An exhibition by the Federal Foundation for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Germany, curated by Clara Marz. The exhibition is in German.
Germany has been reunited for over three decades. Yet we – and especially women – still encounter many clichés assigned to women from both East and West Germany. Western women are often portrayed either as homebodies at the stove or as tough career-driven individuals. The East German woman, by contrast, is imagined as someone who “stands her ground” in coal mining, seen as either resilient or a so-called raven mother because she puts her children in daycare. The western woman is said to be gender-conscious, while the eastern woman supposedly knows nothing about it. Eastern women are at times cast as the losers of reunification, at other times as its winners.
The list of such stereotypes is long. Although some of them contradict each other grotesquely, they all reflect a shared conviction: that we know exactly what makes the East German woman and the West German woman tick. And above all, one thing seems certain: they all think and act alike – just completely differently from their counterparts in the other part of Germany.
Where do these perceptions come from? And how much truth lies behind them?
The exhibition “Women in Divided Germany” sets out to explore these questions. Published by the Federal Foundation for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship and curated by Clara Marz, the exhibition marks a contribution to the 35th anniversary of German reunification.
