Frida pearls

Frida Perlen (born April 4, 1870 in Ludwigsburg , † December 22, 1933 in Freudenstadt ) was a German pacifist .

She fought for civil equality for women in the bourgeois women's movement at the beginning of the 20th century. After the First World War, she co-founded the International Women's League for Peace and Freedom (IFFF), the German section of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom .

Life

Frida Perlen comes from a Jewish family from Ludwigsburg. She was born here on April 4, 1870, the second youngest of twelve children. Her father, Carl Kauffmann, was a manufacturer and was married for a second time. He died when Frida was 13 years old. In 1871 the Kauffmann family moved from Ludwigsburg to Stuttgart . Together with his brother Jakob, the father founded a mechanical cotton weaving mill there.

Frida grew up well integrated in a middle-class family and received the school and general education that was usual for girls at the time, in order to prepare them for their role as wife and mother. She was a student at a secondary school which girls usually dropped out of after 9 or 10 years without a qualifying degree. Attending high school and completing school education with the Abitur was reserved for the boys.

At the age of 19 Frida married the Jewish merchant Eugen Perlen, who came from Esslingen am Neckar . He was ten years older than her and was a partner in the Perlen & Cie. Cloth business opened by his father in Stuttgart in 1871. The couple had two sons, Karl Hans and Alfred, born in 1891 and 1894. Both sons took part in the First World War. The younger, Alfred, was killed in the western offensive in March 1918 in northern France. The older one, Hans, returned with war injuries with the Württemberg Silver Merit Medal and EK II.

After the National Socialists came to power in 1933, Frida Perlen initially stayed in Switzerland . After a stay in Geneva in April, she lived in Zurich in the house of Clara Ragaz , the head of the Swiss section of the International Women's League for Peace and Freedom [IFFF]. In autumn she returned to Germany seriously ill. She died on December 22, 1933 in the spa house of the Jewish doctor Dr. Carl Beer in Freudenstadt. The cause of death is unknown. Some of her friends abroad suspected suicide . Her urn was buried anonymously in the Prague cemetery in Stuttgart.

Political commitment

Positioning as radicals in the bourgeois women's and voting rights movement

Since 1904 Frida Perlen was active in the bourgeois women's movement. Here she belonged to the left wing, the "radicals". In contrast to the “moderates”, they not only fought for the establishment of girls' high schools, the admission of women to universities and the basic possibility for women to provide for their own living through a job. They demanded political participation and civic equality with men. The prerequisite for this was the introduction of women's suffrage . As a member of the German Association for Women's Suffrage, Frida Perlen also campaigned for this.

However, the demands of the radical women's rights activists did not only meet with resistance from the previously privileged men. Its own association, the Federation of German Women's Associations , which was founded in 1894 as the umbrella organization for all women's associations to jointly represent the interests of women, quickly distanced itself from the radical demands for a change in social conditions. The leadership of the BDF and with it the majority of the so-called moderate women's representatives supported the national-chauvinist tendencies in the German Reich, while the radicals demanded a clear commitment to international peace work and the fight for women's suffrage. Some radical women's organizations therefore pursued their goals outside the umbrella organization, founded magazines to publish news from the peace movement and published articles against war and militarism . For women's rights activists like Frida Perlen, the struggle against militarization and war was added to the struggle for women's rights.

Joined the German Peace Society and founded a women's association in the DFG

In 1913, when the planning of a war became increasingly clear, Frida Perlen joined the German Peace Society (DFG). The organization had its headquarters in Stuttgart since 1899. Just a few months after joining, Frida Perlen became a co-founder of the DFG women's association.

She announced her intention to found an association for women in the spring of 1914 in the Peace of Nations , the members' magazine of the German Peace Society. The foundation date should be the 7th German Peace Congress in May. In consultation with the board of directors of the DFG, on which Mathilde Planck was also a member, she and another pacifist from Stuttgart organized a “conference of pacifist women” as part of this congress. They succeeded in winning well-known supporters for their own women's organization within the DFG, such as Bertha von Suttner , the first important woman in the peace movement and winner of the 1905 Nobel Peace Prize .

The official founding date of the DFG women's association was May 24, 1914, a few weeks before the start of the First World War. According to the statutes, members of the women's association were also members of the DFG. The board of the women's association initially worked very closely with the male management of the DFG. As an active member of the women's association, Frida Perlen had a seat on the executive board of the DFG.

With targeted public relations and a small group of fellow campaigners, she tried to save the peace. However, their tireless efforts brought little success. The actions of the pacifists were seen as a disgrace in the nationalist empire. The majority of women saw it as their duty to stand on the side of men and go to war.

In this desperate situation, on July 30, 1914, the DFG women's association sent a telegram, signed by Frida Perlen and Mathilde Planck , directly to the German Emperor, asking him to keep peace on behalf of millions of German mothers. The impulse for the telegram came from Frida Perlen. It was inspired by an action by the voting rights movement in London . On July 28, 1914, in an open letter to the British Foreign Minister and to all important ambassadors in London, the latter called on those in power to "avert the terrible catastrophe without parallel".

The appeal of the pacifists was ignored. They were powerless against the general enthusiasm for war. The pacifists did not give up, however, and continued their efforts to win over women to peace at least through educational work and publications.

Pacifist activities during the First World War and break with the DFG

With the leaflet In Serious Time , which was enclosed with the Peace of Nations in September 1914 , Frida Perlen again appealed to the progressive women and asked for their support. The mothers of Europe are called not to give in to the hatred of the warring peoples and to stand up for the end of the war and for women to vote.

Even this call could not mobilize women for peace. The BDF decided to support the men in the field and organized the national women's service for war relief through the various women's associations. The small group of radical pacifists were immediately completely isolated after the outbreak of war. The government banned pacifist gatherings and pacifist statements became a criminal offense. The DFG was also ready to provide humanitarian aid in this “war of defense”. The women's association of the DFG with Frida Perlen on the board refused to help and insisted on its demand for an immediate end to the war.

In October 1914, Frida Perlen sent a petition to the Chancellor to work for an end to the war and an understanding, regardless of the course of the war. The chairman of the DFG did not support this approach of the women's association. The break between the DFG and the Frauenbund occurred at the beginning of 1915, when an international women's peace conference was to meet in The Hague . The male leadership of the DFG rejected such a conference and prohibited official representation of the DFG women's association at the meeting. Frida Perlen didn't let that stop her. She was already involved in the preparation of the congress in Amsterdam in February . In order to take part in the congress that took place at the end of April 1915, however, the German authorities refused her passport. The reason is presumed to be a resolution drawn up by her at the preparatory meeting entitled Demand for an armistice , which she wanted to put to a vote.

The Women's Peace Congress in The Hague

Over 1000 delegated women from twelve countries came together at the congress. 28 women from Germany were able to participate. In addition to protesting against the “madness” of the war and calling for the fighting to cease, the women delegated also asked for political equality with men on the agenda. With great professionalism, they worked out proposals for the conclusion of a peace agreement and the avoidance of future wars. After the conference, a deputation of the congress participants brought a paper with the results and resolutions of the conference to the governments of the warring and neutral countries for information. At this point, no government accepted the pacifists' suggestions. After all, the pacifists' demand for a permanent international organization with an international court of arbitration for the peaceful settlement of conflicts among the peoples of Europe found its way into the 14-point program of American President Wilson for a negotiated peace in January 1918 .

At the Hague Women's Peace Congress , the pacifists founded the International Women's Committee for Lasting Peace to continue their work. This should continue to work in national committees and organize another international women's peace congress after the end of the war.

Participation in the International Women's Committee for Enduring Peace

In Stuttgart, Frida Perlen was available for these tasks. She also continued to seek support from pacifist men. On May 15, 1915, she went to Geneva to visit the French writer and pacifist Romain Rolland , who criticized the nationalist war policies of both France and Germany and advised negotiations instead of betting on victory. However, the meeting was unsatisfactory for both sides. In his subsequent diary entry, Rolland felt pressured by the “stormy pacifist from Germany”, “a stately woman with a blooming, choleric appearance” and could not respond to her suggestion to lead the pacifist movement in Switzerland.

After this failure, Frida Perlen concentrated on finding more female comrades-in-arms among the women. Together with the German pacifists Anita Augspurg , Lida Gustava Heymann and Elise von Schlumberger, who had participated in the Hague Peace Congress, she made another appeal to the German women. She herself wrote an article for the pamphlet The Path to Lasting Peace . In a fictional dialogue, she explained to the women what they had to do to fight the war. She was convinced that she could create a counterbalance to the male war armies in a worldwide association of "a hundred thousand and hundreds of thousands of women" with an "army of mothers" who take to the streets. The mass presence of peace-loving mothers and women in public would, in their opinion, make violence against them impossible and would teach men better.

Because of the victory reports at the beginning of the war, the campaign met with little interest from German women. Women pacifists were severely threatened from many sides and often put their lives in danger with their work. The Pan-German Association called on the nationally-minded women to report these "traitors to the fatherland" so that they could be accused and punished for their pacifist efforts, for their "fluffing". The censors prevented the printing of information materials and confiscated the brochures printed abroad. The meetings of the pacifists usually had to take place in secret, disguised as a coffee party, and the women were forced to use a secret language. Despite all the precautionary measures, the authorities temporarily blocked her letters, her apartment was searched and she was repeatedly interrogated. She was spared arrest, although she continued to express herself publicly and collect signature lists for submissions to the Reich Chancellor. Against all odds, she continued her work for peace and women's suffrage even during the war.

Despite the right to vote, no parliamentary work

After the November Revolution of 1918 with the abolition of the monarchy and the transformation of the state into a republic , women from the age of 21 were granted active and passive voting rights by the transitional government. On January 19, 1919, you could elect the members of the National Assembly , the constituent parliament , and be elected yourself. After receiving the right to vote, Frida Perlen did not try to get into parliament and did not join any political party. She was of the opinion that women within the existing male parties could not do truly feminine politics. During a discussion in 1920 she admitted to "non-party socialism ". She saw capitalism as a threat to peace.

In the end, Frida Perlen saw her future mission in life in working together with other pacifists to keep peace through education and appeals to human reason.

Participation in the peace congress in Zurich. Co-founder of the German section of the International Women's League for Peace and Freedom (IFFF)

As one of 28 German women, she was able to take part in the second International Women's Peace Congress in May 1919. As planned at the Hague Meeting of 1915, this took place parallel to the official peace congress after the end of the war in order to have a platform for the demands of women. However, one could not meet at the place of the official negotiations, in Paris , because the German women had to fear that they would not receive an entry permit for France. This is how they met in Zurich .

The congress participants did not consider the peace conditions finally laid down in the Versailles Treaty to be suitable for ensuring a just and lasting peace. For them, too, the treaty was the dictates of the victors and far from the kind of negotiated peace they had striven for since the outbreak of war. As representatives of the country that was blamed for the war, the German pacifists and Frida Perlen were largely reluctant to publicly criticize the peace conditions.

However , they took part in the debate on the League of Nations and its statutes with great commitment. Frida Perlen rejected the version worked out by the men, which did not correspond to their pacifist ideal. The women who met repeatedly sent suggestions for improvement from Zurich to Paris. The comprehensive concepts that might be more suitable for securing peace were not included in the Versailles treaty.

In Zurich it became clear that the work of the International Women's Committee for Lasting Peace could not be finished after this conference. For the further successful cooperation of the pacifists, however, a restructuring of the own organization was first necessary. It received fixed statutes and was renamed the “International Women's League for Peace and Freedom” (IFFF). An international office was set up in Geneva, where the League of Nations also met. It was headed by a nine-member international committee and a president. National organizations with similarly fixed structures have been set up in the countries.

Frida Perlen was instrumental in building up the German section of the IFFF. She was one of the five commissioners on the governing body and continued her international work for peace from Stuttgart.

Identification with the goals of the IFFF. Work as a press officer

She could identify with the IFFF. She headed the press commission and from 1923 also the commission “Fight against warfare with scientific means”, which was expanded in 1928 to include “and for disarmament”. In the circle of pacifists she saw a safe starting point for her tireless work for peace and international understanding, which u. a. should also be promoted early on through international student exchanges and letters. She was one of the first to seek reconciliation with France after the war. As early as 1920 she had French representatives of the IFFF appear publicly in Stuttgart and speak in their mother tongue at meetings. In 1926 she took part in an IFFF fundraising campaign to provide money for the reconstruction and reforestation of the cities and forests in northern France that were destroyed by the Germans. As one of the representatives of the German branch of the IFFF, she traveled to Arras on February 11, 1926 and handed over 13,000 francs for the planting of trees.

Through publications in the press, she wanted to bring the IFFF's concepts for peace education, which had been worked out at numerous conferences, closer to a wider audience. But even immediately after the war, the bourgeois press showed little interest in texts dealing with the prohibition of war toys , the abolition of the death penalty or the prohibition of corporal punishment . Even after the suffering and misery they had just overcome, they didn't want to think about a rethink. Frida Perlen and her colleagues were very quickly exposed to violent attacks again. The nationalism was not defeated, as events show at the Stuttgart Christmas market in the 1920s. Frida Perlen reported on this in an article for the IFFF magazine Die Frau im Staat . Together with other women she had run a “pacifist bookshop”, which was broken into during the night and literally besieged during the day: “After all, all Germany's youth had apparently conspired to give us a 'very high opinion' of their mental quality! They came in troops, mostly students, adorned with the swastika ... What did we not get to hear! 'You work to drag the nation in the mud, it is a shame that you are standing here' ... ”From then on, the National Socialist press in particular began to agitate against these“ abnormal ”German women. All of them were referred to as Jews and ostracized in their own country because of their "internationalism".

Frida Perlen was not deterred and continued to cultivate her international contacts. In 1922 she took part in the IFFF Women's World Conference A New Peace in The Hague. In November 1923 she applied for a passport to be issued for Switzerland, where she wanted to work in the IFFF central office in Geneva. Apparently she stayed in Switzerland for a long time afterwards. She enjoyed, as she said, the soothing atmosphere of a summer school that the IFFF held regularly for the training and recreation of its members.

Working for disarmament and the prohibition of chemical weapons of destruction

At a summer school on Lake Thun in 1924 she met the Swiss pacifist Gertrud Woker , who, as a chemist, had gained insight into the development of chemical weapons for warfare at a congress in the USA . Shocked by this abuse of science, after her return the scientist felt obliged to explain the horrific effects of these weapons of mass destruction, which the military played down . She left the text of her report on the knowledge gained at this congress to Frida Perlen with permission for publication.

On this basis, Frida Perlen wrote the pamphlet The Struggle of Women against the Hell of Poison and Fire , which she published in 1927 for the IFFF on behalf of the Württemberg group in Stuttgart. Above all, she pointed out the threat to the civilian population posed by the use of chemical warfare agents. She relentlessly portrayed the devastating effects of these weapons of mass destruction, hoping that the fear of annihilation would trigger the general struggle against these weapons and the war.

The increasing militarism did not permit such fear. Frida Perlen and the few older women who seemed to be left over from another time kept to themselves more and more. The women of the Weimar Republic , who were now eligible to vote, distanced themselves from what they believed were anti-men feminists . Nevertheless, the pacifists of the IFFF regularly organized international conferences to raise awareness of the new methods of war and to outlaw war.

In 1929 the congress took place in Frankfurt / Main on the topic of modern war methods and the protection of the civilian population . The honorary committee of the conference included a. Romain Rolland and Albert Einstein . Frida Perlen, as press officer for the IFFF, tried to get his support. She had also turned to the unions and obtained participation. One of the speakers at the congress in Frankfurt was the chemist Gertrud Woker. Their demands to stop the production of chemical weapons of destruction were included in the planning of the International Conference on Disarmament of the League of Nations, which finally took place in March 1932 in Geneva. For this conference, the IFFF collected 6 million signatures in all member countries for a worldwide petition for disarmament. The idea for this campaign came from Frida Perlen. As early as 1930 she was able to win Robert Bosch and, after a lengthy, very personal correspondence, Albert Einstein as prominent first signatories for the German lists. On August 10, 1931, Frida Perlen published a call for support for the World Disarmament Conference in the Kölnische Zeitung. She offered drawing lists that can be requested from the “Central Office for World Disarmament, Frida Perlen, Stuttgart, Salzmannsweg 16”. Thereafter, there is no evidence of your further work. After a preparatory meeting of the pacifists for the disarmament conference in January 1932, a dirty campaign by the Nazi press against the organizers began. It culminated in brutal disturbances by the SA in January 1933 in Munich's Hofbräukeller, where the IFFF's last major peace rally took place.

The National Socialists banned the IFFF

The IFFF was one of the first organizations to be banned by the National Socialists on February 28, 1933. The members were threatened with protective custody and their property was confiscated. Frida Perlen's commitment to preserving the peace was no longer possible in Germany.

Sources and literature

• Frida Perlen: In serious time, leaflet. In: The Peace of Nations, 1914.
• Frida Perlen: Women, mothers, do you want to fight with us against future wars? In: The Path to Lasting Peace, German Women's Committee for Lasting Peace, 1915.
• Frida Perlen: Women's suffrage and peace . In: Die Frauenbewegung 23 (1917), No. 19/20, pp. 59–60. ( Digitized and full text in the German text archive )
• Frida Perlen: The struggle of women against the hell of poison and fire, Stuttgart 1927.
• Family register Perlen / Kauffmann, Stuttgart city archive.
• Frida Perlen death register, Freudenstadt City Archives.
• Anna Dünnebier / Ursula Scheu: The rebellion is a woman: Anita Augspurg and Lida G. Heymann, Munich 2002.
• Sabine Hering / Cornelia Wenzel (ed.): Women called, but you couldn't hear them. Kassel 1986.
• Lida Gustava Heymann : Experienced - Seen. German women fight for freedom, justice and peace. 1850-1940. Edited by Margrit Twellmann, Frankfurt / M. 1992.
• Susanne Kinnebrock : Anita Augspurg (1857–1943), Herbolzheim 2005.
• Gerit von Leitner : Do we want to wash our hands in innocence? Gertrud Woker (1878–1968), chemist - International Women's League (1915–1968), Berlin 1998.
• Heike Lischewski: Dawn of a Better Time, Münster 1995.
• Manfred Schmid: Pacifist currents in Württemberg and Stuttgart between the German Empire and the Third Reich. Journal for Württembergische Landeskunde 49/1990.
• Brigitte Schuchard: women. Freedom. Peace. One hundred years of IFFF, Berlin 2015.
• Heike Harsch: The eventful life of Frida Perlen. In: Hie good Württemberg. Supplement to the Ludwigsburg newspaper . 67th year, 2016, No. 1 and 2.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ von Leitner, p. 99f.
2. ↑ Lischewski, p. 96.
3. ↑ Heymann, p. 228.
4. ↑ Schmid, p. 337f.
5. ↑ Pearl List. Albert Einstein Archives. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
6. ^ Archives of the German women's movement in Kassel NL-K-16, L-61