Gertrud Spiess (16 April 1914 in

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

– 14 July 1995 in Basel) was a Swiss politician of the Christian Democratic People's Party. She was a member of the National Council from 1975 to 1983.

Life

Spiess was born in Basel to a mechanic. She studied philology, German and history in Basel and Kiel. Then she made Islamic studies in Basel and Cairo, Egypt and earned a doctor's degree in 1946 with her thesis '' Maḥmūd von Ġazna bei Farīdu’d-dīn ʿAṭṭār'' which was first published in print in 1959. Spiess was a high school teacher of Latin and Ancient Greek. Her life was shaped by her political commitment. She sat in the Citizens' Council of

, campaigned for

women's suffrage in Switzerland Women in Switzerland gained the right to vote in federal elections after a referendum in February 1971. The first federal vote in which women were able to participate was the 31 October 1971 election of the Federal Assembly. However it was no ...

, and joined the Grand Council of Basel in 1968. She became the first female ''

Statthalter In the Low Countries, ''stadtholder'' ( nl, stadhouder ) was an office of steward, designated a medieval official and then a national leader. The ''stadtholder'' was the replacement of the duke or count of a province during the Burgundian and H ...

'' of the city of Basel in 1974, and the first female speaker of the Grand Council of the canton of Basel-Stadt. Moreover, she was a member of the National Council from 1975 to 1983. Her fields of interest included social and education policy.''Historical Dictionary of Switzerland'' Spiess was single.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Spiess, Gertrud 20th-century Swiss women 20th-century Swiss women politicians 20th-century Swiss politicians Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland politicians Women members of the National Council (Switzerland) Politics of Basel-Stadt Swiss suffragists 1914 births 1995 deaths Politicians from Basel-Stadt

Life

See also

References

External links