AUF - A women's magazine

Logo of the magazine

AUF - Eine Frauenzeitschrift was an Austrian feminist magazine that appeared from 1974 to 2011. The magazine emerged from the Vienna women's movement and saw itself as a platform for the women's movement.

history

On November 4, 1972, 50 women gathered in the office of the International Civil Service in Vienna and founded the "Aktion Independent Women". This meeting is considered the beginning of the autonomous women's movement in Austria. The "AUF-Mitteilungen" were initially registered as a periodical, it was supposed to serve as an internal discussion sheet and was sent to around 300 women. After renting a club room in Vienna's Tendlergasse in the 9th district in 1974, AUF - Eine Frauenzeitschrift was founded, the first issue appeared in October 1974. At the beginning, the magazine was produced by eight to ten women as an editorial collective, it appeared four times a year , there were also some special editions. The project was financed through voluntary work, subscription income, donations and media support. The AUF remained independent of political parties and organizations. The women in the editorial collective changed constantly; there were no classic structures or functions in the editorial team. In 2011, the magazine was finally discontinued due to a lack of participation and falling subscription numbers; the 153rd issue was the last.

Content

The debate about abortion, which was a criminal offense in Austria until 1975, played a major role at the beginning of the UP magazine. The contents of the first edition were abortion (“ deadline solution ”), the function of the family, alternatives to the family, family law, goals of the women's movement. The editors took up various topics of the women's movement, which was heavily publicized in the 1970s, and their own self-image was also discussed again and again. With the establishment of feminist research at universities, the articles in the AUF also became more analytical and differentiated, while at the beginning personal concern was in the foreground. "The development from political activism to the division of the women's movement into many different directions / projects has not left the AUF without a trace: From the mouthpiece of a movement, the magazine has developed into a platform for feminist discourse," can be read in the self-portrait.

literature

• Britta Cacioppo, Eva Geber and Carina Nekolny: ON - a (success) story. From leaflet to magazine . In: Gabi Horak, Saskia Rudigier and Lea Susemichel (eds.): Feminist media. Publics beyond the malestream . Helmer , Königstein 2008, ISBN 978-3-89741-265-1 , p. 55-63 .
• Brigitte Geiger and Hanna Hacker : Danube Waltz Ladies Choice . Women's movement in Austria. Promedia, Vienna 1989, ISBN 3-900478-30-9 .

Web links

• AUF - a women's magazine and AUFinfo. Website. Action of Independent Women, accessed November 23, 2013 . 
• "What if I want to take up my pen?" In: die Standard.at. March 24, 2011, accessed on November 23, 2013 (interview with the long-time AUF employee Eva Geber on the occasion of the discontinuation of the publication). 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Women's Movement Beginnings - derStandard.at. Retrieved on August 6, 2020 (Austrian German).