Angela Zigahl

Angela Zigahl
Member of the Landtag of Prussia for Oppeln
In office 1925 – July 1933
Personal details
Born	(1885-12-25)25 December 1885 Dirschel, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire (now Dzierżysław, Poland)
Died	1955(1955-00-00) (aged 69–70) Duderstadt, Lower Saxony, West Germany
Political party	Centre Party (until 1933) Uncertain (1933–1954) CDU (1954–1955)
Alma mater	University of Bonn University of Munich University of Münster

Angela Zigahl (25 December 1885 – 1955) was a German teacher and politician who served in the Landtag of Prussia from 1925 until 1933. A member of the Centre Party, she represented the Oppeln constituency. Following World War II, Zigahl was a member of the Sonne Commission, an American-led body which sought to resolve the post-war refugee crisis in West Germany.

Biography

Angela Zigahl was born on 25 December 1885 in the town of Dirschel in Upper Silesia, then part of the Kingdom of Prussia within the German Empire. After attending the Bolts School in Dirschel and the lyceum in Ratibor, she began attending the girls school (oberlyzeum) in Duderstadt in the Province of Hanover. She later attended the University of Bonn, the University of Munich, and the University of Münster, studying "philosophy, German history, geography, and economics". Zigahl passed her state teaching examinations in 1915, and began teaching at the lyceum in Cologne. She later taught at the girls school in Neisse in Upper Silesia, where she became a studienrätin and educational counselor.

In 1918, Zigahl was elected to the Neisse city council as a member of the Centre Party. She served on the city council until 1925, following her election to the Landtag of Prussia in the previous year's election, representing the Oppeln constituency. A member of the Association of Catholic German Teachers (VkdL), Zigahl primarily supported Catholic positions and promoted the interests of college-educated teachers during her tenure. In 1926, she spoke in support of a bill proposed by the state government which would limit the ability of married female civil servants to continue working in their positions, arguing that the majority of women voluntarily retired upon marriage. She also supported a proposed amendment to the bill which would allow these women to retain their pensions and would protect these positions from being filled by married men. While in the Landtag, Zigahl served on the Officials Committee, and in spring 1933, she was part of a parliamentary group investigating the furloughing of several Centre Party officials from Prussian ministerial offices.

Zigahl was re-elected in the 1928, 1932, and 1933 Prussian elections. She was forced to leave office in July 1933 following the Nazi seizure of power, when the Nazi government barred women from serving in political office. Germania, the official Centre Party newspaper, states that it is unclear if she joined the Nazi Party after leaving office, as many Centre Party officials did when the party was banned later in 1933. A Gestapo dossier on Zigahl states that she retired after leaving office, was not politically active during the Nazi era, and moved to the Charlottenburg neighborhood of Berlin. After World War II, Zigahl was appointed to the Sonne Commission, a 14-member body consisting of nine Americans and five Germans which was part of the Economic Cooperation Administration. Led by American banker Hans Christian Sonne and German sociologist Ludwig Neundörfer, the Sonne Commission was tasked with devising strategies to integrate the large influx of war refugees into West German society. Zigahl was placed in charge of social welfare issues, and led efforts to create jobs for refugee women, particularly mothers, as "an economic stopgap".

By 1954, Zigahl had moved to the town of Fulda in Hesse. Now a member of the Christian Democratic Union, she ran for the Landtag of Hesse in the 1954 election, running as a party list candidate. She was not elected, placing last (17th) in the party lists. Zigahl died in Duderstadt in 1955.

References

Works cited

• Abmeier, Hans-Ludwig (1987). Beiträge zur Geschichte Schlesiens im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert [Contributions to the History of Silesia in the 19th and 20th Centuries] (in German). Dülmen: Laumann Verlag. ISBN 978-3-87466-099-0.
• Bayer, Karen; Sparing, Frank; Woelk, Wolfgang (2004). Universitäten und Hochschulen im Nationalsozialismus und in der frühen Nachkriegszeit [Universities and Colleges Under National Socialism and in the Early Post-war Period] (in German). Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag. ISBN 978-3-515-08175-7.
• Hessisches Jahrbuch für Landesgeschichte [Hessian Yearbook for Regional History] (in German). Vol. 40. Marburg: Hessian State Office for Historical Regional Studies. 1990.
• Kienast, Ernst, ed. (1925). Handbuch für den Preussischen Landtag [Handbook for the Prussian State Parliament] (in German). Berlin: Landtag of Prussia.
• Klingemann, Carsten (2009). Soziologie und Politik: Sozialwissenschaftliches Expertenwissen im Dritten Reich und in der frühen westdeutschen Nachkriegszeit [Sociology and Politics: Social Science Expert Knowledge in the Third Reich and in the Early West German Post-War Period] (in German). Wiesbaden: Springer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-531-15064-2.
• Kornrumpf, Martin (1979). In Bayern angekommen: das Eingliederung das Vertriebenen [Arrived in Bavaria: The Integration of the Expellees] (in German). Munich: Olzog Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7892-9845-5.
• Ley, Ulrike (1995). Alibi-Frauen?: Hessische Politikerinnen im 1. und 2. Hessischen Landtag 1946-1954 [Token Women?: Hessian Politicians in the 1st and 2nd Hessian State Parliament 1946-1954] (in German). Frankfurt: Ulrike Helmer Verlag. ISBN 978-3-927164-24-6.
• Prégardier, Elisabeth; Mohr, Anne (1990). Politik als Aufgabe: Engagement christlicher Frauen in der Weimarer Republik [Politics as a Task: Commitment of Christian Women in the Weimar Republic] (in German). Essen: Plöger. ISBN 978-3-924574-25-3.
• Sack, Birgit (1998). Zwischen religiöser Bindung und moderner Gesellschaft [Between Religious Commitment and Modern Society] (in German). Münster: Waxmann Verlag. ISBN 978-3-8309-5593-1.
• Schröder, Wilhelm Heinz; Weege, Wilhelm; Zech, Martina (2000). "Historische Parlamentarismus-, Eliten- und Biographienforschung: Forschung und Service am Zentrum für Historische Sozialforschung" [Historical Parliamentarism, Elite and Biography Research: Research and Service at the Center for Historical Social Research]. Historical Social Research (in German). Cologne.
• Schumacher, Martin (1995). M.d.L., das Ende der Parlamente 1933 und die Abgeordneten der Landtage und Bürgerschaften der Weimarer Republik in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus: politische Verfolgung, Emigration und Ausbürgerung, 1933-1945 : ein biographischer Index [M.d.L., the End of Parliament in 1933 and the Members of the State Parliaments and Citizenships of the Weimar Republic During the National Socialist Period: Political Persecution, Emigration and Expatriation, 1933-1945: a Biographical Index] (in German). Düsseldorf: Droste Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7700-5189-2.

Further reading

• Sack, Birgit (2014). "Wer macht ‚die' Geschichte? Zum Verhältnis von Biographie und Zeitgeschichte am Beispiel einer Kollektivbiographie der weiblichen Reichs- und Landtagsabgeordneten von Deutscher Zentrumspartei und Bayerischer Volkspartei in der Weimarer Republik" [Who Makes 'the' Story? On the Relationship Between Biography and Contemporary History Using the Example of a Collective Biography of the Female Reich and State Parliament Deputies From the German Centre Party and the Bavarian People's Party in the Weimar Republic]. Helene Weber: Beiträge Zu Einer Biographie [Helene Weber: Contributions to a Biography] (PDF) (in German). Bonn: Hildegardis Association. pp. 30–31.
• Gutberger, Hansjörg (4 January 2017). Raumentwicklung, Bevölkerung und soziale Integration: Forschung für Raumplanung und Raumordnungspolitik 1930-1960 [Spatial Development, Population and Social Integration: Research for Spatial Planning and Spatial Policy 1930-1960] (in German). Göttingen: Springer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-658-15130-0.
• Appendices to The Integration of Refugees Into German Life: A Report. Bonn: Sonne Commission. 1951.
• Die Eingliederung der Flüchtlinge in die deutsche Gemeinschaft: Bericht, dem Bundeskanzler am 21. März 1951 überreicht [The Integration of the Refugees Into the German Community: Report Presented to the Federal Chancellor on 21 March 1951] (in German). Bonn: Federal Ministry of Displaced Persons, Refugees and War Victims. 1951.