Ruth Bré

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Ruth Bré (pseudonym for Elisabeth Bouness , also Bouneß or Bonnes ; alias Elisabeth Michael , born Elisabeth Rothmund * December 19, 1862 in Breslau ; † December 7, 1911 in Herischdorf , district of Hirschberg in the Riesengebirge ,) was a German maternal rights activist , suffragette , writer , Journalist, playwright and radical critic of patriarchy . She was the founder of the Federation for Maternity Protection .

Life

Ruth Bré was born out of wedlock. Her parents' names were kept secret. She had at least one brother. Bré lived in Hermsdorf under the Kynast and worked as a teacher, u. a. for song and religion, participated in public debates on educational issues and wrote plays.

The name Ruth Bré was a pseudonym. Bré is probably a compilation of the first letters of Elisabeth-Rothmund-Bonnes, read backwards. Rothmund was the name of her birth mother. She published her earliest writings under the pseudonym Elisabeth Bouness (also Bouneß ), her writings on the women's movement under the pseudonym Ruth Bré.

Bré's grave on the Cavalierberg in Herischdorf no longer exists.

Women's and mother rights activist

After her early retirement, she became active in the first women's movement in Germany, in which she was part of the radical wing. From then on she wrote tracts on the rights of mothers, wrote a novel, articles and tried her hand as a newspaper editor. She impressed listeners with spirited rhetoric, among other things.

Ruth Bré made the improvement of the situation of single mothers and their children a mission in life. In her writings she criticized the conditions of motherhood in the patriarchy and called for rebellion: “Do not give birth to others - only give birth to you women! [...] Women can exist without the state. But not the state without the woman. ” In particular, Bré fought against the dismissal of married civil servants (the so-called“ teacher celibacy ”) and for free motherhood. According to Bré, motherhood was a prerequisite for a woman's mental and physical health. Their goal was the reintroduction of mother right . In their writings, mother worship is expressed, also in a spiritual form.

On November 12, 1904, Bré founded the Association for Maternity Protection in Leipzig. The life reformer Friedrich Landmann and the district assessor and writer Heinrich Meyer were co-signers of the charter . The Bund für Mutterschutz quickly became successful and found many prominent supporters. In the initial phase of the federal government, however, in the course of disputes over direction, Bré was soon defeated by her opponent Helene Stöcker , who ousted her and directed the federal government in a direction oriented towards sexual reform . Bré and her colleagues accused Stöcker of having stolen Bré's intellectual property.

Bré founded at least one maternal colony based on the model of matriarchal societies.

Fonts (selection)

  • Elisabeth Bouneß: The woman at the turn of the century . Breslau 1900. (play).
  • Elisabeth Bouness: Emperor's Words , Welfare Law and Teachers. Reflections out of love for the fatherland . Leipzig 1903.
  • Ruth Bré: The right to motherhood: a demand to combat prostitution, women's and sexually transmitted diseases . Leipzig 1903.
  • Ruth Bré: State children or maternal law? Attempts at salvation from sexual and economic misery . Leipzig 1904.
  • Ruth Bré: No more alimentation lawsuits! Protect the mothers! A wake-up call to anyone who has had a mother . Leipzig 1905.
  • Ruth Bré: Ecce Mater! (See a mother!) . Leipzig 1905. (novel).
  • Ruth Bré: Born on Christmas Eve . In: Die Neue Generation, Vol. 5, No. 2/1909, pp. 81–85.
  • Ruth Bré: First of all, other marriage laws! . In: Hedwig Dohm u. a. (Ed.): Marriage? On the reform of sexual morality, Berlin 1911, pp. 177–191.

literature

  • Richard J. Evans : The feminist movement in Germany . London, Beverly Hills 1976 (= SAGE Studies in 20th Century History, Vol. 6). ISBN 0-8039-9951-8 .
  • Gudrun Hamelmann: Helene Stöcker, the “Bund für Mutterschutz” and “The New Generation” . Frankfurt am Main 1992. ISBN 3-89228-945-X .
  • Bernd Nowacki: The Federation for Maternity Protection (1905-1933) . Husum 1983 (= treatises on the history of medicine and natural sciences, issue 48). ISBN 3-7868-4048-2 .
  • Julia Polzin: Matriarchal utopias, free love and eugenics. The mother movement and the union for maternity leave until 1940. Hamburg 2017 (= writings on historical research of the 20th century, vol. 13). ISBN 978-3-8300-9453-1 .
  • Adele Schreiber: The beginnings of new concepts of morality with regard to motherhood . In this. (Ed.): Motherhood. A compilation for the problems of women as a mother, Munich 1912, pp. 163-185.
  • Helene Stöcker: Ruth Bré and the Federation for Maternity Protection . In: Die Neue Generation, vol. 8, no. 1, vol. 8/1912, pp. 30–40.
  • Christl Wickert : Helene Stöcker 1869-1943. Suffragette, sex reformer and pacifist. A biography . Bonn 1991. ISBN 3-8012-0167-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Julia Polzin: Matriarchal utopias, free love and eugenics. The mother movement in the German Empire and the Federation for Maternity Protection until 1940. Hamburg 2017, ISBN 978-3-8300-9453-1 , p. 70 .
  2. ↑ Julia Polzin: Matriarchal utopias, free love and eugenics. The mother movement in the German Empire and the Federation for Maternity Protection until 1940. Hamburg 2017, ISBN 978-3-8300-9453-1 , p. 207 .
  3. ↑ a b Julia Polzin: Matriarchal utopias, free love and eugenics. The mother movement in the German Empire and the Federation for Maternity Protection until 1940. Hamburg 2017, ISBN 978-3-8300-9453-1 , p. 205 .
  4. ^ Richard J. Evans: The feminist movement in Germany . London, Beverly Hills 1976 (= SAGE Studies in 20th Century History, Vol. 6). ISBN 0-8039-9951-8 , p. 120
  5. ↑ Julia Polzin: Matriarchal utopias, free love and eugenics. The mother movement in the German Empire and the Federation for Maternity Protection until 1940. Hamburg 2017, ISBN 978-3-8300-9453-1 , p. 74 .
  6. ↑ Julia Polzin: Matriarchal utopias, free love and eugenics. The mother movement in the German Empire and the Federation for Maternity Protection until 1940, Hamburg 2017, ISBN 978-3-8300-9453-1 , p. 208
  7. ↑ Julia Polzin: Matriarchal utopias, free love and eugenics. The mother movement in the German Empire and the Federation for Maternity Protection until 1940, Hamburg 2017, ISBN 978-3-8300-9453-1 , p. 385
  8. ↑ Christl Wickert: Helene Stöcker 1869-1943. Suffragette, sex reformer and pacifist. Bonn 1991. ISBN 3-8012-0167-8 , p. 183
  9. ↑ Helene Stöcker: Ruth Bré and the Bund für Mutterschutz . In: Die Neue Generation, Vol. 8, No. 1, Vol. 8/1912, p. 39
  10. ↑ Ruth Bré: State children or maternal right? Attempts at salvation from sexual and economic misery . Leipzig 1904, p. 33
  11. ↑ Helene Stöcker: Ruth Bré and the Bund für Mutterschutz . In: Die Neue Generation, Vol. 8, No. 1, Vol. 8/1912, pp. 30, 31
  12. ↑ Adele Schreiber: The beginnings of new moral concepts with regard to motherhood . In this. (Ed.): Motherhood. A compilation for the problems of women as a mother, Munich 1912, p. 176; Evans (1976), p. 121
personal data
SURNAME Bré, Ruth
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bonnes, Elisabeth (maiden name); Bouness, Elisabeth (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German mother and women's rights activist, journalist and author
DATE OF BIRTH December 19, 1862
PLACE OF BIRTH Wroclaw
DATE OF DEATH December 7, 1911
Place of death Herischdorf , district of Hirschberg in the Giant Mountains