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Democratic Women's League of Germany

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Democratic Women's Federation of Germany
Demokratischer Frauenbund Deutschlands
FormationMarch 1947; 77 years ago (1947-03)
Dissolved1990
TypeMass organization
PurposeWomen's rights
Membership1.5 million (in 1988)
Parent organization
National Front

The Democratic Women's League of Germany[1][2][3] (German: Demokratischer Frauenbund Deutschlands, or DFD) was the mass women's organisation in East Germany. It was one of the constituent members of the National Front and sent representatives to the Volkskammer. In 1988, membership was 1.5 million.[4][1]

The DFD did not have much independence from the ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED). Käte Selbmann, a member of the DFD's executive board, complained that it was "a pre-school for women, neither as central as the FDGB nor even more important than any other mass organization to women's work, and absolutely subordinate to the SED",[5] while historian Valerie Dubslaff writes that "the role of the department was therefore neither to represent the interests of women nor to promote them within the party, but to execute the political will of its leaders".[6]

Organization

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Representatives at the 12th DFD Congress in East Berlin, 1987

The DFD was established in March 1947 and had the following official aims:

  • Removal of fascist ideas
  • Education for women
  • Equal rights
  • Fair social living conditions
  • Education of children in the spirit of humanism and peace
  • Co-operation with the international women's movement

Chairwomen of the Democratic Women's Federation of Germany

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Name Entered Office Left Office
Anne-Marie Durand-Wever 1947 1948
Emmy Damerius-Koenen 1948 1949
Elli Schmidt 1949 September 1953
Ilse Thiele September 1953 November 1989
Eva Rohmann 1989 1990
Gisela Steineckert 1990 1990

References

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  1. ^ a b Shreir, Sally, ed. (1988). Women's Movements of the World : an international directory and reference guide. Longman Group UK. pp. 99–100. ISBN 978-0-89774-508-6.
  2. ^ Guenther, Katja (2010). Making Their Place: Feminism After Socialism in Eastern Germany. Stanford: Stanford University Press. p. 31. ISBN 978-0-8047-7072-9. The official women's group of the SED, the Democratic Women's League of Germany dominated women's organizational efforts in the GDR [...]
  3. ^ McCauley, Martin (1983). The German Democratic Republic since 1945. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 38. ISBN 978-1-349-18403-3. [...] the Democratic Women's Association of Germany (DFD) was founded in March 1947.
  4. ^ Dirk Jurich, Staatssozialismus und gesellschaftliche Differenzierung: eine empirische Studie, p.32. LIT Verlag Münster, 2006, ISBN 3825898938
  5. ^ Harsch, Donna (2000). "Approach/Avoidance: Communists and Women in East Germany, 1945–9". Social History. 25 (2): 176–178, 180. doi:10.1080/030710200363186. ISSN 0307-1022. JSTOR 4286643.
  6. ^ Dubslaff, Valérie (2014). "Les femmes en quête de pouvoir ? Le défi de la participation politique en République démocratique allemande (1949-1990)" [Women in Search of Power? The Challenge of Political Participation in the German Democratic Republic (1949-1990)]. Allemagne d'aujourd'hui (in French). 207 (1): 37. doi:10.3917/all.207.0033. ISBN 9782757406915 – via Cairn.info.
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