Famous Women

Katharina von Bora 1499-1552 was born into a noble family of Saxony.
At the age of 16 she became a nun.Because of the Reformation she
left the monastery in 1523.
As a former nun she could not return to her family.She had no money and got help from friends.
She lived for a while in the household of the painter Lucas Cranch the older.The stamp is designed after a painting by Cranach.She had a long lasting friendship with Cranach,who was a friend of Luther as well.
In 1525 she married Martin Luther.They had six children,born from
1526 to 1533.
She was a great help to Luther,handling the financial problems of the family and also with managing Luthers works.
After Luther´s death in 1546,she had to care for the family in
turbulent times.
She died as an result from an accident,when she had to flee from
some armed conflict.

stamp issued Jan.14th,1999

 

Lili Palmer 1914-1986 and Romy Schneider 1938-1982 were (film-)
actresses,who spend many years abroad.Palmer,because being jewish,
emigrated in 1933 to England and later to the US.In 1954 she returned
to Germany and was quite successful,moved later to Switzerland.

Schneider was very successful in her jounger years,but disliked her
very well payed parts in german "Kitsch-Films" and moved on to France.
Living together with Alain Delon,she soon became one of the leading
ladies of the french cinema.Alcohol,drugs and men are said to be
causally related to her early death.
Stamps issued Oct.12th,2000;from a set of 5;

 

Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962),US-film-actress
issued Oct.11th,2001; from a set of 5;

 

From the same set,issued Oct.11th,2001
upper: Greta Garbo (1905-1990),born as Greta Lovisa Gustafson in Stockholm."The Divine" made her last film in 1941 and lived rather
reclusive the rest of her life mainly in New York and Switzerland.
Since 1999 she is buried in Stockholm.

lower stamp: it was planned to picture Audrey Hephburn on this
value.However there was a copyright-dispute about the photo
shown on the stamp.The stamp,already printed,was not issued and
destroyed.But not completely.Three sheets of ten survived.
After some time stamps were discovered in kiloware by collectors.
Probably from use by officials,who were not aware of the status of
the stamps.One sheet had been sent as a present to a relative of
Hephburn in the US,who later sold it for big money.
One sheet is in a museum (as far as I know).
On the market the stamps became the most expensive german stamps
of modern times.I am not sure about the exact numbers,but I think
one of them fetched more than 150.000 Euros in an auction.
The never issued stamp was replaced by the one showing a film-roll.

 

100th anniversary of awarding the Peace Nobelpreis to Bertha von
Suttner. Issued Nov.3rd,2005.
See also post #18

 

Saskia van Uylenburgh 1612-1642 was born into a patrician Family
in Friesland.She married Rembrandt van Rijn in 1634 in Amsterdam.
They had four children.Only one of them,Titus 1641-1668,survived
early infancy.Saskia died in 1642,presumably from tuberculosis.
Rembrandt painted her as role-model in different costumes,but
never painted her as a portrait.
Stamp issued in commemoration of
Rembrandt´s 400th birth anniversary on July 13th,2006.
A nearly identical stamp was issued in the Netherlands.

 

Clara Josephine Zetkin (1857-1933),born as C.J.Eißner in Saxony,
was socialist/communist politician "of the first hour".
She was member of the Reichstag from 1920 til 1933,what she
opened as Alterspräsident (oldest member of parliament) in 1932.
In 1933 she emigrated to Moscow,her main place of residence from
1924-1929.
She played a big role in the "Internationale" the communist world movement.

She was a hardliner,critical,but nevertheless loyal to Stalin.
When she died in 1933,she was laid to rest at the Kremelin-Wall.
Stalin himself carried her urn.

stamps issued June 20th,1955 from a set of 7,
April 16th,1970 from a set of 5
July 5th,1957

 

Valentina Tereshkova,born in 1937 was the first woman (1963) in
space.Till today she is the only woman,who was on a space-solo-mission.
She had a career what probably was possible only in the Soviet Union
or similar countries.As a daughter of a war-widow she was a basic factory worker for nearly ten years,before she joined the soviet space
programm.Just one year later she performed her unique mission.
Later she rose through the ranks of the military and politics: she is a retired mayor general and became a member of the central comittee
of communist party.The collapse of the soviet union,did not end her
career,quite to the opposite.Still a member of the Duma (parliament),
she holds several functions and is a close supporter of president Putin.
Stamp issued in a set of 4 on Oct.17th,1963.

 

Arendsee,daughter of a printer became a member of the SPD
(Social Democratic Party of Germany) in 1906.She soon was in
charge of the women-affairs comittee of the party.When the
party split in 1917,she became a member of the USPD
(Independent SPD),what soon would become part of the KPD (Communist Party of Germany).
She became a member of the parliament of Prussia and later,
1924-30,member of the Reichstag in Berlin.
Because she was close to the right wing of the Communist party,
she was not nominated again in the 1930 elections.When the Nazis came to power,she was incarcerated a few months.Released,she emigrated to Moscow in 1934.
She worked there in different communist-lead organisations.
In 1945 she returned to Germany and was again in charge of women-
afairs in the communist SED.Excluded from the party-leadership in
1947,she became the head of the social security administration
of the GDR till her death in 1953.
The stamp was issued on Jan.14th,1975 to commemorate Arendsee´s
90th birth-anniversary.

 

A rather unusual stamp from a set of 3,issued on June 25th,
commemorating the "Women Congress of the GDR".
On the left there is a portrait of Jenny Marx after a painting
from 1835.
Born in 1814 as Johanna Bertha Julie Jenny von Westphalen into
a family of a high ranking prussian official,she grew up in Trier.
Herr grandfather,also a high ranking prussian official,had been
knighted.So she was of "young" nobility.
She grew up in a liberal protestant family.F.i. on her 18th birthday
her father gave her 100 Thaler as birthday-present,for a journey
of her choice,to Switzerland or France.(She went to Paris)
In 1836 she became engaded in secrecy to Karl Marx (1818-1883).
As Marx was jewish,they remained engaded for seven years,before
they married (after the death of her father) in 1843.
Because of Marx´"difficulties" with different governments (Prussia,
France and Belgium) they moved a lot in the following years,before
they found an secure exile in London in 1849.
The pair had seven children,of whoem three girls survived childhood.
Jenny was secretary and "manager" of Marx,but was also a prominent
member of the socialist/communist and women´s rights movement.

After her death from cancer in 1881,she was buried in "non-blessed"
ground in London,as she had insisted,because she was an atheist.
Finally reburied in 1954,she now joins her grave with Karl Marx
and some of her siblings.

 

Well,unless the bourgeoisie is willing to reform society and
give the proletariat equal rights and prosperity.If they don´t,
they will suffer.

 

Rosa Luxemburg (1871-1919) again (see post #34).
Issued June 20th,1955,from a set of 7.

 

Edith Baumann (1909-1973),born in Berlin was a socialist/communist politician in the field of women rights.
Aged 16 she joined the SAPD,a socialist youth organisation.She soon
rose through the ranks to become a leading member.In 1933 she was
arrested and remained in detention till 1936.
After the war,in 1945,she became a co-founder of the (socialist) FDJ
(Free German Youth),what was to replace the HJ (Hitler Youth).
She was vice-chairwoman of the FDJ,whose chairman was Erich Honecker.(who later should become leader of the GDR,1971)
In 1947 Baumann and Honecker married.However Honnecker
soon started an affair with his later wife Margot and when Margot
gave birth to a daughter,Bauman filed for divorce,assisted by
Walter Ulbricht.
Baumann remained in politics,- she was a member of the
Volkskammer,the parliamnet of the GDR -,till her death in 1973.
The stamp,honouring her 80th birth-anniversary,was issued on Jan.24th,1989.

 

100th birth anniversary of Hannah Arendt,issued Oct.5th,2006.
To the right there is a part of a manuscript of Arendt.
See post #11 !

 

Another stamp with a portrait of Clara Schumann (post #1).
This time taken from the 100 DM-bill of the last series.
stamp issued Aug.9th,2007;