Marie Zettler

Marie Zettler (born November 13, 1885 in Mering near Augsburg ; † February 5, 1950 there ) was a German politician, publicist and member of the Weimar National Assembly for the Bavarian People's Party . She was also the state secretary of the Bavarian regional association of the Catholic German Women's Association .

Youth and education

Marie was the seventh of ten children of Ludwig and Josefine Zettler, geb. Niedermaier. Her parents were aware of the Catholic faith and also raised their daughter according to religious principles. In her youth she was enthusiastic about music as well as questions of the natural sciences, literature, art and of course theology and philosophy. In 1898 she was given to an educational institute in Pasing run by English women; after three years she returned to her parents. First she helped with the household and with the upbringing of the younger siblings as well as in the office of the family business. Typical of the women's rights activists of their time was their thirst for education: From 1911, she and Marie Buczkowska , her long-time partner, attended a two-month economic further education course offered by the Volksverein für das Catholic Deutschland in Mönchen-Gladbach. She then trained as a social officer to that of Ellen Ammann launched social-charitable women's school in Munich .

Marie Zettler was hired on January 1, 1912 as the state secretary of the Bavarian State Association of the Catholic German Women's Association and held this position for over 40 years. Together with many others she supported Michael von Faulhaber's idea of ​​an association of members in the spirit of the order, but without a religious dress. His main idea was to combine the religious ideals with worldly life. Marie Zettler worked as a trainer within this Societas Religiosa . In addition to her job at the Order and the Women's Association, she was on the board of the Association of Catholic German Social Officers

Weimar Republic

From February 1919, Zettler was one of the six female members of the German Center Party (and the Bavarian People's Party (BVP) for the district of Upper Bavaria and Swabia ) in the Weimar National Assembly , along with Hedwig Dransfeld , Agnes Neuhaus , Maria Schmitz , Christine Teusch and Helene Weber . One of her main areas as MPs was youth care. She called for the family to be strengthened because a healthy and happy family life is the key to good youth care.

In addition to her political work , from 1919 to 1941 she edited the newly founded magazine of the Catholic women's association Bayerisches Frauenland . But she also wrote in the magazine about her work in parliament and in the Weimar coalition . From 1924 she was still responsible for the women's union calendar published by the Catholic Women 's Association :

In December 1928 a letter from the Vatican to the editor arrived in which Cardinal Dr. Gasparri thanked Maria Buczkowska for the women's calendar presented to the Holy Father and expressed his appreciation .

After the Reichstag elections on June 6, 1920, Marie Zettler lost her seat in parliament. After her departure, she devoted herself to her duties in the editorial office and in the Catholic organizations.

Nazi regime

During the time of the Nazi dictatorship , Marie Zettler was "extremely cautious", although at the beginning of the Second World War she demanded that women use their typical weapons :

Weapons of the spirit, of the soul, of the heart are women's weapons. You are invincible! Women have to reach for them in today's war time. As in the old days, her fame will flourish today. Loyalty to one's duty is the first weapon. War duties are duties of honor for the man, no less for the woman, that she sees her husband and son ready to make sacrifices is a hard duty that she can only bear with a brave heart when she looks up to God, without whose will nothing happens. Who mysteriously prepares the way for everyone, whether in war or peace .

Due to her political work in the Weimar National Assembly and as an avowed Catholic Christian, she was nevertheless under the supervision of the Nazis. As Marie Buczkowska wrote about her life partner in her biography, her post was monitored, she had to endure house searches and was often called to the Munich Gestapo headquarters because of articles in the Bavarian Frauenland . In contrast, Johann Weber writes:

So you could search as you wanted, the National Socialists didn't have much against them. There is therefore not a single conclusive evidence of reprisals such as house searches or postal surveillance. An interrogation at the Gestapo headquarters in the Wittelsbacher Palais seems likely .

In June 1941, the magazine Bayerisches Frauenland was discontinued for the flimsy reason that "people and material should be freed for war-related purposes". Marie Zettler said goodbye to the readers with the following words:

With this number of the 'Bayer. Frauenlandes' extends a warm farewell to all dear readers. The paper management office of the Reich Press Chamber informed us that the war economy required the greatest concentration of all forces. This summary makes it necessary for our magazine to cease its publication from today until later in order to free people and material for purposes important to the war effort .

In December 1944 she moved to Mering with Marie Buczkowska and her sister Valentine, as their apartment in Munich had been bombed out.

post war period

After the end of the Nazi regime, Marie Zettler began to rebuild the Catholic Women's Association in Bavaria. In January 1949 an association magazine was published as a supplement to the Catholic woman and she took over the editorial management again. However, due to a serious illness (rheumatoid arthritis), she was unable to continue her work for long. She died a short time later and was buried in Mering. Many members and personalities of the women's association attended the funeral.

Fonts

• A spiritual nursing profession. In: Communications of the Association of Catholic Social Service Workers in Germany. No. 7-8, 1919.
• Frauenfriedenskirche. In: Communications of the Association of Catholic Social Service Workers in Germany. No. 5-8, 1929.
• A house full of glory looks. In: Bayerisches Frauenland. No. 6, 1929.
• From the first training session in parliament. In: The Christian Woman. H. 3, 1929.
• Arms of fortitude. In: Bayerisches Frauenland. No. 5, 1940.

literature

• B. Renz: We Catholic women and the political elections. In: Bayerisches Frauenland. 14, 1932, pp. 28-29.
• AM v. Godin: Ellen Ammann. A picture of life. Munich 1933.
• M. Buczkowska: Marie Zettler. A life for welfare, politics and the Catholic women's movement. Mering 1950.
• H. Weber: Marie Zettler. In: Frauenland. H. 5/6, 1950, pp 90-91.
• S. Zeller: Marie von Graimberg. Forty years of training as a social worker in Heidelberg. Freiburg / Br. 1989.
• Hugo Maier (Ed.): Who is who of social work. Freiburg / Br. 1998, p. 658.
• Manfred Berger : Leading women in social responsibility: Marie Zettler. In: Christ and Education. 46, 2001, p. 27.
• Bavarian State Association of the Catholic German Women's Association (Ed.): Nine decades of strong women in Bavaria and the Palatinate. Chronicle of the Bavarian State Association of the Catholic German Women's Association 1911–2001. Munich 2001.
• Manfred Berger:  Marie Zettler. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 21, Bautz, Nordhausen 2003, ISBN 3-88309-110-3 , Sp. 1582-1591.
• J. Weber: Maria Zettler. A life for the women's association. Mering 2004.
• Peter Reinicke : Zettler, Marie , in: Hugo Maier (Ed.): Who is who of social work . Freiburg: Lambertus, 1998 ISBN 3-7841-1036-3 , p. 658

Web links

• Marie Zettler in the database of members of the Reichstag

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Weber 2004, p. 61
2. ↑ Zettler 1940, p. 1 f
3. ↑ Buczkowska 1950, p. 54 ff.
4. ↑ Weber 2004, p. 64 f
5. ↑ Bayerisches Frauenland 1941, p. 1