Agnes Plum (born Agnes Jansen: 9 April 1869 – 10 August 1951) was a
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
politician (
SPD
The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany.
Saskia Esken has been the ...
,
KPD
The Communist Party of Germany (german: Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, , KPD ) was a major political party in the Weimar Republic between 1918 and 1933, an underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and a minor party in West German ...
). Between 1925 and 1928 she sat as a Communist member of the
national parliament (''Reichstag'').
[
]
Life
Agnes Jansen was born in Bardenberg, today a part of Würselen, but then a small village to the north of Aachen
Aachen ( ; ; Aachen dialect: ''Oche'' ; French and traditional English: Aix-la-Chapelle; or ''Aquisgranum''; nl, Aken ; Polish: Akwizgran) is, with around 249,000 inhabitants, the 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, and the 28th- ...
, and close to the Dutch border. She attended school locally and then entered into domestic service. Sometime before 1905 she relocated to the economically dynamic Ruhr region and became an industrial worker. By this time she had been married twice, and had become Agnes Plum. 1905 was also the year in which she joined the Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
For ...
.
When war broke out in 1914 many party members opposed the leadership decision to operate a political truce, which in effect meant voting in the Reichstag in support of war credits to fund the war, and refraining from criticism of the government for its duration. Three years later, as economic destitution at home and industrial scale slaughter on the frontline mounted, and the threat of annexation from the east by an autocratic czarist government appeared less immediate, the SPD
The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany.
Saskia Esken has been the ...
broke apart over the issue. In 1917 Agnes Plum was one of those who went with the breakaway faction which became the Independent Social Democratic Party (''"Unabhängige Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands"'' / USPD). Three years later, when the USPD itself broke up, at the end of 1920 Plum was a delegate at the party conference at which a left-wing majority, of which she was a part, joined up with the newly formed German Communist Party.[ She was on the party's left wing. At this time Plum was living and working in the industrial Schonnebeck quarter of ]Essen
Essen (; Latin: ''Assindia'') is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and D ...
, where she was also a member of the local council and, probably, of the regional parliament (''"Landtag"'') in Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...
. Within the local party leadership (''"Bezirksleitung"'') she was leader in the women's section, also having involvement in the Roter Frauen und Mädchen Bund (RFMB), the female section of the party's quasi-military wing.[
On 5 December 1925 Plum entered the national parliament (''Reichstag'') as the Communist member for Düsseldorf East.] She entered as a replacement for her party comrade Artur König who had been required by the party to give up his seat following financial losses for which he, as treasurer responsible for monies allocated to producing certain party newspapers, was blamed. There was no suggestion that Koenig had enriched himself personally, but a significant amount of money had nevertheless been lost. Plum remained a Reichstag member till 1928, but she was not re-elected at the next general election, and her sixtieth birthday, which she reached in 1929, appears to have put an end to any further high-profile political activity.[
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Plum, Agnes
People from Würselen
People from the Rhine Province
Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians
Independent Social Democratic Party politicians
Communist Party of Germany politicians
Members of the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic
20th-century German women politicians
1869 births
1951 deaths