The feminist Agnes von Harnack (from 1919: Agnes von Zahn-Harnack) grew up in a liberal Protestant household. In 1908, she became the first woman to enroll at Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin, where she studied philosophy, German literature, and English language and literature. She was a close associate of Marie-Elisabeth Lüders at the Central Labor Office for Women at the Imperial War Ministry in Berlin and was ultimately appointed its director. Zahn-Harnack was a member of the German Democratic Party in the Weimar Republic and, together with Lüders, she co-founded the German Association of Women Academics [Deutscher Akademikerinnenbund or DAB] in 1926. She not only served as the DAB’s first chairwoman but also chaired the Union of German Women’s Associations [Bund Deutscher Frauenvereine] between 1931 and 1933. After the Second World War, Zahn-Harnack co-founded the German Women’s League of 1945 [Deutscher Frauenbund 1945, later: Berliner Frauenbund 1947] to represent women’s interests. She also helped reestablish the DAB at a meeting held in June 1949 on the occasion of her sixty-fifth birthday.