Women's Congress

"What we want? Well all of it! A huge catalog. " Lisa Coch in Die Zeit, February 16, 1990," Archive of the Robert Havemann Society 
The Women's Congress in Volksbühne took place on December 3, 1989 as one of “the largest women's meetings in the history of Berlin” A. Gröschner: Kolumne Geschichtsmaschinistin . Over 1200 women, mainly but not only working in culture and arts, responded to the call, „Wer sich nicht wehrt, kommt an den Herd!“ ("If you don't defend yourself, you'll end up in the kitchen!"). While the congress' organizers had previously been afraid that the Volksbühne would be too big, soon every seat was occupied, so that some women had to sit on the stage.Archiv of Robert-Havemann-Gesellschaft Most of them fueled the fear that women would be the first and worst to suffer the consequences of the fall of the Berlin Wall. That is why they wanted to create their own advocacy group for women that was independent of the previous structures that were heavily used by the state. They demanded political participation, childcare options, quotas in important areas of society and the right to abortion. "We no longer want to be the humble and hardworking, underpaid and stupidly sold helpers and employees who are given a meager thank you every March 8th," says Ina Merkel's manifesto I. Merkel: Ohne Frauen ist kein Staat zumachen.
From the congress emerged the Independent Women's Association (UFV) in February 1990. But even if the demands of the feminist movement have hardly changed since then, the UFV soon became insignificant after its rapid rise: in 1990 it entered the People's Chamber elections on a joint list with the GDR Green Party. In doing so, however, the women were ripped off by the Greens, so that in the end they were left without a mandate. In the years to come, the UFV lost more and more of its influence. Today hardly anyone knows that this meeting took place at all. Archive of the Robert-Havemann-Gesellschaft.
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