Hedwig Dransfeld

Hedwig Dransfeld ( born February 24, 1871 in Hacheney (now Dortmund ), † 13 March 1925 Werl ) was a German Catholic woman 's rights activist and politician.

Life and work

Hedwig Dransfeld was born on 24 February 1871 in Hacheney in Dortmund, the daughter of Romberg'schen forester Clemens Dransfeld and his wife, the doctor's daughter Elise Fleischhauer. She was baptized Catholic. The father died when Hedwig Dransfeld was three years old. Five years later, her mother died. Dransfeld initially grew thereafter up with her maternal grandmother in the Rhineland, after her death, she came to an orphanage. There, her talent was discovered, and at age 16 she began training at the Royal Catholic teachers seminar in Paderborn. During this training, she contracted tuberculosis of the bone and lost his left arm and a heel. Nevertheless, it was in 1890 her teachers exam with distinction and was then employed as a secular teaching assistant at the Ursuline School Werl. She went on to become a teacher and earned despite the disease through a distance learning diploma in 1897, the school principal interior. Then she became the principal of the Ursuline School, and this could be expanded into a girl Lyceum.

With the admission of women to university studies in 1908 Dransfeld culture began in Münster to study later in Bonn. She was early a writer and has published books of poetry. These were followed by contributions for the magazine " The Christian Woman " of the Caritas Association. 1905, they took over the editorship of this journal and converts it into an organ of the Catholic German Women's League ( KDFB ). Dransfeld increasingly became an activist of the Catholic women's movement. Great attention was paid to her speech " The woman in the church and religious life " on the first German women's congress in January 1912 in the Berlin Reichstag. The Social Democratic Berliner forward she described as " the most important woman in the present." In October 1912, the choice for full-time chairman of the KDFB done, and Dransfeld put her work as a teacher down. Under the direction Dransfeld the woman covenant developed a strong political activity, the question of women's suffrage was discussed. In 1916 she developed the concept of a women's peace church, which was built in Frankfurt am Main.

After the November Revolution Dransfeld was nominated by the Centre for the Weimar National Assembly and the Prussian State Assembly. In 1920, she also moved as parliamentarian for the constituency Dusseldorf 2 in the Reichstag. Their focus was on Morals and housing issues, family and matrimonial law, school and youth protection. They played a leading role in the new social legislation. 1919/20, Hedwig Dransfeld was a board member of the Rhenish Center Party, until her death, then the Westphalian center. From 1920 until her death was Dransfeld committee member on the board of the center - parliamentary party and since 1922 Chairman of the Reich Women's Advisory Committee of their party. For health reasons, she put the 1922 chairmanship of the KDF down, but remained a member of the Reichstag. In her last years she sat down too heavily for a women's peace movement. On March 13, 1925 Hedwig Dransfeld died in a room of Werl Ursuline convent. At the park cemetery in Werl is her honor grave. The monument was designed by sculptor Franz Gunter man. In 1938, the city administration Werl a report at the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts in the order in which it should be clarified whether it is at the crucifix is degenerate art. The Reich Chamber did not hang on tight and recommended consultation with the family Dransfeld to remove the corpus voluntarily to leave the cross but. Thereafter, the matter of the city was no longer pursued, the tomb remained unchanged.

Honors

• On the occasion of its 50th anniversary in 1921 she was awarded the City of Werl honorary citizenship in recognition and gratitude for their service to the city.
• On November 10, 1988, she paid tribute to the German Federal Post Office in the value of the character time series Women in German history with a stamp to 350 cents.
• A place in Essen- Altendorf was named after her.
• In Munich, an avenue named after her.
• The Regional Association of Westphalia -Lippe named the run in Werl Westphalian school for the physically handicapped by Hedwig Dransfeld.

Selection of the publications of Hedwig Dransfeld

• As the Grafendorli happy. Story for young girls ( = Bachems illustrated stories for girls. Vol. 7). Bachem, Cologne 1920.
• The good tone for the growing youth. Thiemann, Hamm 1930.
• Il Santo. Stories and poems for all devotees of St. Anthony of Padua. Junfermann, Paderborn 1902.
• Theo Westerholt. Story from the time of Albrecht Dürer ( = from all times and countries. Vol. 18). Bachem, Cologne 1913.
• The siblings Mona di Rosta. Story from the 17th century ( = Bachems illustrated stories for girls. Vol. 13). Bachem, Cologne 1920.