Adelheid Steinmann (born Adelheid Holtzmann; 26 April 1866, in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

– 20 January 1925, in

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

) was a German politician,

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countr ...

activist and wife of

Gustav Steinmann Johann Heinrich Conrad Gottfried Gustav Steinmann (9 April 1856 – 7 October 1929) was a German geologist and paleontologist. He performed various studies in the Ural Mountains, North America, South America, the Caucasus and the Al ...

Life

Family

Adelheid Holtzmann was born on 26 April 1866 in Heidelberg to

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

theologian

Heinrich Julius Holtzmann Heinrich Holtzmann Heinrich Julius Holtzmann (7 May 1832 – 4 August 1910), German Protestant theologian, son of theologian Karl Julius Holtzmann (1804–1877), was born at Karlsruhe, where his father ultimately became prelate and counsellor to t ...

and his wife Karoline Weber, daughter of the historian Georg Weber. Her brothers included the historian

Robert Holtzmann Robert Holtzmann (17 October 1873 – 27 June 1946) was a German Medievalist historian. He was something of a pioneer for what became an important post-war historiographical approach, respected among historians, in particular, as an authority on ...

and the hygienist Friedrich Holtzmann. In 1886 she married the geologist

. The couple had a son. One of her grandsons is

Wulf Steinmann Wulf Steinmann (12 July 1930 – 3 January 2019) was a German physicist and former president of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximili ...

(born 1930), former member of the

European Academy of Sciences and Arts The European Academy of Sciences and Arts (EASA, la, Academia Scientiarum et Artium Europaea) is a transnational and interdisciplinary network, connecting about 2,000 recommended scientists and artists worldwide, including 37 Nobel Prize laur ...

and president of the

Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: link=no, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of ...

(1982–1994).

Work

Steinmann successfully fought for the

female education Female education is a catch-all term of a complex set of issues and debates surrounding education ( primary education, secondary education, tertiary education, and health education in particular) for girls and women. It is frequently called gir ...

at German universities.

Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in South Germany, in earlier times on both sides of the Upper Rhine but since the Napoleonic Wars only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Baden originated from the House of Zähringen. Baden ...

became the first country in the German Empire where women had been enrolled for the winter semester 1899/1900 at the

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially german: Uni Freiburg), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (german: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg), is a public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württe ...

.''Vor einhundert Jahren Beginn des Frauenstudiums an der Universität Freiburg''
/ref> Until then, women in Germany were only allowed to study with a special permit or they had to be admitted as a guest. The special permit was only given to women who studied under the "supervision" by a husband. When Prussia admitted general women's studies in 1908, 190 female students were already studying in Freiburg. Steinmann became chairwoman of the ''Verein Frauenbildung-Frauenstudium'' from 1900 to 1914. After 1908 her work shifted increasingly into the political sphere, the goal being the

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to gran ...

. Since 1912 she worked with

Julie Bassermann Julie Bassermann (born Julie Ladenburg: 2 March 1860 - 18 September 1940) was a German women's rights activist. Life Family provenance and early years Julie Ladenburg was born in Mannheim (which is also the city in which, eighty years later, she ...

(1860–1940) in the ''Reichsfrauenausschuss'' of the National Liberal Party (''Nationalliberale Partei''). In 1918 Steinmann co-founded the left-wing

German Democratic Party The German Democratic Party (, or DDP) was a center-left liberal party in the Weimar Republic. Along with the German People's Party (, or DVP), it represented political liberalism in Germany between 1918 and 1933. It was formed in 1918 from the ...

(DDP) and became vice-president. The first presidency was reserved for a man, Friedrich Naumann. Adelheid Steinmann ran for the Reichstag in 1919, but she transferred her secure place on the list to the younger

Marie Elisabeth Lüders Marie may refer to: People Name * Marie (given name) * Marie (Japanese given name) * Marie (murder victim), girl who was killed in Florida after being pushed in front of a moving vehicle in 1973 * Marie (died 1759), an enslaved Cree person in Tro ...

(1878–1966). In Bonn, Steinmann had been one of the first female members of the city council.

Select publications

* ''Die höhere Mädchenbildung, Vorträge gehalten auf dem Kongreß zu Kassel.'' Leipzig/Berlin 1908. * ''Die Forderung politischer Neutralität im Frauenstimmrecht.'' In: ''Die Frau'', vol. 17 (1909/1910), pp. 641–648. * ''Frauenbewegung und Parteipolitik.'' In: ''Die Frau'', vol. 19 (1911/12), pp. 481–486. * ''Zwei Frauenurteile über Mann, Frau und Familie.'' In: ''Die Frau'', vol. 20 (1912/1913), pp. 153–159. * ''Wieder einmal das Oberlyceum und seine Freunde.'' In: ''Die Frau'', vol. 21 (1913/1914), pp. 370–374. * ''Die Frau in der Familie''. In: ''Jahrbuch des Bundes Deutscher Frauenvereine.'' 1918, pp. 31–49.

References

Sources

* Jan Merk: ''Adelheid Steinmann.'' In: ''Badische Biographien.'' N.F. 4. 1996, pp. 285–287. * Ernst Th. Nauck: ''Das Frauenstudium an der Universität Freiburg im Breisgau'' Freiburg 1953. * ''Lexikon der Frau''. Vol. 2, Zürich 1954, S. 1345. * Grete Borgmann: ''Freiburg und die Frauenbewegung.'' Ettenheim 1973, pp. 8–46. * Barbara Greven-Aschoff: ''Die bürgerliche Frauenbewegung in Deutschland 1894–1933.'' Göttingen 1981, p. 119, 146, 163, 287. * Helmut Stubbe da Luz: ''Adelheid Steinmann.'' In: ''Das Rathaus'' Jg. 39 (1986), pp. 527–531. * Eva Steffens: ''Historische Skizze.'' In: ''Frauenhandbuch.'' Freiburg 1992, pp. 188–198. * Rudolf H. Böttcher: ''100 Jahre Frauenstudium, Adelheid Steinmann.'' (mit Ahnentafel u. Bild), In: ''Pfälzisch-Rheinische Familienkunde.'' Vol. 14 (1999), p. 467. * Obituaries in: ** Bonner Zeitung 23. Januar 1925, Generalanzeiger 24. Januar 1925 ** Martha Dönhoff: ''Adelheid Steinmann.'' In: ''Die Frau.'' Vol. 32 (1924/1925), pp. 183–184. {{DEFAULTSORT:Steinmann, Adelheid 1866 births 1925 deaths German women's rights activists German Democratic Party politicians 20th-century German women politicians Politicians from Heidelberg 20th-century German women writers