Cologne Women's History Association

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The Cologne Women's History Association is a non-profit association in Cologne , which aims to research, document and communicate Cologne 's women's history .

Emergence

The association was founded because historians found that there were no women in the history course at Cologne University. In this context, the historian Irene Franken began to research women in Cologne history and published her first articles in the Cologne women's newspaper KOBRA , which appeared in Cologne between 1982 and 1984. The suggestion to develop a city tour from the material came from a reader of these articles. Under the name “Frau Doktor Faust meets Agrippina”, the historian and Edith Kiesewalter (later Gwen Edith Bernhardt) started an extensive research for further traces of historical Cologne women.

On April 27, 1985, the two researchers offered a full-day city tour and hike about women’s history. The event - including a visit to the historical archive , visits to churches and the EL-DE house - was a complete success; Over three years almost all appointments were booked out in advance.

In May 1986 Franken and Kiesewalther founded the Cologne Women's History Association - Historical and Cultural Education for Women and Girls eV

Goal setting

From the very beginning, the active women of the association campaigned to bring highlights of Cologne women's history closer to Cologne (and later increasingly also to foreigners). H. To present individual personalities and to document how women used to live, work, live and love. In addition to factual information, personal access to history should be conveyed in order to be able to relate facts to one's own present. Another goal of the association's work was and is to make the work of women of the past in the cityscape transparent through political and publicity campaigns. A third intention is to keep the history of the Cologne New Women's Movement from being forgotten by collecting posters, writings and other materials.

The principle of oral mediation

The staff knew that many women had bad memories of their own history class because women and girls did not appear there. Hence, they put emphasis on oral narration . In 1985 it was avant-garde to lead a group through the city and give smaller lectures at several stations. The concept promoted the dialogue, and the sources were named and presented in order to share the knowledge gained. The staff felt committed to the concept of the alternative history movement : “ Dig where you stand. "

Due to the great interest, further tours of women from 2000 years of history have been developed, such as tours of the district, churches and museums, studio tours and boat tours. Themed city tours fan out aspects such as women and money , witch hunt , beguines , women's work , love of women , health , migration or Cologne originals . When choosing a topic, attention was paid to diversity: If some tours - such as those on National Socialism or women's work - are politically oriented, other tours are more typically Kölsch (crib tour, Krätzcher in the southern part of the city ). A highlight since 1998 have been the women's history tours of the Rhine, for which the association has a unique selling point and which were developed by Bettina Bab and Katharina Regenbrecht.

Around 30 different tours are currently offered. In return for most of the imitations of the women's historical city tours that have emerged over the years, the association pursues an emancipatory and cultural-political approach; In addition, the tours are based on thorough research by the tour guides.

Political Practice - Visibility in the Street Scene

The previous work of the historians has led to several interventions in public space. A first success in 1987 was the renaming of the former alley "Unter Seidmacher" to " Seidmacherinnengässchen ", because the important women 's guild of silk weavers existed in Cologne , who had the monopoly on the manufacture of silk in Cologne and was a phenomenon known throughout Europe. It should no longer be "hidden" under a male job title that there were several such women's guilds and very successful masters in Cologne. Thanks to further suggestions, streets in Cologne have been and continue to be named after women: However, these still only make up a few percent of all names. In 2009, on a joint initiative with the Greens, six new streets and squares in the trendy Rheinauhafen district were named after women, for example after Anna Maria von Schürmann , the successful nun Maria Clementine Martin , after the printer and publisher Maria Katharina Jacobine Schauberg or Elisabeth Treskow .

Another milestone was the Council Tower Debate , a public discourse about equipping the Cologne Council Tower, which was destroyed in World War II, with stone sculptures. The first list had hardly any women (5 out of 124 names). Vigorous discussions about the alleged quotation of history made the club known at the end of the 1980s. Irene Franken was appointed to the selection committee. The success - an increase in the number of female figures to 18 sculptures - was once again fought through with the Greens and has not been forgotten to this day (see list of Cologne council tower figures ).

The association collected itself for the stone figure of Anna Maria von Schürmann and commissioned the sculptor Elisabeth Perger to make it. In 2009, the association had a copy of this statue set up in the history seminar of Cologne University , where a lecture room was named after the universal scholar from the early modern period.

In a commission of the German Association of Cities, the historian Franken participated in the development of new guidelines for the history of cities.

Research, document, collect

In addition to research and communication, the archiving of women's history in Cologne is an important concern of the association. The association 's own women's archive, which includes written sources, posters, individual objects and photos, stores original evidence of the more recent Cologne women's movement, e. B. the Cologne women's center Eifelstraße , the Cologne women's bookstore Rhiannon , the Ehrenfeld women's center , it also collects feminist magazines or solicits legacies from activists. Most recently, the association was awarded the estate of Professor Maria Mies . The collections are continuously expanded to include documents from organizations that have dissolved, or from activists, women who want to have their political past secured.

The sources are currently being recorded in a database and the finding aid is to be put online. This documentation represents the local memory of the Cologne women's movement and is available to researchers.

The club's own library was named after the Cologne-born private scholar Anna Maria von Schürmann, who herself complained about the lack of women in historiography in the 17th century:

“But what remains of the traces of our name? No more than the waves of a ship in the sea (1636). "

- Irene Franken : “'But what remains of the traces of our name'. A speech in memory of Anna Maria van Schürman. ”In: Cologne of women. A city walk and reading book , pp. 241-254.

The women's library has books and gray literature on women's, gender, queer and urban history. There is a digital inventory.

Cultural activities

The Cologne Women's History Association created exhibitions and organized numerous events from the start.

  • 1986 Exhibition The History of Women in Cologne - seen by Cologne artists in the Cologne women's bookstore Rhiannon
  • 1987 Witch Memorial Year in collaboration with other women's initiatives, public institutions and the Piccolo Theater (the association was named Katharina-Henot-Kreis after a businesswoman who was burned as a witch in Cologne) - numerous events on the subject of persecuting women as witches
  • 1994 ff. Working group "Women in National Socialism - Women's Research on NS" , led by the association employee Marlene Tyrakowski and by Katrin Dördelmann from the NS Documentation Center of the City of Cologne - numerous public events and trips to Auschwitz
  • 1995 The Berlin exhibition Eine Frauensache - Everyday Life and Birth Policy 1919-1933 is shown in the VHS Cologne, expanded to include Cologne panels (Nina Matuszweski)
  • 1995 Exhibition ten o'clock punctually Gürzenich - 100 Years of Moving Women in Cologne shown in Gallery 6811, in charge: Helga Bargel and Heike Rentrop, catalog Irene Franken
  • 1995 exhibition Yes, studying women is difficult .
  • 2000 exhibition SameDiegleicheDieandere - a matter of opinion on the topic of identity, u. a. with the photographer Jane Dunker in Studio DuMont
  • 2005 Event with medica mondiale on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War about violence experienced by women in war
  • 2008 Songs for Nico - homage to the Cologne born singer with Martina Neschen and Ingrid Strobl
  • 2009 Dorothee Sölle Night in cooperation with the AntoniterCityKirche

Club life

The non-profit association has around 170 members, mostly women. A non-profit association has existed since 2011, which will be responsible for membership organization in the future. The members meet for joint activities, for example visiting external exhibitions or receive privileged access to new tours, and can use the library free of charge. The association finances book purchases, rent of the association office and the organization from the membership fees and the tours.

Around 15 active people offer city tours for women and events on historical topics. Since 2009, September 9th has been celebrated every year as Friends' Day or Women's Friendship Day as a tribute to the best or close friend. This anniversary has already been adopted by other women's initiatives in Germany and neighboring countries. Events about historical friends underline the importance of these networks through history.

In 2011, the Cologne Women's History Association launched the Ermentrude von Ranke research and action grant , which is intended to enable an employee to research the history of Cologne women even more intensively and to inscribe women in the history of the city in many ways. Sponsors are welcome, as are new ones

Support association

The history association is sponsored by the Friends of the Cologne Women's History Association. V. supports.

Networking

The Cologne Women's History Association is networked in many ways. He regularly takes part in the Cologne Archive Day ; the employee Nina Matuszewski is active in the working group Archives from Below . Along with Rita Bake from the State Center for Political Education Hamburg and the ZFG Center for Women's History, the Cologne women were among the pioneers of women’s history tours in Germany. The new way of conveying women's stories on the street in historical places led to the establishment of the local women's history network Miss Marple's Sisters in 1990 , at whose annual meeting the Cologne Women's History Association plays a leading role. The next meeting will take place in Cologne in 2013.

Furthermore, association women are active in the network of women's archives and libraries to inform, document and archive (ida).

The association has been networked with other alternative Cologne history projects since the 1980s, such as the Center for Gay History or the History Workshop Cologne-Brück as well as the historian Martin Stankowski and, among other things, called for a "different" historiography in a 1986 hearing, including the common people, the struggles Marginalized participation in power and a paradigm shift through the presentation of history from the perspective of women.

Furthermore, the association works in the alliance of Cologne women's projects and associations with the Cologne women's associations working group .

Awards

The Cologne Women's History Association and individual employees have received a number of honors:

  • 1997 Awarded the 'WOMEN PROMOTE WOMEN' award from Johnson & Johnson, Düsseldorf
  • 1997 Awarded by the Beginen eV Foundation , Cologne
  • 1997 Rheinlandtaler to the board of directors for the processing of local history and as recognition for the educational work
  • 1998 Rhineland Award of the tourism trade press for the women's history cruise on the Rhine
  • 2004 Inge von Bönninghausen Prize 'Shooting Star' to Irene Franken for her pioneering work in women's history research and mediation
  • 2010 Prize of the Beginen eV Cologne
  • 2012 Golden Rik as a "special award from the 'rik' editors for initiatives that ... do meritorious work for the community".
  • 2015 Anneke Prize of the City of Hattingen

Works on the history of Cologne's women's city

  • Irene Franken and Ina Hoerner: Witches. The persecution of women in Cologne . Köln Volksblatt Verlag 1987 ISBN 3-923243-32-4 .
  • Irene Franken and Christiane Kling-Mathey (eds.): Cologne of women. A city walk and reading book . Cologne Volksblatt-Verlag 1991 ISBN 3-923243-94-4 .
  • Annette Nottelmann: Of Beguines and Bayena Parasons. Women's history in Cologne's Severinsviertel . Cologne Women's History Association (Ed.) Cologne self-published 1994.
  • Gürzenich ten o'clock punctually. Hundred years of moving women in Cologne . Ed. V. from the Cologne Women's History Association, Agenda-Verlag, Münster 1995 ISBN 3-929440-53-9 .
  • Irene Franken: Cologne. The women's city guide . Cologne Kiepenheuer & Witsch 1995 ISBN 3-462-02415-9 .
  • Irene Franken: "YES, WOMEN'S STUDIES ARE DIFFICULT". Students and lecturers at Cologne University until 1933 . Catalog for the exhibition at Cologne University and City Library , April 28 - June 10, 1995, Cologne M & T Verlag 1995.
  • Bettina Bab and Katharina Regenbrecht: Rhine daughters, boatmen, bathing mermaids and child murderers . Cologne women's life on the Rhine. Cologne Emons 1999.
  • Irene Franken and Ina Hoerner: Witches: Persecution in Cologne . Cologne Emons 2000 ISBN 3-89705-173-7 .
  • Irene Franken, Shirin Jazaeri, Renate Staudenmeyer: What achieved? Women's life stories from the perspective of different cultures . Edited by the Cologne Women's History Association. Cologne Schmidt von Schwind 2001, ISBN 3-932050-19-3 .
  • Irene Franken: Women in Cologne. The historical city guide . Cologne Bachem 2008 ISBN 978-3-7616-2029-8 .

literature

  • Irene Franken: "Women in the cities - history of witches, whores and saints?" In: Der Städtetag 43, 1990, no . 1, p. 10 ff.
  • Yvonne Küsters: “Tourist in your own city. City tours on the history of women in Cologne. Reflections on the feminist perspective and communication of local historical women's research ”. In: METIS 2, 1994.
  • Gerlinde Volland: "Between popular mediation and research: the Cologne Women's History Association". In: History in Cologne . H. 41-42, 1997, pp. 119-125.
  • Birgit Beese: “The history of the women's city - approaches and concerns. An overview of autonomous and communal projects in Rhineland and Westphalia ”. In: Westphalian research . H. 42/1992.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "My history teacher lied to me." Women discover their history. In: The Parliament, No. 20–21 from 17.-24. May 1986
  2. ^ History in the cultural work of the cities. Notes d. German City days / edited by Helmut Lange. Cologne: Dt. Association of Cities 2nd edition 1992 German Association of Cities: Series C, DST contributions to educational and cultural policy; 19 ISBN 3-88082-154-2 .
  3. ↑ ZFG-Oldenburg
  4. ↑ http://www.miss-marples.net
  5. ↑ http://www.akf-koeln.de
  6. ^ Nicole Trum: Anneke Prize goes to Cologne women. City of Cologne - Office for Press and Public Relations, April 20, 2015, accessed on April 20, 2015 .