Laura Witte

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Laura Witte (born April 16, 1869 in Brooklyn , New York City as Laura Elisabeth Theodore Roth , † November 15, 1939 in Rostock ) was a German suffragette.

family

Laura Witte came from a middle-class home. She was the eldest daughter of the cotton merchant Johannes Roth (1837-1894) and his wife Jane, née. Bean (1841-1901). The sculptor Frederick Roth (1872–1944) was one of her four siblings . The politician Annemarie von Harlem (1894–1983) was her niece. Her marriage to the entrepreneur Friedrich Carl Witte (1864–1938) on June 7, 1892 had five children: Johanna (* 1893), Friedrich (* 1895), Siegfried (* 1897), Elisabeth (* 1903) and Carl August (* 1908). Her father-in-law was the Rostock entrepreneur and politician Friedrich Witte .

Life

Witte was born and raised in Brooklyn, later she was sent to Bremen , the family's German residence, and Rostock, where her uncle Friedrich Roth was based, for a proper upbringing . It was there that she met her future husband. The Witte couple belonged to the upper middle class in Rostock.

After the birth of her fifth child, Witte began to volunteer in the association for toddler schools, in the association for day care centers and in the association for the Alexandrahaus Warnemünde . In addition, she joined the Mecklenburg State Association for Women's Suffrage. Witte campaigned for the legal, political and economic equality of women. She gave various lectures and became increasingly involved in numerous associations. From 1915 Witte was a board member of the Association for Social Aid Work as well as on the board of the housewives' association, and from 1916 to 1929 she was chairwoman of the association for the Rostock crib.

In 1919 Witte joined the German Democratic Party and took over the chairmanship of the women's group there. In 1919, at a public meeting of the German Democratic Party in Doberan , Witte gave a speech on “The woman in the new Germany”. Witte analyzed the situation of women after the introduction of women's suffrage in 1918. Among other things, she demanded free choice of profession and equal wages. Through her political and charitable work, Witte maintained contact with other women's rights activists such as Klara Schleker , Elisabeth Schmidt-Reichhoff, Käthe Schirmacher and Henni Lehmann .

literature

  • Witte, Laura: The woman in the new Germany. In: Speeches held at a public meeting called by the German Democratic Party on January 22, 1919 in the town hall in Doberan, Rostock 1919.
  • Marianne Beese: Family, women's movement and society in Mecklenburg 1870–1920: situation of women and female résumés; Laura Witte (1869–1939), Anna von Maltzahn (1856–1895). New Hochschulschriftverlag, Rostock 1999, ISBN 3-929544-76-8 .
  • Marianne Beese: Research on the women's movement and on women's studies in Rostock. In: Kersten Krüger (Hrsg.): Women's studies in Rostock. Reports by and about female academics (= Rostock Studies on University History, Volume 9). University of Rostock, Rostock 2010, ISBN 978-3-86009-089-3 , pp. 9-40. ( Digitized version )
  • Marianne Beese: Witte, Laura. In: Sabine Pettke (Ed.): Biographisches Lexikon für Mecklenburg, Vol. 3, Lübeck 2001, ISBN 3-7950-3713-1 , pp. 318-320.
  • Grete Grewolls: Who was who in Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania. The dictionary of persons . Hinstorff Verlag, Rostock 2011, ISBN 978-3-356-01301-6 , p. 10971 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Marianne Beese: Research on the women's movement and on women's studies in Rostock. In: Kersten Krüger (Hrsg.): Women's studies in Rostock. Reports by and about female academics (= Rostock Studies on University History, Volume 9). University of Rostock, Rostock 2010, p. 16.
  2. ^ Marianne Beese: Research on the women's movement and on women's studies in Rostock. In: Kersten Krüger (Hrsg.): Women's studies in Rostock. Reports by and about female academics (= Rostock Studies on University History, Volume 9). University of Rostock, Rostock 2010, p. 35.
  3. ↑ Genealogy - SCABELL, family sheet ROTH Laura ( Memento of the original from August 5, 2016 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.scabell.info
  4. ^ Marianne Beese: Family, women's movement and society in Mecklenburg 1870–1920: situation of women and female résumés; Laura Witte (1869–1939), Anna von Maltzahn (1856–1895) , Rostock 1999, p. 120.
  5. ↑ Ibid., Pp. 135, 217.
  6. ↑ Ibid., P. 137.
  7. ^ Marianne Beese: Research on the women's movement and on women's studies in Rostock. In: Kersten Krüger (Hrsg.): Women's studies in Rostock. Reports by and about female academics (= Rostock Studies on University History, Volume 9). University of Rostock, Rostock 2010, p. 22.
  8. ^ Marianne Beese: Family, women's movement and society in Mecklenburg 1870–1920: situation of women and female résumés; Laura Witte (1869–1939), Anna von Maltzahn (1856–1895), Rostock 1999, p. 217.
  9. ↑ Ibid., Pp. 137, 373-375.
  10. ↑ Ibid., Pp. 277-296.
personal data
SURNAME Witte, Laura
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Roth, Laura Elisabeth Theodore (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Suffragette
DATE OF BIRTH April 16, 1869
PLACE OF BIRTH Brooklyn
DATE OF DEATH November 15, 1939
Place of death Rostock