Virginie Griess-Traut

Virginie Griess-Traut (1814–98)[1] was a French feminist, pacifist, and peace activist.[2]

Portrait of Virginie Griess-Traut

Life

Virginie Traut was born on 18 October 1814 in Colmar, France.[2]

On 7 April 1849, she married Jean Griess, a travelling salesman who shared her interest in phalansterian social organisation (inspired by Fourierist principles of self-sufficiency and cooperation.[3]). Both took the name Griess-Traut.[4] In the same, the couple left France for Algeria, where they remained for twenty-five years. Settling in Algiers, they formed a community with likeminded individuals, setting up a bakery, grocery store, and establishing a Froebelian kindergarten.[4]

At the outset of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Griess-Traut took to the press to call on her fellow women to join together in denouncing the war, initiating lifelong involvement with pacifist activism.[4] Over the following decades, Griess-Traut was active in numerous pacifist organisations, including the International League for Peace Freedom, French Society for Arbitration, Society of Peace, and the Association of Women for Peace.[2] She was vice-president of the Society for Peace through Education[2] and an advocate of the idea that 'European forces be made over into groups for public works development', transforming the standing armies of Europe into 'productive organisations'.[5]

In the mid-1870s, Griess-Traut and her husband returned to Europe, living first in Switzerland and then in France.[4] In 1877, Griess-Traut issued a Manifesto of Women Against War.[6] Jean Griess-Traut died in 1882.[4]

In 1889, at the French and International Congress of the Rights of Women in Paris, Griess-Traut spoke in support of co-education. She was also a vice-president of the Congress.[7]

Death and legacy

Griess-Traut died in 1898, and is remembered as being 'a loyal supporter of progressive, republican, feminist, and peace causes during her long life'.[8]

See also

References
  1. McMillan, James; Mcmillan, Professor James F. (2002-01-08). France and Women, 1789-1914: Gender, Society and Politics. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-58958-6.
  2. "Virginie Griess-Traut". Women In Peace. Retrieved 2020-09-23.
  3. "Fourierism | social reform philosophy". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2020-09-23.
  4. Desmars, Bernard (June 2013). "Traut (dite Griess-Traut), Virginie (Marie)". Dictionnaire biographique du fouriérisme. Retrieved 2020-09-23.
  5. I, International Conference On The Pacifist Impulse; Brock, Peter; perspec, International Conference on the Pacifist Impulse in Historical (1996-01-01). The Pacifist Impulse in Historical Perspective. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0-8020-0777-3.
  6. Offen, Karen M. (2000). European Feminisms, 1700-1950: A Political History. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-3420-2.
  7. Stephens, Lauren (2014). 'International' Feminism? International Women's Rights Congresses at the Paris World Exhibitions, 1878-1900 (PDF) (MA). Central European University. p. 60.
  8. Cooper, Sandi E. (1991). Patriotic Pacifism: Waging War on War in Europe, 1815-1914. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-505715-7.
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