10 June 2025

"Elisabeth Selbert was certainly not the kind of grandmother that a child might imagine a grandmother to be, or perhaps wish she was. She didn't teach me how to crochet or knit, I never learnt from her how to bake an apple pie and she certainly didn't tell me Grimm's fairy tales in the evenings," says Susanne Selbert with a wink about her famous grandmother. "But when you grow up, you realise how many important things she passed on to us granddaughters, including an understanding of democracy, commitment to our society, tenacity and courage."

Insight into a stimulating event on the emergence of equal rights in the Basic Law. The discussion shed light on the path to equal rights and honoured the decisive contributions of personalities such as Elisabeth Selbert. (Photo: HSN)

Vice President Prof Dr Cordula Borbe welcomed the former director of the Hesse State Welfare Association to Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences for the second time. After a keynote speech by Prof Dr Viola Sporleder-Geb on the most important stages on the path to equal rights, Susanne Selbert gave a vivid and knowledgeable review of her grandmother's life to a captivated audience.

Elisabeth Selbert was born in 1896 and grew up in modest circumstances with three sisters. The family could not afford to pay for her to attend grammar school, so her wish to become a teacher could not be realised. It was only later, after her marriage to Adam Selbert and the birth of her two sons, that Elisabeth Selbert had the opportunity to further her education and, as an external student, passed her A-levels in her home town of Kassel in 1926. She was then one of very few women to study law. In her doctoral thesis in 1930, she dealt with the reform of divorce law, although her progressive proposal was not enshrined in law until 47 years later. After the end of the Nazi dictatorship, the Social Democrat Elisabeth Selbert was initially involved in drafting the Hessian state constitution before being appointed to the Parliamentary Council in 1948/49. 61 men and only four women were members of this body, which drafted the Basic Law.

Elisabeth Selbert was the "lyricist" who introduced a far-reaching idea with regard to equal rights. Women should not only have the same civic rights as men - as in the Weimar Constitution - but should actually have equal rights in all areas, especially in marriage, family and labour law. Her persistence and a publicity campaign led by her finally had an effect: on 18 January 1949, the Main Committee recommended the adoption of her proposed wording. It was the finest hour of her life. Since 23 May 1949, Article 3 (2) of the Basic Law has read: "Men and women have equal rights."