Voting Station

Clara Zetkin

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Advocate

The Resume

    (July 5, 1857-June 20, 1933)
    Born in Wiederau, Germany
    Born Clara Josephine Eissner
    Advocated for equal opportunities and women's suffrage and education
    Editor of the women's newspaper Die Gleichheit (1891-1917)
    Secretary of the International Women’s Bureau (1907-1910)
    Established the first International Women's Day (March 19, 1911)
    Co-founded the Spartacus League, which was renamed the Communist Party of Germany (1915)
    Represented the Communist Party of Germany in the Reichstag (1920-1933)
    Member of the executive committee of the Communist International AKA Comintern (1921-1933)
    Awarded Order of the Red Banner (1927) and Order of Lenin (1932)
    Died in Arkhangelskoye, near Moscow

Why she might be annoying:

    She joined the German Social Democratic Party when it was illegal for women to join it at that time. (1878)
    Her affiliation with socialism and later communism put her at odds with her middle-class background, including her parents.
    She cut off her relations with her parents when they talked her out of her association with the radical Social Democratic Party of Germany.
    She had two sons with Ossip Zetkin and adopted his last name even though they weren't legally married in order to preserve her German citizenship.
    Her husband Georg Friedrich Zundel was eighteen years her junior.
    Even though she helped create International Women's Day, she believed that working class women's needs are best served by socialism, not feminism, which she considered the realm of upper- and middle-class women.
    She often organized strikes to further her cause.
    When many of her fellow socialists favored working within the system to achieve socialism, she continued to insist that revolution was the only viable means instead.
    She spent most of her time in the Soviet Union when she was representative of the German Communist Party in the Reichstag.

Why she might not be annoying:

    She was fluent in English, Italian, Russian, and French alongside her native German.
    She and Ossip lived in a near-constant state of poverty while in exile in Paris, even contracting tuberculosis.
    She eventually reconciled with her parents when they invited her and Ossip back to Germany upon hearing about their daughter's condition.
    She was arrested several times for her opposition to World War I, even being taken into 'protective custody'. (1916)
    She recognized (albeit silently) the worst aspects of Stalin's brutality.
    She spoke out against America's Jim Crow laws and the deeply flawed trial of the Scottsboro Boys.
    She went nearly blind during her old age.
    She made a speech denouncing the Nazi party during the Reichstag's last pre-Nazi session, when the Nazis had a majority in the Reichstag. (August 1932)
    Every major city in former East Germany had at least a street named after her, and her name could still be seen on maps depicting its former lands.
    Thanks to her efforts, women have a day that reminds them they are loved and respected, and their achievements honored.

Credit: Big Lenny


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 146 Votes: 65.07% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 11 Votes: 72.73% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 10 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 22 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 166 Votes: 66.87% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 109 Votes: 52.29% Annoying