Susanne Kramer-Friedrich

Susanne Kramer-Friedrich (* 16th July 1935 in Zurich ) is a Swiss study's leader, journalist and women's rights activist .

Live and act

Origin, education and family

Susanne Kramer-Friedrich was born on July 16, 1935 in Zurich as the second child of the businessman Walter Friedrich and the pianist Ida, née Pfister. She grew up with an older brother in Zurich-Wollishofen .

From 1948 to 1954 she graduated from the Hohe Promenade grammar school in Zurich and graduated with a high school diploma. In the following two years, she obtained her primary school teacher diploma at the cantonal college. 1956/1957 she worked as a primary school teacher in Zurich-Friesenberg .

From 1957 to 1961 he studied phil. I in German and French literary studies at the Universities of Geneva with Marcel Raymond and Zurich with Emil Staiger .

In 1960 she married the theologian Werner Kramer from Zurich. The couple had three children, Matthias (* 1963), Thomas (* 1966) and Ursina (* 1969).

job

Middle school teacher and boarding school director

From 1959 to 1963 Susanne Kramer worked as an assistant teacher in German at the Hohe Promenade secondary school in Zurich. From 1960 to 1962 she and her husband ran the Reformed Student House on Moussonstrasse Zurich and from 1962 to 1984 also co-directed the boarding school of the Protestant Teachers' College in Zurich-Unterstrass. From 1967 to 1977 she was a German teacher at the Protestant Kindergarten Teachers 'Seminar in Zurich-Unterstrass, and from 1972 to 1984 assistant teacher for German and school theater at the Protestant Teachers' Seminar in Zurich-Unterstrass.

Publicist and Editor

From 1973 to 1992 Susanne Kramer was editor of the church messenger for the canton of Zurich and was in charge of the departments of education, evangelical spirituality and creative design. From 1978 she was deputy editor-in-chief there and repeatedly interim editor-in-chief with a focus on socio-political issues, the position of women, culture, art and visual meditations.

Head of Studies

From 1993 to 1997 she worked as a director of studies at the Protestant conference and study center in Boldern in Männedorf, where she was responsible for life issues and literature. She has been co-editor of boldern! Texte since 2012 .

Paraprofessional engagements

From 1972 to 1980 she worked in the construction phase of the House of Silence and Reflection in Kappel am Albis in the former Kappel Monastery , where she led meditation courses and mourning seminars.

In 1986 she was a co-initiator of the Ecumenical Women's Movement in Zurich, then a member of the steering group and its president from 2000 to 2012. As co-responsible for women's worship services in Zurich, she drew, wrote texts and melodies for women's songs and headed the Neuland Bibel series .

From 1988 to 2012 she conceived and directed 25 women's trips to Italy (Tarot garden by Niki de Saint Phalle, Capalbio; sculpture garden by Daniel Spoerri, Seggiano), to Germany (Rhineland / Disibodenberg) under the title The Spiritual Dimension of Art together with Simone Staehelin from Basel : Hildegard von Bingen , Stuttgart / Hanover: Niki de Saint Phalle), to France (Côte d'Azur: Henri Matisse, Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso).

From 1990 to 2010 he worked in the labyrinth movement. Susanne Kramer initiated the labyrinth on the grounds of the Evangelical Conference and Study Center in Boldern, Männedorf and created the labyrinth map for Switzerland. From 1970 to 1980, as a member of the board of the Zurich Unterstrass / Oberstrass neighborhood association, she dealt with social and transport policy issues in the neighborhood.

She was politically committed to equal rights for women in work, business and society. Your submission to the Federal Council resulted in the total number of hours of unpaid housework and family work being officially recorded in the 2000 census. She was a member of the Zurich women's party FraP (women make politics).

Honors

On September 4, 2004, on the occasion of the third Swiss Women's Synod in Basel, Susanne Kramer-Friedrich was awarded the Prize of the Women's Church Calendar, the Hanna-Strack Prize, in recognition of her contribution to the ecumenical women's movement in Zurich. In the laudation, Pastor Monika Frieden particularly emphasized the poetry, composition and translation of songs for the women's services.

Publications (selection)

• Bible for everyone. Ways to the Bible for people from A to Z. Ed. Church Council of the Canton of Zurich, Theological Publishing House Zurich, Zurich 1981.
• With Verena Eggmann: five loaves of bread and two fish. Ruth von Fischer - art as a collective work. Theological Publishing House Zurich, Zurich 1981.
• Job. Twelve woodcuts by Heinz Keller. Texts selected and edited by Susanne Kramer. Sonnenberg Press, Winterthur 1988.
• Ecumenical women's songbook. Edited with Lilo Schmidt. Verlag Musikhaus Pan, Zurich 1990.
• Labyrinth women go their own way. Ten years of the Swiss labyrinth movement. In: Ilse M. Seifried: The labyrinth or the art to wander. Haymon-Verlag, Innsbruck 2002.
• Peter Walss, prayers - lying on your back. (Editing). Gotthelf-Verlag, Zurich 1993.

Literature (selection)

• «... tear off where lock and bolt for.» To Friedrich von Spee. In: Orientation , No. 3, 55th year, Zurich, February 15, 1991, pp. 31–33.
• "We women are the Church." On the death of Marga Bührig . In: Church messengers for the Canton of Zurich , No. 6, 2002, p. 2.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Honored with the Hanna Strack Prize. ( Memento of October 7, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Basel, September 4, 2004.