German Rural Women's Association

The Deutscher LandFrauenverband (dlv) is a German organization of women in rural areas. It was founded on 20 October 1948, building on predecessor agricultural housewives' associations established at the end of the 19th century by Elisabet Boehm. After German reunification, rural women's associations were also founded in the eastern German federal states in the early 1990s and their state organizations joined the dlv. In recent decades the dlv has developed into the largest nationwide association for women living in the countryside; its members are 22 state rural women's associations with around 430 district associations and more than 12,000 local associations.

The Deutscher LandFrauenverband was founded on 20 October 1948. Its roots go further back: its predecessors were the agricultural housewives' associations (landwirtschaftliche Hausfrauenvereine) called into being at the end of the 19th century by Elisabet Boehm, whose aim was to organize women in associations for the purpose of rural-domestic and cultural further education. In the course of the Nazi seizure of power, the agricultural housewives' associations were dissolved in 1934 and incorporated into the Reichsnährstand in the Third Reich. After the end of the Second World War, the first rural women's associations were founded in the American occupation zone as successor organizations of the agricultural housewives' associations. At the initiative of Marie-Luise Gräfin Leutrum zu Ertingen, the individual associations joined together on 19 August 1947 to form the "Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Landfrauenverbände". On 19 October 1948 Countess Leutrum was elected the first president of the Deutscher LandFrauenverband, and 20 October 1948 is regarded as the official founding date of the dlv. After German-German unification, rural women's associations were also founded in the eastern German federal states in the early 1990s, and their state organizations joined the Deutscher LandFrauenverband. In past decades the dlv has developed into the largest nationwide association for women living in the countryside. Its members are 22 state rural women's associations with around 430 district associations and more than 12,000 local associations.

1. 1Home | Deutscher LandFrauenverband (dlv)landfrauen.info
2. 2Die Geschichte des Deutschen LandFrauenverbandes | Deutscher LandFrauenverband (dlv)landfrauen.info
3. 3Deutscher Landfrauenverbandwikidata.org