Agnes Wabnitz grew up in a middle-class household, but her family fell into poverty after her father's death. After some years working as a governess on noble estates around Congress Poland, she moved to Berlin in the 1870s, living with her brother and supporting herself and her mother with tailoring and sewing work. She was drawn into political work when her brother was arrested and deported under Otto von Bismarck's anti-socialist laws.

 

She was involved in numerous trade unions and joined the board of the Fachverein der Berliner Mantelnäherinnen (Professional Association of Women Coat Sewers of Berlin), whose board she also joined but which was dissolved by the police in 1886. She was sentenced to 10 months in prison in 1892 for several offences including insulting the emperor. Here, she started a hunger strike. Wabnitz was first transferred to Charité Hospital to be force-fed, then to the psychiatric hospital at Dalldorf, north of Berlin. After a brief period of giving lectures after her release, her appeal against her conviction was rejected in 1894.

 

On the day her sentence was due to begin, Wabnitz died by self-administered cyanide poisoning in Volkspark Friedrichshain, Berlin.

 

Her funeral, held at a cemetery on Pappelallee in Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin, was attended by more than 40,000 people.

 

Sources:

Wikipedia