockholm . Woman daily physical exercises. appeared in three editions until 1927. In 1904 Else Wirminghaus arranged a performance by Isadora Duncan in the rooms of the civil society. The American dancer developed, with her barefooted dances and for the time unusually short robes, based on Greek models, a new dance art that focused on the sensation of body and movement.

Shortly before the First World War , the Werkbund exhibition took place in Cologne , where she realized her long-cherished plan of a “Cologne Women's Week”. She herself gave the lecture there: “The harmonious human being - the basis of cultural progress”. Her husband Alexander had been a member of the German Werkbund since 1912 . During the war Else Wirmingahaus was involved in the “National Women's Community”. She organized nutrition lectures and courses with the “Hausfrauenbund”, founded an advice and information center “Am Domhof” for “the needy Cologne citizens and the shameful poor, as well as those in need of help traveling through” and was the source of ideas for the “clothes stretching”, a sewing room for those in need of all social classes.

The impressions left by the war may then change their attitude. She recognized for herself that the women's movement had so far focused on women in the cities - and especially those with a higher level of education - and “paid far too little attention” to rural (labor) women and those employed in industry. As a consequence, she resigned her chairmanship of the “Association for the Improvement of Women's Clothing” in 1919. Lina Schumacher commented on this on May 16, 1929 in the “Nachrichtenblatt des Stadtverband Kölner Frauenvereine” (NB): “Her deep social conscience, her strong educational attitude drove her to turn to other social classes than the upper class was the main issue the group of members of the Association for New Women's Clothing came from. ”Finally, the magazine, which had been in charge of since 1905, now an organ of the“ Association for Women’s Clothing and Woman Culture ”, was published in 1920 by Otto Beyer in Leipzig . The collaboration with Else Wirminghaus and Klara Sander was resolved.

Parallel to her retirement from the association's chairmanship, in 1919 she founded the monthly magazine Die Frau und ihr Haus with Klara Sander and the Cologne SPD politician Elisabeth Kirschmann-Röhl , “which has set itself the task of seriously working on the burning issues of culture among women of our time , social and educational aspects. ”(NB of February 5, 1931). Else Wirminghaus took over the management of the main publication and kept it at least until 1936. The last surviving editions date from this year. The publisher was the “Advertising Agency for German Women's Culture”, which was supported by herself, Klara Sander and, among others, Ida Macco as an employee and author. Lina Schumacher commented in the news paper on May 16, 1929: “At a time like ours, in which political and ideological opposites also separate women's circles, it is particularly beneficial for women in the circle around Ms. Wirminghaus, who calls himself 'advertising agency' to meet different directions and professions. The round table, around which Ms. Wirminghaus meets once a month, seems to me symbolic of the harmonious, connecting and - with all due respect for honest conviction - bridging the opposites. "The extremely well-read Else Wirminghaus was familiar with the matriarchal theories Johann Jakob Bachofens and Mathilde Vaertings , who changed the understanding of gender roles in research.

"Occasionally at a meeting in the Prussian House of Representatives, in which educational issues of the female sex were dealt with, a representative of the ministry expressed the opinion that one could not grant the girl as long an education period as the boy, since he naturally had to marry at the age of 20." . So that means that the man must necessarily be about 10 years older than the woman. Incidentally, this view seems to have already been overtaken by the prevailing custom, because today's marriages show much more often that the married couples are approximately the same age than before. Very understandable. In the past, the man was unconditional authority for his wife, and this could only be sustained if he had the necessary excess weight in old age. Today, however, the comradely relationship of equality appears much more in marriage. And isn't this also the healthier state? Isn't it necessary for the full development of women and for the harmonious development of men that two equals influence each other? A well-educated girl will by no means have faded, even if she does not marry at the age of 20, as that government representative so urgently wishes every girl, but only much later and, after having got to know the world and people, is able to carry out her duties to really do justice as a mother and educator. "

- Else Wirminghaus : The woman and the culture of the body.

Shortly after the seizure of power by the Nazis and their allies, wrote Else Wirminghaus on 9 March 1933 newsletter, which they hope to have a "reversal of fortune" of Germany. Your advertising went in the direction of a “new connection” between people. "... we are looking for this bond above all in the realm of the mothers - but not limited to the family, but also in wide fields of inexhaustible possibilities for the unmarried woman ..."

Barely three weeks before the start of the Second World War , Else Wirminghaus died on August 13, 1939 in her house in Cologne-Lindenthal, Robert-Blum-Str. 11. Her companion in the women's movement from 1904 to 1920, Klara Sander, had left Germany in January 1936 with her daughter Bertha . As a Jew, she was no longer wanted in Germany.

Else Wirminghaus was buried in the Melaten cemetery in Cologne . The tomb no longer exists.

Fonts

  • Karl Strackerjan: from the life and work of a German schoolboy. Stalling, Oldenburg 1905.
  • The woman and the culture of the body. (= The cultural tasks of women, Volume 3) C. F. Amelangs, Leipzig 1911.
  • with Klara Sander: The dress of the working woman. G. Braun, Karlsruhe 1917.
  • with Klara Sander: For our children: 131 role models for German clothes, lingerie and handicraft. 4th edition, G. Braun, Karlsruhe 1920.
  • with Klara Sander: Simple clothes, underwear, underwear. Reprint from the magazine: New women's clothing and women's culture. 2nd improved edition, G. Braun, Karlsruhe 1920.
  • with Luise Neyber: stay young. Woman daily physical exercises. G. Braun, Karlsruhe 1921 (2nd edition 1925, 3rd edition 1927)

literature

  • Cologne Women's History Association (Ed.): 10 a.m. punctually in Gürzenich. A hundred years of moving women in Cologne - on the history of organizations and associations. (= Agenda Women, Volume 5) Agenda Verlag, Münster 1995, ISBN 3-929440-53-9 .
  • Patricia Ober: The women’s new clothes. The reform dress and the construction of the modern woman's body. Hans Schiler, Berlin 2005, ISBN 978-3-89930-025-3 .
  • Sully Roecken: Else Wirminghaus 1867–1939. In: Kölner Frauengeschichtsverein (Ed.): 10 a.m. punctually in Gürzenich. A hundred years of moving women in Cologne - on the history of organizations and associations. (= Agenda Women, Volume 5) Agenda Verlag, Münster 1995, ISBN 3-929440-53-9 , pp. 179-182.
  • Robert Steimel: Cologne heads. Steimel Verlag, Cologne 1958, without ISBN, column 439.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Landesarchiv Nordrhein-Westfalen, civil status archive Rhineland, civil status register, registry office Cologne – Lindenthal, deaths, 1939, document no. 1812
  2. ↑ Sully Roecken: Else Wirminghaus 1867-1939. P. 179.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Sully Roecken: Else Wirminghaus 1867–1939. P. 180.
  4. ↑ Kölner Frauengeschichtsverein (Ed.): 10 a.m. punctually in Gürzenich. A hundred years of moving women in Cologne - on the history of organizations and associations. P. 91.
  5. ↑ Patricia Ober: The women’s new clothes. The reform dress and the construction of the modern woman's body. P. 39 f.
  6. ↑ Patricia Ober: The women’s new clothes. The reform dress and the construction of the modern woman's body. P. 64.
  7. ↑ Patricia Ober: The women’s new clothes. The reform dress and the construction of the modern woman's body. Pp. 85-87.
  8. ↑ Else Wirminghaus: The woman and the culture of the body. P. 153.
  9. ↑ Klara Sander: Old stories. Memories from Clara Sander. unprinted manuscript, London 1953, p. 79.
  10. ↑ Kölner Frauengeschichtsverein (Ed.): 10 a.m. punctually in Gürzenich. A hundred years of moving women in Cologne - on the history of organizations and associations. P. 93.
  11. ↑ Patricia Ober: The women’s new clothes. The reform dress and the construction of the modern woman's body. P. 45.
  12. ↑ a b c Sully Roecken: Else Wirminghaus 1867–1939. P. 181.
  13. ↑ Else Wirminghaus: The woman and the culture of the body. P. 111.
  14. ^ Josef Abt, Johannes Ralf Beines, Celia Körber-Leupold: Melaten - Cologne graves and history . Greven, Cologne 1997, ISBN 3-7743-0305-3 , p. 154
personal data
SURNAME Wirminghaus, Else
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wirminghaus, Else Pauline Marie (full name); Strackerjan, Else Pauline Marie (= maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German author and promoter of the women's movement
DATE OF BIRTH April 29, 1867
PLACE OF BIRTH Oldenburg
DATE OF DEATH August 13, 1939
Place of death Cologne-Lindenthal