Minna Reichert

Minna Reichert (born Minna Fettke: 22 September 1869 - 3 April 1946) was a German peace activist and - unusually at the time - female politician (SPD, USPD, KPD). In 1920/21 she sat as a member of the Prussian assembly - effectively the precursor body of the Prussian regional legislature ("Landtag").^[1][2]

Life

Minna Fettke was born into a working class family in Nieder Bielau, north of Görlitz and part of what has today become Pieńsk in what was, at that time, the Prussian Province of Silesia.

Sources accessed are silent on her early years, but by 1907, when she was identified as Minna Reichert (housewife) living in Berlin, it is evident that she had married.^[2] She was active as a member of the Berlin SPD Women's Association ("Sozialdemokratische Frauenverein") and employed, in Berlin's Electoral District 6, as a party official from 1906.^[1] Between 1914 and 1917 she was a member of the regional party executive for the Greater Berlin region.^[1]

The decision of the party leadership to enter into what amounted to a political truce in the Reichstag for the duration of the First World War encountered opposition from within the party from the outset. Minna Reichert was an active member of the party's "peace" faction: in September 1915 she participated in the international Zimmerwald Conference which condemned the imperialism of the "capitalist classes" responsible for the war.^[1] Two years later, when the German Social Democratic party finally broke apart over the issue of continued support for funding the war, Reichert was one of those who broke away to form the so-called Independent Social Democratic Party ("Unabhängige Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands" / USPD). Between 1919 and 1920 she was a member of the new party's national women's committee.^[2] Between October and December of 1920 she was a member of the party's central control commission.^[1]

As the USPD itself broke apart at the end of 1920 she campaigned for a merger with the newly created Communist Party of Germany, and she was part of the left-wing USPD majority that joined the Communists. During 1920 and 1921 she was a member of the Prussian assembly, mandated to create a post-imperial constitution for the "Prussian Free State", taking the seat vacated by her party colleague Kurt Rosenfeld when he was elected to the national parliament ("Reichstag").^[1] In 1921 she became regional party secretary for Halle-Merseburg.^[2] Here she was given responsibility for the "women's work" section. She no longer sought election to the Prussian regional legislature ("Landtag"), but she was a member of the provincial provincial legislature ("Provinziallandtag") for Saxony. Along with her fellow communist, Hedwig Machlitt from Eisleben, in 1921 she was one of the first two women ever to be elected to the Saxon Provinziallandtag.^[3]

Minna Reichert was widowed in 1926 and moved back to Berlin.^[2] She continued to work for the national Communist Party Central Committee till 1933 as a party advisor and instructor.^[1]

After the war she lived in Berlin-Heiligensee. Minna Reichert died in Berlin on 3 April 1946.

References

1. Hermann Weber; Andreas Herbst. "Reichert, Minna * 22.9.1869, † 3.4.1946". Karl Dietz Verlag, Berlin & Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur, Berlin. Retrieved 10 November 2016.
2. "Zur Person ... Minna Reichert". Biographien deutscher Parlamentarier 1848 bis heute (BIOPARL). GESIS Leibnizinstitut für Sozialwissenschaften, Köln. 30 March 2008. Retrieved 10 November 2016.
3. Dr. Elke Stolze (1 March 2011). "„Wenn eine Frau von dieser Tribüne spricht ..." – Weibliche Abgeordnete im größten Kommunalparlament der Region, im Provinzialsächsischen Landtag" (PDF). Die ersten FrauenStimmen aus der Region Sachsen - Anhalt in Parlamenten der Weimarer Republik. FrauenOrte, Halle. p. 15. Retrieved 10 November 2016.