Fence rider

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Fence rider

description feminist magazine
language German
publishing company Fence Rider ( GDR , Germany )
Headquarters Leipzig
First edition 1989
attitude 1995
Widespread edition 5000 copies
(1990)

Zaunreiterin was the first independent women's magazine in the GDR . It was published in Leipzig from 1989 to 1995 .

The word Zaunreiterin ( Old Norse tūnriða , Middle High German zūnrīte , Old High German hagzissa, hag (a) zu (sa)) is a female being on the border (the fence) between the worlds that can mediate between life and death. “She is special, incomprehensible, not easy to understand, someone who knows. In some legends she is the femina saga, the wise woman. ”It was only with industrialization in the early modern period that today's image of a witch was constructed from it.

context

With the end of the GDR, women's and family policy in the GDR ended . The equality of women and men had constitutional status in the GDR since 1949. In contrast to the Federal Republic of Germany, all laws and regulations that contradicted the principle of equality were repealed. The ideal was the working woman, but this often led to a double burden. Women in higher professional positions were rare, but women were able to act more independently than in the Federal Republic of Germany. Unlike in the Federal Republic of Germany, divorces were legal up to the 12th week without being assigned guilt and without spousal support and abortions. After the reunification and peaceful revolution in the GDR , what questioned women's self-esteem disappeared. In this context, the “female fence rider as a vision of a female counter-public” was created.

In the Zaunreiterin , the editors reflected on the "reality of women in this time of political upheaval" and criticized the prevailing image of women:

“According to the GDR constitution of April 9, 1968, women and men have equal rights. Little of this is noticeable for women. […] The fathers did not assume conscious responsibility for their children during maternity leave. [...] Women carry the entire private reproductive process. [...] It is very clear that equal rights in the old sense demanded a lot more work and strength from us women. We are no longer ready for that! "

- Political manifesto of the editors of the fence rider , 1989

Among other things, the editors were concerned with the new regulation of housework and family work and an "exchange of experiences that should strengthen".

Before 1989 there had already been women's magazines in the GDR, but without any pronounced socio-critical or feminist claims: There was the fashion and culture magazine Sibylle , the fashion magazine Pramo and the Für Dich . A critical examination of the ideological ideal images of the GDR ruling party SED and the actual experiences of women did not take place in these magazines. As a result, informal women's groups of the non-governmental GDR women's movement founded their own magazines, such as Lila Band , frau anders and Das Netz . In the absence of an independent public in the GDR, these publications appeared under the protection of the church in the GDR with the protection note 'only for internal church service' in a limited edition. However, the editors of the fence rider made it a point to want to publish a newspaper that was independent of the church.

The feminist press experienced a heyday with the East German women's movement in autumn 1989. A large number of feminist women's magazines appeared in the new federal states. These included the Ypsilon in Berlin, possibly the student council of the University of Leipzig, the women's page of Petra Lux from 1990 to 1991 in the Leipzig weekly newspaper DAZ , from 1992 the Weibblick of the independent women's association in Berlin, between 1993 and 1996 the InFemme of the association KuKuC and between 1994 and 2001 the LILITH magazine from a women's perspective in Halle (Saale).

Appear

The fence rider was founded as a group of six women at the end of 1988. She wanted to continue the samizdat magazine GlasNot . There were personal contacts with the GlasNot editorial team. At Whitsun 1989, the future editors presented their newspaper project at the 6th women's group meeting “Between Breaking Up and Perseverance” in Jena. The working title of the magazine was Glashaus , based on the title of GlasNot .

Only with the revolutionary upheavals in autumn 1989 was it possible to publish free newspapers in the GDR. In October 1989 the zero number appeared as a double-printed A4 sheet. In March 1990 the Zaunreiterin published the first issue with an edition of 5000 copies. Zaunreiterin was the first independent women's magazine in the GDR. None of the women had any journalistic training or previous experience. One of the six editors founded the Zaunreiterin publishing house in April 1990 - the first women's publishing house in the new federal states . It was sold by subscription, street sales and in stores. From the end of 1990 the editorial team was able to meet in the newly founded women's cultural center, the former youth club “Jörgen Schmidtchen” at Löbauer Straße 49 in Leipzig-Schönefeld.

There was no financial support or the help of a publisher for the production of the first edition. The women financed the production and printing from their own private funds. Only when West German funding and association structures found their way into the new federal states at the beginning of the 1990s was it possible to apply for funding. “After the fourth edition, we got a computer through a grant. With that, a lot of the layout, corrections and all changes in general were possible in a completely different way. ”( Christine Rietzke ) Personnel positions were paid with the help of job creation measures (ABM).

attitude

With the waning of the East German women's movement since the mid-1990s, the engagement of the Zaunreiter's editors also decreased. There were always changes in the editorial team and ultimately too few women to get involved. The last issue of the magazine appeared in 1995.

literature

  • Eva Kaufmann: Beautiful, strong and brave. Variants of female magazine culture: "Ypsilon" and "Zaunreiterin" . In: Helga Grubitsch (Ed.): “I don't want to deny my grief and not my hope”. Change in cultural perceptions of East German and East European women after 1989 . Bochum 1994, p. 127-137 .
  • Eva Kaufmann : To do something of your own between all stools. CVs of independent women's magazines (east) 1989-1992 . In: Center for Interdisciplinary Women's Research at the Humboldt University Berlin (Ed.): Gender Wende? Documentation of the lecture series in the winter semester 1991/92 at the ZIF . Berlin 1992, p. 58-70 .
  • Vera Linß: Women's journalism after the fall of the Wall in the GDR. Comparison of aspiration and its implementation - an analysis by “Ypsilon” and the DAZ women's side . unpublished thesis. University of Leipzig, Leipzig 1991.
  • Uta Schlegel: Women's magazines from an East German perspective. Images of women, reception, makers and developments . In: Ilse Nagelschmidt (ed.): Women researchers introduce themselves: Lecture series, Part VII . Leipziger Univ.-Verlag, Leipzig 2003, p. 249-288 .
  • Barbara Schnalzger, Sabrina Weidner: Fence rider - an opportunity to think through and discuss womanhood together . In: Digital German Women's Archive . 2019 ( digitales-deutsches-frauenarchiv.de [accessed on May 20, 2020]).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Christine Rietzke: Zaunreiterin - A magazine from women for women . In: Louise Otto's women's newspaper in the context of women's press and women's movement. Reports from the 17th Louise Otto Peters Day . Leipzig 2009, p. 115-123 .
  2. ↑ Wolfgang Pfeifer et al .: "Witch". In: Etymological Dictionary of German (1993), digitized version revised by Wolfgang Pfeifer in the Digital Dictionary of the German Language. Retrieved June 17, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Gerhard Köbler: "Z". In: Middle High German Dictionary (3rd edition). 2014, accessed June 17, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Duden. In: duden.de. Retrieved June 18, 2020 .
  5. ↑ The term witch - dealing with the witch hunt. In: hexenprozess-leipzig.de. Retrieved June 18, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Silvia Federici: witch hunt . Unrast Verlag, 2019, ISBN 978-3-89771-322-2 .
  7. ↑ Rebecca Hillauer: Women's rights in the GDR: "It was about making women functional". In: Deutschlandfunk Kultur. June 27, 2018, accessed May 21, 2020 .
  8. ^ A b Robert Havemann Society (ed.): Departure from Silence. Women's initiatives: "Zaunreiter" An autonomous women's magazine from the GDR . GZ / A1 / 983, p. 1-2 .
  9. ↑ Regine Bankert, et al: For a holistic policy by and for women and men . In: Samirah Kenawi (ed.): Women's groups in the GDR in the 80s. A documentation . Berlin 1995, p. 241-243 .
  10. ↑ ZAUNREITERIN- A MAGAZINE BY WOMEN FOR WOMEN. (PDF; 427.84 kB) In: frauenkultur-leipzig.de. April 19, 2019, accessed June 18, 2020 .
  11. ^ Robert Havemann Society (ed.): The editors: "Zaunreiterin" - a female counter-public. GZ / A1 / 928, 1989.
  12. ↑ 25 years of society in the mirror of 25 years of sociocultural center for women culture in Leipzig. (PDF; 9.61 MB) In: frauenkultur-leipzig.de. Sociokultural Zentrum Frauenkultur eV Leipzig, 2015, accessed on June 18, 2020 .