Nancy Pelosi

Born March 26, 1940 in Baltimore, Maryland

First woman Speaker, US House of Representatives (2007 - 2011, 2019 - present), US Congressional Representative from San Francisco, California (since 1987)

80^th birthday March 26, 2020

Although raised in a political family, Nancy D’Alessandro Pelosi did not originally plan on a career in politics. The wife and mother of five was almost 47 years old when she first ran for elected office; but once started, she has barely taken a breath. Praised – and cursed by opponents – as a brilliant and indefatigable political strategist and unrivalled fundraiser, the San Francisco Democrat has broken many barriers on her way to becoming the first female Speaker of the US House of Representatives, including being the first woman to serve as caucus whip and as minority leader in either party. She is also the first person after Sam Rayburn to be chosen as speaker a second time following her party’s regaining the House majority in 2018. Called “the strongest and most effective speaker of modern times” (Brookings Institution scholar Thomas Mann), Pelosi has managed to discipline her famously unruly Democratic flock to achieve impressive results, from AIDs funding in the 1990’s…read more

Thyra Andrea Markstedt

This biography is not yet available in English.

You can find the German version here.

Flannery O'Connor

born on March 25, 1925 in Savannah, Georgia/ United States
died on August 3, 1964 in Milledgeville, Georgia/ United States

American writer
100th birthday on March 25, 2025

Flannery O'Connor was born in 1925 in the port city of Savannah, Georgia as the only child of Regina and Edward O'Connor. Her parents were both of Irish descent and belonged to the Catholic minority in Georgia. The Catholic faith played a key role in the life and work of Flannery O'Connor: whenever she could, she attended Mass early in the morning and her stories and novels often feature the “chosen” who are struck by divine grace. In her view, “all human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and change is painful” (The Habit of Being). She wrote literature that “serves as the axe for the frozen sea within us” (Kafka). Her father was a real estate agent and aged 26 when in 1922 he married Regina Cline, a woman of the same age who came from a large and affluent family. His business suffered during the Great Depression of the 1930s, although his struggles at work may have in part also been due to the autoimmune disease – systemic lupus erythematosus – that…read more

Luise Zietz

Born March 25, 1865 in Bargteheide, Schleswig-Holstein
Died January 22, 1922 in Berlin

German socialist politician (first woman member of the SPD executive committee), feminist and pacifist
100. anniversary of death on January 22, 2022

“Strong, masculinized features” (Lily Braun) marked the face of Luise Zietz – traces of a childhood and youth spent toiling in her father’s wool weaving mill: “In order to earn just the barest necessities… our mother and we children had to work, too…. We would squat for hours on the low stools behind the winding wheel doing the terribly monotonous and tiring work of winding, winding, winding….” These experiences would become the impetus for her untiring and uncompromising commitment to the Social Democratic workers’ and women’s movement, to which she had been introduced in the 1890s during her brief marriage to the Hamburg dockworker Carl Zietz. Along with Clara Zetkin, she was the most influential and popular woman activist and organizer within the Social Democratic Party. Her speeches were trenchant and critical – or “venomous,” according to police reports. In one of her many political writings, Zietz methodically outlined how women, most of whom were apolitical, could be…read more

Olive Schreiner

This biography is not yet available in English.

You can find the German version here.

Cécile Vogt

born on March 27, 1875 in Annecy in the Savoy, France
died on May 4, 1962 in Cambridge, England

Franco-German brain researcher and neurologist
150th birthday on March 27, 2025

Cécile Mugnier brought 30 brains into her marriage to the German neurologist Oskar Vogt in the spring of 1899, and these formed the basis for their lifelong scientific work together. As the bride, she had personally prepared each of the 30 items she selected for inclusion in her trousseau. Cécile started studying medicine in Paris when she was 18. Her research career began at the Bicêtre Hospital under Pierre Marie, one of the leading neurologists of the time. She met her future husband, Oskar Vogt, while she was working at the hospital. One of only a few women to obtain a medical doctorate, she graduated in the winter of 1898/99. Shortly thereafter she chose to follow Oskar to Berlin, where the couple then began their collaboration. Over the following decades, they researched and worked together in several institutes. As she was married to a scientist and worked in institutes in the private sector that were independent of universities, Cécile was free to pursue her own…read more

Sophie Mereau-Brentano

This biography is not yet available in English.

You can find the German version here.

Teresa von Avila

This biography is not yet available in English.

You can find the German version here.