Maria Elisabeth (Marie) Stellwag-Bes (14 January 1882 – 7 August 1938) was a

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

chemical engineer In the field of engineering, a chemical engineer is a professional, equipped with the knowledge of chemical engineering, who works principally in the chemical industry to convert basic raw materials into a variety of products and deals with the ...

and city councillor in

Delft Delft () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, ...

for the

Vrijzinnig Democratische Bond The Free-thinking Democratic League ( nl, Vrijzinnig Democratische Bond, VDB) was a progressive liberal political party in the Netherlands. Established in 1901, it played a relatively large role in Dutch politics, supplying one Prime Minister, Wi ...

. She is considered to be the first woman to receive an engineering diploma in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

and was one of the first three female city councillors in Delft.

Early life and education

Bes was born in

Tilburg Tilburg () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, in the southern province of North Brabant. With a population of 222,601 (1 July 2021), it is the second-largest city or municipality in North Brabant after Eindhoven and the seventh-larg ...

in 1882, the daughter of Klaas Bes and Johanna Bes (née Stoel). Her father worked as a mathematics teacher at the Tilburg secondary school. After completing her primary school education in 1894, Bes became the first female student in Tilburg to be admitted to the secondary school. Permission for this had to be sought from, and granted by the minister. In 1899, she successfully completed her final school exams, and the following year she started as the first female student at the Polytechische School te Delft, studying in the Technology department. On 27 July 1904, Bes graduated in

chemical engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials int ...

from the Polytechnic, becoming the first female graduate engineer in the Netherlands. That same year, she was appointed as an assistant in physics at her former college, which was upgraded in status to a technical college and renamed the ''Technische Hoogeschool Delft'' in 1905, to emphasise the academic quality of the education. In 1910 Bes became an assistant for theoretical and applied physics there, and in 1919 she was appointed as a permanent member of staff. In 1926 she left her job because of health issues.

Political career

In the 1910s, Bes became politically active, joining the

(VBD) (''transl.'' Liberal Democratic League), a progressive liberal political party in the Netherlands. This led to Bes becoming was one of the founders of the national Vrijzinnig Democratische Vrouwenclub along with a number of women including

Aletta Jacobs Aletta Henriëtte Jacobs (; 9 February 1854 – 10 August 1929) was a Dutch physician and women's suffrage activist. As the first woman officially to attend a Dutch university, she became one of the first female physicians in the Netherlands. I ...

, a physician and leading

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 ...

activist. Bes was a member of the VBV's central board. In 1918, Bes ran as a candidate for the Liberal Democrats in the national Tweede Kamerverkiezingen elections held on 21 May. The election was the first held after a series of reforms, known as "the Great Pacification" which introduced universal male suffrage and

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

, replacing the previous

first-past-the-post voting In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...

in single member constituencies. Women could stand for election but were not able to vote themselves, only gaining that right in 1919. The liberal parties lost the most seats and Bes was not elected. The following year 1919 Bes became party leader for the VDB in the municipal elections in Delft. She received about two thirds of the total 182 votes cast for the party, and sat on the Delft city council until March 1920. She made a name for herself on the council as a campaigner for alcohol control.

Marriage and death

On 15 July 1920 Bes married the

Evangelical Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

pastor Theodoor Gotlieb Stellwag (1888-1935). The couple lived in the presbytery of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, a historic building at 253 Oude Delft. After her marriage, Bes became active at the Lutheran Church in Delft, where among other things she worked as a teacher in the Sunday school. After the death of her husband in 1935, Bes moved, with her maid, to The Hague, where she died on 7 August 1938 at the age of 56. Bes was buried in the Jaffa cemetery in Delft on 10 August 1938.

Commemoration

The Marie Besstraat, a street in Delft, was named after her in 1988. In 2017, Marie Bes was awarded a place in the Alumni Walk of Fame, created to celebrate the 175th anniversary of

TU Delft Delft University of Technology ( nl, Technische Universiteit Delft), also known as TU Delft, is the oldest and largest Dutch public technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands. As of 2022 it is ranked by QS World University Rankings among ...

, to celebrate her place as the first woman to graduate as an engineer from the University.

Early life and education

Political career

Marriage and death

Commemoration

References

Further reading