Klara Zetkin

Born in Saxony in 1857, Klara Zetkin trained as a teacher before becoming deeply involved in the socialist movement. Exile during Germany’s Anti-Socialist Laws pushed her into wider European political circles, and after returning to Germany she became one of the best-known figures in socialist politics.

Zetkin is especially remembered for her work on behalf of women in the labor movement. She edited the socialist women’s paper Die Gleichheit for many years and argued that women’s emancipation had to be tied to economic and social change, not treated as a separate question. She is also widely associated with the early campaign that developed into International Women’s Day.

After World War I, she played a leading role in the German communist movement and served in the Reichstag during the Weimar era. Even for readers who do not share her politics, her writing and public life offer a vivid window into the debates over class, democracy, war, and women’s rights in late 19th- and early 20th-century Europe.