Marie-Elisabeth Lüders was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 politician and one of the most important figures in the German women's rights

Women's rights

Women's rights are entitlements and freedoms claimed for women and girls of all ages in many societies.In some places these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behaviour, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed...

 movement.

Lüders was born in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 as the descendant of the 18th century agricultural reformer Philipp Ernst Lüders. Her father was a senior Prussian

Kingdom of Prussia

The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...

 civil servant.

Lüders was the first woman in Germany to attain a doctorate (in 1912, at the University of Berlin, which today is known as Humboldt University). In 1909, during her studies, she founded a lobbying group in Berlin to promote equal educational opportunities for women.

In 1917, she assumed the leadership of the newly established Frauenarbeitszentrale (′Women’s Central Work Office‵) and the Frauenreferat (‵Women’s Department′) within the German War Office. She filled other leadership positions within these organizations with outstanding representatives from the German women's movement in order to include as many women as possible in the German war economy. In her leadership position she worked to improve women's working conditions and to provide childcare for women workers' families.

In 1919, she took up deceased politician Friedrich Naumann's parliamentary seat in the Weimar

Weimar Republic

The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...

 National Assembly, and later became a member of the Reichstag

Reichstag (Weimar Republic)

The Reichstag was the parliament of Weimar Republic .German constitution commentators consider only the Reichstag and now the Bundestag the German parliament. Another organ deals with legislation too: in 1867-1918 the Bundesrat, in 1919–1933 the Reichsrat and from 1949 on the Bundesrat...

 (1920-21 and 1924-30), where she fought for women's, workers', and children's rights.

Her lobbying group and writings, however, were more-less banned in 1933 by the Nazis, who then proceeded to jail her in 1937 for her outspokenness. She was released after four months, due to international outcry from women's rights groups and diplomats alike.

After the war, Lüders joined the Bundestag

Bundestag

The Bundestag is a federal legislative body in Germany. In practice Germany is governed by a bicameral legislature, of which the Bundestag serves as the lower house and the Bundesrat the upper house. The Bundestag is established by the German Basic Law of 1949, as the successor to the earlier...

 (1953-61). She was named Alterspräsidentin during the 1953-57 session. In German-speaking countries, the oldest member of a parliament is offered the title of "honorary president", which basically entitles him or her to lead the parliament until an official president is elected. Though there are no set rules as to an Alterspräsident’s role, tradition dictates that the said person give the first speech of the legislative period. Lüders was, in fact, the second-oldest member of parliament (Konrad Adenauer

Konrad Adenauer

Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer was a German statesman. He was the chancellor of the West Germany from 1949 to 1963. He is widely recognised as a person who led his country from the ruins of World War II to a powerful and prosperous nation that had forged close relations with old enemies France,...

 was the oldest, but he turned down the offer to be Alterspräsident).

During her time in parliament, Lüders worked on women's rights issues, and is responsible for the so-called "Lex Lüders", which addressed what rights a foreigner married to a German citizen should be granted.

She was unmarried, but had a son in 1922, which was considered scandalous at the time.

She resigned from parliament in 1961 and died five years later on 23 March 1966 in West Berlin

West Berlin

West Berlin was a political exclave that existed between 1949 and 1990. It comprised the western regions of Berlin, which were bordered by East Berlin and parts of East Germany. West Berlin consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors, which had been established in 1945...

.