From Female Biography to German History: Maria Meyer-Sevenich and the Politics of Life Stories

The only German to have played significant roles in each of the Christian Democratic, Communist, and Social Democratic movements, Maria Meyer-Sevenich (1907–1970) embodied the ideological warfare of modern German history. One of Hessen’s most prominent female politicians and a leading voice in occupied Germany, Meyer-Sevenich charted a political trajectory at the intersections of emotions, gender, and religion. By framing a woman's story largely unknown to scholars as emblematic of twentieth-century Germany, this paper argues for renewed recognition of the salience of female biography to understanding modern German history.

After abandoning the Social Democratic Party (SPD) for the German Communist Party, Sevenich was extradited in 1942 from France to Germany, where she was convicted of high treason. In 1945, she co-founded the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) before returning to the SPD. Among the most influential women in German politics under Allied occupation, Meyer-Sevenich was attacked by political opponents and party colleagues as hysterical, unbridled, and unbalanced. Her reliance on emotional appeals and evocations of religious faith challenged political and social norms; at the same time, her political travails shed light on shifting cultural codes in modern Germany.

Drawing upon theories and methods of historical biography, this paper demonstrates how a female life story can illuminate complex, conflictual, and overlapping dynamics of German history. By exposing mechanisms of power across political regimes otherwise obscured or invisible to historians, Sevenich's biography demonstrates how the textured intimacy of a life story challenges and enriches master narratives.