Lore Agnes

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Lore Agnes

| image = Lore Agnes.png

| caption = Agnes in 1919

| office = Member of the Reichstag

| term_start = 6 February 1919

| term_end = 5 March 1933

| predecessor = Constituency established

| successor = Constituency abolished

| constituency = Düsseldorf East

| birth_date = {{birth date|1876|6|4|df=yes}}

| birth_place = Bochum, Prussia, German Empire (now in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany)

| death_date = {{death date and age|1953|6|9|1876|6|4|df=yes}}

| death_place = Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany

| party = Social Democratic Party of Germany

| otherparty = Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany

}}

Lore Agnes (4 June 1876 – 9 June 1953) was a German politician. A house-wife from Düsseldorf, Agnes was a leading figure in the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the socialist women's movement in the city. She was a member of parliament 1919-1933.Sklar, Kathryn Kish, Anja Schüler, and Susan Strasser. [https://books.google.com/books?id=4FUxisSKqRUC Social Justice Feminists in the United States and Germany: A Dialogue in Documents, 1885-1933]. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998. p. 194[http://www.phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de/frauenarchiv/ddorf/strassen/agnes.html Frauengeschichte in Düsseldorfer Straßennamen - Lore Agnes - Weg] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110122070908/http://www.phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de/frauenarchiv/ddorf/strassen/agnes.html |date=2011-01-22 }}

Biography

Agnes was the daughter of a coal miner from Bochum. She moved to Düsseldorf in 1906. As a socialist women's activist, she founded a Domestic Workers' Association.

At the 1913 Jena congress of the SPD, Agnes belonged to the radical anti-militarist grouping, and supported Rosa Luxemburg's call for general strike action.pp. 242, 244 After the SPD split, Agnes became a leading personality in the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD).Nolan, Mary. [https://books.google.com/books?id=RhTseHWAPhcC Social democracy and society working class radicalism in Düsseldorf, 1890-1920]. Cambridge: Cambridge university press, 1981. p. 272 She was jailed in 1914, after having given an anti-war speech at an International Women's Day meeting. In her speech she had called on the women of Germany to organize resistance against the war.

At the time of the outbreak of the November Revolution, Agnes and other left leaders from Düsseldorf were jailed. Agnes belonged to the group that was freed as revolutionaries stormed the prison, and she immediately became a leading organizer of the revolution in Düsseldorf.Nolan, Mary. [https://books.google.com/books?id=RhTseHWAPhcC Social democracy and society working class radicalism in Düsseldorf, 1890-1920]. Cambridge: Cambridge university press, 1981. p. 273 She was put in charge of issues relating to food, health and welfare on behalf of the Düsseldorf council.Nolan, Mary. [https://books.google.com/books?id=RhTseHWAPhcC Social democracy and society working class radicalism in Düsseldorf, 1890-1920]. Cambridge: Cambridge university press, 1981. p. 279

Agnes was elected to the Weimar National Assembly in the 1919 election as a candidate of the USPD from the Electoral District no. 22 (Düsseldorf-East). The USPD had won 18.7% of the votes in that electoral district, in which Agnes had headed the list of the party.[http://mdz12.bib-bvb.de/~db/bsb00000144/images/index.html?nativeno=120 Handbuch der verfassunggebenden deutschen Nationalversammlung] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120226132003/http://mdz12.bib-bvb.de/~db/bsb00000144/images/index.html?nativeno=120 |date=2012-02-26 }}, Weimar 1919 ; biographische Notizen und Bilder, Berlin, 1919Nolan, Mary. [https://books.google.com/books?id=RhTseHWAPhcC Social democracy and society working class radicalism in Düsseldorf, 1890-1920]. Cambridge: Cambridge university press, 1981. p. 288

When the USPD split, Agnes sided with the rightwing tendency,Nolan, Mary. [https://books.google.com/books?id=RhTseHWAPhcC Social democracy and society working class radicalism in Düsseldorf, 1890-1920]. Cambridge: Cambridge university press, 1981. p. 300 that rejoined the SPD. As a SPD Reichstag member, Agnes represented a moderate leftist standpoint within the party.Harsch, Donna. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Z2hnMMXzgkgC German social democracy and the rise of Nazism]. Chapel Hill u.a: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1993. pp. 257-258 She was a member of the Reichstag presidium from 1922 onwards.Engel, Gerhard, Bärbel Holtz, and Ingo Materna. [https://books.google.com/books?id=KW4LkLk6VhwC Gross-Berliner Arbeiter- und Soldatenräte in der Revolution, 1918/1919: Dokumente der Vollversammlungen und des Vollzugsrates : vom Ausbruch der Revolution bis zum 1. Reichsrätekongress]. Berlin: Akademie, 1993. p. 32 She was also a member of the Düsseldorf municipal council until 1928.

At the age of 68, Agnes was arrested by the Gestapo.

In 1945, she again became a member of the Düsseldorf municipal council. She remained a member of the Women's Commission of SPD until her death.