Hildegard: Hildegard Wegscheider's Struggle for Women's Rights and Equal Education in Germany

by Luise Wegscheider, Vanguardistas LLC (Illustrator), Vivian Werk (Photographer)

Sigmaringen 1895: 23-year-old Hildegard Ziegler is the first woman in Prussia to graduate from high school. Not an easy task as the pastor's daughter has to travel all the way from Switzerland, where unlike Prussia she is allowed to study as a woman. The right to higher education is the first interference she encounters in her youth, although throughout her life she will face more. She not only manages to get a high school diploma, but also acquires a doctorate and finally becomes a teacher. After marrying a doctor from Berlin, Max Wegscheider, and having two sons, she juggles family and work. Women's rights and educational opportunities remain her major life obstacles. After the divorce in 1906, she becomes a single mother and continues working. As a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in the Prussian state parliament and as a school reformer in Berlin, she experiences the Weimar Republic first hand. With the Nazi rise to power she is dismissed and her pension is canceled. Undeterred Hildegard becomes an activist, hosting members of the opposition at her home and assisting those who are being persecuted by the Nazi state. After the war, her merits were recognized and she received the Federal Cross of Merit in 1953.

This biographical novel about Hildegard Wegscheider not only tells of her great merits as a pioneer for women's rights but also sheds light on the personal life of this remarkable woman who met the challenges of her time with humility and uprightness.

165 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 19, 2022