Gertrud Hanna (1876–1944) was a German activist and politician. She was a member of 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 ...

(SPD) and represented it at the Prussian Parliament. She also assumed various positions in different organizations. Following the Nazi rule in Germany she was dismissed from all of her posts and committed suicide in 1944. She described herself and other colleagues as follows: "We are in the first place Party members, secondly unionists, and finally, if at all feminists."

Biography

Hanna was born in Berlin on 22 August 1876 into a working class family and had two sisters. She left school at 14 and began to work in a publishing house. She joined a union of unskilled workers and became secretary of the Berlin workers' committee in 1907. Next year she joined the SPD. She was elected as the head of the workers' committee in 1909. Between 1909 and 1933 she was a member of the general commission of the trade unions and the federal executive committee of the German trade union confederation. During the same period she headed the women's secretariat of the confederation. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Hanna was a member of a committee which was set to help women affected from the war-related conditions. From 1916 she edited the newly founded ''Gewerkschaftliche Frauenzeitung'' and later worked for the magazine ''Die Arbeiterwohlfahrt''. In 1919 year she was elected to the

Prussian Parliament The Landtag of Prussia (german: Preußischer Landtag) was the representative assembly of the Kingdom of Prussia implemented in 1849, a bicameral legislature consisting of the upper House of Lords (''Herrenhaus'') and the lower House of Representat ...

and served there until 1933. She actively participated at SPD and trade union events which primarily dealt with employment problems of women and with their protection at work. She also participated in international congresses, including a trade union women's conference in Paris in 1927. She published articles in ''

International Labour Review The International Labour Review is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering labour and employment studies. It was established in 1921 by the International Labour Organization The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United N ...

''. Hanna had positions in the

International Labour Organization The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is the first and o ...

as part of the German workers’ delegation and as a member of its commissions. Immediately after the Nazi rule in the country Hanna lost all of her positions and earned money by doing patchwork with one of her sisters, Antonie. They were subject to frequent interrogations by the Nazi forces and committed suicide in Berlin on 26 February 1944.

Legacy

A memorial plaque was laid for the Hanna sisters at their residence in Lüdenscheider Weg in

Haselhorst Haselhorst () is a locality in the borough of Spandau in Berlin. It is located between Siemensstadt and the Old Town of Spandau and is separated from the Hakenfelde locality by the River Havel. Overview The manor of Haselhorst was incorporate ...

, Berlin, in October 2021.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hanna, Gertrud 20th-century German journalists 20th-century German women politicians 1876 births 1944 suicides 1944 deaths Politicians from Berlin Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians German politicians who died by suicide Members of the Prussian National Assembly German women journalists German newspaper editors German women trade unionists Suicides in Germany