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Women’s Activism in the Revolution of 1848/49: Appeal of the Married Women and Maidens of Württemberg to the Soldiers of Germany (1849)

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Hear our oath, young German men, and may the wrath of Heaven fall upon us if we do not keep this oath! German soldiers! By the decree of your fathers you are stripped of their inheritance, which you blasphemously seek to destroy with your arms! It will benefit those whom you, in blind madness, have made into widows and orphans! Think of this abyss that is opening up before your blinded eyes and throw in your lot with the people, otherwise the spirit of a happy future for you will conceal its face in mourning.

7 May 1849
All the married women and maidens of the Kingdom of Württemberg



Original German text reprinted in Gerlinde Hummel-Haasis, Schwestern zerreißt eure Ketten: Zeugnisse zur Geschichte der Frauen in der Revolution von 1848/49. Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag, 1982, pp. 22-23.

Translation: Thomas Dunlap

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