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Helene Stöcker (c. 1915)

Helene Stöcker (1869-1943) was a well-known representative of the women’s movement. She moved to Berlin in the fall of 1896 and attended the university, where she was among its first female students. In addition to studying history, philosophy, and economics, she became active in progressive feminist circles. Stöcker is most famous for advocating women’s sexual and political liberation. In 1905, she founded the Association for the Protection of Mothers and for Sexual Reform [Bund für Mutterschutz und Sexualreform], which fought for the rights of unwed mothers and for the institution of sex education. During the First World War she dedicated herself to the peace movement: instead of Mutterschutz [the protection of mothers] she worked on behalf of Menschenschutz [the protection of human beings]. The National Socialists’ rise to power forced her into exile. She died in New York in 1943.

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Helene Stöcker (c. 1915)

© Bildarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz