Dangerous visionaries and revolutionary transformations: women’s political cultures in the aftermath of war

The Weimar Republic has an important place in the history of Germany democracy, but a recognition of the strength of German women’s political cultures and their role in shaping the post-war political landscape has been elusive. Women’s experiences in the First World War and Weimar Republic have been extensively discussed, but often in ways that threaten to erase women’s political agency. Moreover, the seismic shift signalled by women’s suffrage has not been foregrounded in accounts of democratic history, and women’s roles in the revolution of 1918 have been largely overlooked. Taking a gender historical approach, this article makes women’s political cultures visible in two arenas important for an understanding of the post-war era: women’s suffrage and women’s revolutionary activism. While the focus is on the German national context, it is important to note that German women’s organisations were embedded in international and transnational network organisations campaigning for women’s social, professional and civic rights, and that their political cultures developed in dialogue with and awareness of what was happening elsewhere in the world.