Agnes Schmidt

Agnes Schmidt (14 October 1875 – 21 November 1952) was a German activist and politician (SPD, USPD, KPD) who served as a member of the of State of Thuringia (1920–1952).

Life Agnes Schmidt was born in Gotha, a town rich in history located a short distance to the west of Erfurt in south central Germany. By 1900 she is already recorded as a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). In 1914, after war broke out in July, the party leadership's implementation of what amounted to a parliamentary truce in respect of funding the war triggered widespread dismay among the party membership. As frontline slaughter and economic destitution at home mounted, Agnes Schmidt was among those who broke away from the mainstream party to form the Independent Social Democratic Party ("Unabhängige Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands" / USPD) in 1917. Within the party she was regarded as a left winger, and as fragmentation on the political left continued to develop in 1920 she, like many of her party comrades, became a member of the recently launched Communist Party (identified in some contemporary sources for the next year or so as the . For a time she was responsible for the Communist Party's policies on women's work in Thuringia. Agnes Schmidt immediately resigned her own party membership in support of Geithner. Agnes Schmidt immediately resigned her own party membership in support of Geithner. After 1927, Agnes Schmidt, aged 52, withdrew from politics.