Hildegard Moniac
Hildegard Moniac | |
|---|---|
| Born | 29 March 1891 Friedenau, Tempelhof-Schöneberg, Berlin, German Empire |
| Died | 3 August 1967 (aged 76) Rüdersdorf, Brandenburg, Germany |
| Education | Lette-Verein |
Political party | Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany |
| Partner | Johanna Elberskirchen (d. 1943) |
Hildegard Helene Friederike Moniac (29 March 1891 – 3 August 1967) was a German educator and political activist.
Biography
Moniac was born on 29 March 1891 in Friedenau, Tempelhof-Schöneberg, Berlin.[1] She was raised in Berlin and graduated from the Lette-Verein as a vocational school teacher for tailoring and millinery in 1911.[2]
From 1913 to 1933, Moniac worked as a vocational high school teacher in Spremberg.[2] From 1920, Moniac lived with her partner Johanna Elberskirchen (1864–1943) and Elberskirchen's two sisters.[3] The couple had met in 1914.[4]
Moniac was a member of the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) and she may also have been a member of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in the late 1920s.[2][5] She was an active political activist.[2] In 1933, Moniac was forcibly dismissed from her teaching position under Section 4 of the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service (BBG, German: Gesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums, shortened to Berufsbeamtengesetz), which had been established by the incoming Nazi regime, as a "politically unreliable person."[1][2][6]
After her dismissal from teaching, Moniac supported her partner Elberskirchen in running a homeopathic practice in Rüdersdorf, Brandenburg.[1][6][7] In Rüdersdof, it was known that the women were lesbian opponents of the Nazis.[8] Elberskirchen was also a feminist writer who published books on women's sexuality and health.[3][9] Elberskirchen died on 17 May 1943 and Moniac was subsequently involved in an inheritance dispute with Elberskirchen's family.[2][3]
At the end of World War II, the Soviet Red Army occupied the elementary school Alt-Rüdersdorf. The school reopened on 15 October 1945 with Moniac as director. In 1951 she was transferred to another school following protests from parents about her politics (and possibly also her sexuality). She retired in 1954.[1]
Moniac lived with her partner Luitgarde Kettner (1914–1977), who also taught at Alt-Rüdersdorf, until her death. She died on 3 August 1967, aged 76, and was buried at Friedhof Rudolf-Breitscheid-Straße cemetery in Rüdersdorf [de].[1][7] Her property was inherited by Kettner.[10]
In 1975, Johanna Elberkirchen's urn was secretly reinterred at Moniac's burial site by friends and the grave was planted with forget-me-nots and violets.[8][11] On 5 November 2002, the municipal council of Rüdersdorf placed the grave of Moniac and Elberkirchen under protection and a commemorative monument was unveiled in 2003.[8][12]
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 "Hildegard Moniac". queerplaces. Archived from the original on 16 June 2025. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Persönlichkeiten in Berlin 1825 – 2006: Erinnerungen an Lesben, Schwule, Bisexuelle, trans- und intergeschlechtliche Menschen (PDF) (in German). Öffentlichkeitsarbeit des Landes Berlin. 2015. pp. 48–49. ISBN 978-3-9816391-3-1.
- 1 2 3 "FMT – Johanna Elberskirchen, Homosexuellen-Aktivistin". FMT (in German). 18 April 2018. Archived from the original on 15 December 2025. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
- ↑ "Rüdersdorfer Persönlichkeiten". Rüdersdorfer Heimatfreunde e.V. (in German). Retrieved 2 June 2026.
- ↑ Leng, Kirsten (15 February 2018). Sexual Politics and Feminist Science: Women Sexologists in Germany, 1900–1933. Cornell University Press. p. 322. ISBN 978-1-5017-1324-8.
- 1 2 "SEHEPUNKTE - Rezension von: Keine Tochter aus gutem Hause - Nr. 4". www.sehepunkte.de (in German). 9 August 2009. Archived from the original on 23 April 2025. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
- 1 2 "Rüdersdorf bei Berlin - Stationen in Rüdersdorf". Ruedersdorf.de (in German). Archived from the original on 11 May 2017. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
- 1 2 3 Schwab, Waltraud (23 August 2003). "Von Urnen und Frontfrauen". taz.de (in German). Retrieved 2 June 2026.
- ↑ Martin, James I. (11 April 2025). Sexual and Gender Minority History: A Counter-Narrative. Oxford University Press. p. 18. ISBN 978-0-19-776549-4.
- ↑ Forum Homosexualität und Literatur (in German). Vol. 38–39. Forschungsschwerpunkt Homosexualität und Literatur im Fachbereich Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaften an der Universität-GH Siegen. 2001. p. 105.
- ↑ "Hildegard Moniac". frauenfiguren (in German). Archived from the original on 26 February 2021. Retrieved 2 June 2026.
- ↑ "Johanna Elberskirchen und Hildegard Moniac". Magnus-Hirschfeld-Gesellschaft e.V. Forschungsstelle zur Geschichte der Sexualwissenschaft (in German). Archived from the original on 18 January 2025. Retrieved 2 June 2026.