Luise Koch (11 October 1860 Bremen – 14 March 1934 in Bremen)
was a German educator, politician (DDP) and women's rights activist.
Life
Koch was the daughter of the businessman Carl August Koch and his wife, the piano teacher Lina Koch. She attended a private girls' school.
In 1904 she founded the local chapter of the German Association for women's suffrage (
Deutscher Verband für Frauenstimmrecht The Deutscher Verband für Frauenstimmrecht (German Union for Women's Suffrage) was a German women's organization for women's suffrage, active between 1902 and 1919.Richard J. Evans: The feminist movement in Germany 1894-1933 (= Sage studies in 20th ...
) and was from 1904 to 1919 chairwoman of the Bremen association ().
In 1916 she was elected to the board of the German Reich Association for Women's Suffrage.
With the start of
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, she called on the 600 members of the Association to engage in war work less for their own rights and more for the needs of family and country.
In 1916, Koch was elected to the board of the ''German Reich Association for Women's Suffrage''. In 1917, she protested against "the forthcoming reform of the Bremer suffrage
..that the right to vote in one direction referring only to the male sex".
In 1918, she was a member of the new group Women in Bremen, and represented them in both women's suffrage associations and the Social Democrats.
In 1919, Koch was a member of the
German Democratic Party
The German Democratic Party (, DDP) was a liberal political party in the Weimar Republic, considered centrist or centre-left. Along with the right-liberal German People's Party (, DVP), it represented political liberalism in Germany between 19 ...
(DDP). She represented the party in the Bremer National Constituent Assembly of 1919–20, however, she did not stand for the Bremen Parliament.
Literature
* Bremer Nachrichten vom 11. Oktober 1930: ''Bremer Verein für Frauenstimmrecht''.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Koch, Luise
German feminists
German suffragists
1860 births
1934 deaths
German women's rights activists
Politicians from Bremen (city)
German Democratic Party politicians
20th-century German women politicians
People from the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen