This website is a project in process of Frauenkultur Leipzig.

The content and design concept, research, interviews, texts and the ongoing further updates and expansions have been or are being developed by participants of Frauenkultur Leipzig. || https://www.frauenkultur-leipzig.de/

The association was founded on October 1, 1990 and opened the “Frauenkulturzentrum” on October 7, 1990 – which was renamed Soziokulturelles Zentrum Frauenkultur Leipzig in 1993 to reflect all its concrete activities. The association came into being as a result of the social upheaval in the new federal states – and is the result of clear demands from politically active women* to stop or actively counteract the foreseeable gender-specific discrimination.

Dealing with the period before/during and after 1989 from a feminist perspective has been part of our work since 1990.

Texts, interviews and editing of the individual sections of this website – unless otherwise stated – are the responsibility of Hsiu-Yün Cheng and Christine Rietzke. Both have actively experienced the pre-, during- and post-reunification period – from very different biographical processes and everyday social perspectives in Leipzig.

The following interviews with contemporary witnesses* were conducted in cooperation with LTM and the company loomaland ->https://www.loomaland.com/89voices: as part of the Lichtfest 2021 on the station ‘89 Stimmen ’: Christiane Eisler, Beate Ißmer, Gisela Kallenbach, Monika Lazar, Mona Ragy Enayat, Elke Pietsch, Christine Rietzke, Susanne Wagner

All other interviews with contemporary witnesses were conducted or edited by the above-mentioned two protagonists of Frauenkultur Leipzig in the period from 2009 to the present day.

Since 2024, the interviews from 2021 – 2023 have been post-processed for storage in the Open Feminist Democracy Archive -> https://www.frauenkultur-leipzig.de/angebote/aktuelle-projekte/offenes-feministisches-demokratiearchiv/ with the collaboration of Barbara Wallbraun

All interviews and materials can be viewed in the Open Feminist Democracy Archive or in the near future on request

Hsiu-Yün Cheng, born in Leipzig, (vocational training as a chemical laboratory technician with A-levels), studied chemistry at the KMU (quantum theory, followed by clinical chemistry), worked as a clinic manager until the fall of the Berlin Wall, volunteer work in women’s culture since the end of 1990, training in social therapy, seven years of theater/directing, authoring, full-time sociocultural and gender equality work in women’s culture since 1998.

Christine Rietzke, born in Parchim (Mecklenburg), 2 children; as a teenager involved in environmental and peace initiatives; after completing her training as a skilled worker, moved to Leipzig in 1985; 03|1989 co-editor of the first independent women’s magazine in the GDR “Zaunreiterin” until 12|1992; since 1992 active in the field of political and cultural education; since 1993 managing director of the Socio-Cultural Center for Women’s Culture Leipzig.

Barbara Wallbraun, born in 1983 in Eichsfeld, Thuringia, studied cultural and media education at Merseburg University of Applied Sciences; is a filmmaker, produces her own (documentary) film projects and is a media educator. Her main work “Uferfrauen – Lesbisches L(i)eben in der DDR” (D2020) tells a piece of untold (East) German history and makes it (more) visible. She was an ambassador for Leipzig CSD 2023 and is a co-founder of Netzwerk Medienpädagogik Sachsen.

Madeleine Apitzsch, born 1991 in Merseburg; studied German Studies (M.A.) and Medieval and Modern History (M.A.) at the University of Leipzig. She has been a permanent project employee at the Socio-Cultural Center for Women’s Culture Leipzig since 2017.