Line Luplau

Who is Line Luplau?

Line Luplau was a Danish feminist and suffragist. She was the co-founder of the Danske Kvindeforeningers Valgretsforbund or DKV and first chairperson in 1889-1891.

Line Luplau was the daughter of the vicar Hans Christian Monrad and Ferdinandine Henriette Gieertsen and married the vicar Daniel Carl Erhard Luplau, in 1847.

Luplau developed an early frustration over the fact that women was not recognized full rights as humans because of their sex. This interest is regarded to have developed from the public debate following the controversial novel Clara Raphael by Mathilde Fibiger. Her spouse served as a vicar in a parish in Slesvig-Holsten, and the family was forced to leave for Varde when this part of Denmark was lost after the war in 1864. In Varde, Luplau founded a charity organisation, and became the first woman in Denmark to speak at a national celebration.

In 1872, Luplau became a member of the local branch of the women's organisation Dansk Kvindesamfund alongside her spouse and her daughter Marie Luplau. Her interest in women's rights focused on woman suffrage and equal political rights, and she belonged to the opposition group within the DK.