Helene von Mülinen

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Helene von Mülinen

Margareta Rosalie Helene von Mülinen (born November 27, 1850 in Bern ; † March 11, 1924 there ) was one of the most important people in the fight for Swiss women's suffrage . Many still consider her to be one of the founding mothers of the organized Swiss women's movement .

Life

As a "higher daughter" from the von Mülinen patrician family in Bern , Helene von Mülinen received a broad general education . Her brother was the historian Wolfgang Friedrich von Mülinen . Unlike him, however, she was unable to study because of family pressure, although this was what she wanted. Even as a grown-up woman, in order not to risk a quarrel with the family, she was only allowed to attend university as a student , but not graduate.

She suffered all her life from the restrictions to which she was subjected as a woman. Together with her partner Emma Pieczynska-Reichenbach , she became involved in the growing women's movement at the turn of the century. The two women lived in the Wegmühle (Bolligen) until 1918 , in a country house that became a meeting place for the women's movement. During the last five years, from 1919 to 1924, v. Mülinen, still together with Pieczynska, at Wylerstrasse 10 in her native Bern.

In 1896 she founded the Harmonische Gesellschaft , based on the model of the Union des femmes de Genève , later renamed the Women's Conference of the Federal Cross . In addition to the women's movement, religion was her second field of activity. Her theological teacher Adolf Schlatter encouraged her to write essays and articles.

The lyricist Alice von Mülinen was her sister-in-law, the cultural worker Beatrix von Steiger and the sculptor Eleonore von Mülinen were nieces of her.

plant

Although she only came into contact with the organized women's movement in the second half of her life, she achieved a lot for women in their struggle for civil and political equality.

On the initiative of Helene von Mülinen, the Federation of Swiss Women's Associations (BSF) was founded on May 26, 1900 and she became the first female president (until 1904). Mülinen and her fellow campaigners (including Pauline Chaponnière-Chaix , Klara Honegger and Camille Vidart ) advocated the improvement of the legal position of women in the emerging Swiss civil and health insurance law as well as the right to vote for women .

Von Mülinen realized that women across Switzerland were facing the same problems. Therefore, so their argumentation, one should fight together for "the cause" and support one another. In doing so, she created the basis for the newer, organized Swiss women's movement.

The BSF was something like a “women's parliament”. The women's problems were discussed and solutions were sought together. In the statutes even the task of the federal government “on the issue of women's emancipation” was recorded. The federal government should “represent the interests of women vis-à-vis the authorities and the public and cooperate on an international level”. The BSF saw itself as a patriotic organization that wanted to work in the state, this as a complement and not as competition to the men; At the same time, the BSF also represented the demand for full equality for women.

literature

  • Doris Brodbeck: Hunger for Justice. Helene von Mülinen (1850–1924), a pioneer of women's emancipation. Chronos, Zurich 2000, ISBN 3-905313-53-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Susanna Woodtli : Equal Rights - The Struggle for the Political Rights of Women in Switzerland. 2nd, supplemented edition 1983, p. 110.
  2. ↑ Lexikon der Frau , Volume II, Zurich 1956, p. 679.
personal data
SURNAME Mülinen, Helene von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mülinen, Margareta Rosalie Helene von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss women's rights activist
DATE OF BIRTH November 27, 1850
PLACE OF BIRTH Bern
DATE OF DEATH March 11, 1924
Place of death Bern