13. September 1968 pfefferte an angry student of tomatoes in the direction of left-wing student leader. Reason: The women should finally be heard! This is also a concern of the new Online-woman archive – fifty years later.
What used to be the Slogan “My body belongs to me” or “women are strong together”, today, the Hashtag #aufschrei and #metoo. #Women make history celebrates a new Online project of his birth. This Thursday (13.09.2018), the Digital German woman archive (DDF) online, an in Europe unique project. The goal: the preservation and awareness of women’s history in Germany.
The place in the story
The development and Expansion of the portal is supported by the government. In the coalition agreement of the current government’s goal is to preserve women’s history in a Central archive, and scientific work was held.
“We need to all get together again and again and more for the equal rights struggle of women”, urges the Federal Minister for family Affairs, Franziska Giffey: “In the Digital German women’s archive, we can see, understand, inspire us, have fought women in the past decades, for all of us.”
For more voice and recognition: the women from the Aktionsrat to the liberation of women at a demonstration in October 1968
Actors, networks, show relationships, explain – all that has been written to the DDF on the flags.
German woman archives: dear regional and networked
Approximately 40 archives, libraries and documentation centres in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Italy, have relevant original documents, journals and books from women – and lesbian-worn story together and digitized. Under the umbrella organization i. d. a. (Association of German-language lesbian/women’s archives, libraries and documentation centres) have strengthened the individual institutions in the last years of their cooperation; with the new Portal, you make your Central documents now accessible online.
In Germany, there are around 30 feminist archives, the Material for the Autonomous women’s gathering movement. Abroad is organized differently: In the Netherlands and in Denmark, for example, there is a Central archive or house of the history of women. The reason for the strong regionalisation in Germany is also in the past history of war: “It has to do with national socialism,” says Sabine Balke, managing Director of DDF. “After that, the women have made a conscious decision that you want to remain regional, as when an archive needs to close, the others are still there. Central facilities can be much faster, incorporated and our history may be lost.”
The power women of the 19th century. Century
The women’s rights activists Anita Augspurg, Marie and Arguing, Lily von Gizycki, Minna Cauer, and Sophia Goudstikker (v. l. n. r.)
To the sobering most findings for the feminists of the so-called New women’s movement, the discovery of the First (or Historical) of the women’s movement from the mid-19th century. Century be counted. The 1968ern it was missing less historical awareness than simply to Know about the historical women’s movement.
“The was shedding!”, stresses Balke. “No one knew Anita Augspurg, no one knew Helene for a Long time – you know, maybe the suffragettes in England. And the same is true today. It is referred to England, because the suffragettes were much more combative. In Germany, the bourgeois woman has established a movement clubs, has done quite a lot, but is not perceived in this way. (…) And as we come in and say: Here, the German women’s movement the first wave.”
Thinkers and women’s rights activists, such as Anita Augspurg, Hedwig Dohm, Louise Otto-Peters or Minna Cauer had found no entrance in history or school textbooks, the knowledge stocks have been beat on for a long time. The DDF is also a new awareness.
The tomato throwing: Finally heard
The ceremony in Berlin for the Launch of the Digital German women’s archive this Thursday is reminiscent of both an important reminder moments for feminists of the New women’s movement: the legendary tomato throwing. In 1968 the student movement in Germany was in full swing. Revolution was in the air, but in the women’s discontent was widespread. The social Revolution – should not apply to both sexes? But also in the left student movement, the men held the Talk which grew Frustration.
The Board’s work and Speeches – that was reserved in the SDS in the first line the men
At the beginning of 1968, some of the women had founded the Aktionsrat to the liberation of women, a feminist group within the extra-parliamentary Opposition (APO). During a speech on the 23. Conference of delegates of the Socialist German student Federation (SDS) on 13. September 1968 was Helke Sander, the concept of the action Committee, denouncing the discrimination of women in the SDS. However, the exclusively male Committee wanted to proceed without a discussion of the lecture to other topics. Threw angrily the pregnant romance languages and literature student, Sigrid Rüger tomatoes on the Podium.
This tomato throwing and its reception through the media – has brought women’s issues into the Public light. In the result, the first Weiberräte and other women’s groups were founded. Even if the abortion issue with the self-incrimination campaign mobilized in the German magazine “Stern” in 1971, the women nationwide and in large numbers, the tomato throwing as a first Manifest and a Central Symbol of the West German New women’s movement.
Helke Sander was allowed to talk after you have conferred with a tomato belonging to
“Parity of the sexes still has not reached”
“It was that the men claimed the public speech, while the women should take care of the children. And that is exactly what it is, what accompanies us even today: That the parity of the sexes is still not reached,” explains Sabine Balke, the choice of this date for the release of the DDF. “At the point, we can show that, because it was quite blatantly. The tomato has been thrown, because the women should not speak, because child-care be a secondary contradiction and not should be a part of.”
Similar to the tomato throwing, the in-depth consideration of the New and the Historical women’s movement raises issues that are not clarified in a satisfactory way. The documents and presentations of the Digital woman archive, create a more direct access to them today. Meanwhile, writing on the story for more people than just privileged white men.