Weimar celebrates women's suffrage: exhibition shows strong women from history!

Weimar celebrates women's suffrage: exhibition shows strong women from history!

On October 2, 2025, the traveling exhibition entitled “Only a Hundred Years – On the topicality of women’s suffrage and women’s politics” opens in the foyer of the University Library in Weimar. The exhibition runs until November 9th and aims to discover the history of women's suffrage and reflect on its significance for today. She focuses on the lives of women who were active in local politics after the introduction of women's suffrage in the Weimar Republic (1918/19). uni-weimar.de reports that the biographies of women who worked in local councils and city parliaments between 1919 and 1933 are the focus of the presentation.

The Weimar Republic existed from 1918 to 1933 and was characterized by political instability, economic crises and several changes of government. During this time, women's suffrage gained central importance. Historians point out that women's aspirations for emancipation and the image of the “new woman” were central themes of this era. During this time, women not only gained the right to vote, but also increasingly entered the workforce, partly due to the First World War. bpb.de highlights that women's political participation remained severely limited because their influence was often devalued.

Procedure and accompanying events

The traveling exhibition is the start of a four-part series that will also be on display in Jena, Rudolstadt and Suhl. It is presented by the International Heritage Center of the Bauhaus University Weimar in collaboration with Arbeit und Leben Thuringia and is supported by the Bauhaus University Weimar as part of the main topic “Strengthening Democracy”. Judy Slivi will provide a personal introduction to the exhibition concept, defining the framework of political education and gender equality.

A highlight of the opening event is the vernissage on October 24, 2025 at 5:30 p.m. in the lounge of the university library. On this occasion, Henriette Bertram, junior professor of gender engineering at the TU Braunschweig, will give a lecture on gender equality in urban areas. dhm.de adds that women's suffrage was exercised for the first time in Germany on January 19, 1919, with 37 women entering the National Assembly, making up almost 10 percent of the representatives.

The exhibition not only aims to present historical facts, but also to highlight the ongoing relevance of women's suffrage and women's politics in the present. It is important to take the experiences and struggles of women, who gained some political participation in the Weimar Republic, into account in the current discourse about equality and gender justice.