Second-wave feminism in Germany

The 1949 German constitution was developed and written by a group of 65 politicians. Of the 65, only four were women: Frieda Nadig, Elisabeth Selbert, Helene Weber and Helene Wessel.[30] All four were pioneers of the postwar German women's movement.

Selbert was a lawyer who had a limited primary and secondary education due to poverty.[31] After finding a job in a telegraph office, Selbert graduated from college and attended law school in Göttingen and Marburg.[31] One of five female law students among the 300 men, she passed her exams with honours just before the laws barring women from universities took effect in December 1934.[32] Selbert became a leading advocate of sexual equality.[33]

Nadig was born in Herford on 11 December 1897. Like her father, who was a German politician for the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD) until 1931,[34] she began her political career in 1916 and was elected as a representative of the provincial council in Westfalen. In 1933 the Provincial Diet was abolished by the Third Reich, and Nadig was no longer a representative.[34] She refused to commit herself politically until 1947, when she became an elected SPD member of the new German state parliament of Nordrhein-Westfalen.[34] In addition to her position as state representative, she was chosen as a member of the parliamentary council (Parlamentarischer Rat). Although Selbert and the SPD implemented gender equality in the German constitution, her demands for wage equality and equal treatment for children born to married and unmarried parents were unsuccessful.[35]

Unencumbered by Nazi Party membership[36] and providing expertise as a former member of the national council,[36] Helene Weber became part of the parliament council at the behest of Konrad Adenauer (the Federal Republic of Germany's first chancellor). While creating the German constitution, the CDU (Christian Democratic Union of Germany) politician addressed its meaning and phrased it to emphasise the importance of human life and dignity.[36] After hesitating about women's rights, she proposed "Männer und Frauen stehen bei Wahl und Ausübung des Berufes gleich, verrichten sie gleiche Arbeit, so haben sie Anspruch auf gleiche Entlohnung"[37] ("Men and Women are equal in their choice and execution of work. If they accomplish the same, they have the right to equal wages.")

In 1957, the Equal Rights Law (Gleichberechtigungsgesetz) became effective.[38] German legislation differs from the British and American legal systems, which are based on case law. In Germany, a 2,385-paragraph Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (BGB, civil code)[39] and a 358-paragraph Strafgesetzbuch (criminal code)[40] resolve legal questions.

The BGB (influenced by the Napoleonic Code) was enacted on 1 January 1900,[41] and many changes were needed to reconcile it with contemporary values. In 1949 (when the German constitution was enacted) equal rights were missing from the civil and criminal code, and the Equal Rights Law was intended to correct the omission. The final changes concerning gender inequality were made on 25 April 2006.

From 1949 to 1965 Germany had a conservative government and Konrad Adenauer, its Roman Catholic chancellor, was regarded as resistant to change.[42] Marriage and the family were protected by traditional role models, and a married woman's legal standing did not correspond with that of a married man. The husband's role as master of the house (Haushaltsvorstand), was legally defined. He made important decisions,[43] and his consent was required for his wife to open a bank account.[43] Until 1977 a married woman needed her husband's consent to obtain an employment contract, and he decided the use of his wife's earnings.[43] Abuse (including rape) in a marriage was not punishable, unlike abortion.[44]

Girls from rural or working-class backgrounds were heavily underrepresented in secondary and tertiary schools. War veterans were given preference at the few remaining universities in postwar Germany, and had taken most of the educational slots. Over 50 percent of women graduating from gymnasiums (Germany's academic secondary schools) were forced to abandon further academic education.[45] Universities had very few female professors, and only one-third of all women were employed. Gender-specific, stereotypically-female jobs (known as low-wage or mini-jobs) were created to encourage women to remain housewives.[46]

The Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin gave women a chance in film in Germany: from 1968 on one third of the students were female. Some of them - pioneers of the women's movement - produced feminist feature films: Helke Sander in 1971 produced "Eine Prämie für Irene" [A Reward for Irene], and Cristina Perincioli (although she was Swiss not German) in 1971 produced "Für Frauen – 1.Kap" [For Women – 1st Chapter].

In West Germany Helma Sanders-Brahms and Claudia von Alemann produced feminist documentaries from 1970 on.

In 1973 Claudia von Alemann and Helke Sander organized the 1. Internationale Frauen-Filmseminar in Berlin.

In 1974 Helke Sander founded the journal Frauen und Film – a first feminist filmjournal, which she edited until 1981.

In the 1970s in West Germany, women directors produced a whole series of Frauenfilm - films focusing on women's personal emancipation. In the 1980s the Goethe Institute brought a collection of German women's films in every corner of the world. “…here the term ‘feminist filmmaking’ does function to point to a filmmaking practice defining itself outside the masculine mirror. German feminism is one of the most active women's movements in Europe. It has gained access to television; engendered a spectrum of journals, a publishing house and a summer women's university in Berlin; inspired a whole group of filmmakers; ...” writes Marc Silberman in Jump Cut.[55] But most of the German women filmmakers did not see themselves as feminists, except Helke Sander.[56]

In 1979, German women filmworkers formed the Association of women filmworkers[57] which was active for a few years.