Melitta Marxer

Melitta Marxer, a suffragist and mother of three, spearheaded the campaign for women’s suffrage in Liechtenstein, the last European country to grant this right. Starting in the 1960s, she first helped enable high school education for girls. Following this, she faced significant opposition in advocating for women’s voting rights. Marxer and her peers founded the activist group Aktion Dornröschen (Thorny Rose) to educate and lobby for change. 

After persistent efforts and international advocacy, including an appeal to the Council of Europe in 1983, a 1984 referendum finally approved women’s suffrage. Marxer’s contributions were highlighted in the 2002 Swiss documentary Die andere Hälfte (The Other Half). She died in 2015 at the age of 91.