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[100] Municipality of Hirsau - Municipal Councilors

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Municipality of Hirsau – Female councilors

After World War I, it was high time that women, who made up 50% of the population, were no longer excluded from the right to vote or be elected in Germany. Since democracy was taken seriously, discrimination against a particular gender was no longer acceptable...

Hirsau Town Hall

In 1808, King Frederick issued an order “that nothing should be demolished or altered from the beautiful ruins of Hirschau Monastery...” In 1820, a mayor and a municipal council were elected for the first time. The “monastery residents” became citizens. In 1830, a contract was signed between the state finance administration and the mayor, the citizens´ committee, and the municipal councilors, transferring a number of properties, including the old dairy farm (see picture, later town hall), plus 91 acres of forest and 171 acres of fields, meadows, and gardens. This finally made Hirsau an independent municipality within the district of Calw.

Women´s suffrage – first female municipal councilor in Hirsau

At the end of World War I in 1918, the Council of People´s Representatives issued a statement concluding: “All elections to public bodies shall henceforth be conducted according to the same secret, direct, universal suffrage based on the proportional electoral system for all male and female persons at least 20 years of age.” This meant that from 1919 onwards, women throughout Germany were able to vote or be elected for the first time. 80% exercised their right to vote.Constituent National Assembly, 300 stood for election and won 37 of 423 seats. In 1919, 66-year-old widow Antonie Stälin ran for the municipal council on the Civic Party ticket and was elected on the first ballot with 71.5% of the votes cast. In her guesthouse, she catered to a circle of music lovers and was awarded the Charlotten Cross for her services during the war. When she moved to Calw, an obituary appeared in Hirsau: “It is a memorable event and a sign of the esteem in which Mrs. Stälin was held here that, as soon as the law allowed, she was elected to the municipal council and is destined for all time to lead the circle of possible successors...”

Other female municipal councilors

After 1933, women were barred from being appointed to the municipal council. The German Municipal Code enacted by the National Socialists stipulated that women could not be appointed as mayors or deputy mayors either. It was not until 1948 that a woman was elected to the municipal council again. Katharina Burg ran on the Hirsau-Ernstmühl unity list and achieved the best position on the list. This made her the first female municipal councilor after World War II. From 1975 onwards, local council elections were held for the large district town of Calw, as Hirsau, Altburg, Stammheim, and Holzbronn now belonged to Calw as a result of local government reform. Helene Greiner (1916-1981) and Rosemarie Pfrommer (1937-1987) made it onto the Hirsau local council.They were joined by social worker Hildegund Ederer and Berta Soulier, who was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit on Ribbon for her voluntary work. After the proportion of women in subsequent elections grew steadily, there was a dramatic decline in 2024.