Helene Weber (born 17 March 1881 in Elberfeld, now

Wuppertal Wuppertal (; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany, with a population of 355,000. Wuppertal is the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and List of cities in Germany by population, 17th-largest in Germany. It ...

Rhine Province The Rhine Province (), also known as Rhenish Prussia () or synonymous with the Rhineland (), was the westernmost Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia, within the German Reich, from 1822 to 1946. ...

, died 25 July 1962 in

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 ...

) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

and was known as a women's rights activist. In the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German Reich, German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclai ...

she rose to prominence in the

Catholic Centre Party The Centre Party (, Z), officially the German Centre Party (, DZP) and also known in English as the Catholic Centre Party, is a Christian democratic political party in Germany. It was most influential in the German Empire and Weimar Republic. F ...

. In 1945 she was among the founders of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). In 1948 she was a co-founder of the CDU Women's Task Force, a precursor of the party's Women's Union, which she chaired from 1951 to 1958. Weber is one of four women who, alongside 61 men, drafted Germany's constitution, the

Basic Law A basic law is either a codified constitution, or in countries with uncodified constitutions, a law designed to have the effect of a constitution. The term ''basic law'' is used in some places as an alternative to "constitution" and may be inte ...

, in 1948-49. After initial hesitation, she closed ranks with the women delegates of 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 ...

to successfully fight for the inclusion of the sentence "Men and women shall have equal rights" i
Article 3
of the Basic Law. She is often cited for her anti-war statement: "The entirely male-run state is the ruin of nations" ("Der reine Männerstaat ist das Verderben der Völker").

Biography

After graduating from the girls' middle school in Elberfeld, Helene Weber enrolled at the teacher training school in

Aachen Aachen is the List of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia by population, 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 261,000 inhabitants. Aachen is locat ...

from 1897 to 1900. After several years teaching in Elberfeld, she matriculated at the

University of Bonn The University of Bonn, officially the Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (), is a public research university in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the () on 18 October 1818 by Frederick Willi ...

and later at

Grenoble Grenoble ( ; ; or ; or ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of the Isère Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region ...

to study

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and

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s. As a university student, she joined the sorority Hilaritas. She then returned to teaching at the girls' secondary school in

Bochum Bochum (, ; ; ; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia. With a population of 372,348 (April 2023), it is the sixth-largest city (after Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg) in North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous German federa ...

and as of 1911 in

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 ...

. She became a member of the Central Committee of the

German Catholic Women's Association The German Catholic Women's Association (), abbreviated as KDFB, is a federally registered Catholic lay women's organization and political interest group. The association has roughly 180,000 members in Germany with 1,800 branches in twenty-one G ...

and first chair of the League of Catholic Social Civil Servants in Germany. From 1918, she was head of the Women's Social School at Aachen, which had originally been founded by the German Catholic Women's Association in Cologne and had grown to include a branch in Aachen, which in 1971 developed into the Katholische Hochschule Nordrhein-Westfalen. In 1920, she became a Ministerial Councillor in the Prussian Ministry of Welfare, where she founded the Social Education Division. She was the first female Ministerial Councillor in the state of Prussia. As a member of the

Weimar National Assembly The Weimar National Assembly (German: ), officially the German National Constitutional Assembly (), was the popularly elected constitutional convention and de facto parliament of Germany from 6 February 1919 to 21 May 1920. As part of it ...

in 1919-20, she was involved in the development of the

Weimar Constitution The Constitution of the German Reich (), usually known as the Weimar Constitution (), was the constitution that governed Germany during the Weimar Republic era. The constitution created a federal semi-presidential republic with a parliament whose ...

. From 1921 to 1924, she was also a Landtag deputy in Prussia. From May 1924 to 1933 she belonged to the Reichstag, the federal German parliament. In March 1933, she joined the former Reich Chancellor

Heinrich Brüning Heinrich Aloysius Maria Elisabeth Brüning (; 26 November 1885 – 30 March 1970) was a German Centre Party politician and academic, who served as the chancellor of Germany during the Weimar Republic from 1930 to 1932. A political scientis ...

among the minority of Centre MPs who opposed

Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

's Enabling Act. Ultimately, however, she bent to pressure from the Reichstag Group and agreed to the law, which was a decisive step along the road to power for the Nazis. After the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

takeover, she was forced into early retirement on political grounds as of 30 June 1933 and subsequently worked in social welfare on a volunteer basis. After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, she took over the chair of the National Association of Catholic Welfare in Rinnen, Germany, and became again vice-chairman of the Catholic Women's Federation. She was nominated for both parliaments of

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

. In 1947/48 she belonged to the area council for the British occupation zone. In 1948 she was elected in the

Parliamentary Council The Parliamentary Council was a constitutional authority in Sri Lanka established under the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka, 18th Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka. Formally being constituted on January 1, 2011 as pe ...

to serve as one of four women involved in drafting the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany project. She became member secretary of the Bureau. From 1949 until her death she was a member of the German

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...

representing the CDU. Her parliamentary constituency was

City. In the fourth legislature Helene Weber was third oldest member of the Bundestag after

Konrad Adenauer Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer (5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) was a German statesman and politician who served as the first Chancellor of Germany, chancellor of West Germany from 1949 to 1963. From 1946 to 1966, he was the first leader of th ...

and

Robert Pferdmenges Robert Pferdmenges (27 March 1880 in Mönchengladbach – 28 September 1962 in Cologne) was a German banker and CDU politician. He was a member of the Bundestag from 1950 to 1962 and a close friend to Konrad Adenauer. Life and profession Afte ...

. She persistently urged German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer that at least one Ministry should be headed by a woman. In 1950, she was also a member of the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe.

Honours

Helene Weber was awarded with an honorary doctorate by the National Faculty of the

University of Münster The University of Münster (, until 2023 , WWU) is a public research university located in the city of Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. With more than 43,000 students and over 120 fields of study in 15 departments, it is Germany's ...

in 1930. In 1956, she was honored with the Great

Federal Cross of Merit The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (, or , BVO) is the highest state decoration, federal decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It may be awarded for any field of endeavor. It was created by the first List of president ...

, and five years later was awarded with the sash as well. The Helene Weber Berufskolleg in Paderborn, and the Catholic Family Educational Helene-Weber-Haus in Gelsenkirchen and Fulda, are both named after her.

Publications

* Verständnis für die heutige Jugend (''Understanding of today's youth''), in: ''Bayerische Gemeinde- und Verwaltungszeitung'', Jg. 1927, p 385. * Der Beruf der Sozialbeamtin (''The profession of social officer''), in: Hermann Geib (Hrsg.), ''Jahrbuch für Sozialpolitik'', Leipzig 1930, p 172-177.

References

''This page was translated from the equivalent page on German Wikipedia on 20 June 2009.''

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Weber, Helene 1881 births 1962 deaths Politicians from Wuppertal People from the Rhine Province German Roman Catholics Centre Party (Germany) politicians Members of the Weimar National Assembly Members of the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic Members of the Bundestag for North Rhine-Westphalia Members of the Bundestag 1961–1965 Members of the Bundestag 1957–1961 Members of the Bundestag 1953–1957 Members of the Bundestag 1949–1953 Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Female members of the Bundestag 20th-century German women politicians Members of the Bundestag for the Christian Democratic Union of Germany Academic staff of the Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences Berlin Members of Parlamentarischer Rat