Julie Bassermann

Julie Bassermann (born Julie Ladenburg: 2 March 1860 - 18 September 1940) was a German women's rights activist.[1][2]

Life

Family provenance and early years

Julie Ladenburg was born in Mannheim (which is also the city in which, eighty years later, she died). Her father, Carl Ladenburg (1827–1909), was a banker. Her mother, born Ida Goldschmidt (1840–1928) was, like her daughter, active in the women's movement. The Ladenburgs were considered one of Mannheim's leading Jewish families. Her parents had two recorded children, but Julie was their only daughter.[3] In 1881 she married the ambitious Mannheim lawyer-politician Ernst Bassermann. For the young protestant lawyer Ernst Bassermann, the marriage opened up the opportunity to network among Mannheim's most prosperous circles. [4] Three daughters and one son were born to the couple:[1] at least two of the children would predecease their mother.[5]

Women's rights

In 1897 Julie Bassermann founded the Mannheim section of the "Verein Frauenbildung - Frauenstudium" (loosely, "Women's Study and Training League"), teaming up with Alice Bensheimer, who rapidly became a friend, to build up the organisation, of which she became president in 1901.[6] As she became established in the role, she led a fusion of various activist women's organisations in Mannheim into a single body. One side-effect of this was the chance to work closely with her mother: in 1904 Ida Ladenburg (1840–1928) became president of the "Baden Women's Association" ("Badische Frauenverein").[7] Julie Bassermann was involved with the "Hausfrauverein" (loosely, "Housewives' Association").[8] She also served, between 1911 and 1933, as founding president of the "Badische Verband für Frauenbestrebungen" (loosely, "Baden Association for Women's Endeavours").[9]

Political engagement

From 1912, Bassermann, along with Adelheid Steinmann, became a member of the National Women's Committee of Germany's National Liberal Party ("Nationalliberale Partei" / NLP).[10] War broke out (from a German perspective) on 1 August 1914, with Germany's declaration of war against Russia, following a Russian general military mobilisation the previous day. Despite having celebrated his sixtieth birthday less than a week earlier, Ernst Bassermann immediately volunteered for military service: Julie Bassermann, on 3 August 1914, organised a Mannheim local group of the "Nationaler Frauendienst" ("...Women's Service"), a national organisation set up three days earlier, which saw itself as providing the female equivalent of the frontline service given by men.[6] In 1915 she was involved in the construction of a day centre for jobless women and girls.[11] A year later she got together with Marie Bernays, her friend Alice Bensheimer and Elisabeth Altmann-Gottheiner to create a "Social Women's School" ("Soziale Frauenschule"),[lower-alpha 1] in Mannheim. in order to provide "social vocational training for paid and voluntary work".[12][13][lower-alpha 2]

By the start of 1919, the war was over. The emperor was gone, and even as a succession of predominantly localised revolutions broke out, mainly in the ports and cities, it was possible to view a republican future with a certain measure of cautious hope or even, some said, optimism.[14] Julie Bassermann had been a widow for a year and a half.[6] It was a time for a new start.[6] On 19 January 1919 she stood as a DVP ("People's Party") candidate for election to the "National Assembly" ("Nationalversammlung"), the constitutional convention which became the first parliament of the German Republic (later renamed contemptuously by Adolf Hitler and subsequent historians as the "Weimar Republic").[6] This was the first German general election in which women were allowed to vote. The voting age had been reduced since 1912 from 25 to 20, and the old constituency based voting system which had disproportionately favoured conservative rural areas was replaced with a more democratic proportional representation voting process.[15] Slightly more than 12 million voters had voted in the previous election in 1912. In 1919 more than 30 million voted. Despite these democratic advances, Julie Bassermann failed to secure election. She now pursued her political ambitions with greater success at a municipal level.[6] She became a member of the Mannheim city council, where she served for four years as a member of the council's schools commission and involved herself in socio-political matters.[1]

During her later years, till 1929, Julie Bassermann served as national chairwoman for the "Verein Frauenbildung - Frauenstudium" (loosely, "Women's Study and Training League"). She retired some months short of her seventieth birthday. On 18 September 1940, Julie Bassermann died at age 80.[6]

Notes
  1. The term "Welfare School" ("Wohlfahrtsschule") is also sometimes used
  2. "...soziale Berufsausbildung für besoldete und ehrenamtliche Arbeit."

References
  1. "Bassermann, Julie". LEO-BW (landeskundliche Informationssystem für Baden-Württemberg). Retrieved 24 January 2020.
  2. Beate Bäro: Julie Bassermann. Vorreiterin der Frauenbewegung. In: Lauter Frauen. Aufgespürt in Baden-Württemberg. 47 Porträts, Stuttgart: Theiss 2000, ISBN 3-8062-1525-1, pp. 10–13
  3. Hermann Schäfer (1982). "Ladenburg, Carl: Bankier, * 19.6.1827 Mannheim, † 4.10.1909 Frankfurt/Main". Neue Deutsche Biographie. p. 388. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
  4. "Kanzlei von Ernst Basserman" (PDF). Stadt Mannheim. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
  5. Peter M. Koehler (compiler). "Julie Ladenburg". Nachfahren Dietrich Bassermann. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
  6. Kathryn Babeck (2007). Julie Bassermann (1860-1940). Die Straße der Demokratie: Revolution, Verfassung und Recht ; ein Routenbegleiter auf den Spuren der Freiheit nach Bruchsal, Frankfurt, Freiburg, Heidelberg, Karlsruhe, Landau, Lörrach, Mainz, Mannheim, Neustadt, Offenburg und Rastatt. Info Verlag GmbH, Karlsruhe. p. 207. ISBN 978-3-88190-483-4.
  7. Carolin Vogel. "Leben als Gesamtkunstwerk: das Haus zu Richard Dehmels Lebzeiten (1912–20) .... Die Schenkung .... Die Freunde und Verehre" (PDF). Das Dehmelhaus in Blankenese .... Künstlerhaus zwischen Erinnern und Vergessen. Hamburg University Press .... Verlag der Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg Carl von Ossietzk (... durch die Dehmelhaus Stiftung ermöglicht). p. 362. ISBN 978-3-943423-60-0. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  8. "100 Jahre DHB Ortsverband Mannheim e.V." Wohltätigkeitsbasar 2019. DHB-Netzwerk Haushalt Ortsverband Mannheim e.V. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  9. Barbara Greven-Aschoff (12 August 1981). Dem BDF angeschlossene Verbände. Die bürgerliche Frauenbewegung in Deutschland 1894-1933. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. pp. 146, 285–286. ISBN 978-3-647-35704-1.
  10. "Adelheid Steinmann, geb. Adelheid Holtzmann". Personen. Hans-Martin Mumm i.A. Heidelberger Geschichtsverein e.V. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  11. Randy Schoenberg (compiler) (5 December 2018). "Julie Bassermann (Ladenburg)". geni.com. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  12. Arnd Götzelmann (30 January 2019). Soziale Ausbildingsstätten im Umfeld der Pfalz. Zur Geschichte evangelischer Ausbildungsstätten für Sozialarbeit in der Pfalz: Eine exemplarische Studie zur Professionalisierung und Akademisierung der Sozialen Arbeit seit 1945. Von der Evangelischen Schule für kirchlichen und sozialen Dienst (1948) über das Seminar für Sozialberufe in Speyer (1950) zu den Höheren Fachschulen für Sozialarbeit und Sozialpädagogik (1970) und der Evangelischen Fachhochschule Ludwigshafen (1971-2008). Books on Demand. pp. 20–22. ISBN 978-3-7481-9599-3.
  13. Gundula Pauli: Marie Bernays (1883–1939) und die „Soziale Frauenschule“ in Mannheim. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Sozialen Arbeit in Deutschland. Unveröffentlichte Diplomarbeit. Freiburg 2004. Page 4
  14. Daniel Schönpflug; Joachim Mohr; Frank Patalong (2020). "Konkurrenz der Utopien". Revolutionäre Wandel, eine gespaltene Gesellschaft und viele Ăngste: Sind die Zwanzigerjahre und die Gegenwart vergleichbar?. Der Spiegel ("Spegel Geschichte"). 1/2020: 28–35.
  15. Gerhard Altmann (11 April 2000). "Die Wahlen zur Nationalversammlung". Weimarer Republik: Revolution 1918/19. Stiftung Deutsches Historisches Museum (Lebendiges Museum online), Berlin. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
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