Lore Agnes (1919)

Lore Agnes (4 June 1876, Bochum, Westphalia – 9 June 1953, Cologne) was a German politician. A house-wife from Düsseldorf, Agnes was a leading figure in the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the socialist women's movement in the city. She was a member of parliament 1919-1933.[1][2][3]

Biography

Agnes was the daughter of a coal miner from Bochum. She moved to Düsseldorf in 1906. As a socialist women's activist, she founded a Domestic Workers' Association.[3]

At the 1913 Jena congress of the SPD, Agnes belonged to the radical anti-militarist grouping, and supported Rosa Luxemburg's call for general strike action.[4] After the SPD split, Agnes became a leading personality in the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD).[5] She was jailed in 1914, after having given an anti-war speech at an International Women's Day meeting.[3] In her speech she had called on the women of Germany to organize resistance against the war.[3]

At the time of the outbreak of the November Revolution, Agnes and other left leaders from Düsseldorf were jailed. Agnes belonged to the group that was freed as revolutionaries stormed the prison, and she immediately became a leading organizer of the revolution in Düsseldorf.[6] She was put in charge of issues relating to food, health and welfare on behalf of the Düsseldorf council.[7]

Agnes was elected to the Weimar National Assembly in the 1919 election as a candidate of the USPD from the Electoral District no. 22 (Düsseldorf-East). The USPD had won 18.7% of the votes in that Electoral District, in which Agnes had headed the list of the party.[1][8]

When the USPD split, Agnes sided with the rightwing tendency,[9] that rejoined the SPD. As a SPD Reichstag member, Agnes represented a moderate leftist standpoint within the party.[10] She was a member of the Reichstag presidium from 1922 onwards.[11] She was also a member of the Düsseldorf municipal council until 1928.[3]

At the age of 68, Agnes was arrested by the Gestapo.[3]

In 1945, she again became a member of the Düsseldorf municipal council. She remained a member of the Women's Commission of SPD until her death.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 Handbuch der verfassunggebenden deutschen Nationalversammlung Archived 2012-02-26 at the Wayback Machine, Weimar 1919 ; biographische Notizen und Bilder, Berlin, 1919
  2. ↑ Sklar, Kathryn Kish, Anja Schüler, and Susan Strasser. Social Justice Feminists in the United States and Germany: A Dialogue in Documents, 1885-1933. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998. p. 194
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Frauengeschichte in Düsseldorfer Straßennamen - Lore Agnes - Weg Archived 2011-01-22 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ↑ pp. 242, 244
  5. ↑ Nolan, Mary. Social democracy and society working class radicalism in Düsseldorf, 1890-1920. Cambridge: Cambridge university press, 1981. p. 272
  6. ↑ Nolan, Mary. Social democracy and society working class radicalism in Düsseldorf, 1890-1920. Cambridge: Cambridge university press, 1981. p. 273
  7. ↑ Nolan, Mary. Social democracy and society working class radicalism in Düsseldorf, 1890-1920. Cambridge: Cambridge university press, 1981. p. 279
  8. ↑ Nolan, Mary. Social democracy and society working class radicalism in Düsseldorf, 1890-1920. Cambridge: Cambridge university press, 1981. p. 288
  9. ↑ Nolan, Mary. Social democracy and society working class radicalism in Düsseldorf, 1890-1920. Cambridge: Cambridge university press, 1981. p. 300
  10. ↑ Harsch, Donna. German social democracy and the rise of Nazism. Chapel Hill u.a: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1993. pp. 257-258
  11. ↑ Engel, Gerhard, Bärbel Holtz, and Ingo Materna. Gross-Berliner Arbeiter- und Soldatenräte in der Revolution, 1918/1919: Dokumente der Vollversammlungen und des Vollzugsrates : vom Ausbruch der Revolution bis zum 1. Reichsrätekongress. Berlin: Akademie, 1993. p. 32
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