‘Suffragettes’ in Germany: Translating Militancy

This chapter examines Schirmacher’s 160-page history of the suffragette movement (which was to remain the only German book on the subject for several decades), its contexts and receptions in the German-speaking countries and beyond. I begin by exploring Schirmacher’s first references to the British militants and briefly outline the events and political stances on which she reported. I then discuss her decision to write a favourable book on the suffragettes in the context of her personal situation as well as the various controversies she was involved in at the time. Examining Schirmacher’s account of the movement and the arguments she used to explain militant strategies to a German audience, I analyse the ways in which she used and rendered the material available to her and how she transformed their messages according to her agenda. The last two parts of the chapter give insights into the book’s considerable impact in various arenas, its contemporary reception, its translation into Polish, and its re-publications in the 1970s and 1980s.