Thekla Landé
Thekla Landé (* 1864 in Ostrowo ; † November 20, 1932 in Wuppertal - Elberfeld ) was a German politician. In 1919 she was one of the first elected female MPs in the Rhineland, and in the same year she ran for the SPD in the Weimar National Assembly . From 1919 to 1932 she was a member of the city council of Elberfeld and Wuppertal as a city councilor and focused on welfare. She advocated equal roles for men and women.
Life path
Thekla Landé was born in the Prussian province of Posen as the daughter of Sophie and Moritz Landé , a family of Jewish origin. The father was an architect and after moving from Ostrowo to Berlin he built his own house for his family directly on Kurfürstendamm . There the daughter Thekla grew up together with four siblings in well-to-do upper-class circumstances and attended school in this area.
Empire
In 1887, at the age of 23, she married her cousin Hugo Landé , who was five years her senior and who had set up his own law firm in Elberfeld in the spring of 1886. Both moved into a shared apartment there at 40 Herzogstrasse. From this marriage there were four children:
- Alfred Landé (1888–1976), physicist;
- Charlotte Landé (1890–1977), pediatrician, city doctor of Frankfurt am Main and specialist author;
- Franz Landé (1893–1942), musician and conductor; murdered in Auschwitz on September 30, 1942 ;
- Eva Landé (1901–1977), reform pedagogue and emigrant (see: Well-known members of the Association of German Emigrant Teachers: Eva Landé and Erich Stedeli ).
Since October 22nd, 1878, attempts have been made in the German Reich to suppress the activities and goals of the workers' movement with the law known as the Socialist Law against the endangering efforts of social democracy . The cities of Barmen and Elberfeld were counted among the strongholds of the Social Democrats . Against the background of this law, a major trial began at the Elberfeld Regional Court in autumn 1889 against a total of 91 people, including five Social Democratic members of the Reichstag, who were accused of illegal activities for the SPD.
It can be assumed that the Landés followed this process closely, as the young couple was involved in the Elberfeld public education association . This association was politically independent, but numerous SPD members were active in it, who met regularly for their meetings in Hombüchel 6-8.
In March 1890, her husband gave up his four-year office and moved into new offices at Casinogartenstrasse 15 a (today: Kolpingstrasse), which took into account the growing number of his clientele. At about the same time, a private move took place from the previous apartment to his own house at Luisenstrasse 85 , as the addition to the family required more space. Their daughter Charlotte , often called Lotte in the family, was born on May 26, 1890.
On September 30, 1890, the "law against the public-dangerous endeavors of the social democracy" expired after twelve years, so that social democratic engagement became a little easier. Nevertheless, activities such as meetings, lectures and publications were monitored and recorded by informants from the Prussian police. Hugo and Thekla Landé joined the SPD in the same year.
Like many staunch socialists of the time, the couple were not religiously oriented and were therefore not involved in the Jewish community.
In October 1891 Hugo Landé took part in the Erfurt party congress as a delegate and member of the program commission alongside August Bebel and Wilhelm Liebknecht . In this role, he dealt with the drafting of a new party program, related motions and proposals. The Erfurt program finally contained the demand for a general, equal and direct right to vote, for freedom of association, assembly and expression as well as equal rights for women.
In 1892 the educational association for women and girls of the working people was founded in Elberfeld, in which Thekla Landé was involved from the beginning and made her own lectures. She vehemently advocated equal rights for women and focused on the education system, in which girls and women were denied access to higher degrees such as high school diplomas and academic degrees.
Franz was born on April 10, 1893 , the third child of the family and second son. In 1901, the fourth child and second daughter Eva was born. Thekla Landé was the mother of six children, but two died in infancy.
The parents took great care of each of their children, for example the father took the time to read them from books and to help with their homework. Every child learned a musical instrument, together with their parents, who also played music, there were regular house music evenings, sometimes with guests. Even after moving out of home, all the children kept in close contact with their parents.
When her daughter Charlotte, after attending the Höhere Töchterschule (also: Sarresschule) in Elberfeld's Weststadt, reached the age of 15 to want to attend a secondary school, but not allowed to do so as a girl according to the prevailing educational system, Thekla Landé arranged for her and other girls between the ages of 15 and 25 from 1905 privately held Realgymnasial courses, which were held by appropriately open-minded (male) teachers from the Elberfeld municipal high school for a fee. The laboratories of the Realgymnasium were made available for the natural sciences.
As a result of the local elections in 1909, her husband Hugo Landé and one of his party comrades moved into Elberfeld's city council as the first Social Democratic MP.
Weimar Republic
After the First World War , Thekla Landé ran for the SPD in the elections to the Weimar National Assembly in January 1919. Only a few weeks later, she moved into the Elberfeld City Council as one of the first female MPs in the Rhineland and, after the unification to the city of Wuppertal on August 1, 1929, also belonged to its city council. In 1920 she was a member of the provincial parliament of the Prussian Rhine Province for Barmen.
In her role, she made a significant contribution to the welfare system, called for offers of help for unmarried mothers and their (illegitimate) children, who were burdened with strong social prejudices and specific disadvantages, as well as the establishment of municipal kindergartens and day-care centers.
Her husband Hugo was a lawyer and judiciary in 1919, leader of the SPD parliamentary group in Elberfeld, as well as the district president in Düsseldorf.
In total, Thekla Landé was active as a city councilor for more than 13 years. In February 1932 she had to retire from this office for health reasons and resign from her mandate. A few months later, on November 20th, she died at the age of 67.
Honors
In 2000, a portrait of Thekla Landé was put up in the so-called “Ancestral Gallery” in the corridors of the Barmen town hall . Their descendants from France and the USA were invited to this occasion.
In 2004, Thekla Landé's name was discussed as the name of the Wuppertal School for Sick People.
In 2010, on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of Elberfeld, Thekla Landé from the city of Wuppertal was the subject of the 4th Wuppertal History Festival for the Elberfeld anniversary.
literature
- Elke Brychta, Anna-Maria Reinhold, Arno Meersmann (Eds.): Courageous, contentious, reformist. The Landés. Six biographies 1859–1977 , Klartext-Verlagsgesellschaft, Essen 2004, ISBN 3-89861-273-2
- Julie Grunewald: A Jewish Childhood on the Lower Rhine: The Memories of Julius Grunewald (1860 to 1929) . Böhlau publishing house. Cologne, Weimar 2009. ISBN 3-412-20356-4
Individual evidence
- ↑ Book presentation: Die Landés on: geschichte-gestalten.de
- ^ Julie Grunewald: A Jewish childhood on the Lower Rhine: The memories of Julius Grunewald (1860 to 1929) . P. 158
- ↑ Review by Hugo and Thekla Landé ( Memento of the original from March 4, 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. to: buergerverein-elberfelder-suedstadt.de
- ↑ Herbert Champain: Autobiographical tape recording with Charlotte Champain-Landé in Oberursel (Taunus), tape 1, 1977 (today owned by Bettina Landé-Tergeist, France)
- ↑ The Landé family is not listed as a member of the Jewish community in Wuppertal-Elberfeld. Compare Fritz Jorde : On the history of the Jews in Wuppertal . Wuppertal-Elberfeld 1933
- ^ Institute for City History Frankfurt am Main .: Personal files 134,511 Dr. med. Charlotte Landé, questionnaire for the pre-employment examination at the City Health Department of August 27, 1926
- ↑ http://www.afz.lvr.de/media/archive_im_rheinland/archiv_des_lvr/Abenkenliste.pdf
- ↑ Horst Romeyk: Düsseldorf District Presidents 1918 to 1945 . In: Rheinische Vierteljahresblätter. 44: 237-299 (1980)
- ^ Horst Romeyk: Hugo Landé - a leading Elberfeld social democrat . In: Communications from the city archive, the historic center and the Bergisches Geschichtsverein - Wuppertal department. 7, pp. 6-11 (1982)
- ↑ 140 years of the SPD Wuppertal . Hugo and Thekla Landé (with photos). P. 15 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 2.3 MB) on: spd.wuppertal.de
- ↑ Photo: Portrait photo of Thekla Landé in the ancestral gallery of the town hall Barmen on: geschichte-gestalten.de
- ↑ Minutes of the 3rd teachers' conference of the school for sick people, Wuppertal ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. to: wuppertal.de (PDF file; 76 KB)
- ↑ 4th Wuppertal history festival for the Elberfeld anniversary at: wuppertal.de
- ↑ Rathaus am Neumarkt, September 4, 2010, 7:00 p.m .: Thekla Landé, a fictional interview ( memento of the original from November 29, 2010 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. on: e-400.de
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Landé, Thekla |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German politician (SPD) |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1864 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Ostrowo |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 20, 1932 |
| Place of death | Wuppertal - Elberfeld |