Anke Schäfer (publisher)

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Anke Schäfer (born August 9, 1938 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf  ; † December 19, 2013 in Katzenelnbogen ) was a German publisher, bookseller, editor and well-known feminist - lesbian activist. Many consider her “one of the most important women of the new women's movement” or “figurehead of the women's book scene” and “great old lady of the women's movement”. In 2000 she was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit for her commitment to women and lesbian politics.

Life

Anke Schäfer grew up as the fourth of five daughters in Berlin and trained as a publishing bookseller in 1956 . At the age of 21 she went to West Germany and initially worked in Gütersloh for an advertising agency of the Bertelsmann Verlag, later - since as a woman she was not offered any prospects in “male professions” such as editing - in other publishing houses in sales, in advertising, editorial and advertising management.

In the 1960s she married and gave birth to a daughter. After she came into contact with the women's movement at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 1974, she separated from her husband and soon afterwards had her lesbian coming-out . In 1976 she founded the women's bookstore "Sappho" in Wiesbaden, which, although not economically secure, became a meeting place not only for lesbian women. Schäfer got involved with abused women, took part in a squatting in favor of a women's shelter and organized demonstrations.

In addition to the bookstore, in 1978 (partly as a collective) she founded a women's book distribution and a women's literature distribution, which existed until 1994. Since 1990 she has run the Feminist Book Publishing Company , where she published lesbian literature from the early 20th century. In addition, from 1984 to the late 1990s, the lesbian calendar was published, which in the best of times had a print run of 6,000 copies. Publishing and book distribution existed until 2001.

In response to the growing supply of women's literature, she and Hinrike Gronewold founded Virginia in 1986 , a magazine for women's book criticism that has been published to the present day and regularly provides an overview of new feminist publications. Also in 1986 she finally founded the Association for the Promotion and Distribution of Women's Literature.

Anke Schäfer was also involved in women's politics outside of publishing and bookselling activities. Although she was also present at the founding meeting of the Greens , she later co-founded the feminist party Die Frauen . At the Lesben-Pfingst-Treffen 1983 (today Lesben-Frühling-Treffen ) in Osnabrück , she initiated the establishment of Safia , a Germany-wide network for older lesbians, from which various housing projects, the Sappho Women's Housing Foundation and the first cemetery for lesbians in Europe emerged. Here she also found the right housing projects for herself for her old age. In 2007 the filmmaker Uli Bez shot the 70-minute documentary FROM TODAY. Anke Schäfer, the women's movement and the lesbians .

In December 2013, Anke Schäfer died in a nursing home in Katzenelnbogen, where she had last lived due to dementia . She was buried in the cemetery in Charlottenberg , the location of one of her Safia housing projects. The funeral was carried out by a lesbian funeral company - a business idea she mentioned in an interview in 1998 to create jobs for women. Her estate was taken over by the Spinnboden lesbian archive .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Claus Nachtwey: "Old hands - young hearts" - Anke Schäfer . In: Senate Department for Education, Youth and Sport (Ed.): Being different and getting older. Lesbians and gays in old age . Documentation of the conference from 22./23. November 2002 Study “Getting older - older lesbians and gays in Berlin”. Berlin 2003, p. 23–24 ( digitized via berlin.de [PDF]).
  2. ↑ a b Doris Hermanns: Anke Schäfer. In: fembio.org. Retrieved September 30, 2019 .
  3. ^ Doris Hermanns: In memoriam Anke Schäfer. Anke Schäfer, Photo: Silvia Frey Anke Schäfer, one of the most important women in the new women's movement, has died. (No longer available online.) In: buecherfrauen.de. BooksWomen , December 2013, archived from the original ; accessed on September 30, 2019 .
  4. ↑ a b figurehead of the women's book scene . In: Verlagsgruppe Rhein Main (ed.): Wiesbadener Tagblatt . December 21, 2013.
  5. ↑ FROM TODAY! - ANKE SCHÄFER, THE WOMEN'S MOVEMENT AND THE LESBIANS. In: homochrom.de. Retrieved September 30, 2019 (German).
  6. ^ Ilona Scheidle: Lesbian-History-Women-Movement. In: gwi-boell.de. Gunda Werner Institute in the Heinrich Böll Foundation, August 17, 2011, accessed on October 1, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Issue 97 (6/2008) | MATHILDE - The non-commercial women's magazine from Darmstadt. Retrieved October 1, 2019 .
  8. ↑ a b c d The book woman: Anke Schäfer. In: LESPRESS. August 1, 1998, accessed October 1, 2019 (German).
  9. ↑ Madeleine Marti: women's book publishers and women's bookshops . In: Deposited messages: The representation of lesbian women in German-language literature since 1945. Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg 1992, ISBN 3-476-03429-1 , p. 127 .
  10. ^ A b c Marie-Theres Zirm: Publishing - a question of gender? 1973–2008: 35 years of women's publishing in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in the context of the women's movement . Vienna 2008, p. 91–93 ( digitized via wienbibliothek.at [PDF]).
  11. ↑ Virginia Women's Book Review - Editorial. Retrieved October 1, 2019 .
  12. ↑ Karolin Korthase: FROM TODAY. Anke Schäfer, the women's movement and the lesbians - a documentary by Uli Bez. In: AVIVA-Berlin .de - online magazine and information portal for women, September 23, 2008. Accessed October 1, 2019 .
  13. ↑ Anke Schäfer: "I have done a lot, I loved to do it and would do it again and again." August 9, 1938 - December 19, 2013 . In: wufmag - magazine for lesbians, gays & friends in Würzburg . tape 66 . Würzburg 2014, p. 7 .
  14. ↑ Researchers are looking for treasure chests. March 28, 2019, accessed October 1, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Schäfer, Anke
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German publisher, bookseller, editor and feminist-lesbian activist
DATE OF BIRTH August 9, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin-Wilmersdorf
DATE OF DEATH 19th December 2013
Place of death Katzenelnbogen