Susanna Woodtli

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Susanna Woodtli-Löffler (born March 28, 1920 in Basel ; † February 3, 2019 in Zollikon ) was a Swiss Germanist , historian and feminist .

Life

Susanna Woodtli grew up in an academic family as the only daughter with two brothers. Her oldest brother was Hans Löffler (1916–1997), a physician and microbiologist , the younger brother Peter Löffler was a theater director and theater director. Her father Wilhelm Löffler was a medical professor in Zurich. The mother Anna Ida Löffler-Herzog (1884–1942), a secondary school teacher, founded the Basel Women's Suffrage Association in 1916 together with friends. Susanna Woodtli's aunt Martha Herzog was one of the first doctors in Basel to run a practice. Meta von Salis , the first female historian and writer in Switzerland, was a great-great-great aunt on my father's side .

In 1938 she began studying German and history at the University of Zurich , which she completed in 1943 after ten semesters. In 1944 she received her doctorate under Emil Ermatinger , and wrote her doctoral thesis on the poems of Johann Peter Hebel . From 1946 to 1948 she worked as an editor on the Swiss Lexicon in 7 volumes . She was also active as a journalist, writing for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung as well as for the magazines Reformatio and steps into the open . In addition, Susanna Woodtli also took over as a teacher at various secondary schools.

In 1944 she married the middle school teacher and later professor of didactics Otto Woodtli (1916–2007), with whom she had three children. In 1970 Susanna Woodtli became President of the Working Group of Swiss Women's Associations and participated in the struggle for women's suffrage . In 1975, at the age of 55, she ran for the National Council on an independent women's list and achieved a positive result, but had to refrain from further political ambitions for health reasons. Susanna Woodtli lived in Zollikon near Zurich.

plant

In 1968 Susanna Woodtli began the preparatory work for her book project on the history of the struggle of Swiss women for their rights, which was published in 1975, in the " Year of Women ": Equal rights - the struggle for the political rights of women in Switzerland . In it, the author attempted to depict the hundred-year struggle for political participation of women using sources. In 1977, equality appeared in a French translation and promoted the struggle of women in French-speaking Switzerland to obtain their rights.

Susanna Woodtli also worked on the exhibition catalog for the Swiss exhibition for the year of women in 1975. Until 1985 she worked as an editor for the Evangelical-Protestant magazine Reformatio, responsible for literature and social issues. She commented in particular on the work of female authors ( Helene von Mülinen , Ingeborg Bachmann ), but also on the poetry of Albin Zollinger and Elias Canetti . Most recently she wrote the foreword to the biography of Yvonne-Denise Köchli about the Swiss feminist Iris von Roten .

reception

After the publication of her book Equal Rights, Susanna Woodtli was attested to be a scientifically based presentation, "which is well documented"; in the same book review reference was made in one breath to August Bebel's book Die Frau und der Sozialismus . Occasionally, she was accused of a lack of completeness in naming those people who had also made a contribution in the struggle for women's rights in Switzerland. The name of Emma Graf or that of Giuseppe Motta , one of the few Swiss federal councilors who has campaigned for women's suffrage, is missing . Others missed the author's visions for the time after the fight for women's rights to vote and the right to vote, or information about the current goals of contemporary women's associations.

In Yvonne-Denise Köchli's eyes, Woodtli "was the first and for a long time the only historian of the post-war period to attempt to present the history of the women's movement in a coherent manner." The historian Daniel Furter also wrote in his licentiate thesis in 2003 that her book, like that of Lotti Ruckstuhl ( women break fetters ), covers "interesting aspects", but it is "very sketchy and possibly not always objective in relation to the opponents" .

Susanna Woodtli's position in the women's movement was bourgeois. She was cautious about the protagonists of the New Women's Movement, which was close to the New Left , and the demands of this movement (e.g. liberalization of the abortion ). Woodtli's claim was primarily to make it clear that «women-conscious» women in Switzerland had raised their voices for many decades without, however, being heard by the public.

Her friends Gabi Einsele and Verena E. Müller dedicated a commemorative publication to her on her 80th birthday.

Works

  • Susi Löffler: Johann Peter Hebel: essence and roots of his poetic world (= ways to poetry. Vol. 44). Huber, Frauenfeld 1944 (dissertation, University of Zurich, 1944).
  • Susanna Woodtli: Equal Rights: The Struggle for the Political Rights of Women in Switzerland. Huber, Frauenfeld 1975 ( table of contents ; PDF; 93 kB); 2nd, supplemented edition 1983 ( table of contents ; PDF; 94 kB).

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Yvonne Voegeli: Woodtli [-Löffler], Susanna. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  2. ↑ Obituary notice nzz.ch
  3. ↑ Daniel Meier, Susanna Woodtli inherited feminism (obituary), [1] from February 24, 2019
  4. ↑ Verena E. Müller: Women dare to go out. In: “Down-to-earth and limitless”, 200 years of Thurgau women's history (s). Association of Thurgau women yesterday - today - tomorrow (ed.). Huber, Frauenfeld 1998, p. 176.
  5. ↑ Anna Löffler-Herzog: The ancestors of the Hortensia von Gugelberg, born. from Salis. Special print, 1906.
  6. ↑ Swiss Lexicon in 6 volumes , Volume 6, Lucerne 1993, p. 691.
  7. ↑ The Reformatio - magazine for culture, politics, religion stopped its publication at the end of 2009 in the 58th year.
  8. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated November 11, 2013 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.reformatio.ch
  9. ↑ The ecumenical Swiss women's magazine steps into the open appeared from 1972–2011.
  10. ^ A second, supplemented edition of Equal Rights appeared in 1983: Huber, Frauenfeld, ISBN 3-7193-0503-1 .
  11. ↑ A woman comes too early: the life of Iris von Roten, author of «Women in the Playpen». Weltwoche-ABC-Verlag, Zurich 1992, pp. 7-10.
  12. ↑ Peter Stadler, NZZ of April 21, 1976, p. 35.
  13. ↑ Tages-Anzeiger, February 6, 1976
  14. ↑ Helene Stucki, in: Swiss Red Cross , No. 4 of May 15, 1976, p. 21.
  15. ↑ Peter Stadler, NZZ of April 21, 1976, p. 35.
  16. ↑ Pour la lutte qui continue. In: Tribune / Le Matin 14, May 5, 1976.
  17. ^ Yvonne-Denise Köchli: The grand old lady of feminist historiography turns 75. In: Die Weltwoche , No. 12, March 23, 1995.
  18. ^ Daniel Furter: The reverse suffragettes - the opponents of women's suffrage 1958–1971. Licentiate thesis in history, submitted in 2003 at the University of Bern . Online (PDF; 924 kB)
  19. ↑ Gabi Einsele, Verena E. Müller: Susanna Woodtli: Friend's gift for the 80th birthday. 2 parts. Self-published, Zurich 2000.
personal data
SURNAME Woodtli, Susanna
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Woodtli-Löffler, Susanna; Löffler, Susi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss Germanist, historian and feminist
DATE OF BIRTH March 28, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Basel
DATE OF DEATH 3rd February 2019
Place of death Zollikon