Caroline of Perin

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Karoline von Perin , née Karolina Rosalia Franziska von Pasqualati , (born February 12, 1806 in Vienna , † December 10, 1888 there ) was an Austrian women's rights activist. She was a pioneer of the Austrian women's rights movement and founder of the Vienna Democratic Women's Association, the first political women's association in Austria.

Life

Karoline von Perin came from a wealthy and noble Viennese family. Her father, Joseph Andreas Pasqualati , owned orchards in the Vienna area. At the age of 24 she appropriately married the Freiherr von Perin-Gradenstein. The marriage had three children. After the early death of her husband, she met the music critic and committed democrat Alfred Julius Becher around 1845 and was in a relationship with him.

The first workers' demonstration took place in Vienna on August 21, 1848, because the then Minister of Labor, Ernst Schwarzer, lowered the already low wages for 8,000 women earth workers. A few days later there was another demonstration, which finally led to the battle of the Prater due to the attack by the Imperial National Guard . 18 people died and 282 were injured.

Just five days later, Karoline von Perin founded the “Vienna Democratic Women's Association” in response to the Prater battle and the social inequality of women workers compared to their male colleagues. The association could only exist for two months. After a demonstration initiated by 300 women in front of the Vienna Reichstag on October 17, 1848 as part of the Vienna October Uprising , Ms. von Perin had to insult herself in the press as a “dirty Amazon”, “political barker” and “unwomanly mistress of a demagogue” to let.

With her democratic ideas she was too far ahead of her time. Perhaps because of this, she received no support from women in the upper classes. In October 1848, she and her partner Julius Becher were betrayed and taken prisoner. Like many other revolutionaries, Julius Becher was shot dead.

Karoline von Perin was taken into police custody and was severely ill-treated there. All of their property was confiscated. She was also declared mentally ill. She was deprived of custody of her three children. She had to leave Vienna and fled to Munich.

She published the memoir Unprinted Notes , in which she distanced herself from her participation in the October Uprising. She then received permission to return to Vienna, where she opened an employment agency and withdrew from political life.

In 2018, Karoline-Perin-Gasse was named after her in Vienna's Seestadt Aspern in the 22nd district .

literature

  • Daniela Weiland: History of women's emancipation in Germany and Austria: biographies - programs - organizations. Düsseldorf 1983, ISBN 3-612-10025-4

Web links

Individual evidence

according to St. Augustin's birth register, Vienna, Folio 55, 27 May 1806

  1. ↑ Constantin von Wurzbach : Perin von Gradenstein, Josephine Freiin . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 22nd part. Imperial-Royal Court and State Printing House, Vienna 1870, p. 18 ( digital copy ).
  2. ↑ a b Gabriella Hauch: Perin-Gradenstein, Karoline Freifrau von (1806–1888) . In: A Biographical Dictionary of Women's Movements and Feminisms. Central, Eastern, and South Eastern Europe, 19th and 20th Centuries. New York / Budapest, CEU Press 2006, p. 424ff.
personal data
SURNAME Perin, Karoline von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pasqualati, Karoline von (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian women's rights activist
DATE OF BIRTH February 12, 1806
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH December 10, 1888
Place of death Vienna