In the new Bundestag, women are also not represented as much as their share of the population, at 34.7 percent. A century ago it looked much worse. In the Weimar National Assembly only 37 out of 423 members were women. One of the representatives of the people was Johanna Tesch from the Riederwald in Frankfurt. The SPD comrade was not a star in the political sky of the Weimar Republic. During her time as a member of parliament from 1919 to 1925, she only gave one speech. What made Johanna Tesch the protagonist of the book “Der Deiwel should bring all politics” is the correspondence with her husband Richard from that time. The Institute for Urban History, the Frankfurt Association for Workers' History,the Gesellschaft für Frankfurter Geschichte and the granddaughter Sonja Tesch published it as a commented selection volume in the Heinrich Edition, whereby mainly letters referring to the politics of the time were included.

As a deputy, Johanna Tesch was an eyewitness to the dramatic events after the November Revolution of 1918 and the establishment of the republic with its democratic constitution, which not only granted women the right to vote for the first time, but also allowed them to stand for candidacy.

"Today was the ceremonial moment for the opening of the National Assembly," wrote Tesch on February 6, 1919 from the National Theater in Weimar, where the parliamentarians were meeting.

Friedrich Ebert, who later became President of the Reich, gave a speech that was often interrupted by heckling from the USPD (Independent Social Democrats) and the extreme right.

A historic househusband

“How are you doing and how are you going to finish cooking?” She asks at the end as a worried mother and wife. After all, in those days the essentials like food, clothes and energy were still scarce. However, the letter of February 6 also indicates that the division of roles in the Tesch household was revolutionary for the patriarchal conditions at the time: While Johanna Tesch was doing politics in Weimar and later in the Reichstag in Berlin, Richard was making the money as an employee of an SPD newspaper ran, throws the household and garden and takes care of the two sons.

From the subjective point of view of a politically engaged couple, the correspondence reflects the disputes and problems of a turbulent period of upheaval in which the young democracy was constantly threatened from left and right.

But everyday worries also come up in the letters: for example, the rationing of coal or the general lack of food, from which the working class in particular suffered.

Died of exhaustion in the concentration camp

“Terrible things happened here,” wrote Johann Tesch on January 13, 1920 to her “dear Richard”. In front of the Reichstag, around 100,000 people demonstrate against the new works council law, which, to the annoyance of the protesters, does not provide for employee participation. Soldiers appear, there are shootings with ten dead, as Tesch writes. She, the eyewitness, blames the demonstrators for insulting and pushing the soldiers. Today research knows that 42 people died and the security police opened fire for no reason. As I said, the Teschs write from their subjective experience. The new selection volume rightly does not leave everything as it is, but classifies what has been written in longer notes on the social and political background.

Incidentally, her political commitment cost Johanna Tesch her life.

After the failed assassination attempt on Hitler on July 20, 1944, thousands of opponents of the regime were arrested, including Johanna Tesch.

She was transferred to the Ravensbrück women's concentration camp on September 18, 1944.

There she died of exhaustion on March 13, 1945. Her farewell letter to her husband did not reach him until five months later.

Richard Tesch always carried it with him in his wallet until it was stolen from him.

Calls in the Frankfurt newspapers to the thief that he should at least return the letter were unsuccessful.