Germany Interviews

Manu Giese, born 1960, trade union employee at HBV (Union of Retail, Bank &Insurance, later ver.di). She came into contact with the women's movement when she was a teenager and had been active in the women's occupied house at Potsdamer Straße 139 in Berlin-Schönebergsince 1981. She belonged to the responsible group of women who, with the help of state subsidies and a great deal of self-help and work, renovated the house from the ground up. In 1986 the BEGiNE -Meeting Place & Culture for Women was opened in those premises. She lived in the house until 1998 and was active in self-administration (e.g. as a board member of the house association). She is also active in the BEGiNE as the owner of the women's pub (1986 -1998 and again since 2004).

Keywords: media

Media: Transcript (English, German), Video, YouTube Videos (German, English), Name Pronunciation Audio

Gudrun Koch was born in Kolberg in East Pomerania in 1945. She studied education in Dortmund and Berlin 1964-1970, and became a secondary school teacher of German and history, after passing the state exams. She taught from 1967-73, and in 1974 began postgraduate studies in social sciences and adult education, taught adult education, and during that same period was a co-founder of the Women’s Action Dortmund (FAD). She engaged in practical theater training in the late 1970s in Berlin, and in the 1980s pursued both theater studies and experimental theater work in Paris. Beginning in 1990 (and continuing through 2006) she worked on the establishment of a European women’s cultural association, which was the external link of European Women’s Action (EFA) eV Berlin. She planned and implemented events in Europe and North Africa, and also worked on documentaries.

Keywords: academia and women's studies, politics and the law, art/writing as activism, reform of domestic/family roles

Media: Transcript (English, German), Video, YouTube Video (German, English), Name Pronunciation Audio

Heidi Meinzolt-Depner is a language teacher, engaged since the 1970s in the peace movement and transnational political activism. She is a member of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and she focuses on alternatives to traditional 'security' politics. She was one of the co-founders of the Greens in Bayern. From 1987 to 1991, she became regional spokeswoman for the Greens in Bayern, as part of the Alliance 90/The Greens coalition. During her political career within the Greens, she took on multiple roles, including as spokesperson for the Bavarian state association and for regional and national task forces on European and peace politics. She was board member of the European Greens, as well as district chair and candidate to the German and European Parliaments. She left the Greens Bayern in 2001 after 19 years, to focus on her engagement on other initiatives and in NGOs.

Keywords: politics and the law, education

Media: Transcript (English, German), Video, YouTube Video (English, German), Name Pronunciation Audio

Tamara Multhuapt grew up in Schwäbish Gmund, near Baden-Württemberg, Germany, and moved to Berlin in the early 1970s. She obtained her M.A. in Ethnology, Sociology and Native American Studies from the Freie Universität in Berlin (Free University of Berlin) in 1979. From 1980 to 1986 she was a lecturer in the Institute for Ethnology at the Freie Universität Berlin. In 1981-82, she carried out a research project about the Azande people in South Sudan, and in 1990 "Hexerei und Antihexerei in Afrika" (published 1990) as well as academic articles also on witchcraft in Africa (such as Multhaupt, Tamara. "Sozialanthropologische Theorien über Hexerei und Zauberei in Afrika", Anthropos, n°82 (4/6), 1987, pp. 445-456). She was involved with the feminist organization, BEGiNE, when it first opened in 1986 and eventually actually worked there for 8 years, until about 1996; she particularly focused on the EU project about commemorative culture.

Keywords: academia and women's studies, art/writing as activism

Media: Transcript (English, German), Video, YouTube Videos (German, English), Name Pronunciation Audio

Marion Schmidt was born in Kiel in northern Germany. She moved to Berlin in 1976 at age 18 and trained as a librarian, eventually working as a music librarian. However. she began teaching Foxtrot and Tango steps with Brigitte Garten in 1986 in the Schoko-Fabrik in Berlin-Kreuzberg. These courses have been very popular for years. There are several women's balls and weekly dance opportunities during the year, at which same-sex couples are welcome. She offered many programs through BEGINE, beginning in the late 1980s. In 1999 Marion completed her studies in educational science at the TU Berlin with a diploma thesis on the subject: "Everything is turning! Feminist couple dance culture in the field of tension between bourgeoisie and subversive practice". This work integrates years of observations, discussions, findings, and developments in our dance pedagogical practice. The text is available on request at tanz@donnadanza.de.

Keywords: art/writing as activism, LGBTQ rights

Media: Transcript (English, German), Video (German, English), Name Pronunciation Audio