Postage stamps: Women of German History - Germany / Federal Republic of Germany 1986 - 50 Pfennig

With »Women of German History« the Deutsche Bundespost replaces the series »Industry and Technology« begun in 1975/76. The new series is intended to help raise awareness of women's achievements in society. The postage stamps appear at the same time and the same motif as the inscription "Deutsche Bundespost Berlin". Christine Teusch was born on October 11, 1888 in Cologne-Ehrenfeld. After the exam as a secondary school teacher, she taught from 1910 to 1913 in Neuss and put 1913, now in the teaching service of the city of Cologne, from the Rector's examination. In addition to her professional activities, she took over the supervision of 50,000 munitions workers at the 7th Army Corps in Essen in 1917. She experienced many emergency situations of working women and girls and struggled to improve their economic situation. At the beginning of 1918, Christine Teusch became the first "women's secretary" of the Christian Union of Trade Unions and took over the management of a newly-founded women's department. With the introduction of women's suffrage in November 1918, she won in 1919 as a member of the Center Party a mandate for the Weimar National Assembly. In June 1920, she was elected as a center deputy to the Reichstag. With the release of the Center Party and the last elected Reichstag, Christine Teusch lost her mandate. She worked again in the school service and in the Catholic Girl Protection Association, which she led - with interruption in the National Socialist period - from 1923 to 1965. Christine Teusch suffered a lot from the dictatorship. She did not hesitate to take a stand against the attacks of the state and the party. Interrogations and house searches were the result. Because of her straightforwardness and fearlessness, she was in the way of the regime and in constant danger of being arrested by the Gestapo. The invasion of the Americans saved them from murder. Immediately after the end of the war - brought back to Cologne by Lord Mayor Konrad Adenauer - her political activities began again in the newly founded CDU. As a member of the first Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia, Prime Minister Karl Arnold appointed Christine Teusch in 1947 as "Minister of Culture" for North Rhine-Westphalia. So she became the first woman in a ministerial office in Germany. Many honors were given to her. Christine Teusch died on 24 October 1968 after a serious illness.