Feminism in Germany

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“Dem Reich der Freiheit werb ich Bürgerinnen! ( "I am recruiting female citizens for the realm of freedom!")” - Frauen-Zeitung (Women's News)

General background

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“The 1848 revolutions in central, eastern, and southeastern Europe also gave women political experience and to various degrees promoted an emancipatory consciousness among them. Women founded associations in German principalities and in parts of the Habsburg Empire to support political demands, such as education for the lower classes and the abolition of serfdom. Some of them sought change in the status of women. German feminists, for example, like the French, emphasized their distinctive contributions as women; but in the drive toward national unification, they also stressed their role in nation-building. Louise Otto founded the Frauen-Zeitung (Women's newspaper), in which she insisted that those who advocated emancipation should also embody a "true womanliness." The revolutions produced a long list of eloquent feminists throughout Europe who made various demands through their newspapers, magazines, and in their political participation. But just as had happened from 1793 on in France, revolutionary governments eventually excluded women from politics, censored their newspapers, and disbanded their clubs. Then the forces of counterrevolution throughout Europe further silenced feminists and the social movements that had supported them. The Habsburg Empire was so fearful of the power women had exhibited in this era of upheaval, it passed a law in 1849 that prohibited female participation in any political activity. In 1850, the Prussian king denied women the rights of assembly and association.” - Gale World History in Context

"Germany before 1914 was the home of the largest, best-organized, and most militantly class-conscious socialist women's movement in Europe." -- Opening sentence of:

Honeycutt, Karen (Autumn 1979). "Socialism and Feminism in Imperial Germany". Signs. Vol. 5 (No. 1). The University of Chicago Press: 30–41. {{cite journal}}: |issue= has extra text (help); |volume= has extra text (help)

Existing articles/categories

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Founder of German women’s movement: Louise Otto-Peters

Category:Feminism in Germany

History of feminism

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In The Netherlands Aletta H. Jacobs, first Dutch female doctor, and Wilhelmina Drucker were frontwomen in discussing and taking action on the theme reproductive rights. Jacobs started to import pessaria from Germany and gave them out for free to poor women in her praxis. German women were involved in the Vormärz, a prelude to the 1848 revolution.

Between 1894 and 1933 the "Bund Deutscher Frauenvereine" united women organizations in Germany.

Women's suffrage

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Women's suffrage was granted by a decree of the revolutionary Council of People's Deputies (Rat der Volksbeauftragten) on November 12, 1918.

Books

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  • Allen, Ann Taylor. Feminism and Motherhood in Germany, 1800–1914. New Brunswick, N.J., 1991.
  • Koontz, Claudia. Mothers in the Fatherland.

Online articles

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"Allgemeiner Deutscher Frauenverein" (General Union of German Women)

Frauen-Zeitung (Women's News).