![DBP 1994 1723 Bund Deutscher Frauenvereine](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/DBP_1994_1723_Bund_Deutscher_Frauenvereine.jpg)
The Bund Deutscher Frauenvereine (Federation of German Women's Associations) (BDF) was founded on 28/29 March 1894 as umbrella organization of the women's civil rights
feminist movement
The feminist movement (also known as the women's movement, or feminism) refers to a series of social movements and political campaigns for Radical politics, radical and Liberalism, liberal reforms on women's issues created by the inequality b ...
and existed until the
Nazi seizure of power
Adolf Hitler's rise to power began in the newly established Weimar Republic in September 1919 when Hitler joined the '' Deutsche Arbeiterpartei'' (DAP; German Workers' Party). He rose to a place of prominence in the early years of the party. Be ...
in 1933.
Its creation was inspired by the founding of the
World's Congress of Representative Women
The World's Congress of Representative Women was a week-long convention for the voicing of women's concerns, held within The Woman's Building (Chicago), The Woman's Building of the World's Columbian Exposition (Chicago, May 1893). At 81 meetings, ...
meeting on the occasion of the 1893
World's Columbian Exposition
The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordi ...
in Chicago. Several women from Germany attended this event: Anna Simson, Hanna Bieber-Böhm, Auguste Förster,
Käthe Schirmacher
Käthe Schirmacher ( Danzig, 6 August 1865 – Meran, 18 November, 1930) was a German writer, journalist, and political activist who was considered to be one of the leading advocates for women's rights and the international women's movement in th ...
. They took the example of the American
National Council of Women as a model for the BDF. The
International Council of Women
The International Council of Women (ICW) is a women's rights organization working across national boundaries for the common cause of advocating human rights for women. In March and April 1888, women leaders came together in Washington, D.C., with ...
also played a role in strengthening the co-operation between the NCW and the BDF.
Governance
The first board was composed of:
* Auguste Schmidt
* Anna Schepeler-Lette, Chairperson of the Latvian Club
* Anna Simson
*
Hanna Bieber-Böhm
Hanna Bieber-Böhm (6 February 1851 – 15 April 1910) was a German feminist and pioneer of social work. She established an organization to assist young women seeking work in Berlin and help protect them from becoming prostitutes, and founded a rec ...
as chairwoman of the association for the protection of minors Representative of the morality movement
*
Auguste Förster
*
Ottilie Hoffmann
Ottilie Franziska Hoffmann (14 July 183520 December 1925) was a German educationalist and social reformer who came to prominence as a pioneering temperance activist.
Early life and education
Ottilie Hoffmann was born in the central quarter of ...
, temperance activist
*
Helene von Forster
Helene von Forster (born Helene Schmidmer: 27 August 1859 – 16 November 1923) was a German women's rights activist and author. She is considered the most important representative of the feminist movement's moderate "bourgeois" wing in Nuremb ...
, chairwoman of the Nuremberg Association Women's Welfare
*
Helene Lange
Helene Lange (9 April 1848 in Oldenburg – 13 May 1930 in Berlin) was a pedagogue and feminist. She is a symbolic figure of the international and German civil rights feminist movement. In the years from 1919 to 1921 she was a member of the Hamb ...
*
Betty Naue
In 1896 they were joined by:
*
Jeanette Schwerin, Head of girls and women's groups for social work
* Marie Stritt, Founder of the first legal protection association for women in Germany
Constituent groups
Among others, the
Reifensteiner Association was among the members.
History
Wilhelmine period
Weimar period
The
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
rise to power, in 1933, led to their with the assertion of control over women's associations. Such groups involving communists or socialists were forbidden, and members were arrested or even assassinated in rare cases.
[http://www.erudit.org/revue/rf/1991/v4/n2/057649ar.pdf ] All associations were asked to turn in Jewish members, including the
Union of Protestant Women, the
Association for Home and Countryside, the
Union of German Colonial Women, and the
Union of Queen Louise.
But soon, the majority of the organizations disbanded or chose among themselves to disappear, like the BDF which dissolved in 1933 to avoid being controlled.
[Marie-Bénédicte Incent,'' Histoire de la société allemande au XXe siècle. Tome I. Le premier XXe siècle. 1900-1949'', Paris, 2011, p. 42] Some of the affiliated associations joined the
Deutsches Frauenwerk
image:Mütterschulungskurs_des_Reichsmütterdienstes.jpg, Letter of acceptance, 180px
The ''Deutsches Frauenwerk'' was a National Socialist, Nazi Association for women, which was created in October 1933.
See also
* League of German Girls
* Cro ...
.
Membership
Membership steadily grew in the first twenty years:
* 1895 : 65 chapters
* 1901 : 137 chapters and 70,000 members
* 1913 : 2200 chapters and 500,000 members
Articles
*
Women in the Third Reich
*
Deutsches Frauenwerk
image:Mütterschulungskurs_des_Reichsmütterdienstes.jpg, Letter of acceptance, 180px
The ''Deutsches Frauenwerk'' was a National Socialist, Nazi Association for women, which was created in October 1933.
See also
* League of German Girls
* Cro ...
*
Frauenschaft
References
{{Authority control
Feminism in Germany
Organizations of the German Empire
Organizations based in the Weimar Republic
Women's organisations based in Germany
1894 establishments in Germany
Organizations established in 1894
1933 disestablishments in Germany
Organizations disestablished in 1933