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Louise Weiss | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Weiss in 1980 | |
| Born | (1893-01-25)25 January 1893 Arras, France |
| Died | 26 May 1983(1983-05-26) (aged 90) Paris, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Occupation(s) | Politician, journalist and author |
| Known for | Being an earlypro-Europeanfeminist |
| Parent(s) | Paul Louis Weiss Jeanne Félicie Javal |
| Relatives | Fanny Dombre-Coste (cousin) |
Louise Weiss (25 January 1893 – 26 May 1983) was a French author, journalist,feminist, andEuropean politician. She was nominated for theNobel Peace Prize in1971 and for theNobel Prize in Literature in1974.[1][2]
Born inArras,Pas-de-Calais, Louise Weiss came from a cosmopolitan family ofAlsace. Her father, Paul Louis Weiss (1867-1945), a mining engineer, was a distinguished AlsatianProtestant fromLa Petite-Pierre.[3] The ancestors of herJewish mother,Jeanne Félicie Javal (1871-1956), originated from the small Alsatian town ofSeppois-le-Bas.[4] Her maternal grandfather wasLouis Émile Javal. Through her mother, she was the niece ofAlice Weiller (née Javal) and the cousin ofPaul-Louis Weiller, the son of Alice andLazare Weiller. One of her siblings wasJenny Aubry. She grew up in Paris with five siblings, was trained as a teacher against the will of her family, was a teacher at a secondary school for arts and was awarded a degree fromOxford University. From 1914 to 1918, she worked as a war nurse and founded a hospital in theCôtes-du-Nord. From 1918 to 1934, she was the magazine publisher,L'Europe nouvelle [fr]. From 1935 to the beginning ofWorld War II, she committed herself towomen's suffrage. In 1936, she stood forFrench parliamentary elections, running in theFifth arrondissement of Paris. She was active in theFrench Resistance during the War. She claimed she was a member of thePatriam Recuperare network; however, this was formally denied by network members. She waschief editor of the secret magazine, "Nouvelle République" from 1942 until 1944. In 1945, she founded the Institute forPolemology (research on war and conflict) together withGaston Bouthoul [fr][5] in London.[citation needed] She travelled around theMiddle East, Japan, China, Vietnam, Africa, Kenya, Madagascar,Alaska, India, etc., made documentary films and wrote accounts of her travels. In 1975, she unsuccessfully tried twice to be admitted to theAcadémie Française. In 1979, she became aMember of the European Parliament for the Gaullist Party (nowThe Republicans).[6]
She died on 26 May 1983 in Paris.
DuringWorld War I, she published her first press reports under apseudonym. In Paris, she came in contact with her first great loves, representatives of countries striving for independence, such asEduard Beneš,Tomáš Masaryk andMilan Štefánik. Between 1919 and 1939, she often travelled toCzechoslovakia. In 1918, she founded the weekly newspaper,Europe nouvelle [fr] (New Europe), which she published in 1934.Thomas Mann,Gustav Stresemann,Rudolf Breitscheid andAristide Briand were among her co-authors on the paper. Louise Weiss described those who paved the way for the closening of theGerman-French relationship between the World Wars as "peace pilgrims", and they called their important co-worker "my good Louise". Europe dreamed of unification and in 1930, she founded the "Ecole de la Paix" (School of Peace), a private institute for international relations. With the takeover by theNational Socialists in Germany, the possibility of a unification was over.
In 1934, she founded the associationLes femmes nouvelles (The New Woman) withCécile Brunsvicg, and she strove for a stronger role for women in public life. She participated in campaigns for theright of women to vote in France, organised suffragette commands, demonstrated and had herself chained to a street light in Paris with other women. In 1935, she unsuccessfully sued against the "inability of women to vote" before the FrenchConseil d'État.
In 1979, she, aGaullist, stood as a candidate of theRassemblement pour la République in thefirst European election in 1979. On 17 July 1979, she was elected as a FrenchMember of the European Parliament (MEP) and sat with theEuropean People's Party. At the time of the first election, aged 86, she was the oldest member of Parliament and thus its firstOldest Member. She remained MEP and Oldest Member until her death, on 26 May 1983, aged 90.
The main parliament building in Strasbourg bears her name.
A section of themunicipal museum of Saverne is dedicated to the life and work of Louise Weiss. It displays the collection of 600 items she bequeathed to the town in 1981 and 1983, as well as historical documents relating to her career.
Each year, the Louise Weiss Foundation awards a prize to the author or the institution which has contributed the most to the advancement of the science of peace, the improvement of human relations and efforts of benefit to Europe.
Florence Hervé:Frauengeschichten - Frauengesichter, Vol. 4, trafo verlag 2003, 150 pp., illustrated,ISBN 3-89626-423-0
