Women’s Center

Activists’ Background (1972)

The Winds of Freedom What was the socio-economic-political background to the sudden reawakening of the women’s movement in Germany? Frigga Haug already poses this question in her 1988 essay “Lessons from the Women’s Movement in Western Europe,” in whic...
Starting the Berlin Women’s Center (1972)

Starting the Berlin Women’s Center (1972)

Instead of a position paper we learn together We initiated the HAW lesbian group in the winter of 1971–72 and by the summer we found ourselves stuck between cozy sociability and theoretical ambitions. As a result, I and some other lesbians felt t...
Consciousness-raising groups (1973)

Consciousness-raising groups (1973)

The privat is political We called the encounter groups that we formed at the women’s center “CR groups,” after the method we had adopted from the US women’s movement. At each session, a group member had the opportunity to talk about her situation, and the...
Abortion / Gynecology (1973-75)

Abortion / Gynecology (1973-75)

Trips to Holland/ Vacuum Aspiration Method/ Modernizing Gynecology /Civil Disobedience / Self-examination/ Feminist Health Center In a 1971 action in which women publicly admitted to having had an abortion, Alice Schwarzer had already mobilized...
Prison Group (1973)

Prison Group (1973)

Hunger Strikes at the Women’s Center and the Women’s Prison The prison group was one of the first working groups at the Berlin women’s center. The group’s existence belies the image of the new women’s movement painted by authors who reduce it to abo...
Media Group (1973-75)

Media Group (1973-75)

Zensur im SFB/ Berichterstattung über den Mordprozess gegen ein lesbisches Paar/ Die erste autonome Gruppe für Medienschaffende in Deutschland gründet Text dieses Liedes ist für Dr. A. Magdalena Kemper war eine der Gründerinnen der Medi...
Lesbian and Strait Women Cooperate (1973)

Lesbian and Strait Women Cooperate (1973)

The current literature on second-wave feminism routinely portrays the lesbian movement as an “offshoot“ of the women’s centers. In Berlin, at any rate, the opposite was the case. We lesbians from Homosexual Action West Berlin (HAW) called for t...
Women Against Violence (1974-76)

Women Against Violence (1974-76)

Selbstverteidigung/ Konzept eines autonomen Frauenhauses/ Tribunale Selbstverteidigung gegen männliche Gewalt Zuerst hatten wir nur die diffuse Absicht, jeder Frau in Schwierigkeiten zur Seite zu stehen und uns nicht mehr zurückzuziehen u...

Feminist Projects (1974-76)

1974 Frauenbuchvertrieb , bis 1987 BIFF – Beratung und Information für Frauen Frauenselbstverlag (Verlag, später sub rosa, dann Orlando), seit 1974 FFGZ – Feministisches Frauengesundheitszentrum seit 1974/ www.ffgz.de ...