Feminism and Pacifism: Rosa Mayreder's Writings against War

During the First World War and in the years that followed, Rosa Mayreder (1858 - 1938) was a leading figure in the Austrian peace movement. Although her stance was more markedly feminist than that of Nobel Peace laureate Bertha von Suttner, she too was convinced that changes in the behaviour of both men and women would be needed in order to ensure that society developed in a more peaceable manner. Drawing on Mayreder's private and published writings, the article outlines her responses to the war, which she condemns from its outset. The main focus of her criticism is the failure of the intelligentsia, which is all the more hard-hitting because Mayreder, as a lifelong liberal, placed her faith in people as individuals.