Susanne Scharff

I was very worried about the first demonstrations. I was a young mother in my second pregnancy – and was afraid of violence against the demonstrators; afraid of the growing shift to the right that I had witnessed among pupils at school. How delighted and completely surprised we all were that the seemingly impossible became possible. It was an immense pleasure to finally be able to visit our Viennese friends in their home country. I first became interested in western Germany when I learnt about women’s/lesbian libraries and their regular conferences.

The women’s scene and alternative scene in Vienna, which I got to know during the visit of the Viennese friends, impressed me so much and also encouraged me to found the women’s library MONAliesA in the House of Democracy in Leipzig and to set it up with others. The women’s library has been my life and my love for a decade and a half with the most comprehensive experiences. And that I was encouraged in my ideas, because the library was so well received, that the women’s library grew and prospered, that it was possible to orientate myself to the newly emerging needs of women and thus co-create something that was completely wanted … the growing number of women who helped to build up the women’s library, the hitherto unknown solidarity – the “rush” of working together, also supra-regionally with the women’s/lesbian libraries and archives in German-speaking countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland); inviting women authors for readings in the MONAliesA and getting to know them – unknown or famous – from the neighbourhood and from all over the world.”

The entire interview plus photo collection will be available in the Open Feminist Democracy Archive | OfemDA, which is currently being created. See here