WOMEN IN DIVIDED GERMANY

Exhibition | UOttawa

The division of Germany has been history for over three decades. Nevertheless, one still encounters many clichés attributed to women from East and West Germany. Women from the West are often described as either “housewives” or tough career women. The East German woman, on the other hand, “holds her own” in the coal mining industry. She is described as tough or even as a bad mother because she puts her children in daycare. The West German woman is gender-conscious, while the East German woman has no idea what that means. The East German woman is sometimes considered the loser, sometimes the winner of German reunification. The list of attributions is long. Although some of them contradict each other grotesquely, they all testify to the conviction that we know exactly how THE East German woman and THE West German woman actually tick. One thing above all seems clear: they all tick the same way, but very differently from the other part of Germany. Where do these attributions come from? And what is the truth behind them?

The exhibition “Women in Divided Germany” aims to answer these questions. Published by the Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship and curated by Clara Marz, the show is a contribution to the 35th anniversary of German reunification. Eight posters depict the different realities of women’s lives in the Federal Republic and the GDR in the 1970s and 1980s. 

It aims to highlight the diverse experiences of women and show the similarities and differences in their everyday lives in East and West Germany. At the same time, the exhibition raises the question of whether women in both German states, despite different political and social conditions, were united in their common pursuit of self-determination in a male-dominated system.

The exhibition will also be accompanied by presentations by students from the University of Ottawa.