Lore Agnes (4 June 1876, Bochum,

Westphalia Westphalia (; german: Westfalen ; nds, Westfalen ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the regio ...

– 9 June 1953,

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

) was a German politician. A house-wife from

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second- ...

, Agnes was a leading figure in the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the socialist women's movement in the city. She was a member of parliament 1919-1933.
Frauengeschichte in Düsseldorfer Straßennamen - Lore Agnes - Weg
'' Agnes was the daughter of a coal miner from Bochum. She moved to Düsseldorf in 1906. As a socialist women's activist, she founded a Domestic Workers' Association. At the 1913

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a po ...

congress of the SPD, Agnes belonged to the radical anti-militarist grouping, and supported Rosa Luxemburg's call for general strike action. After the SPD split, Agnes became a leading personality in the

Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany The Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Unabhängige Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, USPD) was a short-lived political party in Germany during the German Empire and the Weimar Republic. The organization was establish ...

(USPD). She was jailed in 1914, after having given an anti-war speech at an International Women's Day meeting. In her speech she had called on the women of Germany to organize resistance against the

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

. At the time of the outbreak of the November Revolution, Agnes and other left leaders from Düsseldorf were jailed. Agnes belonged to the group that was freed as revolutionaries stormed the prison, and she immediately became a leading organizer of the revolution in Düsseldorf. She was put in charge of issues relating to food, health and welfare on behalf of the Düsseldorf council. Agnes was elected to the

Weimar National Assembly The Weimar National Assembly (German: ), officially the German National Constitutional Assembly (), was the popularly elected constitutional convention and de facto parliament of Germany from 6 February 1919 to 21 May 1920. As part of its ...

in the 1919 election as a candidate of the USPD from the Electoral District no. 22 (Düsseldorf-East). The USPD had won 18.7% of the votes in that Electoral District, in which Agnes had headed the list of the party.
Handbuch der verfassunggebenden deutschen Nationalversammlung
'', Weimar 1919 ; biographische Notizen und Bilder, Berlin, 1919 When the USPD split, Agnes sided with the rightwing tendency, that rejoined the SPD. As a SPD Reichstag member, Agnes represented a moderate leftist standpoint within the party. She was a member of the Reichstag presidium from 1922 onwards.Engel, Gerhard, Bärbel Holtz, and Ingo Materna.
Gross-Berliner Arbeiter- und Soldatenräte in der Revolution, 1918/1919: Dokumente der Vollversammlungen und des Vollzugsrates : vom Ausbruch der Revolution bis zum 1. Reichsrätekongress
'. Berlin: Akademie, 1993. p. 32 She was also a member of the Düsseldorf municipal council until 1928. At the age of 68, Agnes was arrested by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

. In 1945, she again became a member of the Düsseldorf municipal council. She remained a member of the Women's Commission of SPD until her death.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Agnes, Lore 1876 births 1953 deaths People from Bochum People from the Province of Westphalia Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians Independent Social Democratic Party politicians Members of the Weimar National Assembly Members of the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic 20th-century German women politicians