Hedwig Richter: The brutality of modernity in the German Empire

Hedwig Richter, born 1973, has been Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at the University of the Federal Armed Forces in Munich since 2019.

Her book “Democracy.

A German Affair ”, next week the essay“ Departure into Modernity ”will follow.

It is about the surprising reform energy of the German Empire.

A conversation about inclusion through capitalism, women as the engine of the welfare state and the question of how a historian uses Twitter.

WORLD:

What did the empire bring women?

Judge:

The women didn't achieve much. About the right to vote. Women were largely left with inferior rights. But the horizon widened and equality slowly became conceivable. Women of all classes and countries organized themselves. This led to concrete improvements in the late German Empire: women's education was expanded. In Baden women were given access to studies from 1900, in Prussia from 1908.