Lüders, Marie Elisabeth (1878-1966)

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Item Relations

Mentioned in (4)
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Mary Church Terrell to Jane Addams, March 18, 1921

Margarete Loewÿ Schuragast to Jane Addams, September 25, 1922

Madeleine Zabriskie Doty to Jane Addams, August 4, 1927

Mary Ryott Sheepshanks to Jane Addams, November 19, 1927

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Birth Date

1878-06-25

Death Date

1966-03-28

Birthplace

Berlin, Germany

Biographical Text

Marie Elisabeth Lüders, who was one of the first women to earn a doctorate in political science in Germany, was a woman's rights activist and politician. During WWI, she founded the National Women's Service, and in 1916 worked in the German war department on female labor issues. In 1919, she was a German delegate to the International Woman Suffrage Alliance conference. That same year, as a member of the Democratic Party, she became a member of the German National Assembly and served her government until 1932. She was a vocal critic of the rising Nazi Party, was briefly arrested, and was forced to live in exile, unable to return to Germany until 1947.

She never married, but gave birth to a son in 1922. She dedicated her life, both inside and out of the government, to women's issues, working to improve working conditions, child care, and equal education opportunities.

Occupation

Labor activist

Politician

Women's rights activist

Source

Picture: Marie Elisabeth Lüders, 1949, Bundesarchiv

Collection

People

Map

Edited By

Hajo, Cathy Moran

Lynn, Stacy

Rights

Rightsholder being researched

Gender

Female

First appears

1921

Bibliography and Links

"Stamps in the News," Arizona Republic, Aug. 10, 1969, p. 36.

Kathryn Kish Sklar, Anja Schuler & Susan Strasser, eds. Social Justice Feminists in the United States and Germany: A Dialogue in Documents, 1885-1933 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998), p. 281.

Maggy Hendry and Jenny Uglow, eds., Dictionary of Women's Biography, 4th ed. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), 359.

Wikipedia

Citation

“Lüders, Marie Elisabeth (1878-1966),” Jane Addams Digital Edition, accessed October 7, 2026, https://digital.janeaddams.ramapo.edu/items/show/15754.