Anna Klara Fischer

Anna Klara Fischer (born Anna Klara Schmelzkopf; 22 October 1887 – 24 March 1967) was a German political activist. The focus of her activism was on social policy in general and, more specifically, on the avoidance of drunkness and the impoverishment of wives and children that it caused. She also became actively engaged in various issues touching on women's rights.

Biography Provenance and early years Anna Klara Schmelzkopf was born in Braunschweig, one of seven siblings. Friedrich Heinrich Schmelzkopf, her father, worked as a school teacher while her mother, born Anna Brandt, ran the home. She attended and successfully graduated from an all-girls' secondary school and went on to work as a teacher of Anglistics and Biology, teaching at a state school in Braunschweig. She was able to combine an active part-time career as a journalist with her teaching work. In 1921 she became chair of the Bremen-headquartered "Deutsche Frauenbund für alkoholfreie Kultur" (loosely, "women's anti-alcoholism league") in succession to Ottilie Hoffmann,

Under National Socialism At the start of 1933 the Hitler government took power. This was followed by a rapid switch to one-party dictatorship. Fischer succeeded in negotiating the contradictions of those times. A deeply committed pacifist, openly horrified by the role played by government paramilitaries in enforcing the will of the party, she was able to prevent, the incorporation of the "Deutsche Frauenbund für alkoholfreie Kultur" into the "Nationalsozialistische Frauenschaft" ("National Socialist Women's League"), until 1943, despite coming under intense political pressure to do so earlier. There was also widespread hope placed in the new leader, who during the middle 1930s let it be known that, out of concern for his own health, he was moving towards a vegetarian diet. Hitler was also believed to drink alcohol, by the standards of the times, only very sparingly. It was possible to hope that the need for "healthy living" and the accompanying struggle against the drug alcohol, with all its destructive consequences for families, women, children and young people, would be reflected in government policy. Disappointingly, healthy living for the masses turned out not to be a government priority, however.

Post war She continued her work after 1945, overseeing the rebuilding the alcohol-free bars and restaurant destroyed by British and American bombing during the early 1940s, and then |further extending the network. Upon Fischer's suggestion, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union chose Bremen for their 1956 convention, she was elected a vice-president of the organisation. In November 1962 she attended the organisation's 22nd "World Women's Temperance Union" in New Delhi and was elected "first vice-president". Between 1951 and 1959 she served as president of the BFA in succession to Heineken.

Recognition During her final years Anna Klara Fischer became honorary president of the "Deutsche Frauenbund für alkoholfreie Kultur". She was a recipient of the silver and golden shields of honour from the "Deutscher Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband". Anna-Klara-Fischer-Straße in Bremen-Kattenturm was renamed in her honour