Frankfurt Council of Women

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Under the name Frankfurter Weiberrat , two political women's groups that influenced the new women's movement emerged in Frankfurt am Main during the student movement from 1968 .

First Frankfurt Women's Council

The first Frankfurter Weiberrat was founded in the winter semester 1968 by female students at the Frankfurt Goethe University . It was an initiative that emerged from the protests of female members in the Socialist German Student Union (SDS) . After the speech by Berlin activist Helke Sander from the Action Council for the Liberation of Women and Sigrid Damm-Rüger's tomato throw at the 23rd SDS delegates' conference in Frankfurt am Main in 1968, further women's councils were founded in several German university towns , including Münster, Bonn and Munich.

The initiative date for the Frankfurt amalgamation is a go-in by SDS women in Frankfurt's Paulskirche on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of women's suffrage in November 1968. During the event organized by the SPD , according to a contemporary witness, women were “by beating SPD men and Women ”from reading a leaflet.

The motive for the foundation is the perception that there was a clear contradiction between the political demands and theories of the New Left and the discriminatory, male-privileged behavior of fellow students in the practice of the West German student movement . The group, which is estimated to have between 50 and 100 women, was joined by female members of the SDS. The women met to the exclusion of their male fellow students to discuss various political issues. Topics that were previously considered private, such as gender roles , sexuality, child rearing and care, were also made public in separate protest actions. They demanded equal participation in housework and family work as well as physical and sexual self-determination .

An action by the Frankfurt Women's Council that was publicly perceived as particularly provocative was the leaflet “Accountability Report” with the well-known slogan: “Free the socialist eminences from their bourgeois tails”, which the women of Frankfurt distributed at an SDS meeting in November 1968.

The so-called bust attack , a protest action by three female students in a lecture given by Theodor W. Adorno in April 1969 at Frankfurt University, is linked in some sources with the Frankfurt Women's Council in the SDS.

With the dissolution of the SDS Federal Association in March 1970, the Frankfurter Weiberrat in the SDS also dissolved again due to internal conflicts over different political contents, goals and procedures.

Second Frankfurt Women's Council

Numerous new organizations emerged in the SDS successor, including a further, independent grouping in Frankfurt under the name Frankfurter Weiberrat , called the “Second Women's Council”, an initiative group formed by around 14 women. The meeting point of the group, half of which consisted of students, but also young mothers, housewives and professionals, was Club Voltaire . The total number of members was between 50 and 100 women.

In the women's council, which also called itself “Socialist Women of Frankfurt” on official occasions, the work focus was initially on the organization and implementation of training groups in which women wrote political-economic writings ( Marx , Engels , Zetkin ) and the feminist texts by Simone, which were known at the time de Beauvoir and Betty Friedan read in order to understand the complex issues of gender relations and social structures in depth. They took part in demonstrations and teach-ins by the Extra-Parliamentary Opposition (APO) against the Vietnam War, among others .

Interest groups with different motives for joining met each other, which sparked conflicts and discussions. The “ personal is political ” approach, however, became generally accepted when, on the initiative of Alice Schwarzer, the abortion campaign against Section 218 began in Germany in the summer of 1971 . The action 218 ( We have an abortion! ) Where the Weiberrat participated for the first restraint, opened to the members of women council a practical access to essential women-specific issues.

The Frankfurt Women's Council took part in the organization of the first Federal Women's Congress on Aktion 218 on 12/13. March 1972, which took place with around 450 participants in Frankfurt am Main. Sibylla Flügge , member of the women's council and congress participant, reported: “In the action § 218, newly emerging women's groups from many cities came together. In March 1972 we organized a nationwide women's congress of Aktion 218 in the Frankfurt 'Haus der Jugend', at which we laid down the political strategies and demands of the women's movement. It was such a success that there has been talk of the new women's movement ever since. [...] In the generation of our mothers, women's problems such as the compatibility of work and family or violence in marriage were still taboo. Now we could talk to her. There was solidarity between the women and the hope of being able to solve the problems structurally in the future. "

The Frankfurt Women's Council organized further public actions and demonstrations, for example nationwide action weeks in 1974 before the deadline regulation was passed in the German Bundestag and on alternative medical methods for abortion .

Despite the joint campaign, there were still different ideas about the goals and tasks of the Frankfurt Women's Council. Some women distanced themselves from the feminist traits adopted by the women's council and left the group. Others saw the need to expand practical activities, such as setting up self-awareness groups based on the model of the consciousness-raising groups developed in the American women's movement , in which women jointly analyze their experiences of oppression.

In the summer of 1973, some members of the Women's Council, together with the Bornheim district women's group , opened a first women's center in Frankfurt am Main, where interested women could exchange ideas beyond the university environment and initiate their own projects for and with women. The women council members joined the emerging new projects and self-awareness groups. A protagonist of the second women's council commented: "The boundaries between the women's council, the Bornheim women's group and the new center groups were becoming increasingly blurred"; the Weiberrat group merged into these new projects and institutions.

Members and impact (selection)

Members of the Frankfurt Women's Council were active in various social fields such as in the areas of health, pregnancy and obstetrics, in international social work and crisis management for women affected by violence, in the housework, occupation and labor market, in the cultural and art sectors, in the Sport, in local politics as well as in academic research and teaching.

Members and actors of the Frankfurt Women's Council included Jessica Benjamin , Silvia Bovenschen , Margrit Brückner , Jutta Ebeling , Christel Eckart , Margit Eschenbach , Sibylla Flügge , Dörthe Jung , Silvia Kontos , Helgard Kramer , Uschi Madeisky , Elsemarie Maletzke , Cornelia-Katrin von Plottnitz and Hilde Wackerhagen .

The three photographers Barbara Klemm , Abisag Tüllmann and Inge Werth are considered to be the most important chroniclers of the Frankfurt women's movement and the associated groups such as the women's councils.

From the women's political activities and discussions in the Frankfurt Women's Councils, around 30 autonomous projects, institutions and women's networks developed in Frankfurt am Main immediately and in the following years, some of which have continued to the present (as of 2020). For example, in 1976 the General Student Committee (ASTA) of the Goethe University in Frankfurt was made up exclusively of women. In addition to the women's and lesbian centers (Lesbenzentrum 1976, Frauenzentrum Bockenheim 1977), the following were founded: the women's bookshop Bockenheim (1976), the first autonomous women's shelter (Women helping women e.V. 1978), the women's businesses V. (today jumpp. Your springboard to self-employment GmbH , initiative and foundation including Lu Haas, Dörthe Jung), the Frankfurt women's school (with the collaboration of Barbara Köster, among others) and the Feminist Women's Health Center (1978).

literature

  • Ulla Wischermann: From women's council to women's professorship. The New Women's Movement and the New Dawn of 1968 . In: Goethe University (ed.): The 68er. Research Frankfurt. The science magazine of the Goethe University . No. 1, 2018.
  • Morvarid Dehnavi: The politicized gender. Biographical paths to the student protest of "1968" and the new women's movement . Transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2013, ISBN 978-3-8376-2410-6 .
  • Andreas Schwab, Beate Schappach, Manuel Gogos (eds.): The 68er. Short summer - long effect . (= Writings of the Historisches Museum Frankfurt am Main), Klartext Verlag, Essen 2008, ISBN 978-3-89861-887-8 .
  • Kristina Schulz : The long breath of provocation. The women's movement in the Federal Republic and in France 1968–1976 (= history and gender , volume 40). Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main / New York 2002, ISBN 3-593-37110-3 .
  • Sibylla Flügge: From women's council to women's project . A personal report on the beginning of the new women's movement in Frankfurt am Main . In: Kirsten Beuth, Kirsten Plötz (Ed.): What should I explain to you? An exchange about women's stories in two German states . Triga Verlag, Gelnhausen 1998, ISBN 3-931559-95-5 .
  • Ute Gerhard-Teuscher, Heide Schlüpmann, Ulla Wischermann (Ed.): Politics of autonomy. Feminist Studies. No. 2, 1986, Beltz Verlag, Weinheim, ISSN  0723-5186 .
  • Frankfurter Frauen (Ed.): Women's Yearbook 1 . Verlag Roter Stern, Frankfurt am Main 1975, ISBN 3-87877-078-2 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Chronicle of the New Women's Movement: Early Spring: 1968. FrauenMediaTurm - Feminist Archive and Library, accessed on April 21, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Morvarid Dehnavi: The politicized gender - Biographical ways to the student protest of "1968" and to the new women's movement . Transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2013, ISBN 978-3-8376-2410-6 , p. 17-20 .
  3. ↑ Susanne Hertrampf: A tomato throw and its consequence. A new wave of women's protest in the FRG. Dossier women's movement. In: bpb. Federal Agency for Civic Education, September 8, 2008, accessed on April 14, 2020 .
  4. ↑ a b Kristina Schulz: No revolution without women. Dossier women's movement. In: bpb. Federal Agency for Civic Education, March 6, 2008, accessed on April 14, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Frankfurter Frauen (Ed.): Women's Yearbook 1 . Verlag Roter Stern, Frankfurt am Main 1975, ISBN 3-87877-078-2 , p. 16 .
  6. ↑ a b Women's Department of the City of Frankfurt am Main (ed.): Wirsindso * free. 3 decades of new women's movement in Frankfurt. 58 Frankfurt women’s projects connect yesterday - today - tomorrow. Milestones from the law and history of the Frankfurt women's movement. Frankfurt am Main 2002, p. 49 ( frankfurt.de ).
  7. ↑ Morvarid Dehnavi: The politicized gender - Biographical ways to the student protest of "1968" and to the new women's movement . Transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2013, ISBN 978-3-8376-2410-6 , p. 41-43 .
  8. ↑ Rebecca Hillauer: Beginning of the new women's movement. The liberating "tomato throw" from 1968. In: Deutschlandfunk Kultur. September 12, 2018, accessed March 3, 2020 .
  9. ↑ 68erinnen: Angry with the comrades. Flyer of the Women's Council 1968. In: emma.de. Emma, ​​April 5, 2018, accessed March 3, 2020 .
  10. ↑ Flag of the Frankfurt Women's Council. Historical Museum Frankfurt, accessed on April 20, 2020 .
  11. ^ Martin Lüdke: Notes to Theodor W. Adorno. Pedestrians . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . August 6, 1994, p. 25 .
  12. ↑ Benjamin Korn: My 68 . In: The time . May 9, 2018, p. 52 .
  13. ↑ Morvarid Dehnavi: The politicized gender - Biographical ways to the student protest of "1968" and to the new women's movement . Transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2013, ISBN 978-3-8376-2410-6 , p. 41 .
  14. ↑ Sibylla Flügge: From women's council to women's project. A personal report on the beginning of the new women's movement in Frankfurt am Main . In: Kirsten Beuth, Kirsten Plötz (eds.): An exchange about women's history (s) in two German states . Triga Verlag, Gelnhausen 1998, ISBN 3-931559-95-5 , p. 152 .
  15. ↑ Morvarid Dehnavi: The politicized gender - Biographical ways to the student protest of "1968" and to the new women's movement . Transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2013, ISBN 978-3-8376-2410-6 , p. 33, also note 90 .
  16. ↑ Morvarid Dehnavi: The politicized gender - Biographical ways to the student protest of "1968" and to the new women's movement . Transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2013, ISBN 978-3-8376-2410-6 , p. 42 .
  17. ↑ Frankfurter Frauen (Ed.): Women's Yearbook 1 . Verlag Roter Stern, Frankfurt am Main 1975, ISBN 3-87877-078-2 , p. 25 .
  18. ↑ Sibylla Flügge: From women's council to women's project. A personal report on the beginning of the new women's movement in Frankfurt am Main . In: Kirsten Beuth, Kirsten Plötz (eds.): An exchange about women's history (s) in two German states . Triga Verlag, Gelnhausen 1998, p. 139 .
  19. ^ Action 218. In: Digitales Deutsches Frauenarchiv. Retrieved March 3, 2020 .
  20. ↑ a b Sibylla Flügge: optimistic mood in the "women council" . In: Research Frankfurt . No. 1 , 2018, p. 68-69 .
  21. ↑ Sibylla Flügge: From women's council to women's project. A personal report on the beginning of the new women's movement in Frankfurt am Main . In: Kirsten Beuth, Kirsten Plötz (eds.): An exchange about women's history (s) in two German states . Triga Verlag, Gelnhausen 1998, ISBN 3-931559-95-5 , p. 138 .
  22. ↑ Frankfurter Frauen (Ed.): Women's Yearbook 1 . Verlag Roter Stern, Frankfurt am Main 1975, ISBN 3-87877-078-2 , p. 48 .
  23. ↑ Morvarid Dehnavi: The politicized gender - Biographical ways to the student protest of "1968" and to the new women's movement . Transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2013, ISBN 978-3-8376-2410-6 , p. 43 .
  24. ↑ Frankfurter Frauen (Ed.): Women's Yearbook 1 . Verlag Roter Stern, Frankfurt am Main 1975, ISBN 3-87877-078-2 , p. 45-48 .
  25. ↑ Sibylla Flügge: From women's council to women's project. A personal report on the beginning of the new women's movement in Frankfurt am Main . In: Kirsten Beuth, Kirsten Plötz (eds.): An exchange about women's history (s) in two German states . Triga Verlag, Gelnhausen 1998, ISBN 3-931559-95-5 , p. 135 .
  26. ↑ Silvia Kontos: From love to work to overthrow society? To dispute about housework . In: Christine Eifler (Ed.): A little hatred of men suits every woman: Experiences with feminism . Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-86153-021-X , p. 92 .
  27. ↑ Helgard Kramer: A biography of the 1968 generation . In: Ulrike Vogel (Hrsg.): Paths to sociology and women and gender studies. Autobiographical notes from the first generation of female professors at the university . VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 3-531-90078-1 , p. 231-242 .
  28. ↑ There was something else . In: Frankfurter Rundschau . August 15, 2018, p. 30 .
  29. ^ Exhibition in Frankfurt: Student revolt and women's struggle. Inge Werth documented the wild years. In: www.op-online.de. August 10, 2018, accessed May 11, 2020 .
  30. ↑ Women's Department of the City of Frankfurt am Main (ed.): Wirsindso * free. 3 decades of new women's movement in Frankfurt. 58 Frankfurt women’s projects connect yesterday - today - tomorrow. Milestones from the law and history of the Frankfurt women's movement . Frankfurt am Main 2002 ( frankfurt.de ).
  31. ↑ Ulla Wischermann: From women's council to women's professorship. The new women's movement and the 1968 departure . In: Goethe University (ed.): Die 68er: Research Frankfurt. The science magazine of the Goethe University . No. 1 . Frankfurt am Main 2018, p. 66 ( uni-frankfurt.de [PDF]).
  32. ↑ Sibylla Flügge: From women's council to women's project. A personal report on the beginning of the new women's movement in Frankfurt am Main . In: Kirsten Beuth, Kirsten Plötz (eds.): An exchange about women's history (s) in two German states . Triga Verlag, Gelnhausen 1998, ISBN 3-931559-95-5 , p. 147 .
  33. ↑ Morvarid Dehnavi: The politicized gender - Biographical ways to the student protest of "1968" and to the new women's movement . Transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2013, ISBN 978-3-8376-2410-6 , p. 41 .
  34. ↑ Ulla Wischermann: From women's council to women's professorship. The new women's movement and the 1968 departure . In: Goethe University (ed.): The 68er. Research Frankfurt. The science magazine of the Goethe University . No. 1 . Frankfurt am Main 2018, p. 62–68 ( uni-frankfurt.de [PDF]).
  35. ↑ Dörthe Jung: How the women's movement moved Frankfurt. New beginnings and rebellion: The new women's movement in Frankfurt 1968–1990. Lecture at the German Architecture Museum Frankfurt am Main. (PDF) October 4, 2017, accessed March 9, 2020 .