Adele Schreiber
Who was Adele Schreiber?
German politician, editor (1872-1957)
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on Adele Schreiber (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
Adele Georgina Schreiber-Krieger was born on April 29, 1872, in Vienna, Austria, and became a leading feminist politician and writer in the early twentieth century in the German-speaking world. She studied at the Humboldt University of Berlin and the London School of Economics and Political Science, where she developed her commitment to social reform, women's rights, and children's welfare. She married Richard Krieger and added his surname to hers, becoming known professionally as Schreiber-Krieger.
She gained public attention through journalism, editing, and writing on topics like motherhood, child welfare, and women's legal and political status. She strongly supported suffrage and improving social protections for mothers and children at a time when these causes were seen as radical in mainstream European politics. Her work combined teaching and activism, and she lectured and published extensively in Germany and beyond.
With women's suffrage granted in Germany in 1918 following the First World War, Schreiber entered politics. She was elected to the Reichstag as a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, serving eight years over multiple terms. In parliament, she continued to push for legislation supporting women, children, and families. She was part of a small group of women who influenced the legislative work of the Weimar Republic during its short life.
When the Nazis took power in January 1933, Schreiber, like many Jewish and left-wing intellectuals and politicians, saw the danger she faced. She fled Germany and eventually settled in the United Kingdom, where she continued her resistance activities and kept in touch with other exiled German-speaking intellectuals and politicians opposing the Nazi regime. Her years in exile showed her ongoing political commitments under difficult personal circumstances.
Later, Schreiber moved to Switzerland, where she died on February 18, 1957, in Herrliberg, at eighty-four. Her life covered the last years of the Habsburg Empire, two world wars, the rise and fall of the Weimar Republic, and the Nazi era, and she actively participated in public life throughout these times.
Before Fame
Adele Schreiber was born in Vienna in 1872. Back then, Vienna was the capital of the vast Habsburg Empire and a hub of cultural and intellectual activity. She grew up during a time when the European women's movement was on the rise, and although higher education for women was still a debated topic, it was becoming a real option for those with the means and drive to achieve it. Schreiber studied at top institutions in Berlin and London, placing her among a select group of women intellectuals ready to engage in public debates on equal terms with men.
In her early career, Schreiber focused on journalism and writing—areas where women were starting to be recognized as serious contributors to political and social discussions. She concentrated on issues like women's rights, child welfare, and social reform, publishing articles, pamphlets, and books that gained her respect in feminist and progressive circles in Germany and Austria. By the time women gained formal political rights in the Weimar Republic—a change she had long supported—Schreiber was already a well-known advocate. She used her platform to continue her activism and work on legislation.
Key Achievements
- Served eight years as a Social Democratic member of the Weimar Republic's Reichstag, advocating for women's and children's rights
- Pursued and completed higher education at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and the London School of Economics and Political Science
- Established herself as a prominent journalist, editor, and author on feminist and social reform issues before women held formal political rights in Germany
- Maintained active resistance to National Socialism following her exile from Germany in 1933
- Contributed to the legislative and intellectual foundations of women's political participation in Weimar Germany
Did You Know?
- 01.Schreiber hyphenated her surname with that of her husband Richard Krieger, using the combined name Schreiber-Krieger throughout her professional life, a practice that itself signaled her views on women's identity and independence.
- 02.She studied at both the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and the London School of Economics and Political Science, giving her an unusually international academic formation for a woman of her generation.
- 03.She served a total of eight years in the Weimar Republic's Reichstag under the Social Democratic Party, making her one of the longer-serving women parliamentarians of that republic.
- 04.After fleeing Nazi Germany in 1933, she spent years in the United Kingdom engaged in resistance work before eventually resettling in Switzerland in her final years.
- 05.She died in Herrliberg, a small municipality on the shore of Lake Zurich, far from both her native Vienna and the Germany where she had built her political career.