Anna von Gierke

Von Gierke was born in Breslau in 1874,[1] the oldest of six children of the historian Otto von Gierke and Lili von Gierke (née Loening), who was involved in voluntary welfare work. Her sister Hildegarde also became a social pedagogue, brother Julius became a law professor and Edgar became a pathologist. She attended high school in Heidelberg and Berlin, after which she started working as an assistant in a youth home in Charlottenburg. She was appointed manager of a girl's day care centre in 1892, and in 1898 became head of the Jugendheim association. She opened a social education seminary in 1911, which provided training for people to become after-school carers and school carers.

She co-founded the Association for Schoolchild Care in 1912, soon becoming its chair. From 1914 she worked as an inspector of afterschool centres for the Prussian Ministry of Culture. In 1915 she founded the Charlottenburg Housewives Association, and in 1918 became a member of the board of the Reich Association of German Housewives' Associations. During World War I she joined the War Office as an expert in child welfare, carrying out inspection visits.

After World War I she was elected to the Weimar National Assembly in 1919 as a representative of the German National People's Party (DNVP). During her term in office she chaired the Population Policy Committee. However, the DNVP did not re-nominate her for the 1920 elections due to her Jewish roots.[2] Following a scandal, her father resigned from the party and she also resigned. She subsequently set up her own party, the Independent Women's List, which contested 1920 Berlin state election but failed to win a seat.[3]

Together with Martha Abicht, in 1921 von Gierke established the Finkenkrug youth home in Falkensee. She became a member of the board of the Bund Deutscher Frauenvereine in 1931. However, two years later she was dismissed from her posts due her Jewish heritage. She subsequently joined the Confessing Church.[2] She died in Berlin in 1943.