Background
Agnes was the daughter of a coal miner from Bochum.
Agnes was the daughter of a coal miner from Bochum.
She moved to Düsseldorf in 1906. At the 1913 Jena congress of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Agnes belonged to the radical anti-militarist grouping, and supported Rosa Luxemburg"s call for general strike action. After the Social Democratic Party of Germany split, Agnes became a leading personality in the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD).
She was jailed in 1914, after having given an anti-war speech at an International Women"s Day meeting.
In her speech she had called on the women of Germany to organize resistance against the war. At the time of the outbreak of the November Revolution, Agnes and other left leaders from Düsseldorf were jailed.
Agnes belonged to the group that was freed as revolutionaries stormed the prison, and she immediately became a leading organizer of the revolution in Düsseldorf. She was put in charge of issues relating to food, health and welfare on behalf of the Düsseldorf council.
Agnes was elected to the Weimar National Assembly in the 1919 election as a candidate of the USPD from the Electoral District northern
22 (Düsseldorf-East). When the USPD split, Agnes sided with the rightwing tendency, that rejoined the Social Democratic Party of Germany. As a Social Democratic Party of Germany Reichstag member, Agnes represented a moderate leftist standpoint within the party. At the age of 68, Agnes was arrested by Gestapo.
A house-wife from Düsseldorf, Agnes was a leading figure in the Social Democratic Party of Germany (Social Democratic Party of Germany) and the socialist women"s movement in the city. As a socialist women"s activist, she founded a Domestic Workers" Association.
She was a member of parliament 1919-1933. She was a member of the Reichtag presidium from 1922 onwards. She was also a member of the Düsseldorf municipal council until 1928.
In 1945, she again became a member of the Düsseldorf municipal council.
She remained a member of the Women"s Commission of Social Democratic Party of Germany until her death.