Independent women's association

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The Independent Women's Association , UFV for short , was a women's organization that was founded during the fall of the GDR in 1989–1990.

Established in 1989

On December 3, 1989, the participants in a women's congress in the East Berlin Volksbühne adopted the “Manifesto for an autonomous women's movement”. It was decided to form a political association to participate in the Central Round Table , which was to meet for the first time on December 7, 1989. Ina Merkel and Walfriede Schmitt were appointed as representatives of the UFV . The UFV saw itself as an organizational pool for the autonomous women's movement in the GDR and thus goes back to older groups in the GDR, such as women for peace and the beginnings of a women / lesbian movement. He also set himself apart from the nationwide regime-loyal women's organization, the Democratic Women's Association of Germany (DFD).

On February 17, 1990, the association was officially founded at a congress in East Berlin. This second foundation was necessary in order to be able to run in the upcoming elections. The spokespersons for the women's association were Ina Merkel and Tatjana Böhm . The association wanted to unite independent women's groups, women's initiatives, women's commissions and also the women's factions of the parties and mass organizations of the GDR. The UFV saw itself more as an umbrella organization, the independence of the individual women's organizations should be preserved. The UFV demanded equal participation of women in all political and economic decisions. The interests of women in the situation of upheaval in the GDR should be taken into account and a deterioration in the social situation of women prevented.

Elections 1990

In the Volkskammer election in 1990 on March 18, the UFV entered into an electoral alliance with the newly founded Green Party in the GDR , which won 2.0% and eight seats. The joint election program included the elaboration of a social charter for the two German states. After the Volkskammer elections, however, the association terminated the electoral alliance because the Green Party received all eight mandates after the election process and refused to cede any of them to the UFV.

In the first state elections after reunification, the UFV only ran in Thuringia , where it achieved 0.7% of the vote.

For the first all-German federal election in 1990 on December 2, the Independent Women's Association with Democracy Now , the Greens, the Peace and Human Rights Initiative (IFM), the United Left and the New Forum launched a list under the name “ Bündnis 90 / Greens - Citizens Movements” ( B90 / Gr) a.

Marginalization after reunification

The Independent Women's Association helped bring women's issues such as the stricter new regulation of Section 218 onto the unification agenda, but quickly lost their importance after reunification . End of September 1991 was decided by the third extraordinary congress of the UFV in Weimar that the association as registered in future association should continue to work. This contributed to the political marginalization of the UFV. This association finally dissolved in the summer of 1998. For the most part, the founders went to the East German equal opportunities administration and the project scene. Individual local groups using the name UFV still exist.

literature

  • Anne Hampele Ulrich: The independent women's association. A women's political experiment in the German unification process . Berliner Debatte Wissenschaftsverlag, 2000, ISBN 3-931703-48-7 ( book review )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://wahlen-in-deutschland.de/blThueringen.htm
  2. ↑ z. B. in the Harz district, see www.ufv-halberstadt.de