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‘The League of Austrian Women’s Associations’ and the end of peace activities

Before the First World War, Bertha von Suttner was in frequent contact with the Erste Österreichische Bürgerliche Frauenbewegung [First Austrian Bourgeois Women’s Movement].

Marianne Hainisch, president of the League of Austrian Women’s Associations (BÖFV), for example, was one of the (few) female members of the Austrian Peace Society, while Bertha von Suttner was chairperson of the BÖFV Peace Committee. Auguste Fickert, founding member and chairperson of the Allgemeiner Österreichischer Frauenverein [General Austrian Women’s Association] (AÖFV), founded in 1893, and Bertha von Suttner corresponded regularly and occasionally worked together.

Both the BÖFV and the smaller AÖFV, described by Gisela Urban in 1930 as “radical”, attempted in the years leading up to the First World War to pursue their peace activities through international contacts, organisations, meetings and conferences. In 1899, for example, members of the AÖFV supported a first major women’s peace demonstration in The Hague, which gave rise to meetings of women in eighteen countries including the Habsburg Monarchy, where events were held in Prague and Vienna.

The outbreak of the First World War put an abrupt end to the peace activities of the BÖFV, most of whose members represented the middle-class. Marianne Hainisch justified this shortly after the start of the war in Der Bund, the association’s magazine, saying: “We are deeply shocked and deplore the war, which affects us terribly, but we can do nothing about it. It would be a betrayal of the fatherland and the men defending it if we were now to advocate peace.”

Marianne Hainisch and the members of the BÖFV worked patriotically for the fatherland during the war, combining, for example, with the Christian Viennese Women’s Association, the Social Democratic women’s organisation, the Catholic women’s organisation of Lower Austria, and the Reich Organisation of Austrian Housewives to form the Frauen-Hilfsaktion im Kriege [Women’s War Aid Action]. It now refused to advocate peace or further international relations and contacts with representatives of the women’s and peace movement in “enemy” countries.

Translation: Nick Somers

 

 

Bibliografie 

Anderson, Harriet: Utopian Feminism. Women’s Movements in Fin-de-Siecle Vienna, New Haven 1992

Cohen, Laurie R. (Hrsg.): „Gerade weil Sie eine Frau sind …“ Erkundungen über Bertha von Suttner, die unbekannte Friedensnobelpreisträgerin, Wien 2005

Flich, Renate: Frauen und Frieden. Analytische und empirische Studie über die Zusammenhänge der österreichischen Frauenbewegung und der Friedensbewegung mit besonderer Berücksichtigung des Zeitraumes seit 1960, in: Manfried Rauchensteiner (Hrsg.): Überlegungen zum Frieden, Wien 1987, 410-461

Hamann, Brigitte: Österreichische Frauen in der Friedensbewegung, in: Reingard Witzmann (Hrsg.): Aufbruch in das Jahrhundert der Frau? Rosa Mayreder und der Feminismus in Wien um 1900. Wien 1989, 134-142

Lackner, Daniela: Die Frauenfriedensbewegung in Österreich zwischen 1899 und 1915, Unveröffentlichte Diplomarbeit, Universität Wien, Wien 2008

Rebhan-Glück, Ines: Die österreichische Frauenbewegung und der Krieg, in: Alfred Pfoser/Andreas Weigel (Hrsg.): Im Epizentrum des Zusammenbruchs. Wien im Ersten Weltkrieg, Wien 2013, 82-87.

Urban, Gisela: Die Entwicklung der Österreichischen Frauenbewegung. Im Spiegel der wichtigsten Vereinsgründungen, in: Frauenbewegung, Frauenbildung und Frauenarbeit in Österreich. Hrsg. im Auftrag des Bundes Österreichischer Frauenvereine, Wien 1930, 35-64

Zimmermann, Susan: Die österreichische Frauen-Friedensbewegung vor und im Ersten Weltkrieg, in: Forum Alternativ (Hrsg.): Widerstand gegen Krieg und Militarismus in Österreich und Anderswo, Wien 1982, 88-96

 

Quotes:

„[...] was chairperson of the BÖFV Peace Committee“: Cohen, Laurie R. (Hrsg.): „Gerade weil Sie eine Frau sind …“ Erkundungen über Bertha von Suttner, die unbekannte Friedensnobelpreisträgerin, Wien 2005, 85

„radical“: quoted from: Urban, Gisela: Die Entwicklung der österreichischen Frauenbewegung. Im Spiegel der wichtigsten Vereinsgründungen, in: Frauenbewegung, Frauenbildung und Frauenarbeit in Österreich. Hrsg. im Auftrag des Bundes Österreichischer Frauenvereine, Wien 1930, 34

„[...] meetings of women in eighteen countries …“: Flich, Renate: Frauen und Frieden. Analytische und empirische Studie über die Zusammenhänge der österreichischen Frauenbewegung und der Friedensbewegung mit besonderer Berücksichtigung des Zeitraumes seit 1960, in: Manfried Rauchensteiner (Hrsg.): Überlegungen zum Frieden, Wien 1987, 419

„We are deeply shocked ...“: Marianne Hainisch, Die Friedensbestrebungen und die Frauen, in: Der Bund, (1914), 9/8, 11, quoted from: Zimmermann, Susan: Die österreichische Frauen-Friedensbewegung vor und im Ersten Weltkrieg, in: Forum Alternativ (Hrsg.): Widerstand gegen Krieg und Militarismus in Österreich und Anderswo, Wien 1982, 89

Contents related to this chapter

Aspects

  • Aspect

    Discontent

    The longer the war lasted, the more disagreement was voiced by representatives of the Austrian peace and women’s movements and also by sections of the Austro‑Hungarian population. They became increasingly tired of the war, reflected in strikes and hunger riots and in mass desertions by front soldiers towards the end of the war.

Persons, Objects & Events

  • Object

    Mobilisation of the civilian population

    During the "Gold for Iron” campaign, gold rings or jewellery donated to finance the war were exchanged for iron rings. The civilian population was called upon to play an active role in welfare and aid associations and to offer its services for the fatherland. Women and children collected clothes and blankets for the army and hospitals, and materials like wastepaper and iron for recycling. They knitted and sewed, and these "Liebesgaben” or charitable gifts were sent to the front to provide emotional encouragement to the troops.

     

  • Person

    Bertha von Suttner

    Bertha von Suttner, the first woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize (1905), remains the most well-known figure in the Austrian peace movement. She published the successful novel Lay Down Your Arms and was president of the Austrian Peace Society until her death.

  • Object

    For peace

    The face on the 1000-schilling note is Bertha von Suttner, probably the most famous representative of the Austrian peace movement. During the First World War there were lots of people and groups who followed her example and protested against the war and in favour of peace. Although they had little influence, their advocacy of peace was particularly courageous in view of the prevailing and controlling censorship.

Developments

  • Development

    Gender roles: change/no change?

    It is a widely held view that the First World War revolutionised the traditional roles of men and women in society. Photos of tram conductresses, female coach drivers and postwomen would appear to confirm this, as does the assumption by women of the traditional male role as providers for the family. But did things change that much, and what was left of the supposed changes after 1918?