Learning by doing: the legacy of 1918 for female German antifascists

Female activists participated in the German revolution of 1918, which led to the abdication of the Kaiser, the end of the war and the establishment of the first full democracy in Germany. For them, this was not a fleeting moment of protests; it was part of their ongoing activism demanding improved rights and, as the threat from the far right grew in the following years, they became antifascists. However, these women, and their activism throughout the 1920s and 1930s, were often dismissed by their male contemporaries and have been marginalised in the historiography. This article uses women’s life writing to centre female German antifascist voices and asks how their experiences of mobilising and organising in 1918 sustained and shaped their activism. This article resists the traditional periodisation of the interwar era and uncovers how women resisted and subverted gendered expectations that sought to exclude them and how women can be agents for change within the fight for social justice.