Gerda Weiler

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Gerda Weiler (born December 24, 1921 in Berlin ; † October 6, 1994 in Freiburg im Breisgau ) was a German psychologist and educator .

life and work

With the help of her teachers and against her father's resistance, she attended secondary school, graduated from high school, married and had a daughter who died after 1 ½ years. During the war she was confronted with the excesses of male sexuality - experiences that had a major impact on her later work. Her husband died in Soviet captivity. In the post-war period , Gerda Weiler trained as a teacher in Frankfurt and practiced this profession, which supported her and her second daughter, who was now born, in Limburg from 1948 . In 1951 she married a second time and gave birth to three more children. Together with her husband she now ran a hotel in Todtmoos in the Black Forest. The couple later gave up the hotel and moved to Breitnau .

Gerda Weiler studied psychology in Freiburg and worked there in evangelical adult education. Since 1975 she has been a member of the Freiburg women's movement . In 1977 she founded the association “Women learn together” together with two other women. It was a kind of adult education center for women with a women-oriented concept; this without teacher and student relationships, in the form of joint learning.

In 1984 the association dissolved. Gerda Weiler now began to familiarize herself with matriarchy research . In the course of time she became, next to Heide Göttner-Abendroth , the most important matriarchy researcher in Germany. Gerda Weiler discovered the otherness of cultures, in which female life contexts were decisive and the female cult power in the service of the "great goddess" was formative. Her first book on this subject was published in 1984 under the title I reject the wars in the country. The hidden matriarchy in the Old Testament . In it she traced the patriarchal and family stories of Genesis back to ancient oriental ritual texts and myths that were dedicated to the goddess as the queen of heaven. In her book, Gerda Weiler uncovered the traces of the former goddess worship , which could not be completely erased by the changes and circumscriptions in the course of the development of Judaism. This interpretation brought Gerda Weiler a lot of criticism, in particular the accusation of anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism . After an in-depth analysis of these allegations, Gerda Weiler discovered not only their patriarchal misinterpretation, but also remnants of her own patriarchal thinking that she wanted to uncover with her book. It was helpful for her to examine the theory of archetypes by C. G. Jung and Erich Neumann , whose patriarchal roots she revealed in their 1985 work The expropriated myth and classified as male-patriarchal projections on the female. Gerda Weiler then reformulated the insights and findings of her first book and published it with a detailed afterword to the reviews in 1989 under the title The Matriarchy in Ancient Israel .

In 1990 another biblical search for traces appeared under the title I need the goddess. On the cultural history of a symbol . She examined the story of Judah and Tamar and showed that behind all the inconsistencies in this story hides the myth of the palm goddess with her billy goat. She followed the traces of this symbol - the palm goddess and her goat - through the centuries and found them among others. a. in the vestibule of the Freiburg Minster in the shape of the Voluptas with a goat skin around their shoulders.

In her last two books Eros is stronger than violence and The upright walk of the human woman , a feminist anthropology, Gerda Weiler turned to the subject of biology, among other things. Gerda Weiler refuted the myth of the alleged dominance of the male and tried to prove that the cultural creations of early history are not the exclusive work of men. The upright gait, the human language and the liberation of their sexuality from heat are cultural achievements of women.

Because of her books, Gerda Weiler was well known in German-speaking countries. She traveled all over Germany and Switzerland to give lectures, especially at Protestant academies and feminist institutions. She was also present on the radio (e.g. in the Aula broadcast and on the school radio). She appeared on Austrian television with Luisa Francia . Book reviews of her appeared again and again, especially about books by women in various magazines.

literature

  • Gudrun Nositschka: Don't be afraid . Correspondence with matriarchy researcher Gerda Weiler 1991–1994. Ed. Next door, Bad Münstereifel 1994, ISBN 3-9802165-7-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gerda Weiler: I reject the wars in the country. The hidden matriarchy in the Old Testament . Women's offensive, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-927164-02-X .
  2. ^ Bettina ceiling: Anti-Judaism in a new guise. Excursus on feminist-Christian fundamentalism. In: taz, January 31, 1987, pp. 16-18, with numerous evidence for anti-Judaism in writings by Gerda Weiler.
  3. ↑ Gerda Weiler: The expropriated myth. A feminist revision of the theory of archetypes by C. G. Jungs and Erich Neumann . Helmer, Königstein / Taunus 1996, ISBN 3-927164-02-X .
  4. ↑ Gerda Weiler: The matriarchy in ancient Israel . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-17-010773-9 .
  5. ↑ Gerda Weiler: I need the goddess. On the cultural history of a symbol . Helmer, Königstein / Taunus 1997, ISBN 3-927164-01-1 .
  6. ↑ Freiburg, Münster: Voluptas in the vestibule ( Memento of the original from January 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved May 12, 2010 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.zum.de
  7. ↑ Gerda Weiler: Eros is stronger than violence. A feminist anthropology I . Helmer, Königstein / Taunus 1993, ISBN 3-927164-18-6 .
  8. ↑ Gerda Weiler: The upright walk of the human woman. A Feminist Anthropology II . Helmer, Königstein / Taunus 1994, ISBN 3-927164-19-4 .
  9. ↑ Auditorium
  10. ↑ Heath Pasquay: CV Gerda Weiler. September 26, 1995, accessed on January 12, 2014 (reproduced in abbreviated and revised form based on the résumé published by the Gerda-Weiler-Stiftung).
personal data
SURNAME Hamlet, Gerda
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German psychologist and teacher
DATE OF BIRTH December 24, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH October 6, 1994
Place of death Freiburg in Breisgau