Gesine Becker (born Gesine Bolte: 16 April 1888 - 9 December 1968) was a left wing German activist and politician. During the 1920s she was a Communist member of the Bremen state parliament (''"Bürgerschaft"''). During the Nazi period she remained in Germany but appears not to have been politically active. After the

war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

she was an early member of the new Socialist Unity Party (''Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands'' / SED) which after 1949 became the ruling party of the German Democratic Republic (''East Germany''), but never took on any position of influence within the party.

Life

Gesine Bolte was born in Meinershausen (

Osterholz Osterholz is a district (''Landkreis'') in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by (from the west and clockwise) the districts of Wesermarsch, Cuxhaven, Rotenburg and Verden, and by the city of Bremen. History Originally the prince-archbishop ...

), a suburb on the edge of the port city of

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...

. Her father was a

smallholder A smallholding or smallholder is a small farm operating under a small-scale agriculture model. Definitions vary widely for what constitutes a smallholder or small-scale farm, including factors such as size, food production technique or technolo ...

. Her early jobs were as a domestic servant and as a shop assistant. Between 1911 and 1925 she also took work as a janitor/receptionist and as a clerk. She joined the Social Democratic Party (''Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands'' / SPD) in 1910. The extent of her political activism during the ensuing fifteen years is apparent from public records and archives: her name appears frequently in police files. Relatively little information is accessible concerning her teenage years or on her life after 1930. Between 1919 and 1924 her name appeared on various candidate lists in connection with city elections, and her occupation was entered as "Housewife" which indicates that she never qualified for a trade or profession. At some stage she married Hans Gottwerth Becker, a carpenter who in 1921 became a

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

leader in

. In 1919 she and her husband switched political affiliations to the newly formed Communist Party. Some of the most intense revolutionary developments that followed military defeat in 1918 took place in the northern port cities, and the Beckers supported the

Bremen soviet republic The Bremen Soviet Republic, also translated as the Bremen Council Republic (), was an unrecognised revolutionary state in Germany formed during the German revolution of 1918–1919 in the immediate aftermath of the First World War. Although not ...

when it was proclaimed early in 1919. Gesine Becker was one of five Communist Bremen state parliament (''"Bürgerschaft"'') members elected in 1920, and she was continued to be re-elected till 1930. The focus of her work in the chamber was on social policy, the condition of workers of women, and on the disadvantaged more generally. Her practical focus on health and social issues meant that she was generally able to stand aside from the bitter internal ideologically based feuding that was a feature of the German Communist Party in the 1920s. A successful campaign in the "Bürgerschaft" was for the repeal, in 1922, of a re-imposed expulsion for a Communist Worker, originally from the Netherlands, called

Johann Geusendam Johann Mathias Geusendam (24 February 1886 – 6 April 1945) was a Dutchman who moved with his fiancée to Bremen in 1905 in order to improve his job. Bremen was a geographically small but industrially, commercially and economically dynamic "a ...

(1866-1945). She was energetic in the debate on abortion rights, and campaigned against §218 of the constitution, in 1923 describing it in a speech as "discrimination against the female gender" (''"Ausnahmebestimmung gegen das weibliche Geschlecht"''). During the 1920s Gesine Becker was also a leading figure in the Bremen district Red Aid (''"Rote Hilfe"'') political welfare organisation. At the end of 1930 she relocated with her family to

Berlin-Lichtenberg Lichtenberg () is a quarter (''Ortsteil'') of Berlin in the homonymous borough (''Bezirk'') of Lichtenberg. Until 2001 it was an autonomous district with the localities of Fennpfuhl, Rummelsburg, Friedrichsfelde and Karlshorst. History The ...

, probably in connection with her husband's work for the Communist Party. This appears to have put an end to her political prominence. Between 1934 and 1936 Gesine Becker is recorded as the owner of the "Cafe Derby" in Silesia Street, and between 1939 and 1945, which were years of

, she was conscripted to undertake clerical work. After the

the entire region surrounding Berlin was administered as the

Soviet occupation zone The Soviet occupation zone in Germany ( or , ; ) was an area of Germany that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a communist area, established as a result of the Potsdam Agreement on 2 August 1945. On 7 October 1949 the German Democratic Republ ...

, which in its turn was relaunched as the Soviet sponsored German Democratic Republic (''East Germany'') in October 1949. After 1945 sources list Gesine Becker as a "housewife". Till 1955 she worked in a clerical capacity for "VEB Schrott Berlin-Lichtenberg", a state owned operation involved in rubbish and recycling. After 1955 she worked in the (inherently politically sensitive) personnel department at the university.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Becker, Gesine Politicians from Bremen (city) Members of the Bürgerschaft of Bremen Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians Communist Party of Germany politicians Socialist Unity Party of Germany members German socialist feminists 1888 births 1968 deaths