Augustin Rösler, C.Ss.R. (6 March 18512 April 1922) was a

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

n theologian and sociologist, and a Redemptorist priest, who wrote both on the history of Christianity and contemporary issues. His best known work is ''Die Frauenfrage vom Standpunkte der Natur, der Geschichte und der Offenbarung'' (), a treatise on the woman question published in 1893 (with a significantly expanded second edition in 1907).

Personal life

Rösler was born in Góra on 6 March 1851. He died in

Wrocław Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...

on 2 April 1922.

Writing

Augustin Rösler was the first German Catholic to discuss the woman question from a Catholic viewpoint. Among his works is a monograph on the writing of Prudentius. His ''Die Frauenfrage vom Standpunkte der Natur, der Geschichte und der Offenbarung'', translated into French as ''La Question Féministe examinée au point de vue de la Nature, de l'Histoire et de la Révélation'' ('' The Woman Question, Considered from the Standpoint of Nature, History, and Revelation'') was widely reviewed at the time. The work was a reply to

August Bebel Ferdinand August Bebel (22 February 1840 – 13 August 1913) was a German socialist politician, writer, and orator. He is best remembered as one of the founders of the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany (SDAP) in 1869, which in 1875 mer ...

's book ''Die Frau und der Sozialismus''. Whereas

Bebel Ferdinand August Bebel (22 February 1840 – 13 August 1913) was a German socialist politician, writer, and orator. He is best remembered as one of the founders of the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany (SDAP) in 1869, which in 1875 mer ...

demands that women and men be treated as equal, Rösler emphasized that there is "fundamentally equal morality of the sexes," while at the same time he stressed that a woman's freedom lies in the ability to fulfill her role as a mother. In 1899, Franz Hitze invited Rösler to discuss the woman question at a conference titled Praktisch-Sozialer Kursus in

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

. He decided to write ''Wahre und Falsche "Frauen-Emanzipation''," which translates to ''True and False Emancipation of Women'', which contained the same content as the speech, but with a more detailed discussion of the topics of women at medical university courses and

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

. In ''Wahre und Falsche "Frauen-Emanzipation",'' Rösler explains his ideas of what rights women should or should not be given. The book consists of an introduction, followed by three main chapters that each focus on distinct aspects of a woman's life, and a conclusion. While explaining the problems of the ''Frauenfrage'', also known as the

woman question "The woman question", which is translated from the French term ''querelle des femmes'' (literally, "dispute of women"), refers both in historiography to an intellectual debate from the 1400s to the 1700s on the nature of women and feminist campai ...

, Rösler bases his arguments on quotes from the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

, metaphors or direct quotes from women or men of his time. Rösler was seen as revolutionary, because he was one of the first Catholics to criticize that women and men are not treated in a balanced way. More specifically, Rösler, on the one hand, demands that women deserve more rights than they have in certain fields, but on the other hand he argues that their rights should only be enough to help with her task as a mother and wife.

Reception

Rösler's call for more rights for women, although limited, were seen as too liberal by many bishops of the time. The author's efforts to speak to other men, with the aim to free up some space for women in order to allow a more liberal development, was seen as revolutionary. Nevertheless, his traditional view on gender differences and the idea of fixating women to the task of being a loving and gentle mother and wife was criticized by many leading women of the Catholic women's movement, including Hedwig Dransfeld and . Gnauck-Kühne was a friend and correspondent of Rösler's.

Works

* * * Rösler, Augustin (1907, 2nd expanded edition).
Die Frauenfrage vom Standpunkte der Natur, der Geschichte und der Offenbarung
' (in German). Freiburg im Breisgau: Herdersche Verlagshandlung, 1907. * (Reprinted by Alphonsus-Buchhandlung in Münster in 1904). In 2023,
new edition
was published in modern script, edited by Florian Schirmer.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosler, Augustin 1851 births 1922 deaths 19th-century German Catholic theologians 19th-century German writers 19th-century German male writers Contributors to the Catholic Encyclopedia German sociologists People from Góra