Wilhelmine Kähler (née Mohs or Moss, 3 April 1864 – 22 February 1941) was a German labour and women's rights activist, and politician.

Kähler in 1919

Activism and politics

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From 1890, Kähler was part of the labour movement. She co-founded and led the Verband der Fabrik- und Handarbeiterinnen, making her the only woman to lead a trade union in Germany during the 1890s.[1] She sat on the General Commission of German Trade Unions.[2] Her union became part of the Union of Domestic Workers of Germany, and she was acting president of that union in 1913.[3]

Around 1900 Kähler lived in Dresden, where she primarily worked on improving the situation of working women.[1]

Kähler wrote for the social democratic women's magazine Die Gleichheit and the Düsseldorf newspaper Volkszeitung starting in 1906. She was an editor of Für unsere Frauen, a women's movement correspondence, the yearbook Der Frauenhausschatz.[1]

From 1919 until 1923 Kähler worked as a civil servant for the Reich Ministry of Economy.[2] In 1919 she also became a member of the Weimar National Assembly, which drafted the Weimar Constitution. She was subsequently a member of the Reichstag until 1921, and then a member of the Landtag of Prussia until 1924.[1] Kähler represented the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD/MSPD).[4]

After 1926 she led a local Arbeiterwohlfahrt [de] organisation in her home town of Kellinghusen until 1931.[2]

Personal life

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Kähler was born in 1864 in Kellinghusen, where she also went to school. She was a seamstress and a housekeeper.[4] In 1882 she married her first husband who was a cigar factory worker.[2]

Kähler later remarried in 1924 and moved to Bonn with her husband in 1931, retiring from political activism. She died in Bonn in 1941.[4]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "Frauen auf Straßen(-)Schilder" (PDF). FrauenBildungsHaus Dresden e.V. p. 35. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 2009-08-18.
  2. ^ a b c d Schröder, Wilhelm H. "Sozialdemokratische Parlamentarier in den deutschen Reichs- und Landtagen 1876-1933 (BIOSOP)" (in German). GESIS. Archived from the original on 24 June 2018. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
  3. ^ "Verband der Hausangestellten Deutschlands". Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
  4. ^ a b c Schröder, Wilhelm H.; Best, Heinrich. "Die Abgeordneten der Deutschen Nationalversammlung und der Deutschen Reichstage 1919-1933 (BIORAB-WEIMAR)" (in German). GESIS. Archived from the original on 3 June 2021. Retrieved 11 December 2019.