Women's plaque for Minna Simon now at its final destination
As originally planned, the plaque "Frauenort Minna Simon" has now been installed at the site where the courageous textile worker worked in the entrance area of the new university library in the former stock spinning mill.
In 2016, the first ever women's memorial in Saxony to Minna Simon, née Reinitz, was opened in Chemnitz, initially on Schillerplatz opposite the bus station.
Weiferin Ernestine Minna Simon is considered to be the first woman who, as a courageous strike leader, successfully campaigned to improve the working and living conditions of factory workers in the Chemnitz stock spinning mill. Around 700 women and 300 men were employed there at the time.
The constant increase in labour standards and longer working hours meant that the pressure on women was particularly high: with half the wages of their male colleagues, they were also responsible for children and the household after a twelve-hour working day.
In June 1883, one of the largest German textile workers' strikes took place at the Chemnitz stock spinning mill. Minna Simon presented the strikers' demands, spoke publicly at the general strike meetings and collected donations for the families of the striking workers. What was completely new, as the Chemnitz newspaper reported with astonishment in 1883, was "that it was not the male workers but rather the female workers who triggered the strike".
Our country is rich in eventful and moving women's history. In order to make this visible, the State Women's Council of Saxony has been honouring women's personalities who have shown extraordinary commitment and helped shape Saxony at various levels of society with the "frauenorte sachsen" project since 2016. There are now 25 such women's places in the state, three of which are in Chemnitz.
https://www.frauenorte-sachsen.de