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The Origins of the German Lyceum Clubs
Christa Glahn, President of the Federation of
International Lyceum Clubs in Germany
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the
International Lyceum Club Hamburg, as well as the founding
of the International Lyceum Club Berlin in 1905, I would
like to present the following brief history of the origins
of the Lyceum Clubs in Germany.
During the late 19th and early 20th century, the peace
movement in Europe experienced a renaissance. It turned to
increasingly progressive ideas such as socialism and
feminism and organized international peace conventions in
response to the growing hostilities in Europe. Women’s
willingness to improve their self-understanding and increase
their intellectual freedom began to take concrete form.
The history of the German Lyceum Clubs begins at the dawn
of the 20th century in London, where Constance Smedley
founded the International Lyceum Club in June 1904. Already
the next year, in November of 1905, Smedley traveled to
Germany to attend the founding convention of the Lyceum Club
Berlin.
Despite the fact that many major European cities had
clubs with exclusively female membership, there was the need
for a special kind of club—one that, according to Smedley,
would seek to “build centers of intellectual and artistic
life in order to promote exchange between cultivated women
of all nations.”
The event that led to the creation of the first Lyceum
Club in Germany was a big international women’s convention
held in 1904 in Berlin. With the support of the German
empress, all relevant national and international women’s
clubs were to be united and encouraged to participate in an
active interchange.
On the occasion of the preparations for the founding of
the Berlin Lyceum Club, the daily Berliner Tageblatt wrote:
“If its founders succeed in keeping their organization out
of all ideological currents and class struggles, this
movement could turn into an international intellectual
power.”
The “Women’s Club Hamburg” was founded in December 1906;
today it proudly calls itself the International Lyceum Club
Hamburg. The constitution stated that the club served the
purpose of promoting the intellectual, social, and material
interests of its members. Without directly looking to the
London Lyceum Club, the Hamburg Club remained close to
Constance Smedley’s ideals. It is worth noting that,
according to article 7, “members’ guests (including men) may
use the powder rooms free of charge.” In this point it seems
that the Women’s Club Hamburg was a step ahead of its London
counterpart.
In 1986, the Hamburg club experienced an important
moment, hosting the International Congress of the Lyceum
Clubs under the title “New Perspectives for Women at the End
of the 20th Century.” Under the patronage of Marianne von
Weizäcker, wife of the then-reigning German president,
members of thirteen countries participated in various
events. They were intrigued by the convention’s success and
its sophisticated cultural program.
As in Hamburg, women’s clubs without initial affiliation
to the Lyceum Clubs were soon founded in other German
cities. The Cologne Women’s Club was created as early as
1902, and in 1904 the German Women’s Club was established in
Stuttgart, organizing musical evenings, lectures, and
bazaars for its members.
Between 1911 and 1949 women’s clubs originated in Aachen,
Munich, Karlsruhe, and Konstanz. Like the other clubs, these
were dedicated to the support of women in education, the
arts, and the sciences. The most recent member of the
Federation of German Lyceum Clubs is the “Rhein-Main” Club,
founded in 1996.
After the end of the Nazi regime and during the
deprivation of the immediate postwar years, a few dedicated
women were able to rebuild the clubs in the face of the
greatest difficulties. We would like to thank these active
members in particular for undertaking to restore
international trust in the German women’s clubs.
In 1956, at the World Congress in Bern, the Association
of German Lyceum Clubs was officially re-admitted into the
International Association of Lyceum Clubs. The president of
the Hamburg Club, Gertrud Behrens, was voted to be the
German Association’s first president.
Even though the shadows of two world wars lie over the
origins of the German Lyceum Clubs, today they are once
again a respected part of the international community of
Lyceum Clubs.
Returning to the Berliner Tageblatt 1904 observation, I
would like to remark that even though the International
Association of Lyceum Clubs may not have become an
international power, it has developed into an esteemed
international intellectual movement.
 To
be part of it fills us with gratitude and pride.
Like many of life’s great achievements, the International
Association of Lyceum Clubs began as a dream—the dream of a
young woman and a small group of her friends, living in London
in the early years of the twentieth century. The young woman’s
name was Constance Smedley and she and her friends, Christina
Gowans Whyte, Elsa Hahn, Violet Alcock, and an American,
Jessie Trimble, were members of the Writers Club.
By 1902, women were moving tentatively into the male
professional world and it is not unrealistic to suppose that
Constance and her group, observing men, comfortably ensconced
in their London Clubs, began to wonder “Why not Women?”
As they talked among themselves, the group began to
envisage, “an ideal Club [for women] with its branches in all
countries of the world and [a] chain of Clubhouses” in the
world’s chief capitals. In essence, they had foreseen the
present world of Lyceum.
Constance was chosen by her “chief coadjutors,” as she
liked to call her four friends, to approach the Committee of
the Writers Club with such an idea. In her autobiography
Crusaders, she
tells how she was asked by the Committee of the Writers Club,
“And who is to organize this?”
Full of youthful confidence, and perhaps a touch of
bravado, she replied, “I will.” To her “amazement, disgrace
and shame,” the Committee turned her down.
However, this rebuff motivated, rather than deterred
Constance. The decision was taken by the group to “start a new
Club,” and although the group had no money, they were
determined to pursue their dream. They therefore decided that
they must first form a Provisional Committee. As their
proposed Club was then intended only for “writers and
illustrators,” Constance forwarded out the first letters,
sixty in all, to prominent women in these fields. Only two
offered their support.
Still undaunted by the lack of interest, she wrote back
again to those who appeared to refuse regretfully, and also to
other women she hoped might be interested. Slowly a
Provisional Committee began to take shape.
At this stage, they began to realise that if there was to
be a Club, there must be a Clubhouse in which to meet.
Constance and her friends turned to her father, Mr W. T.
Smedley, for help. A successful businessman, he was
experienced in financing and the purchase of property, and
blessed with a modern point of view. Mr Smedley believed women
were entitled to “a professional life and full freedom of
development” and he promised to help them find a suitable
building. However, like all the best fairytales—and in a way,
the founding of the first Lyceum Club, does have some of the
aspects of such a tale, there was a condition.
First, the Provisional Committee must secure a thousand
members at an annual subscription of a guinea (twenty-one
English shillings) each. Even this prospect did not dissuade
Constance from her objective. As she says in her
autobiography, Crusaders, “The
oddest part about the founding of Lyceum was that in all the
discouragement of the start, it never occurred to me to lose
faith for one moment in the idea.” So there were more letters
and more interviews.
The name, “Lyceum,” was suggested by the American Jessie
Trimble for the new Club. In the United States, the name was
known as representing a centre for lectures and discussions,
while in Europe, where the term had originated many centuries
ago in Athens, the term was equally understood.
By then the group had decided that its membership must be
open to more than just writers and artists. Constance
Smedley’s sister suggested women with academic qualifications
be accepted, and a third group was included, “wives and
daughters of distinguished men.”
 Finally, the group decided it was necessary to have a
recognisable, well-respected woman to lead this new Lyceum
Club. One of the group suggested Lady Frances Balfour,
daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Argyll, and the
sister-in-law of the British Prime Minister, Arthur Balfour.
Lady Frances, a fluent speaker, was devoted to women’s issues
and though she spoke often at suffragist public meetings, she
was not in favour of violent protests. Although she had
decided to refuse the invitation to lead the Provisional
Committee, Lady Frances arranged to meet with Constance. As
she listened to the plans for the new Lyceum Club, her
attitude changed and she decided to accept their invitation to
become the first Chairman of the Provisional Committee. For
fifteen years, she served as Chair of the Executive and
President of the Club. Lady Frances had been a superb choice.
Soon it became evident, that 1000 members would be
forthcoming for the new London Lyceum Club. The first election
notices were issued in March 1903; the new Clubhouse followed
a year later in Piccadilly.
To be continued:
Other topics to follow:
Germany and Holland
Paris Lyceum
Florence
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2004 International Congress
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