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University Microfilms 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 A Xerox Education Company 77-10,527 FESSENDEN, Patricia Leonard, 1947- THE ROLE OF WOMAN DEPUTIES IN THE GERMAN NATIONAL CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY AND THE REICHSTAG: 1919-1933. The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1976 History, Europe Xerox University Microfilms,Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 g ) Copyright by Patricia Leonard Fessenden 1976 THE ROLE OF WOMAN DEPUTIES IN THE GERMAN NATIONAL CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY AND THE REICHSTAG: 1919-1933 DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Patricia Leonard Fessenden, B.A., M.A. ****** The Ohio State University 1976 Reading Committee: Approved By Professor Andreas Dorpalen Professor Carole Rogel y (T vJ/> t J L u s i Professor Robert H. Bremner Adviser Department of History PREFACE In the political climate of the late lS60's and early 1970's new women's movements grew up in most Western nations. Seeking to play a greater role in society, women stressed equal rights, equal pay for equal work, and increased educational opportunities for women. Political activity soon became the focus of these women's movements and numerous bills advocating reforms were presented to national legislatures. There were significant increases in the number of woman candidates for political offices and large numbers of women entered government positions. In the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), the United States, and Great Britain between 3 and 7 per cent of the legislators elected in the late 1960's were women. After initial increases, however, the number of woman legislators seemed to stabilize at levels which were far below the percentages of women in society. Again, as in the first two decades after women's suffrage was granted, initial momentum subsided in both the national legislatures and the broader area of women's rights. This study examines the role of the women who served in the German National Constituent Assembly, 1919-1920, and in the Reichstag from 1920 until the end of the Weimar ii Republic in 19 33. The challenges these women faced and their participation in a national legislature provide an interesting study of both German political history and the politically active woman in the twentieth century. Indeed, many of the concerns of this first generation of woman legislators are shared by women today in the West German- Bundestag, the U.S. Congress, and the British House of C o m m o n s . Throughout this study I have been assisted by the cooperation of library personnel at The Ohio State Univer sity, at the Leo Baeck Archives of New York City, and at the Swarthmore College Peace Collection in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. I wish to thank Dr. Sybil Milton, Bernice Nichols, and Professor Claudia Koonz for their helpful com ments about the study of women in the Weimar Republic. I also wish to thank Professor Robert Bremner and Professor Carole Rogel for their help and interest in this study. My special thanks are for Professor Andreas Dorpalen for his continuing guidance and advice throughout this study. He has encouraged all his students to strive for accuracy, objectivity, and scholarship. I would like to thank my parents, Bruce Riley Leonard and Laura Mae Peterson Leonard, who have shared their lives and their interest in history with me. Finally, I want to thank my husband, Robert M. Fessenden, for his encouragement and support throughout this study. VITA October 31, 1947 Born-Cleveland, Ohio 1969 B.A., The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1969-1970 Teaching Assistant, Department of History, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 1970-1971 Teaching Assistant, Department of History, The Ohio State University 1971 M.A., Marquette University 1971-1973 Teaching Associate, Department of History, The Ohio State University 1973-1976 Graduate Administrative Associate, Department of History, The Ohio State University 1976- Assistant Director, Career Counseling and Placement Service, Colleges of the Arts and Sciences, The Ohio State University FIELDS OF STUDY History of Twentieth Century Europe, Professor Andreas Dorpalen History of East Central Europe, Professor Carole Rogel Twentieth Century America, Professor Robert Bremner History of Europe, 164 8-1815, Professor John Rule TABLE OF CONTENTS Page PREFACE .................................................... ii VITA ......................................................... iv Chapter I. THE WOMEN'S MOVEMENT: 1848-1918 1 II. THE GERMAN NATIONAL CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY: 1919-1920 ............................................ 30 III. OPPORTUNITIES AND HOPES: WOMEN IN THE REICHSTAG, 1920-1924 ................................ 85 IV. CONSOLIDATION: WOMEN IN THE REICHSTAG, 1924-1928 ............................................ 124 V. THE END OF OPPORTUNITY: WOMEN IN THE REICHSTAG, 1928-1933................................. 163 VI. CONCLUSION: THE POLITICAL WOMAN, THE FIRST AND SECOND GENERATIONS ............................. 190 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................... 201 V CHAPTER I THE GERMAN WOMEN'S MOVEMENT: 1848-1918 In the middle of the nineteenth century the nascent women's movement (Frauenbewegung) in the German states focused on the moral, educational, and social concerns of women. Political and economic progress for women was urged by a small number of writers and activists including the "amazons of the German Revolution" of 1848-1849 to which Clara Zetkin (1857-1933), socialist theorist and Frauenbewegung leader, referred in her history of the socialist women's movement.-*- The women's movement did not yet have cohesive, developed organizations with well- defined programs, but consisted of several individual leaders who advocated goals for women in their writings. During the 1860's there was a flurry of activity in the women's movement that centered around the creation of schools for young women and the founding of numerous pub lications for women, such as Neue Bahnen (New Paths) , a paper that professed to serve rather than exploit women. Luise Otto-Peters (1819-1895), a writer and educator who helped found a school for women (Frauenbildungsverein) in Leipzig in 1865 and published the first German women's newspaper (Frauenzeitung), was one of the most prominent members of the early German Frauenbewegung.J Leaders such as Otto-Peters, Auguste Schmidt (1833-1902), and Ottilie von Steyber (1809-1970), co-founders of the Frauenbildungsverein, spoke throughout the German states at women's conferences and exhorted women to be more inde pendent, especially economically, from the men in their lives. In 1865 Otto-Peters founded the Allgemeiner deutscher Frauenverein (German Women's Union) which demanded women's rights to equal education and employment oppor tunities . ^ In the 1870's activity on behalf of women's rights continued. In 1872 members of the Allgemeiner deutscher Frauenverein petitioned the new Imperial Government concern ing the right of women to receive solid academic training. The Government rejected the petition, but women's groups were not discouraged, and they began a more vigorous cam paign to gain greater educational opportunities for women from the primary levels to the universities .5 In the 1880's women such as Helene Lange (1848-1930), a leading educator and feminist writer during the early Frauenbewegung, were working to create better secondary schools for girls or to support those already in existence. By 1891 women were admitted to German universities as auditors (Gast-Hftrerinnen) and it was no longer necessary for German women to go abroad for their higher education.® Another faction within the Frauenbewegung,

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