Lesbian Action Center West Berlin

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The Lesbian Action Center West Berlin (LAZ) emerged from the women's group that was founded in 1972 within the Homosexual Action West Berlin (HAW). This women's group named itself the Lesbian Action Center in 1975 and moved into its own factory floor at Kulmer Strasse 20a. The lesbian counseling service has been working there since 1987. Actions and demands of the Lesbian Action Center in the 1970s provided the impetus for large parts of society to develop an open-minded attitude towards lesbians today .

structure

The LAZ was grassroots democracy and independent of parties and state funding. Gisela Necker , among others, was involved in the establishment . In the weekly plenary session, the working groups exchanged ideas, discussed basic principles and got to know new women. Here, too, the newcomers used the self-awareness groups according to the consciousness raising method :

"With their self-awareness, the activists fought their own prejudices against women, self- hatred and misogyny and the patriarchal attribution of female decency in the 1970s ."

Phases of political development

The activists were primarily working women, then increasingly studying women, and they brought with them the demands of the left. At the beginning, the HAW women's group formulated:

“So far we have only met in the relevant bars. But we all know that basically everyone is left alone there. [...] We want to end this state of fear, isolation and competitive thinking. [...] We do not let the environment, which is characterized by prejudices and taboos against all homosexuals, force us into a subculture . "

After a few months it was said:

“It is fundamentally important to uncover the connection between capitalism , patriarchy - oppression of women, family ideology, forced roles, ignoring homosexual women. [...] This general emancipation cannot take place in a society in which people rule over people due to the profit maximization of some monopolies . "

On February 17, 1973, the group carried out its first public campaign against the lesbian baiting of the Springer press , together with the Berlin Women's Center . This cooperation continued and gave the discussion in the LAZ a feminist turn. This is documented by Cristina Perincioli in interviews. One of the older activists put it this way in retrospect:

“The fact that I am quite oppressed as a woman was only sensitized to me later by the women's movement , not the lesbian movement ; that it is unreasonable when men whistle after me. I had previously accepted that as fate. It was only through this sensitization that I accepted myself as a woman. It wasn't until my forties that I learned that I liked being a woman. I realized that men are worse off because of their pressure to perform. Until then, I had envied her. Now I understood that achievement and career are not everything. And I learned to get off this active role, that 'Kessen father manner' (masculine demeanor). It was quite a step in my life to realize that I definitely have a feminine, soft side to me that I had previously hidden, especially in my sexuality, and that I could now allow. "

A new radicalism developed from this, with which lesbians stood out from heterosexual feminists; they postulated: " Feminism is the theory, lesbianism the practice". The “woman-identified woman” already offers resistance to patriarchy because of her way of life independent of men.

"After that, heterosexual relationships meant not only a connection with the male oppressor, but also a tremendous diversion of women's energies that would be spent on stabilizing men and patriarchy rather than on women's liberation."

A woman from the women's center experienced it this way:

“I mainly experienced affection from the old lesbians, for myself as a woman, they simply love women and in that sense they love me too. With the lesbian movement, on the other hand, we only experienced a demarcation: 'I am now something better than you!' I didn't feel pressured to become a lesbian, but the pressure was there and made me think: How do you feel about men? That was virulent for years and continues to this day. In the meantime I have built relationships with women that were as deep as I have only met once with a man to this day. "

A group of older lesbians withdrew into group L74 in 1974 with the desire for “lifting of isolation, fellowship with lesbians of the same age (outside the sub, ie red light bars for lesbians), looking for friends, clarifying their own identity and helping with disputes with society. ”The group published“ Our Little Newspaper ”UkZ from 1975 to 2001. Well-known members of the L74 group were Kitty Kuse - the founder, Hilde Radusch and Ilse Kokula .

Publications

From 1974 onwards, three self-published publications:

  • HAW-Frauengruppe (Ed.): One is not one - together we are strong. Documentation, Berlin 1974
  • Our little newspaper UkZ (1975-2001)
  • Lesbian press 1975–1982
  • 1976–1984 women from the LAZ ran Amazonenverlag - the first publishing house in Europe with mainly lesbian literature.
  • 1974–1987 Regina Krause - member of the LAZ - led the women's book distribution. Many important English and French texts were translated and, thanks to this early distribution, were quickly fed into the feminist movement, including “Frauenliebe”, “Nationalität lesbian”, as well as the early books from the women's self-publishing house of the Frauenzentrum Berlin , such as “Hexengeflüster” and “Frauenstaat - Männerstaat” ".

public relation

The Berlin lesbian group conveyed its concerns to the public through taboo-breaking actions such as

  • Kiss-In in front of department stores May 1, 1973,
  • Fire on Berlin's Wittenbergplatz,
  • Organization of women's rock parties exclusively for women and
  • Coming out in a television documentary at prime time.

During the broadcast, the group's postal address was displayed, with the result that further groups could form in West Germany.

"We got laundry baskets full of mail - which we answered by initiating groups in West Germany from Berlin : We asked: 'Are you ready to be a contact person?' and then we assigned the people living in the vicinity to this woman [...] so they could meet in their cities. This correspondence - back then without a PC - took place in our one-room apartment, the boxes full of letters under the bed. A very elementary job. We were in constant contact with these new groups in West Germany and more came at every Whitsun meeting. "

1972–1978 organized women of the HAW resp. of the LAZ nationwide meeting of lesbian groups in Berlin; from 1979 onwards groups in West Germany, later in Rostock 2001, Leipzig 2006, Dresden 2008.

  • In 1974 the murder trial against Marion Ihns and Judy Andersen mobilized lesbian groups and women's centers all over West Germany. Many leaflets reflected the story of suffering that came to light.

The foundation "FrauenMediaTurm" formulates on its website:

“Both women are sentenced to life imprisonment for the contract murder of Marion Ihns' husband. The story of the women - the rape of both in their childhood, the mistreatment of Marion Ihns by her husband - are not taken into account in the judgment. […] The women's groups protest against the lurid and defamatory reporting in the middle of the courtroom and also - for the first time in German media history - 136 journalists and 36 journalists at the German Press Council. He expresses a reprimand. "

literature

  • LAZ working group (ed.): Frauenliebe - Texts from the American lesbian movement . Berlin 1981 (1975)
  • Birgit Bosold et al. (Ed.): Homosexuality_en. An exhibition by the German Historical Museum and the Schwules Museum * , Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-95498-163-2 .
  • Gabriele Dennert, Christiane Leidinger, Franziska Rauchut: Keep moving - 100 years of politics, culture and history of lesbians . Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-89656-148-0 .
  • Jill Johnston: Nationality lesbian. The feminist solution . Berlin 1976 (orig. 1973).
  • Ilse Kokula : Forms of Lesbian Subculture. Socialization and social movement . Berlin 1983, ISBN 3921495539 .
  • Ina Kuckuck (d. I. Ilse Kokula ): The fight against oppression. Materials from the German lesbian movement , Verlag Frauenoffensive, Munich 1975, ISBN 978-3881040051 .
  • Ilse Lenz (Ed.): The New Women's Movement in Germany , VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2010, ISBN 978-3-531-17436-5 .
  • Cristina Perincioli : Anarchism - Lesbianism - Women's Center. Why did the tomato have to fly so far? , in: Heinrich Böll Foundation and Feminist Institute (Hgin): How far did the tomato fly? , Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-927760-32-3 , pp. 98-117.
  • Cristina Perincioli : Berlin is becoming feminist . The best that remained of the 1968 movement , Querverlag, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-89656-232-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See the chronicle of the new women's movement on the women's media tower website, under March 1, 1972 Archived copy ( memento of the original from February 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.frauenmediaturm.de
  2. ↑ Barbara Holland-Cunz : The old new women's question, Frankfurt / M. 2003, ISBN 9783518123355 , p. 144.
  3. ↑ HAW women's group (ed.): One is not - together we are strong. Documentation, Berlin 1974, p. 14.
  4. ↑ HAW women's group (ed.): One is not - together we are strong. Documentation, Berlin 1974, p. 15.
  5. ↑ See the chronicle of the new women's movement on the women's media tower website, under February 17, 1973 Archived copy ( 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.frauenmediaturm.de
  6. ↑ A detailed documentation on the criminalization of lesbians in the Springer press can be found at: Inge Weiler: Giftmordwissen und Toxmörderinnen: A study of the history of discourse, De Gruyter 2013 (1998), ISBN 978-3484350656 , p. 383 ff.
  7. ↑ Cristina Perincioli : Berlin is becoming feminist. The best that remained of the 1968 movement , Querverlag, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-89656-232-6 , pp. 124, 125.
  8. ↑ Ilse Lenz (Ed.): The New Women's Movement in Germany, VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2010, ISBN 978-3-531-17436-5 , p. 229.
  9. ↑ As "movement lesbians" are heterosexual women who first became lesbian in the women's movement
  10. ↑ Cristina Perincioli : Berlin is becoming feminist. The best that remained of the 1968 movement , Querverlag, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-89656-232-6 , p. 126.
  11. ↑ Gabriele Dennert, Christiane Leidinger, Franziska Rauchut: Staying in motion - 100 years of politics, culture and history of lesbians. Querverlag Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-89656-148-0 , p. 41.
  12. ↑ Homosexuality_en. An exhibition of the German Historical Museum and the Schwules Museum *, Berlin 2015, chapter counter-publicity ISBN 978-3-95498-163-2 , pp. 119–121.
  13. ↑ Homosexuality_en. An exhibition of the German Historical Museum and the Schwules Museum *, Berlin 2015, chapter counter-publicity ISBN 978-3-95498-163-2 , pp. 119–121.
  14. ↑ See Chronicle of the New Women's Movement on the Women's Mediaturm website under 1 February 5, 1975 Archived copy ( memento of the original from January 30, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.frauenmediaturm.de
  15. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.frauenmediaturm.de
  16. ↑ Report on the website of the German AIDS Help: http://magazin.hiv/2011/08/15/homosexuelle-aktion-westberlin/
  17. ↑ February 17, 1973: Public action on 7 squares against incitement to lesbians by the Springer press with the leaflet: “The crimes against lesbian women” see: Homosexualität_en. An exhibition by the German Historical Museum and the Schwules Museum *, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-95498-163-2 , p. 104.
  18. ↑ 2nd women's rock party November 23, 1974 in the old TU cafeteria with women's theater and flying lesbians . A report on this in "Nebenwiderrag" Berlin, 1975, February issue, p. 28
  19. ↑ 1974 ARD documentary by Claus-Ferdinand Siegfried: "... and we take our rights" with women from the LAZ. See the chronicle of the new women's movement on the women's media tower's website under January 14, 1974 Archived copy ( memento of the original from January 30, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.frauenmediaturm.de
  20. ↑ Cristina Perincioli : Berlin is becoming feminist. The best that remained of the 1968 movement, Querverlag, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-89656-232-6 , pp. 124, 125.
  21. ↑ A compilation of the leaflets on the trial can be found in Ilse Lenz (ed.): Die Neue Frauenbewegung in Deutschland, VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2010, ISBN 978-3-531-17436-5 , pp. 245-250.
  22. ↑ Chronicle of the new women's movement on the website of the women's media tower, under October 1, 1974 Archived copy ( memento of the original from January 30, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. with photos of the action @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.frauenmediaturm.de