Gudula Lorez

Gudula Lorez (born December 30, 1944 in Nagold ; † March 23, 1987 in Herdecke ) was a German publisher . She is regarded as the first German feminist publisher to publish erotic books by women for women.

Life

Lorez initially worked as a secretary , translator and journalist for Brigitte and the feminist Berlin women's newspaper Courage, among others . She was closely associated with the women's movement . So she took in 1974 in the protest at the " witch trial in Itzehoe " in part against the campaign of the tabloids against lesbians in connection with the local murder trial against two women. In their view, being a lesbian means “much more than just a form of practicing sexuality. For me, lesbian means a political alternative, a new way of life for women who refuse their role. And who in our male society try with great difficulty to realize their own womanhood. Without male supremacy. "

In 1975, together with Ursula Scheu, Renate Bookhagen and Alice Schwarzer, she published the second women's calendar, which was a kind of feminist chronicle of current and historical events and also contained current addresses of autonomous groups of the women's movement.

She later founded her one-woman publishing house under the name Verlag Gudula Lorez. He published his first book Where the Night Embraces the Day - Erotic Fantasies and Stories of Women in 1979 , which was already in its fourth edition after a year. According to a Spiegel review, she had asked all women - the “asexual, autosexual, homosexual, heterosexual” - in small newspaper advertisements a year earlier to write “dreams, fantasies, desires, desires, forbidden, hidden, cursed, crazy, wicked” and to send it to her, from which the book emerged after her selection of texts.

To motivate her to found her publishing house, she said: "I want to support the pleasure that our women's movement has to fight incredibly hard for with my bedtime stories."

Lorez is considered to be the first to publish an Afro-German author, Guy St. Louis ( Poems of a Beautiful Woman ) . With the book The Divided Woman , she also gave sex workers a voice early on and, with this theming, included whores in the women's movement. The book is the autobiography of Barbara, mother of two children, prostitute and spokeswoman for around 150 colleagues who occupied a church in Lyon, France , on June 2, 1975 in a protest against the exploitative and dangerous living and working conditions for which the state was responsible.

Mainly known as a publisher of erotic literature, Lorez also published books on broader topics such as women's friendships and relationship structures, such as jealousy in The Other Feeling or Loyalty in Heart Timeless . In 1984 she made an appeal for texts on lust for power. In 1986 she published the book It Began in the Year of the Cat. The story of a forbidden love by the French - Vietnamese writer Elula Perrin , who for decades owned the Katmandou nightclub in Paris , which is frequented by lesbians . The novel is set in the colonial occupied Hanoi , which Lorez took on the subject of a lesbian love outside of the western world. It was the last book she brought out that she was still working on when she was seriously ill.

In 1987 Gudula Lorez died of cancer at the age of 42.

On the occasion of the 22nd anniversary of her death, a memorial ceremony took place in the old St.-Matthäus-Kirchhof in Berlin-Schöneberg . Her grave had previously been restored there and the previously cleared tombstone was put back on the grave site, which had only been planted with lawn in the meantime. A group of friends had tried to preserve the grave. The initiators were Traude Bührmann , Laura Méritt and Dagmar Schultz .

Publications

Anthologies compiled by Gudula Lorez:

• Sand whispers. Erotic travel stories. Women cheat. 1975, 1985 (Heyne Verlag 1989)
• Where the night embraces the day. Erotic fantasies and stories from women. 1979 (Rowohlt 1992)
• Skin sparkle. Erotic fantasies and stories from women. ( Where night embraces day. Volume 2) 1982
• The other feeling. Stories about jealousy. 1983
• I kissed her on the mouth. 1984. Stories about women's friendships.
• Heart-timeless. Stories of loyalty. 1986

Other books published by Lorez:

• Christine de Coninck, Barbara: The divided woman. (Autobiography by Barbara) With an afterword by Pieke Biermann . 1980 (Pabel-Moewig Verlag 1987)
• Guy St. Louis: Poems of a Beautiful Woman. 1983 (Arthur Moewig Verlag 1987)
• Lutze: Common secrets. 1983
• Barbara Sheen: Beasts. 1984. Stories of Evil Women and Female Eros.
• Doris Byer: The Riddle Woman - A Career. 1985
• Elula Perrin : It started in the year of the cat. The story of a forbidden love. 1986
• Renate Guthmann: The full life. Tales from the second world. 1987. Pabel-Moewig Verlag 1987
• Shere Hite : Feminine Sexuality: by women for women. Translated from American English by Maria Griesser and Gudula Lorez. Goldmann 1987

as an author / editor (journal article):

• We women have reason to celebrate. Interview with Shere Hite . In: Courage , Volume 2 (1977), Issue 9, pp. 42–43
• How old is older Older women report about their sexuality. (selected and compiled by Gudula Lorez) In: Courage, Volume 2 (1977), Issue 10, pp. 7-9
• Second return from China. In: Courage, Volume 2 (1977), Issue 10, pp. 34-37
• Lesbianism. Hite report . (Selected and compiled by Gudula Lorez) In: Courage, Volume 2 (1977), Issue 11, pp. 28/29
• The feminist salon. In: Courage, Volume 3 (1978), Issue 7, p. 27
• (with Pieke Biermann ) You'd like it that way. Protests against ZDF film. In: Courage, Volume 5 (1980), Issue 1, pp. 42-43

Web links

• Literature by and about Gudula Lorez in the catalog of the German National Library
• FemBio: Gudula Lorez
• Memorial ceremony for Gudula Lorez, March 22, 2009
• List of cast members for the film "The End of the Rainbow"

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Traude Bührmann : Gudula Lorez. Published on FemBio.de.Retrieved July 3, 2013.
2. ↑ Lesbian love. Hite report . (Selected and compiled by Gudula Lorez) In: Courage, Volume 2 (1977), Issue 11, pp. 28/29
3. ↑ The first women's calendar was published in 1974 for the year 1975. See chronicle of the new women's movement. December 1974 ( Memento of the original from January 30, 2017 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. as well as amazon.de: query "Frauenkalender 76". Accessed on July 3, 2013. 
4. ↑ Der Spiegel : Erotic Fantasies. From October 29, 1979. Issue 44/1979 (online)
5. ↑ efeu-ev.de: Projects. Women. Commemoration of Gudula Lorez, March 22, 2009 Retrieved July 3, 2013.