Frida Fetzer

Frida Fetzer around 1909

The Fetzer couple with their daughter

Art Nouveau front page of the women's magazine Tabea (1917)

Frida Fetzer , née Rauschenbusch (born September 25, 1855 in the USA ; † June 1, 1934 in Hamburg ) was an American-German Baptist journalist and functionary, co-founder of the Hamburg deaconess mother house Siloah (today: Albertinen-Diakoniewerk Hamburg-Schnelsen ), for many years Editor of the Baptist women's magazine Tabea and co-chair of the Baptist Association of Virgins, Youth and Women’s Associations .

Life

Frida Fetzer was the eldest daughter of the German-American theology professor August Rauschenbusch and a sister of Walter Rauschenbusch , the founder of the Social Gospel Movement . Her sister Emma served as a missionary in India.

Fetzer made her personal decision to follow Christ as a young woman in Barmen . Their believers' baptism she received in the local Baptist chapel, now called Koebner Church carries. In 1877 Frieda Rauschenbusch married the Baptist clergyman Johann Georg Fetzer . He had studied at her father's seminary and in 1878 was appointed pastor of the Grundschöttel Baptist congregation . In 1881 she followed her husband to Hamburg, who had taken on a lectureship at the Baptist seminary there. They had six children from their marriage.

In 1888, Fetzer took over responsibility for the Baptist women's magazine Tabea . The beginning of the paper, which was initially published by Kittie Bickel, the wife of the publicist Philipp Bickel , dates back to 1883. It was originally intended as a counterpart to Word and Work , the central organ of the Baptist youth groups , but it was from the beginning a magazine whose target audience were female adolescents and young adults as well as seasoned wives and mothers. In 1930 Fetzer wrote in retrospect: “I clearly remember how in 1883 the manager of our publishing house showed me the sample number of the first housewife newspaper and at the same time informed us of his plan to publish a Christian monthly for women and virgins. That was a timely plan. If it is important for a people that their wives are educated and drawn up to work in the common good, then this applies to Christian communities to a greater extent [...]. ”The magazine Tabea did not remain without effect on the internal and external structure Baptist women's work. Numerous regional women's associations emerged, including the Baptist women's association Gelsenkirchen (1889), the Berlin virgin association (1892), the numerically strong East Prussian virgin association (1894), the women's (1895) and virgin association (1895) in north-west Germany , the women's association in Hesse ( 1895) and the West Prussian Women's Association (1897). Regional women's associations were also founded in Austria and Switzerland, but they later disbanded.

The associations mentioned, as well as the clubs that existed before Tabea was released , were only loosely related to one another. In 1892, Frida Fetzer suggested in Tabea to consider the establishment of a central Baptist women's association. Other impulse articles appeared on this subject, including an appeal from Albertine Assor . In 1906, on the occasion of its federal conference in Königsberg , the German Baptist Union invited to a so-called sisters' meeting under the direction of Fetzer. It was there that the decisive course was set for the establishment of the Association of Virgins, Youth and Women’s Associations , which took place in 1910. Frida Fetzer became the first chairwoman of the association. She held this office until 1916. Her successor was Else Neuschäfer, wife of the seminar director Carl Neuschäfer , and after 1921 the aforementioned Albertine Assor. In the decades that followed, the association underwent some restructuring. In the mid-1920s, youth work was separated and continued as an independent organization. Therefore the name of the association founded by Fetzer also changed; In 1927 it was women's service of the Federation of Baptist Congregations and today it was women's service in the Federation of Evangelical Free Churches .

Today's Albertinen-Diakoniewerk , named after its founder Albertine Assor, was founded in 1907 as the Deaconess Mother House Siloah eV . For three-member board of the association was one of Frida Fetzer, "which was a motherly friend for Assor." During her tenure, a residential building on was Eimsbütterler Fettstraße 20 rented the first parent. As deaconry grew, more living space had to be procured just over a year later. This was located at Schulstrasse 36. In October 1918, the board of directors was able to acquire a larger building at Tornquiststrasse 50 for the Siloah Sisterhood. It was officially inaugurated on April 3, 1919.

Frida Fetzer was also a popular speaker. She was one of the few women who gave a lecture at the first European Baptist Congress in 1908. The topic of her talk was: The work of women in the family .

In 1918 Fetzer, whose husband had died in 1909, fell very seriously ill. She died in 1934 after having been sick for sixteen years.

Publications (selection)

• The Work of Women in the Family - Lecture given on September 3, 1908 during the 1st European Baptist Congress in Berlin
• I strive for the light , Kassel ³1940

Quote

“Whatever other objection to them, the women's movement has achieved one good thing in the last few decades: a greater appreciation of the work of women in the house. It has been seen that from an economic, social and educational point of view, work is being performed here which is only possible for the woman for whom only she is capable. And yet this work is quite indispensable for humanity, neither state nor family can flourish without it. It is more important than the greatest inventions and ventures; therefore every sin against women takes revenge not only on the individual but on the whole people. What holds down the woman, holds down the whole people as well; but where it is spiritually liberated and rises higher in culture, the people rise with it. "

- Frida Fetzer: The work of women in the family - Presentation at the 1st European Baptist Congress, Berlin 1908

literature

• Frank Fornaçon: Article Fetzer, Frida , in: One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism. 150 years of Baptist congregations in Germany (Ed. Günter Balders), Wuppertal and Kassel ²1984, ISBN 3-7893-7883-6 , p. 344
• Rudolf Donat: The growing work. Expansion of the German Baptist congregations through sixty years (1849–1909) , Kassel 1960, pp. 477–481
• Carl Schneider: Article by Frida Fetzer , Journal of Truth Witnesses No. 50, Kassel 1934, p. 426f

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Rudolf Donat: The growing work , Kassel 1960, p. 477
2. ↑ Philipp Bickel , then managing director of Oncken-Verlag, is meant
3. ↑ Tabea magazine , 8/1930; quoted from Rudolf Donat: The growing work , Kassel 1960, p. 478
4. ^ Rudolf Donat: The growing work , Kassel 1960, p. 478
5. ↑ ^{a b} Frank Fornaçon: Article Fetzer, Frida , in: One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism. 150 Years of Baptist Congregations in Germany , Wuppertal / Kassel 1984, p. 344
6. ^ Rudolf Donat: The growing work , Kassel 1960, p. 481
7. ↑ Axel Steen: Article Assor, Albertine , in: A Lord, a Faith, a Baptism. 150 Years of Baptist Congregations in Germany , Wuppertal / Kassel 1984, p. 339
8. ↑ Internet presence of the Frauenwerk in the BEFG ( Memento of the original from August 22, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; accessed on August 6, 2013 
9. ↑ Albertinen-Haus - Mother House for Protestant Diakonie and Hospitals eV (Ed.): Fifty Years Albertinen-Haus , Hamburg 1957, p. 5f
10. ^ Frank Fornaçon: Born 150 years ago. Albertine Assor - pretty self-conscious , in: magazine albertinen aktuell. Das Magazin , 1/2013, p. 10
11. ^ Friedrich Wilhelm Simoleit (Ed.): Official report on the 1st Congress of European Baptists. Held in Berlin from August 29 to September 3, 1908 , Cassel 1908, pp. 295-300
12. ↑ The paper can be found in printed form from Friedrich Wilhelm Simoleit (ed.): Official report on the 1st Congress of European Baptists. Held in Berlin from August 29 to September 3, 1908 , Cassel 1908, pp. 295-300