Pitz-Savelsberg, Elisabeth

Journalist, Politician

Born: 08.07.1906 in Aachen

died: 13.10.1996 in Wiesbaden

As a schoolgirl, Pitz-Savelsberg joined the Windthorstbund, the youth organization of the Centre. After studying economics and social sciences in Cologne, she began working in the city's careers advice service, which she gave up in 1935 after marrying the lawyer Dr. Norbert Pitz (1904-1947). She was politically active in the Center. The couple were critical of the Nazi state and therefore had to accept professional restrictions.

After their home in Dortmund was bombed out, Pitz-Savelsberg moved to the Rhön with four small children in 1943 and began working as a teacher and freelancer for the Fuldaer Volkszeitung newspaper after the war. In 1945, she joined the newly founded CDU in Greater Hesse and on December 12, 1946, she became the only woman in the CDU parliamentary group in the Hessian state parliament. Pitz-Savelsberg's key issues were youth welfare and school policy. She also advocated that the work of a housewife should be regarded as a "fully valid profession".

After her husband died as a prisoner of war, Pitz-Savelsberg moved to Wiesbaden in 1950. She again became a member of the state parliament, but moved to the Bundestag in 1953. Here, too, her main focus was on youth and family policy. She was a member of the Bundestag until 1969, after which she retired to private life.

In 1972, she was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.