Edith Mendelssohn Bartholdy (born Speyer)
January 6, 1882 | Berlin – July 9, 1969 | Cologne
Founder & Networker, Politician, Art Dealer
Edith Louise Ida Speyer; daughter of the Berlin merchant Paul Speyer and his wife Rosa, née Stern. At age 19, she passed the teaching exam for girls’ secondary schools, taught until 1905, and married the banker Ludwig Mendelssohn Bartholdy – a grandson of the composer Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy – who was four years her senior. The marriage remained childless. In 1908, a trip around the world took Edith Mendelssohn Bartholdy and her husband to China, Japan, and North America. In 1910, her husband became a bank director in Leipzig. Both were deeply involved in Leipzig’s city life – they were active in several of the city’s art initiatives.
Edith’s “most urgent concern” was to enable women to have childcare while they worked. In 1912, she co-founded the Leipzig Daycare Association to establish Leipzig’s first daycare and infant care facilities; motherless orphans and children of single mothers were given priority admission. During World War I, Edith Mendelssohn Bartholdy, serving as an expert on maternal and infant care at the Leipzig War Office and the Berlin Women’s Labor Center, worked to expand the daycare system throughout Germany and founded the Committee for the Protection of Infants and Toddlers. In 1916, she became chairwoman of the Association for Maternal Protection. Her husband died in 1918.
As early as 1919, she was one of the first women to run for election to the Leipzig City Council; as a representative of the German Democratic Party, she served on the Constitutional Committee until 1927, working in the field of social welfare – specifically youth welfare – and on cultural issues. In 1930, the Leipzig GEDOK Local Chapter was founded with 350 members – Edith Mendelssohn Bartholdy became its chairwoman; later, she served as honorary chairwoman. After the Nazis seized power, Jewish people were deprived of all means of subsistence. The GEDOK complied with the “Aryan clause” in order to continue to exist. Edith emigrated to England in 1938, where she worked as a teacher for unaccompanied refugee children. In 1951, she returned to Germany.
Her motto: “I cannot live without work.” still held true for her. She oversaw the Westdeutscher Rundfunk radio series she had initiated on the topic: “Der Lebensabend” and published a collection under this title containing lectures and her own writings that remain relevant to this day.
She spent her final years in Cologne at the Riehler Heimstätten, where she died in 1969. Her grave is located at the Melaten Cemetery in Cologne.
NOTE: *) Due to the exhibition format, the biographical information above had to be abbreviated. Exhibition visitors have the opportunity to read an expanded version of the biographical information in the exhibition brochures provided. The entire, very extensive project includes additional biographies, expanded content, and research … is in progress – also online…