Mathilde von Mevissen

Sculpture of Mathilde von Mevissen on the Cologne council tower

Mathilde von Mevissen (born July 30, 1848 in Cologne ; † March 19, 1924 ibid.) Was a German women's rights activist and education politician. She was a founding member and driving force of the Girls' Gymnasium Association , which opened the first unabridged gymnasium for girls in Cologne and all of Prussia in 1903 and advocated equal higher education for women. Mevissen is one of the thirteen women among the 124 people who were significant for the history of Cologne and who were honored with sculptures on the Cologne town hall tower .

Life

Family and childhood

Mathilde von Mevissen was the second of five daughters of the liberal politician and entrepreneur Gustav von Mevissen  and his wife Elisabeth, née Leiden. Elisabeth von Mevissen died after the birth of her fifth daughter in 1857 and Gustav von Mevissen married her sister Therese three years later; the second marriage was childless.

Gustav von Mevissen was politically and professionally committed to the limit of his resilience; Nevertheless, he attached importance to a regular family life, went on trips and had a lively social life. His daughter described her childhood as "noble and stately, but without banal luxury". Although intellectual freedom and classless participation in "truly human" education were very important to Mevissen, he placed the educational focus exclusively on "moral upbringing" for his daughters the family instead of intellectual education, which was in keeping with the social zeitgeist. In the whole of Cologne there were 13 girls' schools for “higher daughters” in 1861, but in total only around 950 female students were taught. Like many of her contemporaries, Mathilde and her sisters received strictly controlled private tuition, which was supposed to prepare the girls for their role as wives and mothers.

Although Mathilde von Mevissen, looking back at her childhood, certified that her father was careful in choosing particularly good private teachers, the content conveyed did not satisfy her early thirst for knowledge and intellectual interests. Gustav von Mevissen not only refused external schooling, but also strictly controlled reading, correspondence and social interaction between the daughters. Mathilde was forbidden from accessing her father's extensive library - a prohibition that she secretly opposed.

Life as a "higher daughter"

Mathilde von Mevissen, like her sister Melanie, remained unmarried and also lived in her parents' house as an adult. Thus, despite being of legal age, she did not have her own legal capacity, but remained both dependent and subject to paternal authority. Her dealings were strictly regulated until well into mid-life, she had no funds of her own and was not allowed to leave the house unaccompanied. Mail and reading were also still checked. Mathilde von Mevissen lived according to the upper-class conventions of her time; this included travel as well as the organization of parties and parties. In an obituary, her life is described as "boundlessly lonely and banished to inactivity" and "silent agony".

Apparently, since 1882 a more responsible relationship between father and daughter developed; Mathilde von Mevissen took on secretarial tasks for the father, kept the books and managed his extensive library.

Engagement in women's education

Letter from Minna Cauer to Mathilde von Mevissen dated June 27, 1907

Mathilde von Mevissen has been interested in the emerging question of women since the beginning of the 1890s . A lecture by Helene Lange  in Cologne was the reason to found the Cologne women's training association and a business school for girls together with her friend Elisabeth von Mumm, who was also single . This foundation is considered the beginning of the Cologne women's movement. The close friendship with the younger Elsbeth Krukenberg-Conze also broadened Mevissen's intellectual and political horizons.

After the death of Gustav von Mevissen in 1899 and his second wife in 1901, Mathilde von Mevissen began a self-determined life, which from then on she devoted almost exclusively to promoting a better education for girls. So she worked together with friends in a legal protection office for women. As early as 1897, she played a key role in the establishment of the Girls' High School Association , which campaigned for full high school education for girls and was officially founded on January 14, 1899. While the women with the Cologne Women's Training Association had received support from the local liberal personalities, they had to struggle with significantly more difficulties with the demand for high school education. A quote from a letter from Mevissen to a colleague has come down to us:

"It's a shame that you hear Dr. Didn't see Neven DuMont when the word girls' high school was mentioned. No, never, that's completely out of the question for me "

- Mathilde von Mevissen in 1898 in a letter to Josef Hansen

Despite all resistance and several rejection notices from the Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs, the movement gained sufficient ideal and, above all, financial supporters, not least Mathilde von Mevissen herself, who donated a significant part of her fortune and also rented the school's premises. In 1903 the private girls' high school in Cologne was opened at Apostelnkloster 5 with 18 students.

Directory of members of the Girls' High School Association from 1903

In the school year 1908/1909, 127 students were already being taught at the Cologne Girls' High School; Due to a change in the Prussian statutes for secondary girls 'education in 1908, the school was taken over by the city of Cologne that school year, expanded as a full-fledged girls' grammar school and, for administrative reasons, merged with the Merlo-Lyzeum to form the Merlo-Mevissen-Schule in 1922. The school was closed in 1934 after the National Socialists took power.

The club girls' school devoted himself from that time to the next step: higher education for women. The result was a renaming to Verein Frauenstudium . Only since 1908 were women legally allowed to study in Prussia, which is why they were still considered curiosities at universities at best. Discrimination and the high cost of studying made it difficult or even impossible for many young women to begin studying. Mathilde von Mevissen was not only involved politically and ideally here, but also through the specific award of grants.

In addition to the newly founded girls' education institutions, Mathilde von Mevissen also supported the re-establishment of the University of Cologne in 1919 and women's access to it. One of its constituent predecessor institutions, the Cologne Commercial College , was an initiative of her father.

Politically, in addition to the educational issue, Mevissen campaigned primarily for women's suffrage, shaped by her upper-class upbringing, and became a member of the board of the Cologne National Liberals. During the First World War she was involved in the national women's community and together with her sister Melanie founded a hospital train .

Death and aftermath

Mathilde von Mevissen died on March 19, 1924 at the age of 75; she was buried in the family vault in the Melaten cemetery . At the end of her life she was one of the most famous people in the Rhineland. At a large commemorative event in the Gürzenich in October, her memory was honored by the Cologne women's associations in speeches and especially in the obituary by Li Eckert , which make clear the high reputation that Mathilde von Mevissen had earned. In 1923 Mathilde von Mevissen was made an honorary citizen of the University of Cologne. At a suggestion by Mathilde von Mevissen, the university festival called "Mevissentag" went back, which was celebrated every year on May 24th after the university was re-established. Apparently, however, it was increasingly forgotten after the Second World War.

When the city of Cologne redesigned the figure program for the town hall tower in 1990, only five of the 124 people (including Gustav von Mevissen) were women. Only after protests by the Green MPs Gundi Haep and the historian Irene Franken was the number of women increased to 18, including the sculpture Mathilde von Mevissens, designed by the sculptor Sepp Hürten , by a council resolution on October 30, 1990 .

In the summer of 2005, the oldest elementary school in the Nippes district was renamed the Mathilde-von-Mevissen-Elementary School in honor of the women's rights activist . This designation did not do justice to the life's work of the women's rights activist who had just fought for humanistic education for girls.

literature

• Barbara Hohmann: Because I was unhappy and probably a little suppressed. Mathilde von Mevissen and the education of girls. In: Yearbook 75th of the Cologne History Association. V. 2004, ISBN 3-89498-150-4 , pp. 87-141.
• Elisabeth Amling: Mathilde von Mevissen. 1848-1924 . In: Kölner Frauengeschichtsverein (Hrsg.): "10 o'clock punctually Gürzenich" A hundred years of moving women in Cologne - on the history of organizations and associations. 1995, ISBN 3-929440-53-9 , pp. 49-51.
• Elisabeth Amling: "Unabridged humanistic grammar school education for women too" The Cologne Association for Girls' High School. In: Kölner Frauengeschichtsverein (Hrsg.): "10 o'clock punctually Gürzenich" A hundred years of moving women in Cologne - on the history of organizations and associations. 1995, ISBN 3-929440-53-9 , pp. 37-47.
• Li Eckert: Mathilde von Mevissen. Memorial speech . Association of Cölner Frauenvereine (publisher), Cologne 1924.
• Foundation celebration of the university (Mevissentag) on ​​May 24, 1924. Obituary for Miss Melanie and Miss Mathilde von Mevissen . In: Karl Thieß: Universität im Kampf. Two speeches from the rector's office. Oskar Müller, Cologne 1924, DNB 362882258 . (Cologne University Speeches 10)

Web links

Commons : Mathilde von Mevissen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• The collection of the von Mevissen family in the University and City Library of Cologne

Individual evidence

1. ^ Barbara Hohmann: Mathilde v. Mevissen . 2004, p. 94: “Gustav Mevissen had shown the first signs of overexertion and exhaustion since autumn 1854. After a long spell of fainting [...] he was forced to reduce his busy activities a little "
2. ^ Barbara Hohmann: Mathilde v. Mevissen . 2004, p. 96 (source: HAStK 1068/73)
3. ^ Barbara Hohmann: Mathilde v. Mevissen . 2004, p. 116.
4. ^ Barbara Hohmann: Mathilde v. Mevissen . 2004, p. 103.
5. ↑ Elisabeth Amling: Unabridged humanistic grammar school education for women too. 1995, p. 39. (Source: HAStK 1067/69)
6. ^ Elisabeth Amling: Mathilde von Mevissen (1848–1924). 1995, p. 50.
7. ↑ Bernd Dreher, Claudia Valder-Knechtges: Life and Legends of the Council Tower Figures . In: Stadtspuren Köln: The Council Tower. Bachem, Cologne 1996, ISBN 3-7616-1156-0 , pp. 568-569.
8. ^ Math. V. Mevissen at Rhenish History of the LVR
9. ^ Barbara Hohmann: Mathilde v. Mevissen . 2004, p. 136.
10. ↑ ^{a b} Elisabeth Amling: Mathilde von Mevissen (1848-1924). 1995, p. 51.
11. ↑ Thieß: University in battle. 1924, p. 19.
12. ↑ www.mvm-gs-gellertstrasse.de History of the school  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.