Helene Stöcker (13 November 1869 – 24 February 1943) was a German

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

pacifist Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ''a ...

and gender activist. She successfully campaigned to keep same sex relationships between women legal, but she was unsuccessful in her campaign to legalise abortion. She was a pacifist in Germany and joined the ''Deutsche Friedensgesellschaft''. As war emerged, she fled to Norway. As Norway was invaded, she moved to Japan and emigrated to America in 1942.

Life

Born in

Elberfeld Elberfeld is a municipal subdivision of the Germany, German city of Wuppertal; it was an independent town until 1929. History The first official mentioning of the geographic area on the banks of today's Wupper River as "''elverfelde''" was ...

, Stöcker was raised in a

Calvinist Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Protestantism, Continenta ...

household and attended a school for girls which emphasised rationality and morality. She moved to Berlin to continue her education and then she studied at the University of Bern, where she became one of the first German women to receive her doctorate. In 1905, she helped found the League for the Protection of Mothers (''Bund für Mutterschutz'', BfM), and she became the editor of the organisation's magazine ''Mutterschutz'' (1905–1908) and then ''Die Neue Generation'' (1906–1932). Helene Stoecker on street

In 1909, she joined

Magnus Hirschfeld Magnus Hirschfeld (14 May 1868 – 14 May 1935) was a German physician, Sexology, sexologist and LGBTQ advocate, whose German citizenship was later revoked by the Nazi government.David A. Gerstner, ''Routledge International Encyclopedia of Queer ...

in successfully lobbying German parliament from including lesbian women in the law criminalising

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexu ...

. Stöcker's influential new philosophy, called the New Ethic, advocated the equality of illegitimate children, legalisation of abortion, and sexual education, all in the service of creating deeper relationships between men and women which would eventually achieve women's political and social equality. This was received with dismay from more conservative women's organisations in Imperial Germany. During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and the Weimar period, Stöcker's interest shifted to activities in the

peace movement A peace movement is a social movement which seeks to achieve ideals such as the ending of a particular war (or wars) or minimizing inter-human violence in a particular place or situation. They are often linked to the goal of achieving world pe ...

. In 1921 in Bilthoven, together with

Kees Boeke Cornelis "Kees" Boeke (25 September 1884 3 July 1966) was a Dutch reformist educator, Quaker missionary and pacifist. He is best known for his popular essay/book '' Cosmic View'' (1957) which presents a seminal view of the universe, from the g ...

and Wilfred Wellock, she founded an organisation with the name ''Paco'' (the

Esperanto Esperanto (, ) is the world's most widely spoken Constructed language, constructed international auxiliary language. Created by L. L. Zamenhof in 1887 to be 'the International Language' (), it is intended to be a universal second language for ...

word for "peace") and later known as

War Resisters' International War Resisters' International (WRI), headquartered in London, is an international anti-war organisation with members and affiliates in over 40 countries. History ''War Resisters' International'' was founded in Bilthoven, Netherlands in 1921 un ...

(''Internationale der Kriegsdienstgegner'', WRI). She was also very active in the Weimar sexual reform movement. The ''Bund für Mutterschutz'' sponsored a number of sexual health clinics, which employed both lay and medical personnel, where women and men could go for contraception, marriage advice, and sometimes abortions and sterilisation. From 1929 to 1932, she took one last stand for abortion rights. After a papal encyclical, the ''

Casti connubii ''Casti connubii'' (Latin: "of chaste wedlock") is a papal encyclical promulgated by Pope Pius XI on 31 December 1930 in response to the Lambeth Conference of the Anglican Communion. It stressed the sanctity of marriage, prohibited Catholics ...

'', issued on 31 December 1930 denounced sex without the intent to procreate, the radical sexual reform movement collaborated with the

Socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

and

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

parties to launch one final campaign against paragraph 218, which prohibited abortion. Stöcker added her iconic voice to a campaign that ultimately failed. When the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

s came to power in Germany, Stöcker fled first to Switzerland and then to England when the Nazis invaded Austria. Stöcker was attending a

PEN PEN may refer to: * (National Ecological Party), former name of the Brazilian political party Patriota (PATRI) * PEN International, a worldwide association of writers ** English PEN, the founding centre of PEN International ** PEN America, located ...

writers conference in Sweden when war broke out and remained there until the

s invaded Norway, at which point she took the

Trans-Siberian Railway The Trans-Siberian Railway, historically known as the Great Siberian Route and often shortened to Transsib, is a large railway system that connects European Russia to the Russian Far East. Spanning a length of over , it is the longest railway ...

to Japan and finally ended up in the United States in 1942. She moved into an apartment on Riverside Drive in NYC and died there of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

in 1943.

Published works

Books

* 1906 – ''Die Liebe und die Frauen. Ein Manifest der Emanzipation von Frau und Mann im deutschen Kaiserreich.'' * 1928 – ''Verkünder und Verwirklicher. Beiträge zum Gewaltproblem.''

Papers

* ''Frauen-Rundschau'', 1903–1922 * ''Mutterschutz'', newspaper of the ''Bund für Mutterschutz'', published from 1905 to 1907. * ''Die Neue Generation'', 1908–1932.

References

;Other sources * Atina Grossmann: ''Reforming Sex: The German Movement for Birth Control and Abortion Reform, 1920–1950.'' Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1995. * Christl Wickert: ''Helene Stöcker 1869–1943. Frauenrechtlerin, Sexualreformerin und Pazifistin.'' Dietz Verlag, Bonn, 1991. * Gudrun Hamelmann: ''Helene Stöcker, der 'Bund für Mutterschutz' und 'Die Neue Generation'.'' Haag Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 1998. * Rolf von Bockel: ''Philosophin einer 'neuen Ethik': Helene Stöcker (1869–1943).'' 1991. * Annegret Stopczyk-Pfundstein: ''Philosophin der Liebe. Helene Stöcker.'' BoD Norderstedt, 2003.

Life

Published works

Books

Papers

References

Further reading