Mentona Moser

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Mentona Moser

Mentona Moser , entered in the baptismal register as Luise Moser (born October 19, 1874 in Badenweiler ; † April 10, 1971 in Berlin-Köpenick ), was a Swiss writer and communist, functionary and patron of the International Red Aid (IRH).

Life

Moser came from a wealthy Swiss family. Her father Heinrich Moser , watch manufacturer and builder of the waterworks in Schaffhausen , died just four days after she was born. Her mother, who suffered from increasing madness of poverty, was "at the turn of the century, with the exception of the crowned heads, as one of the richest women in Europe (if not the richest at all)", as the psychiatric historian Henri Ellenberger stated in a 1976 lecture about Sigmund Freud's patient Emmy von N.

From the summer of 1887, Mentona Moser lived with her family on the Au peninsula in Wädenswil . At the age of 17 she began studying zoology as an intern at the University of Zurich , which she then continued in London . 1897 she began to women's colleges of Cambridge University a two-year course on social work to train as social worker. In addition to her training, Moser worked as an assistant teacher at evening schools. In 1901 she accepted a job as a student nurse at Cottage Hospital in London.

Moser finally returned to Switzerland in 1903 and, after her sister Fanny Moser's marriage, moved into her own apartment in Zurich. She returned to social work, giving lectures on welfare and published brochures. Together with Maria Fierz , she carried out the first social training courses in Zurich in 1908, the "Courses for the introduction to female auxiliary work for social tasks". She founded a blind association and helped found the first welfare office for tuberculous people in Zurich. There were also plans for workers' settlements .

The design plans submitted by her, including for a settlement in the forest of the Zürichberg, were accepted by the city council. From January 1908 she also gave courses in child care and processed her experiences from planning playgrounds. During this activity she met Hermann Balsiger, the then secretary for civil engineering for the city of Zurich, whom she married in 1909; Before her marriage, Mentona Moser had been a lesbian. Both Balsiger and Moser became members of the Swiss Socialist Party . There was also a friendly relationship with National Councilor Herman Greulich .

Their daughter Amrey was born in late 1909 and their son Edouard in June 1911. In the political disputes during the First World War , there was a falling out with the husband Balsiger, who was elected chief justice in 1917, which led to a divorce. She took on her maiden name Moser again and became a member of the Central Secretariat of the Reform Union for the Transitional Period and was involved in the organization of the state strike in November 1918 .

In 1921, Moser's successor Marta von Meyenburg founded the Zurich Social School for Women together with Maria Fierz. In the same year Moser became a founding member of the Communist Party of Switzerland (KPS). Her political activity led to intensive cooperation with the head of the women's department of the KPS Rosa Bloch , whose function in the party executive Moser took over in 1922, and at the international level with Clara Zetkin . She was friends with Fritz Platten . He also supported her in setting up the children's home in Ivanovo .

Politically, she agitated “for the temporary passive right of women to vote”, which brought more and more problems to her professionally. In Zurich, she initiated a municipal advice center on contraception. From 1919 to 1924 she was head of the maternal and baby care department at the “Pro Juventute” association.

She gave up this "livelihood" after her mother's death, as she was not only adequately provided with the compulsory portion claims from the inheritance, but was now also able to support aid projects of the IAH and the IRH as a patron. In this context, she made a house available to the Central Committee of the KPD in Fichtenau (today Schöneiche near Berlin ), in which they opened their Reich Party School in February 1929 .

Moser moved to Berlin in 1929 and produced records for the Red Front Fighters Association (RFB) with the composer Hanns Eisler , the poet Erich Weinert and the singer Ernst Busch . To this end, she ran the record store and literature distributor Arbeiter-Kult , which she took over management after the RFB was banned in 1931. These records were banned in the “record trial” in autumn 1931. On the grounds that she was a member of the RFB, her private accounts were also blocked and the last of the inheritance assets were confiscated. The house of the workers' cult was repeatedly shot at and besieged by marauding National Socialists , making it virtually impossible for interested customers to enter the shop, which led to the bankruptcy of the entire company.

Moser then took over the management of the prisoners' library of the Rote Hilfe in Berlin's Dorotheenstrasse . In 1933 she stayed in Berlin despite the threat of the political police wanted and participated in the resistance against National Socialism . In 1934 she returned to Switzerland and lived in Morcote as a writer.

After the Second World War , she was dependent on social assistance until in 1950 she received an invitation to move to the GDR from her fellow combatants in the IRH Wilhelm Pieck and the worker cult Fred Oelßner .

tomb

Her urn was buried in the area between the celebration hall and the “Pergolenweg” grave complex of the Socialist Memorial at the Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery in Berlin-Lichtenberg .

Honors

Fonts (selection)

  • The female youth of the upper classes . Reflections and suggestions. Schultheiss, Zurich 1903.
  • Contributions to charity and social aid in their practical application. Zurich 1905.
  • Get to know her [Tales from the bird world, with woodcuts by Remi Nüesch], Gutenberg Book Guild , Zurich 1941.
  • Under the roofs of Morcote . My life story [autobiography before the Second World War, with an afterword by Ilse Schiel (ed.), Institute for Marxism-Leninism at the Central Committee of the SED]. 2nd Edition. Dietz, Berlin 1987 (first edition 1985), ISBN 3-320-00597-9 .
  • I've Lived [autobiography, with an afterword by Roger Nicholas Balsiger]. Limmat, Zurich 1986, ISBN 3-85791-094-1 .

literature

  • Susanne Peter-Kubli: Moser, Mentona. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  • Roger Nicholas Balsiger: Mentona Moser. In: Schaffhauser Contributions to History. Biographies Volume IV. 58th year 1981, pp. 179-192. ( PDF )
  • Annette Frei: Red Patriarchs, Labor Movement and Women's Emancipation in Switzerland around 1900. Chronos, Zurich 1987, ISBN 3-905278-13-8 (also dissertation at the University of Zurich 1986).
  • Sabine Hering : A “Soldier of the Third International”. The contribution of the Swiss communist Mentona Moser to the Red Aid. In: Sabine Hering, Kurt Schilde (ed.): Die Rote Hilfe. The history of the international communist "welfare organization" and its social activities in Germany (1921–1941) . Leske + Budrich, Opladen 2003, ISBN 3-8100-3634-X , page 211 ff. ( Preview on Google Books ).
  • Eveline Hasler : daughter of money. Mentona Moser - the richest revolutionary in Europe. Novel of a Life , Nagel & Kimche, 2019

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from October 3, 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.zhaw.ch
  2. ↑ Verena Bodmer-Gessner: Die Zürcherinnen, Brief Kulturgeschichte der Zürcher Frauen , Zurich: Verlagberichthaus, 1961, p. 149
  3. ↑ https://majawicki.ch/archive/1493
  4. ^ Back then in Fichtenau. Memories of the central party school of the KPD, Schöneiche-Fichtenau Memorial and Education Center 1980, p. 192f.
  5. ↑ "New excellent records of the worker cult" (PDF; 1.1 MB)
  6. ↑ Cover text: Erich Weinert speaks - audio documents ( Memento of the original from August 24, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been 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.ddr-hoerspiele.net
  7. ^ New Germany , October 4, 1959, p. 3
personal data
SURNAME Moser, Mentona
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Moser, Luise; Balsiger, Mentona
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss writer and communist, functionary and patron of the International Red Aid
DATE OF BIRTH October 19, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH Badenweiler
DATE OF DEATH April 10, 1971
Place of death Berlin-Koepenick