The German-Colonial Women's League

In 1907, the German Colonial Women's League was founded. Luise Weitzenberg, who lived at Langestraße 25 in Südende at the time, was one of the founding members. Her address was the first contact address of the Women's League. The later chairwoman of the Women's League, Adda von Liliencron, reported that Luise Weitzenberg had written to her in the "name of the ladies of the command of the "Schutztruppe" and had asked her to take it into her own hands to found a colonial women's association. Its task should be "to select suitable female helpers here for the young colony, to send them over and to position them there, in order to meet the urgent need for German women and girls to feel at home in the young colony." The Women's League justifies the supposed necessity of white women in the colonies on the basis of racism: only they can protect "Germanness" in the colonies – not least by preventing so-called "mixed marriages". [1]

The colonial-racist goal was already clear when the Women's League was founded: the Bund was concerned with getting white women interested in the German colonies in order to protect "Germanness". To this end, the Bund organized so-called "colonial coffees" or colonial festivals in Berlin – also in Steglitz, Südende, Lichterfelde and Zehlendorf – but also photo presentations and lectures at which donations for the work were collected. [2] In accordance with its racist ideas, however, the Women's League saw its main task as organizing the emigration of white German women to the colonies. Central to this is the idea of consolidating German rule in the colonies through white German families, as is clear in the association's organ, the Kolonie und Heimat: "If, instead of the few thousand men who now live in the colonies, only a few thousand families out there have created a second home for themselves, the colonies will become what they should and can become, a new Germany." [3]

Luise Weitzenberg from Südende took over the post of second deputy chairwoman of the Women's League and secretary in 1907. She also seemed to be responsible for the association's correspondence: membership inquiries were to be addressed to her. [4] But as early as 1908 she left the Women's League. In the colony and homeland , she was expressed the "warmest thanks" for "that she worked tirelessly for our association in the most energetic way from the first to the last day." [5] Together with her husband Arno Weitzenberg – a first lieutenant in the "Schutztruppe" – she emigrated to what was then "German South West Africa" (now Namibia). On April 28, 1908, as recorded in the documents of the Women's League, they traveled to Swakopmund together with their maid Martha Loose, where they founded an ostrich farm. [6] Even though it is said in the colony and homeland that Luise Weitzenberg "will continue to work for us in the southwest"[7] "with the warm interest that inspires her in our work"[7], her traces are lost after her departure.

The German Colonial Women's League , on the other hand, joined the German Colonial Society – one of the largest colonial organisations – in 1908. The Women's League of the German Colonial Society was successful and expanded. While in the early phase it was mainly women from officer circles – often wives of members of the colonial troops – who shaped the Women's League, the profile changed when Hedwig Heyl took over the chairmanship in 1910. She had contacts in the bourgeois women's movement; in 1911, the Women's League joined the umbrella organisation of the bourgeois women's movement. The organisation of the Federation became tighter and advertising increased. [8] The number of members quadrupled between 1909 and 1914 to 18,700.[9] In "German South West Africa", the Women's League founded a home economics school and a youth home with an attached kindergarten – in accordance with the racist logic of the League, only for white children. [10] In this phase, in which the Women's League expanded, networked and joined the bourgeois women's movement, the goals of the League remained the same and its program racist.

By 1913, 1,500 women had been sent to the colonies with the support of the Women's League – especially to "German South West Africa". [11] Some of the women also came from Steglitz-Zehlendorf. In 1908, for example, Frieda Lindenau from Groß-Lichterfelde began working for a farmer in Kreyfontein[12] and Elsa Fröbel from Schlachtensee came "into the service of Mr. Innkeeper Leuffgen in Windhoek." [13]

After the First World War and the "loss" of the German colonies, the Women's League continued to exist in order to keep the "colonial idea" alive. Although it initially lost members, there was a strong upswing in the course of colonial revisionist commitment to the "lost" colonies. The Women's League maintained ties with the so-called "colonial women" in the former German colonies and supported the existing institutions so that German children were "inextricably rooted in their Germanness and strengthened against foreign influences. [14]

In 1920, Hedwig von Bredow took over the chairmanship, which she handed over to Agnes von Boemcken in 1932. [15] She also lived in the district of Steglitz-Zehlendorf at Karlsstraße 97 in Lichterfelde-West. [16] While the men were in the military – often in the so-called "Schutztruppe" – the women were involved in the racist colonial project in accordance with the ideas of female tasks. The connection between the upper class living in the vicinity of the main cadet school in Lichterfelde and German colonialism in the district of Steglitz-Zehlendorf becomes very clear here.

As early as 1934, the Women's League, chaired by Agnes von Boemcken, published a pamphlet in which it was explained that "a fundamental change" in the work of National Socialism was not necessary: "After all, since 1906 our work has been aimed at preserving the German spirit and German blood on distant outposts." [17]

In 1936, the Women's League was incorporated into the newly founded Nazi Reich Colonial League. The members continued their "colonial women's work" here until it ceased its activities in 1943. [18]