Maria Tusch

“Tschickweib” in the National Council

Session of the National Assembly on March 4, 1919: Carinthian Maria Tusch in a light blouse.

(Bild: Österreichische Nationalbibliothek)

The unmarried child of a maid becomes a farm servant, a worker in the tobacco factory, a courageous fighter for women's rights and one of the first women in the National Council: Maria Tusch. A book hot off the press tells the story of this strong woman and life in her time.

Maria, who was born on December 1, 1868, had a cow trough as her bed. When her mother had a break from work at the farm in Hörtendorf, she breastfed her daughter. Suckling stubble dipped in must or brandy kept the children quiet.

Based on the early life story of Maria Tusch, historian Alexandra Schmidt also describes in the book, hot off the press, what life was like for poor people back then. Maria only attended elementary school for five years. "As a child, I learned to feel poverty bitterly because I wasn't allowed to play and learn like other children," she later wrote. Even as an eleven-year-old, she had to work for a farmer so that there would be one less person to eat at home and because the family was dependent on the extra income.

"Maria Tusch. From tobacco worker to Carinthia's first female national councillor", by Alexandra Schmidt, Verlag Heyn, 192 pages, 34 euros.

(Bild: Verlag Heyn)

Because Baroness von Reyer wanted to see Maria's mother and her newborn twins - a sensation that both were alive! - she also got to know 13-year-old Maria and paid the girl's school fees for the Marienanstalt in the convent in Maria Saal. There, the girls mainly learned knitting, sewing and other practical household skills in order to be trained for service in the town houses. However, Maria ended up in Klagenfurt, where she became one of over 800 female workers in the Imperial and Royal Tobacco Factory in Bahnhofstraße. The working conditions for the women, scornfully referred to as "Tschickweiber", were harsh and unfair: only married mothers received sick pay at the time of childbirth. Single mothers went back to the factory on the third day after giving birth to avoid starvation - and usually paid for it with their lives.

Cover of the pamphlet "Den Frauen ihr Recht" ("Women have their rights") published by the Women's Reich Committee on the occasion of Women's Day 1913 - illustration by the Viennese artist Marianne Saxl-Deutsch.

(Bild: VGA)

"Blind obedience was demanded of the workforce", says Tusch, yet the workers' movement grew. The women met weekly for discussion evenings, set up a library and Maria, who had married Anton Tusch in the meantime and had to bury all four of her children, gave her first speech on International Women's Day in 1912. 

Carinthia Women's School: Maria Tusch in the front row in the middle, speaker Marie Bock to her right. The participants of the women's school were interested in political education ( March 1928).

(Bild: Bildquellensammlung Christian Hudelist)

Her work in the social democratic women's organization in Carinthia became increasingly intensive. In 1919, Maria Tusch became the first and only female member of parliament in Carinthia to be elected to the National Assembly of the First Republic and fought for women's rights in Vienna. On her initiative, the first women's school for political education was established in Klagenfurt.

New book

"Maria Tusch. Von der Tabakarbeiterin zu Kärntens erster Nationalrätin", by Alexandra Schmidt, Verlag Heyn, 192 pages, 75 partly large-format photographs and documents, 34 euros.

Maria Tusch's political career ended when Federal Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuß eliminated the National Council in March 1933 and ruled in an authoritarian manner. 

Maria Tusch died on July 25, 1939 and was buried in the St. Ruprecht cemetery.