Irene Kirpal (1 January 1886 – 17 December 1977) was a Czechoslovakian politician. In 1920 she was one of the first group of women elected to the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...

, remaining in parliament until 1938.

Biography

Kirpal was born Irene Grundmann into a Jewish family in Hořice in Austria-Hungary (now in the Czech Republic) in 1886. Between 1902 and her marriage in 1912, she worked in education. She joined the

Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria The Social Democratic Party of Austria (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs , SPÖ), founded and known as the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (german: link=no, Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Österreichs, SDAPÖ) unti ...

in 1912 and became chair of the women's section in Aussig (Ústí nad Labem) in 1915. Following the independence of Czechoslovakia at the end of World War I, Kirpal was a municipal councillor in Ústí nad Labem from 1918 to 1920. She joined the German Social Democratic Workers' Party (DSAP) in 1919, and the following year was one of its candidates for the Chamber of Deputies in the

parliamentary elections A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

, in which she was one of sixteen women elected to parliament.Aleš Ziegler (2011
Úloha ţen v prvních československých parlamentních volbách roku 1920
pp85, 89, 101 She was subsequently re-elected in

1925 Events January * January 1 ** The Syrian Federation is officially dissolved, the State of Aleppo and the State of Damascus having been replaced by the State of Syria. * January 3 – Benito Mussolini makes a pivotal speech in the Italia ...

1929 This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the Cristero War, a Catholic ...

and

1935 Events January * January 7 – Italian premier Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval conclude Franco-Italian Agreement of 1935, an agreement, in which each power agrees not to oppose the other's colonial claims. * ...

, serving in the Chamber of Deputies until the Nazi annexation of the

Sudetenland The Sudetenland ( , ; Czech and sk, Sudety) is the historical German name for the northern, southern, and western areas of former Czechoslovakia which were inhabited primarily by Sudeten Germans. These German speakers had predominated in the ...

in 1938. She subsequently lived in exile in the United Kingdom, returning to Czechoslovakia in 1946. She died in Ústí nad Labem in 1977.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kirpal, Irene 1886 births People from Hořice Jews from Austria-Hungary Educators from Austria-Hungary Czechoslovak Jews Czechoslovak women in politics Members of the Chamber of Deputies of Czechoslovakia (1920–1925) Members of the Chamber of Deputies of Czechoslovakia (1925–1929) Members of the Chamber of Deputies of Czechoslovakia (1929–1935) Members of the Chamber of Deputies of Czechoslovakia (1935–1939) German Social Democratic Workers' Party in the Czechoslovak Republic politicians Czechoslovak expatriates in the United Kingdom 1977 deaths