Women's Lesbian Movement of the GDR and the Era of Change in Prenzlauer Berg – Lecture and Discussion with Eyewitness Samirah Kenawi. Kurt Tucholsky Library, Esmarchstraße 18

Open to: Everyone. In the 1980s, more and more women's and lesbian groups independent of state policy began to form in the GDR. They worked for peace, the environment, greater social participation, visibility for lesbians, women's health, equality, and feminist ideas. One trigger was, for example, the new conscription law of the GDR in 1982, which also allowed women to bear arms. This led to the formation of "Women for Peace" in Berlin, and "Lesbians in the Church" also began to become more politically active. Samirah Kenawi, born in East Berlin in 1962, witnessed and helped shape the women's and lesbian movement in the GDR from the 1980s onwards in Dresden and Berlin. During the era of change, she traveled throughout the GDR to network the women's groups with each other, to enable communication about the current political situation, and thus to involve women in the political process. In 1990, she headed the Berlin office of the Independent Women's Association. She published a comprehensive documentation of the women's groups in the GDR, in which she describes all locally working women's groups. She initiated and founded the Archiv GrauZone, which preserves documents of the GDR women's* lesbian movement and makes them accessible to the public.