Martha Arendsee

Hulda Martha Arendsee (29 March 1885 – 22 May 1953) was a German politician (KPD) and women's rights activist.

Life

Early years Martha Arendsee was born in Wedding, a quarter to the northwest of central Berlin. Her father was a type-setter and print technician. On leaving school she undertook a commercial training. She became seriously physically handicapped after an operation when she was 18, and between 1903 and 1910 she was restricted to working at home.

Politics Arendsee became politically engaged early on. She joined the Social Democratic Party (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands / SPD) in 1906, and within it was responsible for "Women work" in Berlin between 1907 and 1916. In 1907 she also joined a trades union, also becoming a member of the precursor to the "Revolutionary Union Opposition" organisation. Between 1910 and 1919 she was employed by the Co-Op in Berlin, latterly in charge of the wages and social security department. During the First World War she accompanied Clara Zetkin to the International Women's Congress at Bern in 1915. becoming a member of the new party's Berlin leadership team ("Bezirksvorstand").

Activism During the 1920s, Arendsee also wrote for various Communist publications, notably between 1922 and 1924 when she was responsible for "Die Kommunistin" ("The [Female] Communist") and then between 1928 and 1933 when she edited "Proletarische Sozialpolitik" ("Proletarian Social Policy"). In Moscow she undertook a succession of party and welfare related jobs, working at one stage in the socio-economic department of Profintern. She was also active in the leadership of "Foreign Workers' Clubs". From 1941 she also worked for Radio Moscow. A nearby retirement home still carries her name.