Emma Horion

Emma Horion (born Emma Abeck: 8 September 1889 - 26 May 1982) was a German representative of Catholic Women's Welfare in the Christian Women's Movement. She dedicated her life to the German Catholic Women's Association, focusing her activities on mothers' recuperation and convalescence ("Müttererholung").

Life Emma Abeck was born in Cologne. Dr. Friedrich Abeck, her father, was a senior schools official ("Oberschulrat") locally. Her early training was as a teacher in middle and senior girls' schools. After qualifying in 1909 she took a job with a Düsseldorf's girls' middle school ("Städtischen Mädchen-Mittelschule an der Oststraße"). In 1930 the Catholic Working association for mother's welfare ("Katholische Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Müttergenesung") was founded in the archdiocese of Cologne, shortly after which Horion created the "National Working Association for Mothers' Convalescence" ("Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft für Müttererholung"). The Cologne-based organisation had two objectives, as Wilhelmine Schumacher-Köhl, the first chair of the German Catholic Women's Association explained: "Official subsidies to support curative activities that hitherto had been self funded" and the development of mother's cure programmes which matched bodily healing with spiritual enrichment and relaxation". Therefore, "spiritually reliable experienced women with appropriate backgrounds and training, dedicated themselves as mentors and guides for those undergoing recuperative care ...".

Régime change arrived at the start of 1933. Under the Nazis KDFB and "Müttererholung" activities were severely curtailed. Horion vigorously opposed Nazi race policies and several times found herself in conflict with the Gestapo, remaining true to her Christian principles. She was detained for a time in the early 1940s because, it was said, of support she had given to Catholic priests. The authorities forced her to counter-sign the official ban on the KDFB (Catholic women's association) Catholic women's association.

During the early postwar period Emma Horion joined the board of trustees for the "Müttergenesungswerk", a charitable organisation founded in 1950 by Elly Heuss-Knapp (1881-1952), and dedicated to interests and well-being of mothers, "through measures of prevention and rehabilitation". Horion worked for many years as a volunteer for the organisation. She is also celebrated through the naming of a small street as "Emma-Horion-Weg" in the city's central Old town (Altstadt) quarter.

Emma Horion died in Düsseldorf on 26 May 1982.