Cornelia
Ramondt-Hirschmann (29 July 1871 – 20 November 1957) was a Dutch teacher,
feminist, pacifist and theosophist active
in the first half of the twentieth century. She was one of the women who
participated in the push by pacifist feminists during World
War I for world leaders to develop a mediating body to work for peace.
The culmination of their efforts would be the achievement of the League
of Nations when the war ended. Between 1935 and 1937, she served as one
of the three international co-chairs of the Women's
International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF).
.jpg)
Women’s deputation to the King of Norway, in 1915: (left to right) Emily
Balch, Cor Ramondt-Hirschmann, Rosika Schwimmer, Chrystal Macmillan
Left to right: Catherine E. Marshall, Sir George Paish, Jane Addams, Cor. Ramondt-Hirschmann, Jeanne Melin – Emergency Peace Conference at the Hague "Conference for a New Peace" in 1922
Susanna Theodora Cornelia Hirschmann, known as "Cor", was born on 29 July
1871 in The Hague, the
Netherlands to Sophie Bahnsen and Frederik Willem Louis Antonie
Hirschmann. Her father was an administrator for the Royal
Dutch Navy and died when she was nine years old, during a trip from the
former Dutch colonies in
India. She was raised by her mother in The Hague and attended the
Christian Educational Academy in The Hague. In 1889 she earned her Lower
Education teaching certificate and the following year earned a certificate for French.[1]
After her graduation, Hirschmann and her mother moved to Nijmegen,
where they supported themselves with her mother's widow's pension and her
earnings from teaching. She earned her certification for physical education
1893. It is probable that during their time in Nijmegen, Hirschmann met Dirk
Ramondt, a postal worker. Soon after completing her training, she and her
mother moved to Utrecht and
there on 15 June 1899, she married Ramondt. The young couple moved to Breda and
were living there when their daughter Sophie was born.[1]
Coming in contact with the Dutch feminist
movement, Ramondt-Hirschmann soon became a supporter of the
international mother's association, the Vereeniging
voor Vrouwenkiesrecht (VVK) and the International
Women's Suffrage Alliance (IWSA). In 1903, the family moved to The Hague
and Ramondt-Hirschmann began working as a secretary to the executive board
of the Dutch
Women's Council, with other feminists such as Johanna
Naber and Mien
van Itallie-van Embden.
Around the same time, Ramondt-Hirschmann became involved with the Dutch
Vegetarian Association and The Hague Association for Philosophy. She became
interested in theosophy and
began hosting lectures for the . Ramondt-Hirschmann regularly held
presentations for the Dutch section of Theosophical
Society.[1]
In 1912, the family moved again, settling in Amsterdam.
Ramondt-Hirschmann became involved in the pacifist
movement. She served as co-organizer of the International
Congress of Women held in 1915 in The Hague. At the conference,
Ramondt-Hirschmann was elected to serve as president of the Dutch branch of
the International Committee of Women for Permanent Peace (ICWPP), a new
organization begun at the conference.[1] Following
the Congress, two delegations were formed to present the resolutions from
the meeting to heads of state. Ramondt-Hirschmann was on the delegation
which presented the resolutions to Scandinavia and
Russia. Along with Emily
Greene Balch, Chrystal
Macmillan, Rosika
Schwimmer, and Julia
Grace Wales, Ramondt-Hirschmann formed the group[2] speaking
to peaceful nations. Jane
Addams headed the other delegation, which spoke to nations at war.[3]
The first two stops, Denmark and Norway, were uneventful, with the exception
that the taxi driver, who could not believe that a group of women had an
appointment to see the King
Haakon, circled the palace numerous times before finally delivering the
group.[4] In
Sweden, they spoke with the Foreign Minister Knut
Wallenberg, who agreed that Sweden would be willing to host a peace
mediation conference if the women’s delegation could get two warring nations
to agree to participate. In war, most diplomats refused to make definitive
statements, and encouraged by this development, the group, without
Schwimmer, who as a Hungarian could not enter Russia, made plans to go to Petrograd.[5] After
several days they managed to secure an interview with the Foreign Minister Sergei
Sazonov, who despite his view that nothing would come of such a meeting,
wrote a statement that Russia would not oppose a neutral mediating
conference.[6] Addams's
group secured a similar statement from the Prime
Minister of France, René
Viviani,[7] though
this information was unknown to Ramondt-Hirschmann's group, as by the time
they returned to The Hague, where both delegations were to have met, Addams
had sailed for the United States.[8]
Meeting with Aletta
Jacobs, the delegation decided to split up with Ramondt-Hirschmann and
Schwimmer approaching the German Foreign Minister Gottlieb
von Jagow, while Balch and Macmillan spoke with the Lord
President of the Council Crewe,
who was acting British Foreign Secretary.[9] Von
Jagow did not see any practical result, but agreed that Germany was not
opposed to neutral mediation.[10] Lord
Crewe refused to "accept" a proposal, stating only that Britain would not
place obstacles to such a meeting or object to a conference if it actually
came to fruition. Armed with these statements, Schwimmer secured a promise
from Wallenberg that he would present the plan to the Swedish
Cabinet. [9] In
the meantime, while the delegates were abroad, Aletta Jacobs was putting
pressure on the Dutch
Prime Minister Pieter
Cort van der Linden to host the conference at the Hague. Van der Linden
wanted assurances that President Woodrow
Wilson would favor conference and sent Jacobs on an official inquiry
mission.[11] They
were unable to persuade Wilson to act[12] and
it would not be until the war had ended that the conference for the League
of Nations would occur.[13]
In 1919, Ramondt-Hirschmann traveled with Jacobs and Mien
van Wulfften Palthe to the ICWPP meeting in Zürich,
where the organization changed its name to the Women's
International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF).[14][15][14] Ramondt-Hirschmann
became the international secretary of the WILPF in 1921; she would serve as
secretary or adjoint secretary until 1936.[16] She
divorced her husband on 27 December 1923, gaining custody of her daughter.[1] Between
1924 and 1926, she toured various cities in the United States, making
speeches about peace,[17][18][19] while
her daughter was completing post graduate work at Bryn
Mawr College.[20] Between
1927 and 1930, she served as the General Secretary of the Dutch Theosophical
Society, attending meetings abroad. In 1934, she and her daughter moved to Hilversum,
where Sophie was employed as an educator.[1] That
same year, Ramondt-Hirschmann organized a silent demonstration for peace,
known as the Women's Peace Walk.[1] Demonstrators
marched through The Hague and repeated the protest annually on May 18 until
1940.[21]
In 1935, Ramondt-Hirschmann took part in the protest against the group
arrests of political
dissidents by the Nazis.[1] Between
1935 and 1937, she served as one of the three international co-chairs of the
WILPF.[22] During
1936, she served on the Supervisory Board of the Central Peace Bureau and
began her participation in collecting relief funds for those in need due to
the Spanish Civil
War. In 1938, she returned to The Hague and lived there until the German
invasion of the Netherlands, when she returned to Hilversum to live with
her daughter and retired from peace work.[1]
Ramondt-Hirschmann died on 20 November 1957 at her daughter's home in
Hilversum. She was one of the most noted women in the feminist pacifist
movement of the first half of the twentieth century. She believed that
women's participation in international politics would bring a sense of
humanity to governance, and thus, their involvement was crucial.[1]
My published books:
BACK TO HOME PAGE
