February 1979 Newsletter

WOMEN IN GERMAN

Number 18                       
February 14, 1979
Membership/subscription fee: $5.00 ($2.00 if unemployed or student)

      With our 18^th Newsletter we’d like to thank you, our readers, for your support, suggestions and positive criticism. In our fifth year we remain enthusiastic in our struggle to overcome the neglect of women’s literature and women’s perspectives in the field of Germanistik. One of the most rewarding accomplishments for the Coalition as a whole has been the establishment of a feminist network of professional contacts and the exchange of information.

      In the past we have tried hard to keep everybody on our mailing list without strict enforcement of dues. As we explained four newsletters ago, we have reached the point where we cannot continue to produce the Newsletter without enforcing payments. Therefore, we urge you to pay WIG dues, if you have not already done so this year. Your expiration number should be on your mailing label. The increased dues ($5.00 for employed; $2.00 for unemployed and students) are meant not only to deal with the increasing costs of producing and mailing the Newsletter, but also to finance various projects WIG has been planning for years (pedagogical aids, bibliographies). We are sorry to have to adopt such stringent measures, but it is a matter of survival. The kind of excitement expressed in the following letter has given us a lot of energy. We are also mentioned in a new collection of German women poets put together by one of our German members, Gisela Brinker-Gabler (see details inside; review t follow in next issue). She writes, “Ein besonderer Dank gilt de “Women in German” in den USA für ihre Rückenstärkung. . .“

LETTERS

Dear Women in German,

      Sara Lennox put me on your mailing list over three years ago, and your newsletters have been a source of inspiration and encouragement. So far I have given up German studies three times in dismay: 1953 after a B.A. at Mount Holyoke; in 1955 after a M.A. at the University of California and 1969 after a M. Phil. At Columbia. Each time I felt  very alone with my ideas and strivings, and in 1968 they came to prove fatal to my career.

      Your newsletter has brought me back to the field, spiritually at least. Of course the Goethehaus Library and trips to Germany helped me stay in touch with new literature.

      I took advantage of this year’s MLA meeting to hear some of you speak, on the New Women’s Movement in Germany, and on Luise Rinser. Your enthusiasm and dedication touched me.

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      My teaching at this moment is limited to private students that I recruit myself. To my vague amusement I have become one of the struggling literati about whom I used to read in opulent college libraries! Yet it is a juggling act that gives me considerable satisfaction. I would also much like to try whether an impecunious woman, not attached to a university could write anything in a scholarly vein. I grew up in Germany and lived there until I came to Mount Holyoke in 1951 and I do read whatever I can get hold about the war experience, in addition to reading German women. I often would like to share some of my thoughts.

      If any of you come to New York, or are in New York, call me. I would like to hear from you!

      Thank you again for the encouragement your energies have given me to give “Germanistik” another try!

Marianne Landré Goldscheider
[redacted]

The following letter has been edited due to its length.

Dear WIG,

      I am forwarding some impressions based on a two-week tour to your members. I spoke to and with women in Berlin, GDR, West Berlin, Düsseldorf, Heidelberg, Freiburg and Munich. The outstanding feature to me was that West Germany does not have nationwide Women’s rights organizations, such as the National Organization for Women. I did, however, meet individual women feminists and groups of feminist working on various issues. Recently the Aspen Institute for Human Studies in West Berlin held a conference on “The Dilemma of Women; Homemaking vs. Career,” with representatives from eight countries, including Kathrine Clarenbach from Wisconsin.

      Proposed legislation in the FRG is pending which would prohibit sex discrimination in private employment but would not provide for the establishment of a specific agency for enforcement, such as our Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. While there are legal avenues which women could currently pursue to complain of sex discrimination on the job, the vast majority of women seem to fear the publicity and reprisals which such complaints would bring.

      I met with West German women who are actively working for the rights of trade-union women and have responsible positions in the trade unions and their association comparable to our AFL-CIO. There is no coalition of labor union women, such as was formed in the United States in 1974. West German law with regard to the rights of pregnant working women has gone in the direction of “protection” rather than equality. Employers are required to grant pregnant women 14 weeks leave (including time before and after delivery), which is paid for by the State in the case of bluecollar women and by the employer in the case of white-collar women. West German trade-inion women are seeking even longer periods of leave, and they are also seeking to increase the time children spend in school and to decrease the length of the working day, so that men and women may combine work and family.

      There is considerable feminist activity in Freiburg. Greta Borgmann has published a history of the women’s movement in Freiburg. This city has a women’s center, where the

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women are concerned with issues such as abortion and are seeking to establish a center for battered wives. Apparently a law had been enacted in the FRG providing for abortions at government expense, but the court found it unconstitutional. Now abortions are illegal in West Germany except under certain conditions. These conditions and procedures are onerous, and are not clear to most women. Thus, women who want abortions tend to secure them illegally or travel to other European countries where abortions are legal.

      A feminist I met in Munich is preparing a school course for German high school children on American studies which will include three subjects: minority rights, women’s rights and Vietnam. She tape-recorded my view on the status of women in the United States for inclusion in this course.

      I met and spoke with a young woman in Berlin, GDR, who gave a depressing picture of life there. She stated that while women are emancipation in Berlin, in the sense that they have equal access to jobs and promotions and receive equal pay, both they and men receive low pay. Women are expected to work, according to this woman, but they are also expected to perform all household duties, and there are no household workers available to help with these duties.

      I met with representatives of the Council of Europe, an organization to which the FRG belongs, in Strasbourg, France. The Council is involved in preparing resolutions and conventions which recommend legal improvements in the status of women in the 21-member countries.

Sincerely,
Sonia Pressman Fuentes

REPORT FROM THE FRG

During a recent trip to the Federal Republic one of our members, Biddy Martin, attended the fourth Congress for Solidarity with Foreigners held in Hannover from the first to the third of December. The primary focus of the conference, which was organized by the Solidaritätskomitee “Ausländer in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland”, was Ausländer and Ausländerpolitik with a secondary focus on the specific problems of second generation foreigners in West German society. In addition to the longer informational presentations by Dr. Wolgang Däubler (University of Bremen) and Dr. Hartmut Griese of Hannover, there was a series of workshops organized around particular interests of conference participants. One of the most interesting of the workshops was organized and facilitated by Marianthi Jakobs-Samolis, social worker and counselor for Greek workers in West Germany at the Diakonisches Werk in Gelsenkirchen. The workshop was devoted to the problems of foreign women and was one of the best attended, and most rewarding workshops at the conference. Over thirty women attended, of whom more than half were foreign women. We of the newsletter collective thought that the theses developed for discussion by Ms. Jakobs-Samolis and the kind of work some of the participants are doing would be of interest to the Coalition members. For more information on the conference itself, write to the collective c/o Biddy Martin.

Thesen Arbeitsgruppe I d

Die ausländische Frau ist doppelt benachteiligt.
Sie erleidet die allgemein niedrigere Wertschätzung der Frau.
In der westlichen Zivilisation.
Gleichzeitig genießt sie eine grundsätzlich geringere gesellschaftliche Anerkennung, weil sie Ausländerin ist.
Sie ist nicht nur Mensch zweiter Klasse, sondern auch Frau zweiter Klasse.
Dadurch entstehen Identitätskrisen besonderer Ausprägung, die mit der Zwischenexistenz zwischen hier und Heimat begründet sind.

Die ausländische Frau wird in dieser niederigen Stellung deoppelt ausgenutzt:
1.) Mit der zweiten Rolle in der Familie ist sie zuständig für die Dreckarbeiten, die ihr durch das patriarchalische System zugsordnet werden.
2.) Mit der benachteiligten Stellung bei den Frauen-Arbeitsplätzen erfüllt sie die Funktion des untersten Ranges innerhalb der Hackordnung.
Extrem sichtbare Folgen dieser Minderstellung sind neue Formen von Neurosen, die in den letzten Jahren verstärkt auftreten.
Diese Erscheinungen sind gleichfalls darin begründet, daß neben den genannten strukturellen Belastungen besondere Probleme für die soziokulturelle Existenz vorhanden sind, z.B.:
a) Entfernung von den Kindern
b) Negative Auswirkungen der alleinigen väterlichen Gewalt
c) Distanz bishin zur Angst vor Institutionen allgemein
d) Erziehungsprobleme, die sich aus der neuen Umwelt der Kinder ergeben
e) Mangelnde Information zum eigenen Rechtsstatus
f) Fehlende Verfügung über die finanziellen Ressourcen der Familie zB. Keine Entscheidungsfreiheit über die Rückerstattung der Versicherungsbeiträge
g) Abhängigkeit vom Mann bei der Entscheidung über Verbleib oder Rückkehr

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h) Kein Einfluß auf die Bestimmung des Wohnortes minderjähriger Kinder
j) Fehlende Entscheidungsfreiheit bezüglich eigener Berufs- und Fortbildungsmaßnahmen

                            M. Jacobs-Samolis

      Without giving the names and addresses oft he workshop participants, we though it might be interesting to include a sample oft he kinds of groups and institutions through which women in the FRG are working on the problems of foreign workers.*

Modellmaßnahme des Bundesfamilienministerium unter Trägerschaft der Caritas/Hannover
Schwerpunkt: Arbeit mit türkischen Schulmädchen

Maßnahme zur sozialen und beruflichen Eingliederung ausländischer Jugendlicher, Sprachverband Mainz
Schwerpunkt: Mädchenarbeit mit Mädchen aus Kursen in Eitorf, Troisdorf, Siegburg

Redaktionskomitee-der AGG/Reheinweg 34/5300 Bonn Materialen zum Projektbereich ausländischer Arbeiter

Frauenkreise für ausländische Frauen—Mannheim/Hannover/Berlin

BTKB: Bund Türkischer Frauen in Bayern/München

Gruppe ausländischer und deutscher Frauen im Autonomen Frauenzentrum/Hannover

Sozialarbeit im Caritasverband Hannover

Schwerpunkt: Familien- und Schwangerschafts Konfliktberatung

Deutschkurse für Ausländische Frauen an den Volkshochschulen e.g. Hannover, Berlin

Komitee für politische Gefangene und Verfolgte in Chile in Hannover und andere Städten

Amnestie International—-in allen Städten

* Write to Biddy Martin if you are interested in the names and addresses of specific women working in these areas.

WIG CONFERENCE

Summaries of Workshops/Discussions

Gabriele Reuter: Breaking Through the Silence

      Gabriele Reuter focused in her autobiography, biographies and novels on several forums of oppressions which prevent women from expressing their creativity and on ways some women overcome that oppression. As Tillie Olsen demonstrates in her Silences, few women write because patriarcy places so many obstacles in their way. Reuter’s Vom Kinde zum Menschen (1921) and her biographies of Droste-Hülshoff and Ebner-Eschenbach, both published in 1905, show how she and her predecessors broke through the silences to become writers. In her first successful novel, Aus gutter Familie (1895), Reuter exposes a society which destroys the heroine when she tries to escape her patriarchal family. In both Das Träuerhaus (1909) and Irmgard und ihr Bruder (1930) she portrays women who become successful artists by overcoming the constraints of family members, lovers and their male-dominated professions.

      Reuter has been ignored by Germanists precisely because her focus on women has been devalued. Hopefully, feminist scholars will accord her the attention she deserves as a writer committed to portraying women’s experience.

                                       Rick Johnson

Gertrud B. Pickar, “The Image of Women in the Works of Annette von Droste-Hülshoff”

      On the basis of a thorough examination of Droste’s works, Pickar shows that Droste’s writings reveal an inherent ambivalence toward women and their role in society. They provide evidence both of her own personal rebellion against the limited and prescribed role of women in her day and of her acceptance of the values, mores and assumptions upon which that role was based. Droste shows compassion with the sufferings and repression of women in their societal and marital states, but is reluctant to support any social or economic change.

Dolores Whelan, “Schriftstellerinnen in der deutschen Komödie vom Ende des 18. Bis Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts“

      From Kotzebue especially chides them for their desire for fame; Heine calls them witches, Grabbe sees them as ugly. Women writers disturb the accepted order; male writers often go so far as to accuse women writers of being diabolical since otherwise they would not be able to write. Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer, who wrote successful comedies, is silent on the topic of women writers. Later Droste-Hülshoff would write a comedy about a woman writer, but from the perspective of the male tradition. (See Whelan’s book: Gesellschaft im Wandel: Der Engel Mausert Sich. Das Bild der Frau in den Komödien Eduard von Bauernfelds: 1830-1870. Peter Lang Verlag, 1978.)

Kay Goodman

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CONFERENCE SITE 1979

1979 Workshop: The Fourth Annual Women in German Workshop has been scheduled for October 12-14, 1979 at the Siena Center in Racine, Wisconsin. The conference site is easily accessible: about 15 minutes by car from the Milwaukee airport, about an hour’s drive from Chicago’s O’Hare. The Center is situated directly on Lake Michigan, with spacious grounds idea for walks, jogging, etc. –-there’s even a tennis court! Total cost this weekend, including private rooms and all meals, will be approximately $35.00.

      We would like to remind all prospective contributors that the format of the 1979 WIG conference calls for prepared discussion topics instead of finished scholarly papers which are read to an audience. We would like to change the standard presentation style in favor of a more informal, collective method of dealing with these topics.

      Participants and contributions are invitied for the following sessions. Please send contributions to the coordinators whose names are underlined c/o the newsletter. A call for papers for the pedagogy workshop follows this announcement.

1) WOMEN IN GERMAN LITERATURE AND CULTURE PRIOR TO 1800 (Session coordinators: Jill McDonald, Gabriele Strauch, Judy McAlister Hermann)

2) WOMEN AND AETHETICS (Session coordinators: Biddy Martin, Leslie Adelson)

3) FEMINIST PEDAGOGY (Session coordinators: Charlotte K. Smith, Gail Hankins)

4) LESBIAN THEMES IN GERMAN LITERATURE (Session coordinators: Miriam Frank, Evelyn Beck)

      There will also be an informal group discussion, coordinated by Judith Scheid and Helen Fehervary on Friday evening, concerning PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL SURVIVAL AS A WOMAN GERMANIST, and Naomi Stephan and Nancy Vedder-Schults are woring on a Saturday evening presentation dealing with WOMEN’S CULTURE—-suggestions and contributions to these are also welcome! Collective projects and informal presentations are particularly encouraged. For further information, for registration forms, or to submit suggestions/contributions, write to either:

Beth Weckmeuller
U-W Milwaukee, [redacted]
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201

Johanna Moore
U-W Milwaukee, [redacted]
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF PRESENTATIONS: JUNE 1, 1979

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Call for papers or other presentations

Women in German Workshop
October 12 – 14, 1979
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

One of the sessions planned for the annual Women in German Workshop will be devoted to

FEMINIST APPROACHES TO TEACHING GERMAN LANGUAGE ON THE INTERMEDIATE LEVEL

The presentations may focus on any question relating to this general topic, such as a feminist critique of popular high school and college textbooks and anthologies, an analysis of sexism in the German language, a concrete discussion of the problems a teacher confronts when incorporating a feminist perspective in the classroom, pedagogical grating contemporary problems of German women into the classroom discussion of German civilization, etc.

The presentation should not exceed 15 minutes in length and may include the delivery of a paper, an audio-visual demonstration, or other formats. Everyone is encouraged to explore appropriate methods of manifesting a feminist perspective in in the form as well as content of her or his presentation. Collective projects and work in progress are encouraged.

DEADINE:   Persons interested in participating in this session should submit a one page statement no later than May 1, 1979 to both:

Gail Hankings
Dept. of German
University of Chicago
Chicago, IL 60637

Charlotte K. Smith
Dept. of foreign Languages
Phillips University
Enid, Okla. 73701

Graduate students and teachers of elementary or high school level German are especially encouraged to submit a statement.

Luise Rinser Fund: Plans for the Future

      A few weeks before the MLA, Luise Rinser regrettably had to cancel her appearance at the Women in German session on “Postwar West German Women Writers.” Once again we would like to thank all of you who supported this collective project with your money, ideas, and encouragement. Special thanks are due Linda Pickle and Heidi Tewarson Thomann, co-chairpersons of this year’s MLA program, who in addition to their other program responsibilities worked as hard to arrange the details of Rinser’s visit.

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      Although we were all understandably disappointed that Luis Rinser could not join us in New York, many attending the MLA found our hastily arranged substitute program thought-provoking and useful. Evelyn Beck (U. of Wisconsin-Madison), Renny Harrigan (U. of Wisconsin-Milwaukee), and Pat Russian participated in a panel discussion which provided a feminist reassessment of Luise Rinser’s importance within postwar German literature in general and women’s literature in particular. They also shared their concrete experiences teaching her novel Die Mitte des Lebens (Nina) (1950) in a graduate course devoted to post-’45 German women’s literature, as well as an undergraduate translation course. Participants were told that if they read works such as Gefängnistagebuch conception, they would have to conclude that Luise Rinser is one of the most self-aware, politically engaged women writers of the postwar period.

      Many of you were enthusiastic about our plans to invite Luise Rinser to the MLA but we think you will be even more enthusiastic about our future plans to use the $585 ($514 after expenses) you contributed. The business meeting at the MLA voted to reserve this money to bring another German woman writer either to the 1979 or 1980 Women in German Workshop. In such a way the invited woman writer will be able to join us for a full weekend of programs and activities. We will provide you with further details in the next NEWSLETTER. (If some of you contributed money only to finance Luise Rinser’s visit, we will be willing to refund your money, if you send your request to: Pat Russian, Fundraising Coordinator, [redacted])

Update on ACTFL

1) ACTFL will not be meeting in unratified states after 1980 (I think that means after Atlanta). Since hotel commitments are made 4-5 years in advance, ACTFL felt it had to honor the 1979 Atlanta meeting site, because any change at this late date would drive up the price of the hotel room approximately 15 dollars a night. At this time , precisely because of the situation unratified states and meeting problems there, ACTFL is about three years behind in bookings now.

2) ACTFL representatives met with NOW representatives in Chicago and explained why they had to go through with the Chicago conference. Strasheim reported that NOW leaders were satisfied with the information they got and the planned picketing was cancelled.

3) My impression is that ACTFL is becoming more political in its stance (as a recent editorial in Annals stated) and that AATG’s claim of the need to hang on ACTFL’s skirts (as it were) is not quite accurate. ACTFL is thinking in a more independent way and not claiming AATG dependency for its policy, for instance. Also, future meetings will be held in Octover, or at least not at Thanksgiving.

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BOOKS

Book Catalog

      We recently received a book catalog from Germany which is so impressive that we’d like to draw your attention to it. It runs to 132 pages, and includes titles on the women’s movement, sexuality, history, biography, Belletristik, theater and film books, politics, professions, psychology, sociology, law, religion—-to pick out just a few of the areas—-as well as records, posters, and foreign-language books. You can get the catalog by writing to Lillemor’s Frauenbuchladen,. The authors are charging 5 DM for the catalog to help cover printing costs. An additional charge may be made to cover mailing.

New Publication

      Soeben ist im Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag eine Originalausgabe erschienen, auf die wie Sie aufmerksam machen möchten: Deutsche Dichterinnen vom 16. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart von Gisela Brinker-Gabler, Originalausgabe, DM. 9,80, Bd. 1994. Dieses Buch ist in seiner Art einmalig im deutschen Sprachraum. Hier wird zum erstenmal die Geschichte der deutschen Dichterinnen geschrieben, die jahrhundertelang vom männlich dominierten Literaturbetrieb verschwiegen wurden. Viele der hier neu entdeckten Dichterinnen sind in keiner Anthologie zu finden, in keiner Literaturgeschichte verzeichnet. Die meisten Lebensläufe und Fotos wurden aus versteckten Quellen ausgegraben. Die umfangreiche Einleitung der Herausgeberin macht dieses Buch im Zusammenhang mit der Gedichtauswahl zu einer ersten Literaturgesichte dichtender Frauen.

Bibliography

      Susan Cocalis and Kay Goodman have prepared a bibliography of works by German women writers in translation. Anyone interested in a copy of the bibliography should write to Kay or Sue with a dollar to cover the cost of xeroxing and mailing.

Susan Cocalis
German Department
Univ. of Mass. Amherst
Amherst, Mass.

Kay Goodman
GREAL
Miami University
Oxford, Ohio

Pressure Publishers

      Last year Daughter’s Press published a translation of Verena Stefan’s Häutungen by two of our members, Beth Weckmueller and Johanna Moore. Unfortunately the press has sent out virtually no publicity about the availability of this book for courses in literature in translation. Without advertising, the book cannot sell. Please send letters urging Daughters to give this book the promotion it deserves. Write to: Daughters Press/MS 590, [redacred] Houston, Texas 77042

      Also: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux has allowed the translation of Christa Wolf’s Nachdenken über Christa T. (The Quest for Christa T.) to go out of print. Since this is such an important text we urge you to bring pressure to bear on this publisher to put this text back in print. Write to: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux/ 19 Union Square/ New York, N.Y. 10003.

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IN MEMORIAM

      On January 10, 1979, Betty Nance Weber was tragically killed in an automobile accident in Austin, Texas. Those of us who have admired her work will miss her challenging and creative ideas, “Unternehmungsgeist,” and commitment to progressive teaching and scholarship. Betty was one of those young women in our profession who have not been simply content to “make it,” but who have questioned and redefined the critical assumptions and values which dominate contemporary Germanistics. Even colleagues who disagreed with her recognized that she was one of those people who was forging a critically independent, distinctive American Germanistics. While Betty struggled for professional success, as a woman, wife and mother, she experienced the personal sacrifices and professional pressures we all have shared as women in a profession which reluctantly accepts our presence. Those of us who shared Betty’s impatience with the stutus quo and vision for the future have even more work to do, now that she is no longer here to lead us, prod us, inspire us.

      At the time of her death Betty was making plans to challenge the recent decision of the University of Texas administration to overrule the positive tenure decision of the German Department. The University of Texas German Department has established a Betty Nance Weber Memorial Fund which will be used to complete and possible publish her various projects which were unfinished when she died. Further details will appear in the spring issues of the newsletter. Anyone wishing to contribute immediately to the memorial fund should write directly to the German Department at Austin, Texas.

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Questionnaire on Women’s Literature in Translation

I am sending this survey to members of Women in German at the request of Kay Goodman who is serving on a continuing project of the MLA Division on Women’s Studies to develop a Research Guide to Women’s Studies in Language and Literature.

We should like to find out what books and/or authors are currently in the process of being translated, and which books in the opinion of women scholars in German, should be translated. Hopefully, the result of this survey will encourage the translation and publication of women writers now accessible only to German speaking readers.

In order to assure a high degree of diversity of opinion and data which are representative of women scholars in our field, please fill out the attached questions and return to me at the address below as soon as possible:

Alice Carse
Comparative History, Ideas & Culture
[redacted]
SUNY—-College at Old Westbury
Old Westbury, Long Island, N.Y. 11562

I Are you now working on a translation of a work by a woman author? If so, give author, title, state of progress.

If you have affirm commitment for publication of this translation, give publisher and projected date:

II WHAT DO WE WANT IN TRANSLATION? If possible, rank in order of urgency:

Works never translated:

Translations out of print:

                 Thank you