Willa Thorade

Willa Thorade (born November 12, 1871 in Oldenburg ; † June 11, 1962 there ) was a social welfare personality: She advocated women's rights in Oldenburg (Land) .

Life

Willa Thorade was the eldest daughter of the bank director Carl Heinrich Thorade (born September 5, 1841, † July 18, 1896) and his wife, the teacher Anna Thorade b. Strackerjahn (May 27, 1849 to March 18, 1943). Her siblings were Hedwig, Erna and Erich Thorade.

After the unexpected death of her father in 1896, she lived with her mother in the house at Bismarckstrasse 23 / corner of Hindenburgstrasse in Oldenburg, which she later became the owner of. The office of the Patriotic Women's Association was later also located here (see below).

Willa Thorade was not married. She attended the Cäcilienschule Oldenburg for ten years . She did not learn a trade.

Club and association activities

The first Fatherland Women's Association (VFV) of the State of Oldenburg was founded on August 12, 1870 in the city of Oldenburg. In 1892 all women’s associations founded up to then merged to form the Association of Patriotic Women’s Associations in the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg (state association). At Willa Thorade's suggestion, numerous social institutions were set up, mainly in Oldenburg, such as vocational schools for girls, women's technical schools, nursing homes and mothers' advice centers. In 1932 more than 50% of all Oldenburg children were cared for by these institutions. In order to make the latest developments in social areas available to the local women's clubs, she regularly went on study trips, including to Hamburg , Munich , Freiburg and Mannheim .

In 1905, Willa Thorade took over the chairmanship of the Fatherland Women's Association (branch association) and held it continuously until the early 1930s. The board of the later Oldenburg regional association was initially formed by the board of the Oldenburg branch in personal union.

During the First World War , in addition to arranging welfare services, she also organized the expansion of nursing services for the three hospitals set up by the Red Cross in Oldenburg . After the end of the war, she was the only woman to work in the Oldenburg demobilization commission.

As chairman of the VFV, Willa Thorade supported the efforts to grant women in the state of Oldenburg community citizenship. After the chairmen of the main association of the VFV in Berlin pointed out that political participation of the women's associations, which was fundamentally excluded, Willa Thorade withdrew the signature from the demand for community citizenship.

As co-founder and chairman of the women's association of the Free State of Oldenburg , she took care of young unemployed women in the last years of the Weimar Republic by organizing advanced training courses.

Political activities

Willa Thorade was one of the first women to apply for office as a city councilor in Oldenburg in 1918. She was a member of the German Democratic Party (DDP). She was a member of the Oldenburg City Council from 1919 to 1933. Her subjects there were u. a. Theater and school issues. In 1933, she resigned from public office in protest against the National Socialists and their methods.

She then founded the private “Tuesday Circle” that met in her home. It served like-minded Democrats as an exchange and meeting point; so u. a. by Gertrud Bäumer , Marianne Weber and Helene Lange . This Tuesday group was obviously observed by the Gestapo .

Immediately after the collapse in 1945, she set up the Oldenburg Women Working Group , which she headed until 1951 and of which she became honorary chairman.

Their activities included the areas:

• Organization of social work for women
• Commitment to women's rights
• active political work in the community ( City Council Oldenburg)
• journalistic work on women and welfare issues
• Commitment to women's and popular education institutions
• Development of a progressive cultural landscape in Oldenburg.

Journalistic work

The beginning of their journalistic activities cannot be determined. She reported to the editor-in-chief of the Nachrichten für Stadt und Land about Oldenburg events and later about her external conferences in connection with her diverse activities. Willa Thorade was editorially responsible for the women's supplement of the Oldenburgische Landeszeitung with the title “The woman in new Germany”.

Willa Thorade Foundation

On the occasion of her 25th anniversary as chairwoman of the VFV, donations were asked for a foundation to be set up; a total of 10,000 marks were donated for this. The money was invested in securities and the Willa Thorade Foundation was established on April 2, 1930. The foundation was recognized on June 5, 1930 by the Oldenburg State Ministry. The foundation was initially administered by the board of directors of the Oldenburg Red Cross . As long as she belonged to an organization of the Red Cross, Willa Thorade was entitled to dispose of the interest income from the foundation's invested assets at her own discretion within the framework of the foundation's purpose. As a restructuring of the foundation was necessary due to the change in the DRK law , these changes were implemented in January 1936. How long the Willa Thorade Foundation existed is incomprehensible.

Honors

Willa Thorade was an honorary member of the DRK regional association , holder of the 1st class badge of honor of the German Red Cross and the Federal Cross of Merit . On November 11, 1951, she was the second woman (after Helene Lange) to be entered in the city ​​of Oldenburg's Golden Book . A street was named after her in the Eversten district .

estate

The Oldenburg State Library keeps around 1,000 personal letters from and to Willa Thorade from the period between 1888 and 1947. The majority of these letters (around 800) are letters to her parents, later only to her mother. Further letters to z. B. Gertrud Bäumer are also preserved for the years 1913 to 1943.

literature

• Willa Thorade: Memories from Oldenburg's cultural life on the basis of a guest book . Oldenburg 1946
• Willa Thorade: Marie Stein-Ranke: Address at the opening of an exhibition on June 7, 1953 in the Oldenburger Kunstverein . Oldenburg 1953
• Nordwest-Zeitung: In memoriam Willa Thorade . Oldenburg June 13, 1962
• Nordwest-Zeitung: Farewell to Willa Thorade . Oldenburg June 18, 1962
• Beckmann, Gabriele [co-author]: Women stories: everyday women in Oldenburg 1800–1918 exhibition and catalog. Oldenburg 1988, page 143 ff.
• Anneliese Niehoff: “We are just demanding our rights!” Women and politics in Oldenburg 1900–1950 . Oldenburg 1992, pages 31-36
• Heike Fleßner: The Oldenburg social politician and women's rights activist Willa Thorade (1871–1962): what can regional historical women's research contribute to feminist social policy? . In: Aufbruch - Impulses: Women's research in educational science. Oldenburg 1995, page 51 ff.
• Heike Fleßner: "I struggled to be good": Willa Thorade - social politician and women's rights activist between tradition and opposition . In: Oldenburg women. Oldenburg 1995, pages 302-334
• Peter Haupt: Thorade, Willa. In: Hans Friedl u. a. (Ed.): Biographical manual for the history of the state of Oldenburg . Edited on behalf of the Oldenburg landscape. Isensee, Oldenburg 1992, ISBN 3-89442-135-5 , p. 747 ( online ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hans Friedl u. a. (Ed.): Biographical manual for the history of the state of Oldenburg. Edited on behalf of the Oldenburg landscape. Isensee, Oldenburg 1992, ISBN 3-89442-135-5 , p. 747.
2. ↑ In memoriam Willa Thorade . In: Nordwest-Zeitung, Oldenburg June 13, 1962
3. ↑ Handbook of the Patriotic Women's Association, second corrected and expanded edition. Berlin 1917, page 1449 ff.
4. ^ Statutes of the National Association of Patriotic Women's Associations in the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg, 1905
5. ↑ Brockmann 1988
6. ↑ Niehoff 1992
7. ↑ ^{a b c} Fleßner: "I had a hard time staying good." Oldenburg 1995, page 313
8. ↑ Fleßner: “We just demand our rights!” , Oldenburg 1995, p. 302
9. ↑ Oldenburgische Landeszeitung, March 23, 1930
10. ↑ ^{a b} Law Gazette for the Free State of Oldenburg, Landesteil Oldenburg; XLVI. Volume, June 14, 1930
11. ^ Legal Gazette for the Free State of Oldenburg, Oldenburg part of the country; XLIX. Volume, January 10, 1936
12. ↑ City of Oldenburg: Entries in the Golden Book 1921–2013 ( Memento of the original from July 3, 2014 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. 
13. ↑ Fleßner: "We simply request only our right!" . Oldenburg 1995, page 303