Johanna Elberskirchen

(1864 to 1943) - Women (places) in Bonn: Birthplace: Sternstraße 37
Women's place NRW: Bischofsplatz at Old Town Hall Bonn

FrauenOrt NRW

Thanks to the "Frauenorte NRW" project of the NRW Women's Council, funded by the Ministry for Children, Youth, Family, Equality, Refugees and Integration of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Johanna Elberskirchen is being honored with a memorial stele on Bischofsplatz in Bonn. The four women's sites in Bonn, which were created through the commitment of the House of Women's History Bonn and the Equal Opportunities Office, are intended to make the work of women in public spaces more visible and tell their stories. Further information can be found at https://www.frauenorte-nrw.de/. (opens in a new tab)

The fearless fighter for women's and gay rights

Historical portrait photo: Johanna Elberskirchen from Bonn (from the magazine 'Kinderheil' from 1905; CC BY-SA 3.0)

Portrait of Johanna Elberskirchen

Johanna Elberskirchen was born on April 11, 1864 at Sternstraße 195 (today's house number 37) in Bonn. The family ran a small grocery store and had a total of five children. Her early desire for education was considered rather masculine by her family and earned her the nickname "Hannes". She attended a secondary school for girls and graduated from high school. She then went to Rinteln (Westphalia) for a few years, where she worked as an accountant. "I spent seven years on this treadmill," she said herself, "then I emancipated myself and jumped onto the academic track."

Years of study in Switzerland

Back in Bonn

The two women moved to Bonn together and lived there from 1901 to 1913, the year in which Anna Eysoldt died. Johanna Elberskirchen rejoined the Social Democratic Party in Bonn and at the same time the Association for Women's Suffrage. This put her between two stools, so to speak, and this remained the case throughout her life. She caused offense everywhere. The following sentence alone shows the tense relationship in which she found herself:

"Pure feminism is (nolens volens) radical. It necessarily excludes (...) moderation, limitation, half-measures. Being feminist does not mean wanting to obtain a right for a small number of women at the expense of other women à tout prix - being feminist only ever means fighting for the total liberation of the entire female sex."

She was too socialist for the feminists, too feminist for the social democrats. The Social Democrats found it incompatible that she was also fighting for women's suffrage in another association. They expelled her from the party.

She wrote numerous militant newspaper articles and books on feminist and social democratic issues. Her main topics were the repeal of the ban on women's suffrage, women's studies, violence against girls and women, motherhood and pediatrics, gender-specific upbringing and education as well as sexual reform issues relating to marriage, prostitution, heterosexuality and homosexuality. With a sharp mind, she analyzed and criticized political and social power relations, anti-feminism and misogyny. She did not mince her words and fearlessly and eloquently denounced existing grievances.

Her 'coming out' in 1904 is particularly noteworthy, and when the SPD politician Wowereit said his famous sentence ("I'm gay - and that's a good thing") in 2001, it certainly took some courage. But imagine the reactions when Johanna Elberskirchen wrote her sentence almost 100 years earlier: "If we women of emancipation are homosexual - well, then let us be! Then we have every right to be. Who cares? Only those who are."

She continued: "I protest against homosexuals being branded eo ipso as psychopaths, as degenerate, demoralized, inferior subjects. (...) Away with all suggestions based on hypocrisy, ignorance or arrogance. Let homosexuals be measured socially with the same yardstick as heterosexuals. (...) Give the homosexual what belongs to him: his full human status!"