Until 1933, Hamburg-based Hertha Herrmann (1897–1970)) was a respected sports journalist and a passionate motorcycle sportswoman in her spare time. In the early 1930s, she was considered Germany’s most successful female motorcyclist. At the end of 1937, she was attacked and mistreated by SA men; shortly thereafter, she fled Hamburg for New York. This article appeared in the Altonaer Nachrichten on April 1, 1931, on a supplement page entitled “Die moderne Frau in Beruf und Leben” [“Modern woman in work and life”] and subtitled “Sie erobert sich immer weitere Gebiete – und bleibt doch Frau” [“She conquers more and more areas – and yet remains woman”]. In the piece, Hertha Herrmann, as a self-proclaimed representative of women driving cars, addresses men who drive cars. She amusingly describes their desperate attempts not to let women driving cars or motorcycles take away their “supremacy” on the roads and ends with an appeal to all readers to recognize women as competent drivers in road traffic. Undoubtedly, the text was based on Hertha Herrmann’s own experiences. At the same time, the article, preserved in the Hamburg State and University Library and accessible via Europeana, represents a contemporary historical document that provides insight into social discourses and issues of equality.
Hertha Hermann, “We Women as . . . Women Drivers!”, in: Altonaer Nachrichten, Hamburger neueste Zeitung, 2nd supplement to No. 77, April 1, 1931, p. 9, edited in: Key Documents of German-Jewish History, <https://dx.doi.org/10.23691/jgo:source-242.en.v1> [November 21, 2024].