(née Gohlke)
born on March 15, 1879 in Landsberg an der Warthe
died on January 28, 1956 in Düsseldorf
German Social Democratic politician and founder of the Workers' Welfare Association (AWO)
145th birthday on January 28, 2024
Biography • Literature & Sources
Biography
Women ... do not want a civil war, do not want a war of nations ... Women ... see through the hollowness of policies which pretend to be particularly masculine, although they are dictated only by short-sightedness, vanity and the desire for prestige. Our love for our people compels us to oppose these policies, the National Socialist policies, with all our strength….
With these courageous and clear words, Marie Juchacz, a long-serving Social Democratic member of the Reichstag, intervened in the tumultuous debate surrounding the election of the president of the German Reich in 1932. She was the only woman to take part in this debate, just as back in 1919, she had been the first woman to speak in a German parliament, the Weimar National Assembly. She had demanded freedom and equal rights for women and declared that women should focus on social policy. As a member of parliament, she was particularly committed to children's and youth legislation, progressive welfare laws, and women's rights. She championed exemption from punishment for first-trimester abortions, for example, and spoke to Parliament in 1926 about the mental conflicts of working-class women who have abortions out of a sense of responsibility and despair.
She herself had experienced undeserved economic hardship in her youth in the small town of Landsberg, had done hard labor in a factory, and as an intelligent, inquisitive student had suffered from the fact that there was no money for schooling beyond the poor quality elementary school. It was her brother who had introduced her to the Social Democratic Party (SPD), opening up new hopes and opportunities for her. After a short, unhappy marriage she moved to Berlin with her beloved sister Elisabeth Kirschmann-Röhl, who was her closest ally and confidante. The two women raised their children together and, in addition to earning their living as dressmakers, became involved in the women's workers' associations of the SPD. Soon they were sought-after speakers.
From 1917, Juchacz was a full-time secretary for women's affairs in the SPD party executive. When, after World War I, Social Democratic women were again to be pushed out of paid welfare work, Juchacz was instrumental in founding a social welfare organization for the SPD, the Workers' Welfare Association (AWO), in 1919. Under her leadership and through the dedicated work of women in particular, the organization quickly became successful throughout Germany. By 1930 there were up to 2,000 local branches. The central idea was working class self help and solidarity rather than the patronizing charity of bourgeois welfare organizations. Juchacz tried to implement principles of socialist welfare. Thus, progressive homes for young girls, such as Immenhof, and a school for the training of welfare workers, Arbeiterwohlfahrtsschule, were established in Berlin.
With Hitler's rise to power in 1933 these successful activities came to an abrupt end. Juchacz had to flee from the Nazis, first to France, then to the USA. But even in the difficult and dangerous years of exile, she still found ways to help. In France she organized lunch tables for emigrants. In New York she founded an American branch of AWO in 1945 to help victims of National Socialism in Germany. After her return to Germany in 1949 she was involved in the rebuilding of AWO as honorary chairwoman, worked on her memoirs and wrote a book about outstanding women who fought for social justice and women's rights: Sie lebten für eine bessere Welt. (They Lived for a Better World).
(Text from 2005, translated and adapted by Gabriele Koch 2023)
Please consult the German version for additional information (pictures, sources, videos, bibliography).
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Literature & Sources
“Juchacz, Marie (1879–1956) .” Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Retrieved November 16, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com:
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