Gesine Becker

Gesine Becker (born Gesine Bolte: 16 April 1888 - 9 December 1968) was a left wing German activist and politician. During the 1920s she was a Communist member of the Bremen state parliament ("Bürgerschaft").

Life Gesine Bolte was born in Meinershausen (Osterholz), a suburb on the edge of the port city of Bremen. She was energetic in the debate on abortion rights, and campaigned against §218 of the constitution, in 1923 describing it in a speech as "discrimination against the female gender" ("Ausnahmebestimmung gegen das weibliche Geschlecht"). During the 1920s Gesine Becker was also a leading figure in the Bremen district Red Aid ("Rote Hilfe") political welfare organisation.

At the end of 1930 she relocated with her family to Berlin-Lichtenberg, probably in connection with her husband's work for the Communist Party. This appears to have put an end to her political prominence. Between 1934 and 1936 Gesine Becker is recorded as the owner of the "Cafe Derby" in Silesia Street, and between 1939 and 1945, which were years of war, she was conscripted to undertake clerical work.

After the war the entire region surrounding Berlin was administered as the Soviet occupation zone, which in its turn was relaunched as the Soviet sponsored German Democratic Republic (East Germany) in October 1949. After 1945 sources list Gesine Becker as a "housewife". Till 1955 she worked in a clerical capacity for "VEB Schrott Berlin-Lichtenberg", a state owned operation involved in rubbish and recycling. After 1955 she worked in the (inherently politically sensitive) personnel department at the university.