Rozważania na temat działalności kobiet w opozycji demokratycznej w późnej NRD (1981-1989)
Cosiderations on the Role of Women in the Democratic Opposition in Late GDR (1981-1989)

Summary/Abstract: The article presents the activity of women in the circles of the democratic opposition in East Germany in the years 1981-1989. The source base of the considerations were the diaries, memoirs and interviews of the women-oppositionists in the German Democratic Republic (GDR): Bӓrbel Bohley, Marianne Birthler, Freya Klier, Vera Lengsfeld (Wollenberger), Ulrike Poppe and Katja Havemann. Reference is also made to a collection of the accounts and recollections of the rank-and-file female members of the opposition. The first part of the article analyses the activity of women in different trends of the East German opposition: pacifistic, ecological and the human rights movement. The text also shows the activity of women in the demonstrations in Berlin in January 1988, in the action of monitoring of the communal election in the GDR in May 1988 and in the democratic protests in the autumn of 1989. Furthermore, the participation of the female leaders of the opposition in the Central Round Table deliberations at the turn 1989 and 1990 is presented as well.The second part of the text analyses the main features of the female involvement in the democratic opposition in the GDR. The issues examined include: age, legal status, level of education, worldview at the moment of taking up the oppositional activity and the motives of participation in the opposition. This part of the article considers also such specific female aspects of the oppositional activity as: the female interest in the problem of the educational system in the GDR, the female fear for their children in case of a possible imprisonment and the relations between the sexes in the oppositional groups. The concluding part shows the public careers of the women leaders of the opposition in the GDR after the reunification of Germany.

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