“Zaunreiterin”: A magazine by women for women
Independent publications in the GDR before & around 1989
Sharing information, views, announcements or appeals with other groups was only possible to a very limited extent. Many people did not have a landline telephone. One frequently used opportunity for exchange and networking was printed matter, which could be printed without state authorisation if there were fewer than 100 copies. Many leaflets and information materials therefore appeared “under the umbrella of the church” and were labelled “For internal church use only”.
A small number of self-produced “magazines” were published by individual women* groups, such as the “Lila Band” [1987 – 1989] from Dresden or “frau anders” [beginning 1989 – 1993] in Jena – self-folded booklets in A5 format.
IIn 1988, the samizdat magazine “GlasNot” [self-published and underground magazine] was published in Leipzig with a circulation of 50 copies. As the activists of this magazine stopped due to their departure from the GDR, a request was made privately to a friend to take over this magazine. She took the question to a self-organised parents’ circle: “At the time, we were a group of women (and some men) who were concerned with feminism, the women’s movement and the lack of equality for women in the GDR, among other things.”
As a result, five women founded the independent women’s magazine “Zaunreiterin” in order to publicly discuss topics in the context of comprehensive equality that were not taken for granted in the GDR.
*Chronological snapshots of the development of Zaunreiterin from 12-1988 to 12-1991 *
The group met for the first time in the winter of 1988/1989. In May 1989, the project was presented at the GDR-wide women’s* meeting in Jena. The first issue was published in December 1989, the first printed magazine at the beginning of March 1990.
“…we also feel an imbalance between social norms and our own ideas, whether political, economic or social. What we want as women is more than equality, it is something else. For us, equality would mean sharing in the prerogative of our fathers, it would mean accepting their laws and values, it would mean sharing in their beliefs. We will first engage with our womanhood, discover it, speak of our feelings…” [from Zaunreiterin No. 1 | 03-1990]
1989
1989 03
Request to take over the underground magazine “GlasNost”
1989 04-05
Consideration of the continuation as a magazine from a “feminist perspective”: Magazine working title 1: Glashaus || Magazine working title 1: Macht los
26-28 May 1989
Presentation of the idea for the newspaper at the 6th women’s group meeting “Zwischen Aufbruch und Beharren” (of the Protestant Church) in Jena || approx. 300 participants from all over East Germany
22 November 1989
Meeting of Leipzig women’s groups in the Protestant Trinitatis church in Leipzig-Reudnitz
13 December 1989
Publication of the zero number
1990
*17 January 1990 *
House of Folk Art Women’s Action Day with information stand fence rider; collecting donations
15 March 1990
First issue of Zaunreiterin goes to print
18 March 1990
Volkskammer elections
28 March 1990
First issue of Zaunreiterin taken from the printers
06 April 1990
Business registration by C. R. – “Opening of the Zaunreiterin publishing house” in Leipzig 7050, Elsastrasse 12
26 April 1990
Article in the Leipzig “Union” Claims and sensitivities in being a woman by Maritta Angotti after an interview with C. R.
06 May 1990
Local elections in Leipzig
25 June 1990
_Demonstration against Paragraph 218 on the market square in Leipzig _
In June 1990, the State Treaty on German Unity was negotiated. For this reason, the Leipzig Women’s Initiative called for a rally and demonstration on 25 June 1990 in favour of retaining the GDR’s customary solution to Section 218. Female fence riders were there.
15 September 1990
Zaunreiterin stand at the festival in the Women’s Cultural Centre at Löbauer Straße 49 in Leipzig – organised by Lila Pause, RosaLinde and Rosa Archiv.
11 | 1990
Zaunreiterin call for cooperation and request for contributions in the “Frauenblättern” of the Leipziger Fraueninitiative
Copy of the original
1991
18 December 1991
Presentation of the “Women’s Initiatives in the New Federal States” awards by the Federal Minister for Women, Angela Merkel
From the laudation by the chairwoman of the jury, Dr Edith Niehuis, Member of the Bundestag, Chairwoman of the Bundestag Committee on Women and Youth:
I would like to conclude by presenting a project that has rendered outstanding services in this sense. The jury did not award it a cash prize, but it attracted all the more interest. We thought that we could provide effective support for this project by drawing attention to it, indeed by promoting it, as part of a fourth prize at this award ceremony. It is the Leipzig project group “Zaunreiterin”, which published the magazine of the same name “Zaunreiterin” immediately after reunification […].
31 December 1991
Business deregistration of Zaunreiterin by C. R. at the tax office
Copy of the original
The social and personal situations had changed in the first years of German reunification – and with them, of course, the Zaunreiterin project. This is an inherent dimension of all processes and developments. As a result, 1992 was also associated with several personnel changes. New paths began for important project participants of the “first years” – beyond the “Zaunreiterin project”. Other Zaunreiterin project participants took over.
After issues 0 to 6/7 from 1989-1991, the Zaunreiterin project published a further seven Zaunreiterin issues up to 1995.
More information