… Consequences of a “motherly housewife syndrome” …
The classic, traditional gender-specific role attributions still had a very real existence in all areas of life in the GDR in the 1980s – despite “state-proclaimed equality” and the material independence of many women. A new gender self-image does not “fall from the sky”, but all gender equality policy processes were/are very complex – and require, among other things, many positive awareness-raising experiences in public, self-determined free spaces …
In the context of “being a woman, mother, working woman”, legal provisions such as day-care centres, household days, women’s convalescence cures and… were/are certainly important equality options of the state’s reaction to real existing non-equality – but these alone were not sufficient, since especially public non-state everyday spaces and places of individual self-determination were absolutely lacking in the GDR…
Some sound bites from an interview with Petra Lux | 08-2023 in Leipzig…
“I had my third child when I was already working in the cultural centre and that was the first time I took time out like that. I had the other two during my studies; I studied all the way through. No one does that today, but it was possible back then. And a funny thing happened, because I define myself through work… so I always have, that’s my life… and I’m not a housewife and mum… so not at all. I really got into a state in this relative isolation, the ceiling fell on my head, I missed the dialogue, it was like a siding with a child. Really.”
“And then I heard that the Protestant Academy was organising a seminar on feminism somewhere in Brandenburg. And I travelled there. That must have been in ’82. And there were also women from Leipzig and I realised that I wasn’t alone with, you know, my low. … I called this condition “housewife syndrome”. So you get a tit. And that’s when I met women from Leipzig and then we became friends, met regularly and together with the women we came up with the idea … because I had a big house with a hall and stage and adjoining rooms – to found a women’s centre …”
“I also had money for public relations work and it was in the LVZ at the time – the advert is still somewhere in the cellar – “Foundation of a women’s centre. I submitted the concept to my boss and it was all supposed to be grassroots democratic. So the women were supposed to organise it themselves. We had suggested topics and then we wanted to ask: Who would like to take over? Quite naively. It was a series of events, so to speak. Yes, and we called it the “Women’s Centre”.”
“At the time, I hadn’t read any Western women’s books. My first was Anja Meulenbelt’s “The shame is over”. And we didn’t realise that there were so many women’s centres in the West. We called it that ourselves. … Anyway, my boss called me in and said: Well, that’s not possible, we have a DFD. And then I said: No problem, I’ll go there.”
“There were no objections from this side and the first event took place. I think 50 or 60 women came. It was packed, word had got round. Yes, and of course they had sent someone from the borough council. Only women were allowed… so Mrs T came. Then she made her report and a short time later I was sacked without notice.”
“I did my thing in the GDR and I paid a high price for it. And a lot of people who are now so hateful about the GDR were conformists!!! They didn’t open their mouths, they didn’t dare to do anything, they didn’t lose their jobs. They weren’t under state arrest. They weren’t banned from their jobs. They weren’t spied on, they didn’t have a bugged flat like me… “
Petra Lux
1989: 33 years old, single mother; studied journalism in Leipzig; 1881-1983 director of the Jörgen Schmidtchen youth clubhouse in Leipzig-Schönefeld, founded a series of events there under the title “Women’s Centre”; after it was banned, she was dismissed without notice; 09/1989 spokeswoman for the New Forum; co-founder of the Leipzig Women’s Initiative. 1990-91 she was editor of the women’s page “Ganz” of the DAZ (Die andere Zeitung) and freelance journalist; after completing training, she has been giving courses in Taichi, Qigong, Reiki and running the YINYANG Centre in Leipzig from 1995 to the present day
“In the summer of 89, when the New Forum was founded, I was in Tajikistan. And I came back and heard about the “New Forum”. I immediately enquired who was doing it here in Leipzig and went there the very next day and registered as a contact person. But you have to think about that first, because the contact persons… the “New Forum” was still banned at the time, and that was also a risk, because the addresses were posted on the Nikolaikirche, visible to everyone, including the Stasi. Sure, and I had to make a few phone calls. Because I’m quite realistic about it, I could have ended up in prison. I spoke to a friend about my children and she promised me that she would take my children… we sorted that out. And then I did it.” Quotes from the founding call of the New Forum: “Aufbruch 89”.
Quotes from the founding call of the New Forum: “Aufbruch 89”.
In our country, communication between the state and society has obviously broken down. Evidence of this is the widespread disenchantment and even retreat into private niches or mass emigration; elsewhere, refugee movements on this scale are caused by hardship, hunger and violence. This is not the case here. The dysfunctional relationship between state and society paralyses the creative potential of our society and hinders the solution of the local and global tasks at hand. […]
On the one hand, we would like to see an expansion of the range of goods on offer and better supply, on the other hand, we recognise the social and ecological costs and advocate turning away from unrestrained growth.
- We want room for economic initiative but no expectation of an elbow society.
- We want to preserve what is tried and tested and yet make room for innovation in order to live more economically and less hostile to nature.
- We want free and self-confident people who nevertheless act in a community-conscious manner.
- We want to be protected from violence without having to endure a state of informers and beaurocrats.
- We want lazy people and molesters to be driven out of their jobs, but we do not want the socially weak and defenceless to suffer.
- We want an effective healthcare system for everyone, but no one should celebrate illness at the expense of others.
- We want to participate in exports and world trade, but we do not want to become debtors and servants of the leading industrialised countries or exploiters and creditors of economically weak countries.
In order to recognise all these contradictions, to listen to and evaluate opinions and arguments, to subscribe to general and special interests, we need a democratic dialogue on the tasks of the constitutional state, the economy and culture. We need to think and talk about this issue together in public and throughout the country. […]
The time is ripe!
Beginning of September 1989
https://www.havemann-gesellschaft.de/archiv-der-ddr-opposition/startseite/
Christine Rietzke: I have one more question about the DAZ. Somehow you came to the DAZ… as a journalist, that’s obvious. But how did you end up on the women’s side?
“…Jan Peter, he was the editor-in-chief of the DAZ and he approached me and said he was planning the newspaper and asked if I would be interested, if I could imagine it. And I said: well, if I could, then a women’s page.”
bq.“And the DAZ really is a shining example of a newspaper for me, I don’t know of anything comparable. Look, we had a lead story that was always very topical. A whole page of interviews, a page on the economy, a page on the environment, a page on women, etc. – great!”
The entire interview will be available in the Open Feminist Democracy Archive | OfemDA, which is currently being created. See here.
