Johanna Elberskirchen (11 April 1864 in

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

– 17 May 1943 in

Rüdersdorf Rüdersdorf is a municipality in the district Märkisch-Oderland, in Brandenburg, Germany, near Berlin. It is served by the Schöneiche bei Berlin tramway which runs from Rüdersdorf through Schöneiche to Berlin-Friedrichshagen station on the B ...

) was a feminist writer and activist for the rights of women, gays and lesbians as well as blue-collar workers. She published books on women's sexuality and health among other topics. Her last known public appearance was in 1930 in Vienna, where she gave a talk at a conference organised by the

World League for Sexual Reform The World League for Sexual Reform was a League for coordinating policy reforms related to greater openness around sex. The initial groundwork for the organisation, including a congress in Berlin which was later counted as the organisation's first, ...

. She was open about her own homosexuality which made her a somewhat exceptional figure in the feminist movement of her time. Her career as an activist was ended in 1933, when the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...

rose to power. There is no public record of a funeral but witnesses report that Elberskirchen's urn was secretly put into the grave of Hildegard Moniac, who had been her life partner.

Quotes

Based on the assumption that women's libido only exists in order to secure the creation of offspring and is therefore fundamentally different from men's libido, Elberskirchen argued that: "If it was the yearning for a child, there would be no abortion, no infanticide, no suicide. In that case the awful punitive articles wouldn't exist. And first and foremost the outrageous, immoral contempt of an unmarried mother and her child wouldn't exist - there would be no 'fallen' women, no 'bastards'.Die Sexualempfindung bei Weib und Mann. 1903, S. 26.

Publications

* ''Die Prostitution des Mannes. Auch eine Bergpredigt – Auch eine Frauenlektüre.'' In: ''Verlags-Magazin.'' J. Schabelitz, Zürich 1896. * ''Socialdemokratie und sexuelle Anarchie.'' In: ''Verlags-Magazin.'' J. Schabelitz, Zürich 1897
(online)
* ''Das Weib, die Klerikalen und die Christlichsocialen.'' Schabelitz, Zürich 1898. * ''Feminismus und Wissenschaft.'' 2. Auflage. Magazin-Verlag, Leipzig/ Rednitz 1903. * ''Die Liebe des dritten Geschlechts. Homosexualität, eine bisexuelle Varietät keine Entartung – keine Schuld.'' Verlag von Max Spohr, Leipzig 1904
(online)
* ''Die da am Manne leiden … IV. Stück. Παντα ρει.'' 3. Auflage. Magazin-Verlag, Berlin um 1905. * ''Was hat der Mann aus Weib, Kind und sich gemacht? Revolution und Erlösung des Weibes. Eine Abrechnung mit dem Mann – Ein Wegweiser in die Zukunft!'' 3. Auflage. Magazin-Verlag, um 1904. * ''Geschlechtsleben und Geschlechtsenthaltsamkeit des Weibes.'' Seitz u. Schauer, München 1905
(online)
* ''Die Mutterschaft in ihrer Bedeutung für die national-soziale Wohlfahrt.'' Seitz u. Schauer, München 1905. * Mutter, Seitz & Schauer, München 1905. ** 1: ''Schutz der Mutter.'
(online)
** 2: ''Geschlechtliche Aufklärung des Weibes.'
(online)
* with Max Below: ''Kinderheil. Zeitschrift für Mütter zur leiblichen und geistigen Gesundung und Gesunderhaltung der Kinder.'' Seitz & Schauer, München 1905–1907. * with Anna Eysoldt: ''Die Mutter als Kinderärztin.'' Seitz u. Schauer, München 1907.

References

Sources

*Krettmann, Ulrike: Johanna Elberskirchen. In: Lautmann, Rüdiger (Hrsg.): ''Homosexualität. Handbuch zur Theorie- und Forschungsgeschichte''. Frankfurt/M./New York 1993. *Christiane Leidinger:
Keine Tochter aus gutem Hause
– Johanna Elberskirchen (1864–1943)''. UVK, Konstanz 2008. *

External links

* * ttp://www.lesbengeschichte.de/ Dokumentation der Reden zu den Gedenkfeiern 2003 in Rüdersdorf und 2006 in Bonn auf dem Portal lesbengeschichte.de (see „erinnern & gedenken“)
Frauenmediaturm: Johanna Elberskirchen
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elberskirchen, Johanna 1864 births 1943 deaths German women's rights activists 20th-century German writers Lesbian feminists German lesbian writers German LGBT rights activists Politicians from Bonn 19th-century German writers 20th-century German women writers 19th-century German women writers German socialist feminists Writers from Bonn