Pauline of Montgelas
Pauline Countess von Montgelas (born as Pauline Mathilde Sophie Countess von Wimpffen ; pronounced mõʒəˈla ; * February 28, 1874 in Rome ; † May 10, 1961 in Rottach-Egern ) worked for the German Catholic Women's Association and campaigned for improvements in the working conditions of maids , Home workers and waitresses.
Live and act
Pauline Mathilde Sophie was the daughter of the ambassador of Austria-Hungary , Felix Graf von Wimpffen , and the Margaretha Countess zu Lynar. She spent her childhood and youth in the cities in which her father worked as a diplomat: Rome, Berlin and Paris. At the age of 23 she married Maximilian Maria Karl Desiderius Graf von Montgelas . The marriage remained childless. From 1900 to 1903 the couple stayed in Beijing, where the count worked as a military attaché. During this time, the noblewoman made extensive trips to various countries in occupied South Asia. She published her travel impressions in 1906 under the title Pictures from South Asia .
The countess, who lived in various German cities, but above all in Munich, was looking for a meaningful job soon after her marriage and became involved in the Marian Girls' Protection Association . There she met Ellen Ammann , whom she was able to win over to founding a branch of the German Catholic Women's Association in Munich. Pauline von Montgelas was elected 2nd chairwoman of the association. She took over the management of the social section , which took care of maids, homeworkers and waitresses. As a result, she founded u. a. the union of homeworkers in Germany , the Catholic workers' union and the Bavarian house industry association . She also took part in the development and expansion of social courses , from which the social-charitable women's school (today: Katholische Stiftungsfachhochschule München ) emerged, and in 1921 she took over the chairmanship of the foreign committee of the Catholic women's association , whose task it was to establish connections with like-minded people Catholic women's organizations abroad.
The Countess has been recognized several times for her social commitment. For example, in 1906 she was appointed honorary president of the patronage for young Catholic workers in Nuremberg .
During the Nazi dictatorship, the aristocracy, who initially had a positive attitude towards National Socialism (cf. Montgelas 1933, p. 278 ff.), Withdrew more and more from the public because she was bitterly disappointed by the political situation. The countess, deeply rooted in the Catholic faith, had to witness how women who publicly professed Christianity were persecuted and imprisoned. She was particularly affected by the fate of her Jewish friend Alice Salomon , who was expelled from Germany and where she witnessed the brutal persecution of the Jews up close. Pauline von Montgelas resolutely refused the many calls by representatives of the state to take an active part in the BDM or the NSDAP . Thereupon attempts were made to blackmail her because of her own Jewish relatives , since her father's brother, Franz Reichsgraf von Wimpffen, was married to the Jewish banker's daughter Marianne Baronin von Eskeles (see Hohenwarter 2002, p. 78 ff.). But the countess resisted any blackmail attempt.
Her remains found eternal rest in the crypt of the Counts of Montgelas in Egglkofen / Mühldorf district .
Fonts (selection)
- East Asian Sketches, Munich, Theodor Ackermann, 1905
- Pictures from South Asia, Munich 1906
- Social responsibility, in: Die Christliche Frau, 1907/1908, pp. 85–88
- On the reform of the waitress profession, in: Die Christliche Frau 1909/1910, 354–357
- Das Reich, in: Die Christliche Frau 1933, pp. 278–284
literature
- Manfred Berger: Pauline von Montgelas. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 20, Bautz, Nordhausen 2002, ISBN 3-88309-091-3 , Sp. 1048-1053.
- Manfred Berger : Montgelas, Pauline Mathilde Sophie Gräfin von , in: Hugo Maier (Hrsg.): Who is who der Sozialen Arbeit , Freiburg´ / Br. 1998, pp. 401f.
- Manfred Berger: Who was ... Pauline Countess Montgelas ?, in: Sozialmagazin 2002, pp. 6–9
- Gerhard Hohenwarter: The Bavarian State Association of the Catholic German Women's Association. Its history and development illustrated using selected women's biographies as an example, Munich 2002
Web links
- Literature by and about Pauline von Montgelas in the catalog of the German National Library
- Biography on wimpffen.hu
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Montgelas, Pauline from |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Wimpffen, Pauline Mathilde Sophie von (maiden name); Montgelas, Pauline Mathilde Sophie von (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German women's rights activist, active in the German Catholic Women's Association |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 28, 1874 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Rome |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 10, 1961 |
| Place of death | Rottach-Egern |