B-Friedrichsfelde Zentralfriedhof 03-2015 img05 Luise Zietz

Luise Catharina Amalie Zietz (née: Körner) (1865–1922) was a German socialist and

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

. She was the first woman to occupy a leading party post in Germany. She also helped bring the socialist women's movement into the

Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together w ...

. In 1908, the same year the government legalized women's participation in politics, she became the first woman appointed to the executive committee of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. She later nominated Marie Juchacz for a paid position by the party as the Cologne women's secretary in what was then the Upper Rhine province. Zietz and

Friedrich Ebert Friedrich Ebert (; 4 February 187128 February 1925) was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Social Democratic Party (SPD) who served as the first President of Germany (1919–1945), president of Germany from 1919 until ...

Hugo Haase Hugo Haase (29 September 1863 – 7 November 1919) was a German socialist politician, jurist and pacifist. With Friedrich Ebert, he co-chaired of the Council of the People's Deputies during the German Revolution of 1918–19. Early life Hugo Ha ...

, Hermann Molkenbuhr and Hermann Müller attended the Vienna Socialist Conference of 1915 representing the Social Democratic Party of Germany.Olga Hess Gankin and H.H. Fisher eds, ''The Bolsheviks and the First World War: the origins of the Third International'' Stanford University Press, 1940 p.284 In 1917 she was one of the main agitators in favor of a split in the party, which led to the formation of the

Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany The Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (, USPD) was a short-lived political party in Germany during the German Empire and the Weimar Republic. The organization was established in 1917 as the result of a split of anti-war members of t ...

. She then became a leader in the creation of that party's women's movement. She was one of the first female members of the new Reichstag in 1919.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zietz, Luise 1865 births 1922 deaths German feminists German socialists German women's rights activists Members of the Weimar National Assembly Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians Socialist feminists 20th-century German women politicians