Frieda Wunderlich: Feminist research and activism in Berlin

Abstract

In this article, we map the idiosyncratic social research career of Frieda Wunderlich during her years in Berlin (1884–1963). We recover elements of Wunderlich’s unique deployment of social data and her analyses that are emblematic of contributions she made and that have been previously overlooked. We highlight Wunderlich as she lived and worked alongside other women in Berlin who shaped discourse and practice on social protections during a unique moment in the Weimar era. As a scholar and practitioner, Wunderlich helped transform the significance of the relationship between economy and society by insisting on the primacy of humane labor conditions. Our research explores two elements of Wunderlich’s contributions in this context: (1) her efforts to integrate academic social research into public policy and (2) her participation in active, feminist spaces for new policy practices, politics and education. To analyze Wunderlich’s career in Berlin, we refer to three interrelated arenas where she made significant contributions: the German Association of Female Civil Servants of Welfare (1919–1933), the German Democratic Party (1925–1933), the German Academy for Women’s Social and Educational Work (1925–1933). In our exploration of Wunderlich’s scholarship and policy practice within these arenas, we situate her contributions alongside other women including Dorothea Hirschfeld, Hedwig Wachenheim, Cora Berliner, Gertrud Bäumer, Helene Lange, Marianne Weber, Hanna Meuter, Alice Salomon, and Hilde Lion. Recovering and bringing into conversation several figures, we find that theory and praxis concurrently informed Wunderlich’s career, as it did for many of the women around her.