Elisabeth Selbert – Verfassungsblog – Cyber Tech

Dr. Elisabeth Selbert, who took her A ranges in self-study and accomplished her legislation diploma in six semesters, did her doctorate – forward of her time – on the precept of irretrievable breakdown of marriage. As a member of the Parliamentary Council, she was one of many 4 ‘moms’ of the German Structure. The inclusion of ‘Women and men shall have equal rights’ in Artwork. 3 (2) of the Fundamental Legislation (‘Grundgesetz’) is her advantage. On the event of the seventy fifth anniversary of the ‘Grundgesetz’, this contribution goals to painting her life, achievements and impression in a brief profile.¹⁾

Early Years and Coming into Contact with the World of Politics

Elisabeth Selbert, née Martha Elisabeth Rohde, was born in Kassel on 22 September 1896 and grew up as certainly one of 4 sisters in a petit bourgeois and religious household.²⁾ As a result of her household’s monetary constraints, younger Elisabeth Rohde was not in a position to attend highschool, which is why she joined the Commerce and Commerce College of the Girls’s Schooling Affiliation in Kassel. Her dream of turning into a trainer failed additionally on account of inadequate monetary means to pay faculty charges for the mandatory highschool schooling. After shedding her first job as a overseas correspondent of an import-export firm following the outbreak of the First World Battle in 1914, she labored as a postal clerk trainee within the telegraph service of the ‘Reichspost’, the German Empire Put up Workplace, a place she was given due to the war-related scarcity of male employees.³⁾

On the time of the November Revolution resulting in the proclamation of the Weimar Republic in 1918, she met Adam Selbert, her future husband, on the job. The expert guide printer Adam Selbert was the chairman of an area employees and troopers’ council in Niederzwehren, a municipality within the district of Kassel, and launched her to the world of politics.⁴⁾Later that yr,⁵⁾ she joined the German Social Democratic Get together (‘SPD’) as an lively member. Inside a short while, in 1919, she efficiently gained a seat within the Niederzwehren municipal council. Within the early days of the Weimar Republic, when ladies had been allowed to vote for the primary time in accord with Article 22 (1) of the Weimar Structure, she expressed her views in speeches and contributions on the obligation of ladies to be told and politically engaged. Equal rights for ladies and men had been a matter of nice concern to her. On the Girls’s Convention of the Social Democratic Get together in Kassel in 1920, she sharply criticized ‘that though now we have equal rights for our ladies right this moment, these equal rights are nonetheless purely paper ones.’⁶⁾ She subsequently demanded: ‘We should now work to make sure that equality is applied in apply to the final consequence.’⁷⁾

{Photograph} of Elisabeth Selbert (extracted and cropped) through Wikimedia – Hans Weingartz (6 March 2012) < accessed 7 Could 2024.

Curiosity and Want for Data: Legislation Research and Doctorate in Legislation

After getting married in 1920 and having two youngsters (in 1921 and 1922), Elisabeth Selbert continued her work as telegraph service official. She additionally remained lively in politics however felt that she lacked theoretical data crucial for her engagement, e.g., in finance and tax legislation.⁸⁾ She realized that ‘work in political affairs required sure {qualifications}.’⁹⁾ Having the help of her husband and each their households, she began getting ready for her A ranges (‘Abitur’) in self-study whereas her husband and grandparents had been taking good care of the youngsters. In 1926, she obtained her ‘Abitur’ as the primary feminine exterior pupil in Kassel. In the identical yr, Elisabeth Selbert started learning legislation, initially as the one feminine pupil on the College of Marburg, earlier than transferring to the College of Göttingen, the place she graduated after solely six semesters in 1929. Through the seventh semester, she did her PhD and earned her doctorate in legislation with a thesis on ‘Marital breakdown as grounds for divorce’ (‘Ehezerrüttung als Scheidungsgrund’) in 1930.¹⁰⁾ In her work, she criticised the precept of fault (‘Schuldprinzip’) that just about disadvantaged ladies of their rights together with alimony and provision for outdated age in divorce. Forward of her time,¹¹⁾ she argued for the applying of the precept of irretrievable breakdown of marriage (‘Zerrüttungsprinzip’).¹²⁾ Nonetheless, her proposals weren’t taken up and applied, it took till the wedding and household legislation reform underneath the social democratic-liberal coalition entered into drive in 1977 that lastly abolished the precept of fault.

As a result of his social gathering affiliation, Adam Selbert was discharged as deputy mayor of Niederzwehren initially of the Nationwide Socialist rule in 1933 and briefly detained.¹³⁾ From then on, the household repairs rested completely on Elisabeth’s shoulders. In 1934, after taking her second state examination and with the help of two senior judges of the Larger Regional Courtroom, Elisabeth Selbert was admitted to the bar.¹⁴⁾ This was a unprecedented success, as her admission passed off in opposition to the need of the Nationwide Socialist President of the Larger Regional Courtroom, the vote of the Bar Affiliation and the choice of the Gauleiter. She then took over a Jewish legislation agency, whose earlier house owners had been compelled to to migrate, and started her work as a lawyer. Nonetheless, her legislation agency was destroyed throughout the Second World Battle wherefore the household was compelled to maneuver to Melsungen in 1944.¹⁵⁾

After the conflict, Elisabeth Selbert was in a position to resume her career as a lawyer in addition to her political dedication and labored additionally as a counsel earlier than the army tribunal. As a result of her skilled abilities, she was commissioned by the American army authorities to assist rebuild the administration in Kassel.¹⁶⁾In 1946, she grew to become member of the town council in Kassel and served as a deputy to the constitutional advisory state meeting of Larger Hesse (‘Groß-Hessen’). On this context, Elisabeth Selbert campaigned inter alia for equal pay for ladies and men, however failed along with her request.¹⁷⁾ The Hessian Structure of 1 December 1946, adopted by the Bavarian Structure of 8 December 1946, was the primary structure of a German state (‘Bundesland’) after the enforced conformity in 1933 and is the oldest state structure in drive in Germany right this moment. In opposition to some resistance, however with the help of Kurt Schumacher, the social gathering chief of the Social Democratic Get together on the time, Elisabeth Selbert was lastly appointed to the Parliamentary Council that was tasked with drafting the brand new Fundamental Legislation (‘Grundgesetz’) for the Federal Republic of Germany in 1948.¹⁸⁾ She was certainly one of solely 4 ladies alongside Friederike ‘Frieda’ Nadig (Social Democratic Get together), Helene Weber (Christian Democratic Union) and Helene Wessel (Centre) amongst 65 voting and 70 total members.¹⁹⁾

Elisabeth Selbert’s Triumph within the Parliamentary Council: The ‘Most interesting Hour’ of Her Life

At first, Elisabeth Selbert’s main focus was on the chapter of the judicature, whereas the ladies’s subject was not on her record of priorities, partly as a result of she assumed that conventional function patterns had lastly been overcome:

‘After two world wars, that’s, after the experiences we ladies had in these many years, I had taken it without any consideration that equality would undergo the political stage with no struggle. A mistake, because it ought to prove.’²⁰⁾

Nonetheless, when she realised that the unique draft wording for Article 3 of the Fundamental Legislation, similar in wording to Article 109 of the Weimar Structure, didn’t embrace the equal rights of ladies in relation to males, her mission started.²¹⁾She fought in opposition to different wordings which might have legalised arbitrariness and gender discrimination on the premise of supposedly pure variations akin to ‘The identical have to be handled equally, the unequal will be handled unequally’.²²⁾In distinction, Elisabeth Selbert advocated for gender equality understood as an ‘crucial mandate to the legislator’ and subsequently proposed the inclusion of a constitutional precept that reads as follows: ‘Women and men shall have equal rights’ (‘Männer und Frauen sind gleichberechtigt’).²³⁾ She later defined: ‘Solely Article 3 (2) of the Fundamental Legislation that had revolutionary character in essentially the most profound sense would assure equal rights for girls within the Federal Republic of Germany in all fields.’²⁴⁾ Notably, Elisabeth Selbert’s proposal would require a revision of the German Civil Code (‘Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch’), particularly with regard to marriage and household legislation provisions.²⁵⁾ This was one of many the reason why the proposal was met with nearly unanimous rejection, additionally within the circles of her personal social gathering and even by the opposite three feminine delegates of the Parliamentary Council. In first studying her wording was rejected.²⁶⁾

Nonetheless, Elisabeth Selbert refused to surrender and continued to pursue her objective undeterred by launching a high-profile marketing campaign for the inclusion of her draft wording of Article 3 (2) of the Fundamental Legislation, involving ladies’s associations, feminine commerce unionists and politicians.²⁷⁾ She remembered: ‘I didn’t suppose that in 1948/49 equality would even have to be mentioned and appreciable refusal must be overcome! However with the help of ladies’s associations, I succeeded ultimately. It was a tricky struggle because the protocols of the Parliamentary Council show.’²⁸⁾ Elisabeth Selbert remembers that the Parliamentary Council acquired ‘basketfuls’ (‘Körbeweise!’) of protest letters on account of her marketing campaign.²⁹⁾ Lastly, on 18 January 1949, Article 3 (2) of the Fundamental Legislation was adopted in second studying with none opposition to the wording Elisabeth Selbert had proposed.³⁰⁾ Looking back to this second, she acknowledged:

‘I had a wisp of energy in my hand and made full use of it, in all of the depth, in all of the breadth that was rhetorically accessible to me. It was the best hour of my life when the equality of the girl got here to be accepted.’³¹⁾

4 months later and now already 75 years in the past, the ‘Grundgesetz’ was adopted on 8 Could 1949 and entered into drive on 23 Could 1949.³²⁾ In 1994, an modification to Article 3 (2) of the Fundamental Legislation was adopted and entered into drive on 15 November 1994, a second sentence that enhances Elisabeth Selbert’s wording and reads: ‘The state shall promote the precise implementation of equal rights for ladies and men and take steps to get rid of disadvantages that now exist.’³³⁾ As a memento of Elisabeth Selbert’s powerful struggle for girls’s equality earlier than the legislation in 1948/49, giant baskets of petitions had been handed over to the joint constitutional committee’s chairmen.³⁴⁾

Withdrawal from Political Dedication and Work as Lawyer up Till Previous Age

After the historic success in 1949, it grew to become pretty quiet round Elisabeth Selbert. She narrowly missed a seat within the German federal parliament (‘Bundestag’) within the 1949 election. In 1956, she was awarded the Order of Advantage of the Federal Republic of Germany honouring her work within the Parliamentary Council. Two years later, in 1958, she failed in her bid to be nominated as the primary feminine choose of the Federal Constitutional Courtroom presumably since she was ‘politically too high-profile’ on account of her stance on the function of judges in democracy within the Parliamentary Council.³⁵⁾ Till that yr, she remained a member of the Hessian State Parliament (‘Hessischer Landtag’) however then turned her again on politics and was nearly forgotten at first. She resumed her work as an legal professional in Kassel and ran her personal legislation agency specialised in household legislation up till outdated age. Lastly, in 1978, she was awarded the Wilhelm Leuschner medal of the State of Hesse (‘Land Hessen’) for her companies, a ‘subsequent recognition that happy [her] slightly, however [she] didn’t await it.’³⁶⁾ She was granted honorary citizenship (‘Ehrenbürgerrecht’) of her hometown Kassel on 23 Could 1984, precisely 35 years after the ‘Grundgesetz’ entered into drive. Elisabeth Selbert died in her hometown on 9 June 1986, only some months earlier than her ninetieth birthday.

Literary References and Additional Readings:

• Barbara Böttger, Das Recht auf Gleichheit und Differenz: Elisabeth Selbert und der Kampf der Frauen um Artwork. 3.2 Grundgesetz (Verlag Westfälisches Dampfboot 1990).
• Birgit Meyer,‘Elisabeth Selbert (1896-1986): Gleichberechtigung ohne Wenn und Aber‘ in Kritische Justiz (ed.), Streitbare Juristen: Eine andere Custom (Nomos 1988).
• Archiv der deutschen Frauenbewegung (ed.), Den Frauen ihr Recht – Zum 100. Geburtstag von Elisabeth Selbert (Ariadne No. 30, 1996).
• Carmen Sitter, Die Rolle der vier Frauen im Parlamentarischen Rat – Die vergessenen Mütter des Grundgesetzes (Lit 1997).
• Heike Mundzeck, ‘Elisabeth Selbert‘ in Deutscher Juristinnenbund e.V. (ed.), Juristinnen in Deutschland: Die Zeit von 1900 bis 1998 (Nomos 1998).
• Heike Drummer and Jutta Zwilling, ‘Elisabeth Selbert – Eine Biographie‘ in Die Hessische Landesregierung (ed.), ‘Ein Glücksfall für die Demokratie‘ Elisabeth Selbert (1896-1986) – Die große Anwältin der Gleichberechtigung (Eichborn 1999).
• Elke Barthel, ‘Dr. Elisabeth Selbert‘ in Sabine Köttelwesch, Elke Böker and Petra Mesic (eds.), 11 Frauen, 11 Jahrhunderte (Prolibris 2013).
• Sven Trösch and Regina Haunhorst, ‘Biografie Elisabeth Selbert‘ (LeMO-Biografien, Stiftung Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, 22 February 2016) < accessed 3 Could 2024.
• Antje Dertinger, Ein ermutigendes Frauenleben: Elisabeth Selbert (Hessische Landeszentrale für politische Bildung – Blickpunkt Hessen No. 23, 2017)
• Michaela Boettcher, ‘Elisabeth Selbert – die Frau, die die Gleichberechtigung festschrieb‘ (CampusPost Göttingen Campus, 22 September 2020) < accessed 3 Could 2024.
• Sebastian Janovsky, ‘125 Jahre Dr. Elisabeth Selbert‘ (SPD Hessen-Nord, 16 September 2021) < accessed 3 Could 2024.
• Cornelia Wenzel and Dr. Kerstin Wolff, ‘Dr. Elisabeth Selbert‘ (Digitales Deutsches Frauenarchiv, 22 September 2022) < accessed 3 Could 2024.

Additional Sources:

• Film ‘Sternstunde ihres Lebens’ (2014).
• Podcast ‘Elisabeth Selbert – Die Mutter des Grundgesetzes‘ (HerStory, 8 June 2020) < accessed 3 Could 2024.