Gudrun Chemnitz

Gudrun Chemnitz (born August 11, 1928 in Alluitsoq ; † July 2004 ) was a Greenlandic women's rights activist , teacher , radio journalist , editor and translator .

Life

Gudrun Chemnitz was the daughter of pastor Karl Johan Pavia Chemnitz (1884–1965) and his wife Margrethe Kristine Rosa Julie Høegh (1897–1978). Through her father she was a granddaughter of Jens Chemnitz and a niece of Jørgen Chemnitz and through her mother a niece of John Høegh , Pavia Høegh and Frederik Høegh . Her brother was Aage Chemnitz (1927-2006).

She grew up in Alluitsoq, Nanortalik and Denmark . A good education was important to her father and so from 1944 she attended the girls efterskole in Aasiaat , which she graduated in 1946. The school principal Mikael Gam then sent her to Denmark on Stevns Højskole. She then attended the Th. Langs Seminarium in Silkeborg , which she completed in 1951. After taking a summer course at Snoghøj Gymnastikhøjskole in Fredericia , she returned to Greenland, where she was employed as a teacher in Aasiaat in 1952. There she lived with her cousin Jørgen Chemnitz (1923–2001), whom she married on September 5, 1953 the following year. The marriage had ten children: Lise (* 1954), Marie Kathrine (* 1955), Nina (* 1956), Karl (* 1957), Jørgen (* 1957), Ellen (* 1959), Poul (* 1961) , Knud (* 1962), Kirsten (* 1964) and Per (* 1966). The couple moved to Nuuk and Gudrun taught at the Grønlands Seminarium practice school and at Folkeskole Ukaliusaq until 1975 .

Through her mother-in-law, Kathrine Chemnitz , she came into contact with the women's movement, and in 1965 she was appointed as her successor as chairwoman of Kalaallit Nunaanni Arnat Peqatigiit Kattuffiat (APK), the Greenlandic women's association. The association intensified its activities under Gudrun Chemnitz, as a result of which, for example, the abortion law was passed in 1973, which allowed women to have abortions . She fought for the establishment of a women's college that wanted to train women from Greenland primarily in traditional crafts. In 1968 Grønlands Landsråd approved the establishment of a women's college, provided the women's association would cover six percent of the costs. In 1976 she resigned as chairwoman. Only in the following year could Arnat Ilinniarfiat be opened as a branch of Knud Rasmussenip Højskolia . Gudrun then worked as a craft consultant for the women's association until 1995.

Gudrun Chemnitz was a member of the community representation in Nuuk from 1967, from 1971 to 1975 and from 1979 to 1995 as chairwoman. She also fought for a long time to build a church in the Nuussuaq district . She was also active as a radio journalist from 1958, when she moderated programs such as morning prayer, morning gymnastics, the children's lesson, the school radio and various programs on women's issues. She was also active as a writer, translating books into Greenlandic, editing the Christmas magazine Juullisiutit , being the editor of several books on handicrafts and writing the women's college jubilee in 1988.

In 1982 she received the plaque of honor from the Danish Community and in the same year the housewife grant from Tørsleff & Co., the Kongelige Belønningsmedalje in gold in 1975 , the Greenland Culture Prize in 1991 and the Nersornaat in silver on June 21, 2001 . She died in 2004 at the age of 75.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Biography in Dansk Kvindebiografisk Leksikon
2. ↑ Torben Lodberg : Grønlands Grønne Bog 1988 . Ed .: Grønlands hjemmestyres informationkontor. Copenhagen 1988, ISBN 87-982902-9-0 , pp. 13 .
3. ↑ January René Westh: Ordenshistorisk Tidsskrift . Ed .: Ordenshistorisk Selskab . tape 36 , December 2010, ISSN  0904-5554 , p. 19th f .
4. ↑ Dødsfald in Kristeligt Dagblad