National anthem of women

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Publication of the national anthem of women in women's suffrage April / May 1912

"National Anthem of Women" is the title of a three-verse song that Anita Augspurg published in 1912 in the first edition of the magazine Frauenstimmrecht , which she published herself . The author recommended the German national anthem as the accompanying melody.

background

The text was created against the background of the struggle of women in Germany for women's suffrage, which they subsequently received in 1918. The women's movement organized itself into several women's suffrage associations and expressed its demands at demonstrations, in discussions and in publications.

Anita Augspurg, an active member of the bourgeois women's movement, experienced the psychological and community-building effect of songs sung at meetings and demonstrations in England and wrote the lyrics explicitly to reinforce the effect of women's rights to vote.

Following the three stanzas, Augspurg explained in an accompanying text that "there are opportunities and moments where an irresistible effect that cannot be described is evoked by powerful choral singing recorded on all sides."

text

Germany, Germany above all,
If it also frees the woman,
offers her the citizen's crown,
Following a new era.
Because women
create wealth for the people in their homes and workshops ,
Because their being and their
rulings increase and lift the empire's strength.

Unity and justice and freedom
The woman demands the
same as the man, Because for her equal achievement
she can demand equal rights .
Free who
bears hardship and strives and thinks for the national community ,
Free above all also the mother
who gives the citizens to the Reich!

Germany, Germany above all,
when, as in the old days,
its wives have a
seat and justice and equality in the people's council.
Only a country that makes its women
free and equal and worthy,
Only such a country strives upwards,
Stand ahead in all the world!

(Source: Anita Augspurg: National Anthem of Women. In: Frauenstimmrecht. Monthly issues of the German Association for Women's Suffrage. No. 1/2, 1912, p. 2)

Text interpretation

Anita Augspurg chose the national anthem, the " Song of the Germans ", composed by August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben on August 26, 1841 , as the basis for her text . She adopted the refrain “Germany, Germany above everything” and linked the statement to gender equality. As the second verse she took over the song line "Unity and Law and Freedom", which in turn should be granted to women as much as men. The third stanza culminates in the political demand for women to be represented in parliament (“People's Council”). The final verse summarizes that only a Germany with realized women's rights can be a role model in the world.

reception

To this day, and increasingly on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage, it is predominantly women who recite, sing and interpret the “national anthem of women” in cultural and political contexts. After the political demand for women's suffrage was fulfilled, further women's political demands were linked to the song. For example, a debate flares up again and again as to the extent to which the German national anthem itself should be formulated in a gender-equitable manner and repackaged accordingly. The Bavarian anthem was also given a gender-fair variant.

Left

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Archives of the German women's movement: The organizational phase: The women's movement and its activities. In: Archive of the German women's movement. Archive of the German women's movement, accessed on November 30, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Dr. Anita Augspurg: National anthem for women. In: Archive of the German women's movement. Archive of the German Women's Movement, April 1, 1992, accessed on November 30, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Dr. Anita Augspurg: Women's suffrage. In: Monthly issues of the German Association for Women's Suffrage. Archive of the German women's movement, April 1, 1912, accessed on November 30, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Michael Böhm: Female Bavaria anthem: SPD politician attracts anger. In: Augsburger Allgemeine. Augsburger Allgemeine, March 12, 2018, accessed November 30, 2018 .