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100 Years of Women's Suffrage in Germany

100 Years of Women's Suffrage in Germany

100 Years of Women's Suffrage in Germany, © Wikimedia, copyright-free

18.12.2018 - Article

On January 19, 1919, women in Germany could vote and be elected for the very first time. This was a milestone in the history of our democracy and the basis for equal rights for men and women in Germany.

On January 19, 1919, women in Germany could vote and be elected for the very first time. This was a milestone in the history of our democracy and the basis for equal rights for men and women in Germany. The road to women's suffrage was long. What young generations take for granted today was not so easy to implement back then and required a lot of courage and assertiveness by political pioneers such as Anita Augspurg, Marie Juchacz, Helene Lange and Clara Zetkin, who fought for women’s right. Since the middle of the 19th century, women's suffrage has been fought for by actors from various women's movements. After long and hard struggles, the first elections for all took place in Germany in 1919. However, the actual equality of women and men in the German Grundgesetz (constitution) followed many years later in 1949 when Elisabeth Selbert, Helene Weber, Frieda Nadig und Helene Wessel enforced Article 3: “Men and women are equal”. Marking the 100th anniversary, let's not forget that our society has come a long way already but that there is still a long way to go to assure equal rights.


For further reads on the topic: www.dhm.de/blog/ and www.dw.com/en/100-years-of-

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