On this day in ...... 1855, a daughter, Marie, was born in Schäßburg, Siebenbürgen, Germany, into a family active in law and politics. Originally a theater student, she married an opera singer. Eventually, however, Marie Stritt (right), would become known as a women's rights activist. For much of the 1st decade of the 1900s Stritt, described here as a bourgeois "sympathizer" of more radical political elements, headed the Bund Deutscher Frauenvereine, or Federation of German Women’s Associations. "During this period, issues such as reproductive rights, the abortion laws and female suffrage dominated the agenda and international links were fostered"; however, the group reverted to "more conservative, inward-looking policies" after Stritt was replaced in 1910. Stritt died in Dresden in 1928.
