Leopoldine Kulka | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg) Kulka in 1915 | |
| Born | 31 March 1872 |
| Died | January 2, 1920(1920-01-02) (aged 47) |
| Occupation | Peace activist |
| Nationality | Austrian |
Leopoldine Kulka (31 March 1872 – 2 January 1920) was anAustrian writer and editor. As editor ofNeues Frauenleben she controversially met women from combatant countries at the1915 Women's conference at the Hague which led to the creation of theWomen's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF).
Kulka was born inVienna in 1872. She joined the radicalGeneral Austrian Women's Association (GAWA) before she was thirty. She also became interested in peace issues at the start of the century. She was writing regularly for political magazines for women.[1] In 1902Auguste Fickert started an Austrian magazine which she calledNeues Frauenleben, and after her death (1910) Kulka became its editor together withChristine Touallion and Emil Fickert.[2] In 1904 she andAdele Gerber went to Berlin to help found the International Women's Suffrage Alliance.[3]
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In 1911, she became vice-president of the GAWA.[1]
In 1914, she had helped translateWomen and Labour byOlive Schreiner into German. The South African Schreiner argued that women understood the value of life more than men.[4]
Despite a lot of debate about the value of a women's peace conference,[1] she was the delegate chosen in 1915. She traveled toThe Hague where she represented Austria at theWomen at the Hague conference. This was during the first World War but even then she raised 1,000 signatures of support. She andOlga Misař were supported by the magazineNeues Frauenleben.[4] On their return they both made reports to the magazine about the conference noting the difficulties that some delegates had in attending the conference.[4] The delegation from Britain was trimmed by the Foreign Office to 24 delegates and actually only two made it to the Hague. Italy only managed one delegate,Rosa Genoni, and she was keen to note that she did not represent her country.Laura Hughes came from Canada to represent what was called at the time "the Colonies".[5]
In 1917, she led the peace section of the GAWA.[1] In 1919 the war had finished and Kulka horrifiedJane Addams and other delegates as she described the demoralising effects of starvation.[6]
Kulka died inVienna in January 1920.
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