Hedwig Kettler

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Hedwig Kettler (born Reder ; born September 19, 1851 in Harburg , † January 5, 1937 in Berlin ; full name: Hedwig Friederike Karoline Auguste Kettler ) was a German women's rights activist and pioneer of higher education for girls .

Life

Kettler was born the daughter of a wealthy family, she attended secondary school for girls and later also the Berlin Art Academy .

In Berlin she met her cousin Julius Kettler , whom she married on November 24, 1880 at the age of 29. The “very happy Kettler marriage” resulted in two daughters: 1881 Hermine Kettler , who later became a well-known writer, and 1881 daughter Elise.

Activities as editor

She became known as the editor of the magazine Frauenberuf and the series of publications on the Library of Women .

The women's association Reform

In 1888 she founded the “German Women's Association Reform” in Weimar, which was renamed in 1891 as Reform for Women’s Education . This association was the first German association to publicly advocate the establishment of girls' high schools and the admission of women to university entrance qualifications .

Your beliefs and demands

For Hedwig Kettler, the same education for men and women was a human right based on natural law. In their opinion, the educational opportunities were unfairly distributed; this could simply be checked by exchanging the educational offers: boys should attend secondary school for girls, girls should attend high school for boys. If the boys still perform the same, the division is justified. From this thesis she concluded: "It is the different culture that is to blame, not the different nature." For her, higher education always meant high school education, which is necessary not only for women who want to study, but for everyone. If male and female intelligence were to be compared, they would first have to be developed under the same conditions. Because under the given circumstances, no statements could be made about the nature of women. For Kettler, equal education also meant co-education , by which she meant the opening of the boys' grammar schools to girls.

Foundation of the first German girls' high schools

After positive signals from the Baden state parliament and the city administration, the women's education reform association founded by Hedwig Kettler founded the first German girls ' grammar school in Karlsruhe in 1893 , today's Lessing grammar school . After economic problems arose, it was taken over by the city administration a few years later and continued as a girls' grammar school in what is now the Fichte grammar school . In 1899 the first four girls graduated from high school there . In the same year, Hedwig Kettler founded a second girls' high school in Hanover, the Sophienschule .

But it was precisely her cousin Julius Tietz , the head of the Stadttöchterschule I in Hanover, who rejected and commented on a cooperation with Hedwig Kettler in this regard,

"[A girls' high school would] run counter to the idiosyncrasy [of women] and therefore not [be] accompanied by a blessing."

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hugo Thielen: Kettler, (1) Hedwig. In: Hannoversches Biographisches Lexikon , p. 197f.
  2. ↑ Otto Heinrich May : Niedersächsische Lebensbilder (= publications of the historical commission for Hanover, Oldenburg, Braunschweig, Schaumburg-Lippe and Bremen , vol. 22, part 4), ed. on behalf of the Historical Commission, Hildesheim; Leipzig: Lax, 1939, p. 170; limited preview in Google Book search
  3. ↑ Wolfgang Kühnemann: Women's education and the Sophia school . In: Sophienschule Hannover (Hrsg.): 100 years Sophienschule Hannover . Stephansstift Hannover printing house, Hannover 2000, OCLC 247702554 , p. 70-94 ( online [accessed November 7, 2012]).
  4. ↑ Karin Ehrich , Christiane Schröder (ed.): Nobles, workers and ... women's life in the city and region of Hanover from the 17th to the 20th century (= materials on regional history , vol. 1), ed. on behalf of the Hanover region, the municipal association Greater Hanover u. a., Bielefeld: Verlag für Regionalgeschichte, 1999, ISBN 978-3-89534-292-9 and ISBN 3-89534-292-0 , pp. 134, 153; limited preview in Google Book search
personal data
SURNAME Kettler, Hedwig
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kettler, Hedwig Johanna (used at times); Reder, Hedwig Friederike Karoline Auguste (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German women's rights activist and pioneer of higher education for girls
DATE OF BIRTH September 19, 1851
PLACE OF BIRTH Harburg
DATE OF DEATH January 5, 1937
Place of death Berlin