Minna Cauer | |
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.jpg) Minna Cauer, photo by photographer Theodor Prümm, 1870 | |
| Born | 1 November 1841 |
| Died | 3 August 1922 |
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Wilhelmine Theodore Marie Cauer, néeSchelle, usually known asMinna Cauer (1 November 1841 inFreyenstein – 3 August 1922 inBerlin), was a Germanpedagogue, activist in the so-called "radical" wing of the Germanbourgeoisfeminist movement,pacifist and journalist. AlongsideAnita Augspurg, Cauer was the most prominent figure in the radical feminist movement. In the 1890s she was the undisputed representative and had a special talent for winning over new and younger women to the feminist movement.
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The daughter of aLutheran pastor, Cauer grew up inFreyenstein, in theProvince of Brandenburg. She married a left-wing educator and physician, August Latzel in 1862, but was widowed in 1866. She then trained as ateacher, working inParis for a year before marrying Eduard Cauer, a school inspector, and moving with him toBerlin.[1]
Widowed for a second time in 1881, Cauer resumed work as a teacher and started studyingwomen's history. She foundedFrauenwohl (Women's Welfare Association) in Berlin in 1888, leading it until 1919, campaigning for women's rights and abortion rights.
WithHelene Lange andFranzisca Tiburtius she worked to establish the Realkurse girls' high school in Berlin, which opened in 1889 as the first educational establishment to prepare women for university study.[2] She founded the Commercial Union of Female Salaried Employees, one of the first nonpolitical women's trade unions, in 1889.[1] In 1893 she cofounded the Girls' and Women's Groups for Social Assistance Work (Mädchen- und Frauengruppen für Soziale Hilfsarbeit).[3] In 1894 she joined withAnita Augspurg andMarie Stritt to establish theFederation of German Women's Associations (FGWA) She worked for the feminist newspaperDie Frauenbewegung (The Women's Movement) from 1895 to 1919. In 1896 she was president at the International Congress of Women's Work and Women's Endeavours in Berlin, the first international women's conference to be held in Germany.[1]
Increasingly radical, Cauer helped establish the Union of Progressive Women's Associations in 1899. In 1902 the suffrage movement gained the backing of the FGWA, and with Anita Augspurg,Lida Gustava Heymann and Marie Stritt Cauer co-founded theGerman Union for Women's Suffrage (Deutscher Verband fur Frauenstimmrecht), which pursued both suffrage cause and moral campaigns, such as that against state-regulated prostitution. In 1908, frustrated by the disinterest of theFree-minded People's Party in women's suffrage, Cauer founded a more militant group, the Prussian Union for Women's Suffrage. She joined the left-liberalDemocratic Union. Resigning from the suffrage union in 1912, she joined a new German Women's Suffrage Association in 1914. However, with the German women's suffrage movement in disarray, Cauer turned to pacifist activities throughoutWorld War I.[1]
Her papers are held at theInternational Institute of Social History.[3]
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