madeleine bernstorff

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bertha von suttner revisited

At the opening of the exhibition Bertha von Suttner Revisited the film curator Madeleine Bernstorff screened a programme of (anti-) Suffragette films. At the outset of the 20th century the movement for women's electoral rights also conquered the cinema. A force could be felt on the streets of the major towns and cities of Europe and America that instilled trepidation and looked unstoppable: women were actually organising themselves, often even women from the privileged classes, and reclaiming their right to participate in the building of a democratic society. In 1913 there were over 1000 Suffragettes in prison for their political activism. The films from between 1906 and 1913 were presented as 35mm projections in the park at the opening reception with piano accompaniment (by Gerhard Gruber) as was standard practise in the silent film era. Cinema, still a fledgling industry at the beginning of the 20th century, discovered the Suffragette movement as rewarding raw material for the entertainment industry. Bertha von Suttner was neither fighting for her class nor a Suffragette, however in her novels, which she originally addressed at her own class, she repeatedly asserted the demand for the independence of girls and women. In her later years of life she had contact with the Suffragette movement, especially during her six month tour of the USA (from Los Angeles to Boston). Bertha von Suttner was committed to diplomatic assertion of the peace movement, also securing the movement’s financing and publicising it, organising and attending world peace conferences and congresses while having to tolerate ridicule and criticism as a proactive woman. This is shown by the cartoons selected from the press of the time that are on display in the exhibition with annotations by Laurie Cohen. As is the treatment of this type of politically active woman, embodied by Suttner in exemplary fashion, to be seen in the Suffragette films made between 1906 and 1913.