Gertrude Guillaume-Schack (9 November 1845 – 20 May 1903) was a German women's rights activist who pioneered the fight against state-regulated prostitution in Germany, where she was born. She met considerable resistance due to the prevailing belief that such matters should not be discussed by respectable people, especially women. She also became active in organizing workers associations for German women, and was linked to the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

(SPD). Her activities and political views caused her to be exiled by the German authorities. She moved to England in 1886, where she became involved in socialist organizations, but fell out with

Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ;"Engels"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.Socialist League, she became involved in

theosophy Theosophy is a religious movement established in the United States in the late 19th century. Founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and based largely on her writings, it draws heavily from both older European philosophies such as Neop ...

. Refusal to accept medical treatment may have contributed to her early death of untreated breast cancer.

Early years

Gertrud Schack was born on 9 November 1845 in the village of

Uschütz Uszyce (German ''Uschütz'') is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Gorzów Śląski, within Olesno County, Opole Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. It lies approximately north-west of Gorzów Śląski, north of Olesno, and nor ...

, Silesia,

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (, ) was a German state that existed from 1701 to 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946. It played a signif ...

, near what is now

Gorzów Śląski Gorzów Śląski (; ) is a town in Olesno County, Opole Voivodeship, Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in ...

, Poland. Her parents were Count Alexander Schack von Wittenau and Elizabeth, Countess of Königsdorf. Her father's family belonged to the old nobility of Lower Silesia. Her father, Count Schack, was an open-minded and wise man who exercised great influence on his gifted daughter. In 1862, when Gertrud was seventeen years old, her parents left their estate and bought a villa in Beuthen an der Oder. Her father sent Gertrud to live with a sister, asking her to visit him often. In the autumn of 1873 she moved to Neufchatel, Switzerland. In 1876 she married a Swiss painter, and lived for a while with him in his parents' house. Her husband was Edouard Guillaume of

Les Verrières Les Verrières () is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Neuchâtel (canton), Neuchâtel in Switzerland. History Les Verrières is first mentioned in 1344 as ''villa de Verreriis''. Jt was here ...

, Neuchatel. Her brother-in-law was

James Guillaume James Guillaume (16 February 1844 – 20 November 1916) was a Swiss anarchist and writer who was a leading member of the Jura federation, the anarchist wing of the First International. Later, Guillaume would take an active role in the founding ...

, an anarchist closely associated with

Mikhail Bakunin Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin. Sometimes anglicized to Michael Bakunin. ( ; – 1 July 1876) was a Russian revolutionary anarchist. He is among the most influential figures of anarchism and a major figure in the revolutionary socialist, s ...

. The newlyweds moved to Paris, but it turned out that her husband was not willing to commit to marriage and abandon his bachelor habits, and Gertrude was constrained to demand a divorce. In the summer of 1878 she returned home from Paris.

Abolitionist

While in Paris Guillaume-Schack became active in the abolitionist movement started by

Josephine Butler Josephine Elizabeth Butler (; 13 April 1828 – 30 December 1906) was an English feminist and social reformer in the Victorian era. She campaigned for women's suffrage, the right of women to better education, the end of coverture in B ...

of England to fight state-regulated prostitution. She began the campaign in Germany with the same goals. In her view, compulsory medical examinations and other regulations imposed on prostitutes penalized the women, but ignored their male clients. In January 1879 she went to Berlin to work for the cause, and in May 1879 gave her first lectures to very small audiences. She spoke publicly against state-regulated prostitution in the city hall of Berlin on 14 May 1880, but very few people turned up to hear her. On 7 March 1880 she founded the ''Deutscher Kulturbund'' (German Cultural Association) in Berlin. The ''Deutscher Kulturbund'' was, in effect, the first chapter of what would become the

International Abolitionist Federation The International Abolitionist Federation (IAF; ), founded in Liverpool in 1875, aimed to abolish state regulation of prostitution and fought the international human trafficking, traffic in women in prostitution. It was originally called the Brit ...

(IAF) in Germany. Technically, it was independent of the IAF, due to restrictions imposed by the laws of Prussia, and was based in Beuthen an der Oder, however, it followed the principles that Butler had defined. Although she was supported by the leaders of the Berlin's women's movement,

Lina Morgenstern Lina Morgenstern (25 November 1830 – 16 December 1909) was a German writer, educator, feminist and pacifist. Biography She was born 25 November 1830 in Wrocław (German Breslau) to a Jewish family committed to social causes. In 1854 she mar ...

and

Franziska Tiburtius Franziska Tiburtius (24 January 1843 – 5 May 1927) was a German physician and advocate for women's education. Life and work Tiburtius was one of the first two women to qualify as a doctor in imperial Germany. Born on Rügen Island in Pomera ...

, progress was slow. Many respectable people thought that it was not proper for them to discuss prostitution publicly. Guillaume-Schack expressed this view when she opened a public talk in 1882 by saying, "perhaps it will have surprised you, that a matter so difficult to handle as the morality question should be discussed in public, and perhaps yet more that I, a woman, want to speak about it." The Prussian Law of Association, which remained in force until 1908, also restricted the right of women to meet and talk about social and political issues in public. Guillaume-Schack spoke at many events and meetings. The ''Bulletin Continental'', the organ of the British, Continental and General Federation (the future IAF), reported that in January and February 1882 she had spoken in Breslau,

Liegnitz Legnica (; , ; ; ) is a city in southwestern Poland, in the central part of Lower Silesia, on the Kaczawa River and the Czarna Woda. As well as being the seat of the county, since 1992 the city has been the seat of the Diocese of Legnica. L ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Hanover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

, and

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

. In March she attended meetings in

Elberfeld Elberfeld is a municipal subdivision of the Germany, German city of Wuppertal; it was an independent town until 1929. History The first official mentioning of the geographic area on the banks of today's Wupper River as "''elverfelde''" was ...

Barmen Barmen is a former industrial metropolis of the region of Bergisches Land, Germany, which merged with four other towns in 1929 to form the city of Wuppertal. Barmen, together with the neighbouring town of Elberfeld founded the first electric ...

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden (; ) is the capital of the German state of Hesse, and the second-largest Hessian city after Frankfurt am Main. With around 283,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 24th-largest city. Wiesbaden form ...

, and then

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it the ...

, where a large mixed meeting including women and girls was organized in the gymnasium. The audience had been told of the subject in advance, and listened quietly other than a few male hecklers at the front. She told them that the morality police were a source of difficulty for a young fallen woman who wanted to return to an honest life. At this, the police commissioner and his agents went up to her and demanded that she stop her speech, since it was immoral. The following day Guillaume-Schack and another participant were charged for having disturbed the peace and caused grave disorders. Her trial was due to her effrontery in simply speaking openly about prostitution. At the trial it was confirmed that Guillaume-Schack had been dignified and serious. The trial turned into an inquiry into the vice squad, while the two defendants were acquitted. It emerged that children of thirteen or fourteen years of age could be registered as prostitutes and allowed to practice this trade as long as they followed police regulations, the only trade a minor could follow without the permission of their parents. In 1882 Guillaume-Schack published the polemical ''Über unsere sittlichen Verhältnisse'' ("About our moral relations") concerning prostitution and white slavery. The movement gradually came to life. The Berlin branch of the Cultural Association was allowed to hold meetings in a room at the Ministry of Religion and Justice, where they distributed a number of leaflets and brochures. Some of the worst excesses of the system were curtailed. Despite interference from the police the organization grew to twelve branches. Many of its members were feminists. They tried to help girls and women, and also to end regulated prostitution in Germany, a system that let these women "fall". Guillaume-Schack met the Silesian activist

, and they founded the ''Verein zur Rettung und Erziehung minorenner strafentlassener Mädchen'' ("Association for the Rescue and Education of Girls Dismissed of Criminal Charges"), which ran a hostel for young women seeking work. It was located opposite the newly opened main Berlin railway station. In August 1885 Guillaume-Shack visited Berne and gave two public talks to audiences of women, leading to formation the next year of the Association of Berne Women to Improve Morality. The authorities banned Guillaume-Schack due to her public meetings on abolitionist issues, and her association with the banned

(SPD).

German socialist

In 1884 Guillaume-Schack founded the ''Central-Kranken- und Begräbniskasse für Frauen und Mädchen in Deutschland'' (Central Ambulance and Funeral Fund for Women and Girls in Germany). This was a front organization for unauthorized workers associations as well as a regional platform. It sparked activity among working women, and soon grew to 20,000 members. In 1885 Guillaume-Schack and

Emma Ihrer Emma Ihrer (3 January 1857 – 8 January 1911) was a German feminist and trade unionist who was active in founding societies to defend the rights of women workers. Background Emma Ihrer was born at a time when women were disenfranchised, and und ...

founded the ''Verein zur Vertretung der Interessen der Arbeiterinnen'' (the Association to Promote the Interests of Working Women) in Berlin in collaboration with the SDP. Guillaume-Schack was elected honorary President of the Berlin workers association. It was banned after a year as a political organization. Guillaume-Schack joined the SPD in 1885. She was strongly opposed to special regulations for women's work and organized protests against proposed protective legislation for women when it was debated in the Reichstag in 1885. Guillaume-Schack undertook a lecture tour of Germany during which, despite massive police intervention, she managed to found workers associations in many other cities on the Berlin model. Encouraged by Guillaume-Schack, other women ventured to speak out and make organizational tours. Guillaume-Schack spoke at meetings of German women workers associations, where she attacked militarism and advanced socialist ideas. Guillaume also attended many meetings in Switzerland where she spoke of the misery of working women. She supported creation of the first associations of working women and housewives. In January 1886 Guillaume-Schack launched ''

Die Staatsbürgerin ''Die Staatsbürgerin'' (''The Citizeness'') was a short-lived journal for German working women's associations published for six months in 1886, the first workers' journal in Germany. It was closed by the censors after printing 24 issues. History ...

(The Citizeness)'', a newspaper, in

Offenbach am Main Offenbach am Main () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Hesse, Germany, on the left bank of the river Main (river), Main. It borders Frankfurt and is part of the Frankfurt urban area and the larger Frankfurt Rhein-Main Regional Aut ...

. The paper reported the meetings of working women's associations, gave statistics on working conditions and wages, and gave news and commentary on the wage struggles. ''Die Staatsbürgerin'', the first German journal for working women, was prohibited and pulped after just six months of publication. By marrying a Swiss Guillaume-Schack was considered to have given up her German citizenship. She was barred from living in several cities in Germany, and then deported, allowed to return only for short family visits.

England

Guillaume-Schack arrived in England in 1886. She met

Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ;"Engels"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.Socialist League." He also looked down on women, writing that as soon as they began to disagree with each other they would tell tales about party activities, and might go as far as denouncing their comrades to the police. In July 1885 Engels wrote to Guillaume-Schack "it is my conviction that real equality of women and men can come true only when the exploitation of either by capital has been abolished and private housework has been transformed into a public industry. Engels was often highly critical of middle-aged female intellectuals such as the theosophist,

Annie Besant Annie Besant (; Wood; 1 October 1847 – 20 September 1933) was an English socialist, Theosophy (Blavatskian), theosophist, freemason, women's rights and Home Rule activist, educationist and campaigner for Indian nationalism. She was an arden ...

, the journalist, Emily Crawford, and Gertrude Guillaume-Schack. Engels greeted the campaign for women's suffrage with scorn, writing of, "these presumptuous little women who make so much noise for the rights of women", saying their cause was a diversion behind which class rule would continue to thrive. Guillaume-Schack broke with Engels in 1887. A dispute over

Edward Aveling Edward Bibbins Aveling (29 November 1849 – 2 August 1898) was an English comparative anatomist and popular spokesman for Darwinian evolution, atheism, and socialism. He was also a playwright and actor. Aveling was the author of numerous ...

was said to be the cause. In 1887 Guillaume-Schack spoke in opposition to the official SDP position on protective legislation for women. She became sympathetic to the anarchists of the Socialist League. She was active in the Socialist League from 1887 to 1890 and participated in the International Socialist Workers Congress of Paris on 14 July 1889 as a representative of the International Working Men's Club. In 1895 Guillaume-Schack attended the committee meeting of the

Women's Franchise League The Women's Franchise League was a British organisation created by the suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst together with her husband Richard and others in 1889, fourteen years before the creation of the Women's Social and Political Union in 1903. The P ...

Aberystwyth Aberystwyth (; ) is a University town, university and seaside town and a community (Wales), community in Ceredigion, Wales. It is the largest town in Ceredigion and from Aberaeron, the county's other administrative centre. In 2021, the popula ...

together with Ursula Mellor Bright, Mrs Behrens, Esther? Bright,

Herbert Burrows Herbert Burrows (12 June 1845 – 14 December 1922) was a British socialist activist. Early life Born in Redgrave, Suffolk, Burrows' father Amos was a former Chartism, Chartist leader. Burrows educated himself using Cassell's shilling handbooks, ...

, Dr Clark MP, Mrs Hunter of Matlock Bank, Jane Brownlow, Mrs E. James (who lived locally), H.N.Mozley, Alice Cliff Scatcherd, Jane Cobden Unwin and Dr and Mrs Pankhurst. Guillaume-Schack became interested in

around the end of the nineteenth century. She died on 20 May 1903 in Surbiton, aged 57. Gertrude Guillaume Schack was described in a coroner's inquest as a Theosophist, socialist lecturer, temperance advocate, and a strict vegetarian. About twelve months earlier she had fallen over a tin box in her bedroom and injured her breast. She had consulted a former doctor whose name had been removed from the register, but in whom she had great faith. He had urged her to see a specialist, but she had refused, saying as a theosophist she saw death as just a transition from one state to another, and would not have any interference with her body. A doctor was called in a few hours before her death, but her condition was too far advanced for him to be able to offer any treatment. The cause of death was recorded as cancer of the breast, accelerated by want of proper surgical dressing and food.

Legacy

In her day Gertrud Guillaume-Schack was one of the most compelling voices in Germany. Max Kretzer (1854–1941) dedicated his 1882 novel ''Die Betrogenen (The Deceived)'' to Gertrude Guillaume, born Countess Schack. It told of a working girl who was seduced and later became a prostitute. Guillaume-Schack was a strong believer in the views of

August Bebel Ferdinand August Bebel (; 22 February 1840 – 13 August 1913) was a German socialist activist and politician. He was one of the principal founders of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Bebel, a woodworker by trade, co-founded the Sa ...

. The famous work by Bebel entitled ''Die Frau und der Sozialismus'' (1879), with its description of the British campaign against the

Contagious Diseases Acts The Contagious Diseases Acts (CD Acts) were passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom in 1864, with alterations and additions made by the (29 & 30 Vict. c. 35) and the (32 & 33 Vict. c. 96). In 1862, a committee had been established ...

and Guillaume Schack's campaign in Germany, reflected her influence. Guillaume-Schack and Lily Braun were the only two aristocratic women to join the SDP. Braun wrote a history of the women worker's movement of Germany in which she gave Guillaume-Schack credit for developing the movement. This was unfair to women such as

Clara Zetkin Clara Zetkin (; ; ''née'' Eißner ; 5 July 1857 – 20 June 1933) was a German Marxist theorist, communist activist, and advocate for women's rights. Until 1917, she was active in the Social Democratic Party of Germany. She then joined the Inde ...

, who continued to work in Germany after Guillaume-Schack had left for England. After Guillaume-Schack's exile the cause of protecting women and girls in Germany was first taken up by more conservative men and women. The abolitionist movement that she had established became known as the ''Sittlichkeit'' ("purity") movement, and was led by antisemites such as Pastor Ludwig Weber, and Dr.

Adolf Stoecker Adolf Stoecker (December 11, 1835 – February 2, 1909) was a German court chaplain to Kaiser Wilhelm I, a politician and a Lutheran theologian who founded the Christian Social Party to lure members away from the Social Democratic Workers' P ...

. Members could not be socialist and were required to be Christian. Within a decade, though, young and liberal women who had heard her speak in London took up the abolitionist cause in Germany, including Anna Pappritz, Anita Augspurg, Katharina Scheven, and

Minna Cauer Wilhelmine Theodore Marie Cauer, née Schelle, usually known as Minna Cauer (1 November 1841 in Freyenstein – 3 August 1922 in Berlin), was a German pedagogue, activist in the so-called "radical" wing of the German bourgeois feminist moveme ...

Notes

References

Sources

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