Suchergebnisse

Socialism Triumphs adorned the roof of the office equipment factory (BWS) in the Thuringian town of Sömmerda until 1990. The factory became a driving economic force in the GDR. The city, called "the capital of computers," represents a unique case of urban development and governmental support, showcasing the state's anticipated unity of economic and social policy. This article explores the everyday lives of women working in the factory (1946 and 1991) and examines the state-sanctioned women's policies, how they were implemented and how women perceived these policies and the officially accomplished emancipation of men and women. Sömmerda had roughly 23,000 inhabitants in the 1980s of which 13,000 (nearly half of them women) worked in the BWS. This research relies on archival records and personal accounts by women who worked in the factory. These records shed light on and question the actually accomplished equality of the sexes that was so imperative in socialist state rhetoric.

This paper explores the autonomous women's group Frauen für den Frieden (Women for Peace) that was founded in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in 1982. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the reasons behind the foundation of the group as well as its functioning and its rather quick decline and dissolution. A crucial reason for the establishment of an autonomous, yet illegal, women's group was the ratification of a new military law that specified drafting women into the military service in case of a national emergency. Additionally, women challenged the existing Friedenspolitik (policy of peace) of the socialist state. Opinions and views about ideology, religion and politics represented minor matters within the group yet they played a decisive role in weakening it, which was further facilitated by the infiltration of the organization by the Ministry of State Security (Ministerium für Staatssicherheit), short Stasi. The group has been discussed in previous research, primarily German-language sources, but often only as part of the larger peace movement and not in its own right as an independent organization. Its role leading up to the events of 1989/90 has also been overlooked. The paper relies on archival sources, accounts of former activists, and members of the SED who perceived the group as "bored troublemakers," broadening the existing knowledge on autonomous women's organizations in East Germany and Frauen für den Frieden in particular. It offers new insights into an important oppositional group indirectly challenging the state's power which was established as a women's organization without explicit women's issues on their agenda.

According to the theories of Marx, Engels, Bebel, and the political leaders of the GDR, the emancipation of women would be accomplished when the emancipation of the working class was realized. They further clarify the general view toward women in a socialist society; these ideas characterized the GDR and the general perception of women. The women's question was incorporated into the social question and the class struggle, and not distinguished as an individual aspect of gender relations. The question is how much equality women in the GDR had achieved and how emancipated the society, truly, was. My main focus is the analysis of the women's movement in East Germany, and whether an independent women's movement existed or not. The state's policy toward women was primarily aimed in the direction of mothers, and not toward women as women. Gradually, women began to realize that emancipation and equality meant more than employment and economic independence.