Käte Selbmann () was born in
Berlin on 17 February 1906. Her father was a railway inspector. Selbmann attended the state-run women's schools in
Droyßig and
Halle, where she trained as a teacher. She later worked as a clerk and secretary. Selbmann joined the
Young Communist League of Germany in 1923 and the
Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in 1929. Selbmann was the head of the municipal
children's home in
Leipzig from 1929 until 1931, when she was dismissed for taking part in a protest. Following the
Nazi seizure of power, Selbmann was arrested and held in
protective custody from March to April 1933. After her release, she worked at a cardboard factory in
Gotha. Selbmann was arrested again in 1935 and sentenced to fourteen months in prison for conspiracy to commit
high treason by the
Higher Regional Court of Dresden. She was released in 1937. From 1942 until 1945, she worked as a private teacher. In 1945, following the end of
World War II, Selbmann became part of the sub-district leadership of the KPD in Gotha. The following year, she joined the newly-formed
Socialist Unity Party (SED) and became the secretary of the Leipzig branch of
People's Solidarity. She was also the secretary of the SED branches in West Saxony and Leipzig. Selbmann joined the
Democratic Women's League of Germany (DFD) in 1947, becoming the chairwoman of the
Saxony branch and a member of the federal executive board in 1948. Later that year, she became a personal assistant to
Walter Ulbricht, the future leader of
East Germany. Selbmann was named the head of the
women's department of the SED central committee in 1949, succeeding
Maria Weiterer. She was selected for this position in part because of her husband, the prominent politician
Fritz Selbmann, and in part because the SED considered her "more
pliable" than her predecessors. As the head of the department, she developed the SED's women's policy and exerted control over the activities of the DFD. Historian Valerie Dubslaff writes that "the role of the department was therefore neither to represent the interests of women nor to promote them within the party, but to execute the political will of its leaders". In 1950, Selbmann was elected as a candidate member of the SED central committee, replacing . In the
1950 East German general election, Selbmann was elected to the
Volkskammer as a member of the DFD, representing
Teltow and
Potsdam. She resigned as head of the women's department in November 1952 due to serious illness, and did not seek re-election to the SED central committee or the Volkskammer in 1954. Selbmann became the head of the
German Women's Council in 1957. She died in
East Berlin on 5 April 1962. == References ==