About Miss Marples Schwestern (MMS)

How the Network Began1<p>See Miss Marples Schwestern – Netzwerk zur Frauengeschichte vor Ort, ca. 1990; 1994; 1996, BAF e.V., Bildungszentrum und Archiv zur Frauengeschichte Baden-Württembergs, Tübingen, A 2 - BAF Graue Literatur / GL 236; Frauenhistorische Stadtrundgänge, 1986-, FFBIZ – das feministische Archiv e.V., Berlin, A Rep. 400 BRD 20.18.21.</p> 

“The MMS network has diverse roots: in the women’s summer universities and the women historians’ meetings of the 1970s, the grassroots ‘history from below’ of the ‘Geschichtswerkstätten’ (history workshops), the women’s archives movement, the exhibition and museum projects of the 1980s, and the local women’s projects.”2<p>20 Jahre MMS. 1989–2009. Miss Marples Schwestern – Historische Spurensuche nach Frauen vor Ort. Netzwerk zu Frauenstadtrundgängen und -fahrten in Deutschland, Belgien, Österreich, Tschechien und der Schweiz, p2009, 169.&nbsp;</p> 

Already in the 1970s, the second wave of the women’s liberation movement kindled interest in women’s forgotten or suppressed histories and gave rise to the first tours of women’s places. Contacts particularly flourished from the mid-1980s, but it was not until 1990 that various intersecting strands were drawn together and officially constituted as the ‘Frauenforschungs-, Bildungs-, und Informationszentrum’ (FFBIZ, Women’s Research, Education, and Information Center), a nonprofit association based in Charlottenburg, Berlin.3<p>Einladung zum Gründungstreffen vom 15.5.1990, Bericht vom Treffen vom 23. bis 24. Juni im FFBIZ in Berlin, Pressemitteilung, in: Scheidle, Ilona / Miss Marples Schwestern: „Erinnern und Gedenken – Hat Gedenken ein Geschlecht?“ Dokumentation der 10. Jahrestagung von Miss Marples Schwestern – Netzwerk zur Frauengeschichte vor Ort, Wiesbaden 2000, 20–27.</p> A guided women’s history tour of that same district—developed by a group of women including the FFBIZ co-founder and veteran MMS activist Gabriele Wohlauf—inquired into whether the neighborhood really was the “most women-friendly of cities.”.4<p>Arbeitsgruppe Historischer Stadtrundgang im FFBIZ, (Ed.): “O Charlottenburg, du frauenfreundlichste unter den Städten...?” Wege zur Frauengeschichte Charlottenburgs 1850 – 1930, Berlin, 1989.</p>

“In West Germany there are more than thirty working groups (Arbeitsgruppen, AGs) conducting research on local women’s history. On June 23–24, 1990, thirty-two women from thirteen cities in Switzerland, Austria, and the Federal Republic of Germany met at the FFBIZ to put an end to their isolation, exchange ideas, and discuss common concerns. The topics addressed ranged from theory and practice to forms of presentation to networking, funding, and prospects. We realized that there was a tremendous need to exchange information and cooperate, so founding a network seemed like the obvious next step. We call ourselves Miss Marple’s Sisters.”5<p>Körner, Marianne / Miss Marples Schwestern: Zur Gründung des Netzwerkes zur Frauengeschichte am Ort, in: 20 Jahre MMS, 49.</p>

Tracking Down Clues with Miss Marple and a Magnifying Glass

The suggestion to name the women historians’ network after Agatha Christie’s famous detective was made by women from Hamburg. They had already used the name themselves, during their work on the exhibition ‘Hammonia’s Daughters‘ at the Museum for Hamburg History in 1985.6<p>Miss Marples Schwestern im Archiv, in: Hamburger Frauenzeitung, 1985, no. 11, 12.</p>

The namesake, Miss Marple, personifies a shrewd mind, cunning, and tenacity. Without these qualities, it would be impossible to ever trace women and their influence on history, or to pursue alternative approaches and points of view. Moreover, the network’s proposed excursions were to be as exciting as any thriller.

In the MMS logo, the Venus sign, becomes a magnifying glass while the footprints stand for the traces left by women. In 1996, Miss Marples Schwestern from the Black Forest in southern Germany printed the logo on a tea towel for use as a flag on women’s history tours—providing a potent reminder of work by women that often goes unseen.

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Who are the sisters of Miss Marple?

MMS is a network of women’s history groups and individual women from other women’s organizations and projects as well as from institutions such as universities, museums, and archives. The spectrum ranges from professional historians to committed amateurs.

In 1994, MMS published a booklet containing twenty-four different women’s history tours;7Autorinnenkollektiv: Miss Marples Schwestern &ndash; Historische Spurensuche nach Frauen vor Ort, Regensburg 1994. in 1996, it issued a revised edition with forty-seven tours7.8<p>Lila Archiv (Ed.): Miss Marples Schwestern – Historische Spurensuche nach Frauen vor Ort. Frauenstadtrundgänge und -fahrten in Deutschland, Belgien, Österreich, Tschechien und der Schweiz, Berlin 1996.</p> Since 1999, up-to-date information on local programs can be found on the MMS website.9<p>See:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.miss-marples.net/cms/website.php?id=angebote.htm">http://www.miss-marples.net/cms/website.php?id=angebote.htm</a&gt;, accessed on June 23 2019</p>

How Does the Network Operate?

“The MMS is a decentralized, grassroots network with neither a central office nor paid staff. It is run and maintained by its members: women who are committed to the network’s goals and methods and have an interest in reflecting on, evaluating, and further discussing their research—both its content and the methodology—within the network circles.”10<p>Miss Marples Schwestern: Frauengeschichte in Szene gesetzt: Personen. Orte. Ereignisse. Dokumentation der 16. Jahrestagung des MMS-Netzwerkes, 1.–4. Juli 2005 in Berlin, Berlin, 2005, 8.</p>

Lizenz

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The core forum of MMS is a three-day symposium held at changing locations. From 1990 to 2011, it took place annually, and since then, every two years. From 1992 to 1994, there was a newsletter.11Miss Marples Schwestern-Rundbrief 1992-1994. and in 2005, a mailing list was established.

New projects are presented at these meetings, and discussion revolves around research and outreach methods, feminist theories, and key topics in women’s history. Also, suggestions are made for women’s personal practice.

Inspired by tours in Hamburg conducted by Rita Bake with costumed actresses,12<p>Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Hamburg (Ed.): Frauen im Rathaus. 7 Szenen zu einer thematischen Führung im Hamburger Rathaus, gespielt vom Ohnsorg-Theater. Konzeption, Vorlagen u. Einführung: Rita Bake u. Birgit Kiupel. Dramaturgie: Hartmut Cyriacks u. Peter Nissen, Hamburg 1998.</p> as well as by Wuppertal women who occasionally ‘host’ the (deceased) historical figures Mina Knallenfalls and Else Lasker-Schüler, Miss Marples Schwestern attended workshops run by Luise Wilsdorf (from Leipzig) to learn how to stage famous women from history.13<p>Wilsdorf, Luise: Theaterpädagogische Werkstatt: Miss Marples Schwestern inszenieren Frauengeschichte, in: Miss Marples Schwestern / Bildungszentrum und Archiv zur Frauengeschichte Baden-Württembergs BAF e.V. Tübingen (Ed.): FrauenGeschichteVermitteln – Analyse – Methoden – Praxis. Dokumentation der 15. Jahrestagung des Netzwerkes Miss Marples Schwestern, 30. Juli–1. August 2004, Bad Urach, Haus auf der Alb, Tübingen 2004, 34.</p> In particular, the members from Halle used this newfound knowledge to good effect in their performance piece FrauenZimmerGeschichte(n).14<p>See&nbsp;<a href="http://www.frauenzimmergeschichten.de">http://www.frauenzimmergeschichten.de</a>,&nbsp;accessed June 1, 2019.</p>

Lizenz

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Meeting up in different cities allows MMS to take part in their counterparts’ local women’s history tours and to get to know other women activists and projects. For many members, the 1992 meeting in Schwerin was their first East–West encounter. At the 2009 annual conference, held in the Wendland region, MMS discovered what a significant role women play in resisting use of the Endlager in Gorleben, Germany’s main deep geological repository for nuclear waste. An MMS working group began interviewing contemporary witnesses to, and participants in, the protests there. At the 2011 conference in Freiburg, Miss Marples Schwestern visited the women’s radio collective at Radio Dreyeckland, the nonprofit successor to what was once the best-known pirate radio station in Germany.

On the occasion of a nationwide MMS Day, (September 22–23, 2007), the network women simultaneously offered tours of their respective towns and cities. In Berlin, where naming streets and squares around the new central railway station had been subject to an equity ruling, the group presented potted biographies of the female namesakes and symbolically renamed the station ‘Clara-Zetkin-Bahnhof’.

Since 1995, publishing a booklet on the proceedings of each symposium has become more or less standard practice.

Lizenz

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Lizenz

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The MMS Mission

MMS women consciously commit to telling a partisan story by, about, and for women. This distinguishes them from conventional tours. They want to raise women’s self-esteem and so encourage them to become actively involved. To avoid the risk of “mystifying female ancestors”,15<p>Kätzel, Ute: Geschichtsrundgänge als Mystifikation der Ahnfrau? Protokoll der Tagung Miss Marple’s Schwestern in Regensburg 1993, in: 20 Jahre Miss Marples Schwestern, 69 f.</p> they also discuss women who advocate violence and discrimination—such as female perpetrators during the Nazi era.

Also, they focus not only on famous women, but on the everyday social histories of all kinds of women. In the early 1990s, Monika Scholz (1930–2016) from Wiesbaden took up the topic of immigrant women. Meanwhile, there are tours by, as well as about, immigrant women, for example in Cologne, Berlin, and Freiburg. Ilona Scheidle has been committed for decades to exploring lesbian history and has developed tours on the topic in Heidelberg and Mannheim.

But the MMS mission is not only about closing the gaps in patriarchal historiography, but also about adopting alternative approaches and a range of methods to study history. Instead of being pinned down and pigeonholed, topics are deliberately picked apart to reveal paradoxes and contrary viewpoints.16<p>Gélieu, Claudia v. / Dörr, Bea: Bericht Plenum: Miss-Marples-Fächer statt TÜV-Plakette – Wir fächern die Frauengeschichte auf, in: Miss Marples Schwestern / Bildungszentrum und Archiv zur Frauengeschichte Baden-Württembergs BAF e.V. Tübingen (Ed.): FrauenGeschichteVermitteln – Analyse – Methoden – Praxis. Dokumentation der 15. Jahrestagung des Netzwerkes Miss Marples Schwestern, 30. Juli–1. August 2004, Bad Urach, Haus auf der Alb, Tübingen 2004, 47 ff.</p>

Which Outreach Activities Do MMS Use?

Publications, exhibitions, storytelling cafés, readings, dramatic productions, scripts, films, radio plays, CDs, DVDs, and websites all play their part—but the most important form of outreach and communication are the guided tours, which take place in numerous cities, on foot or by bike, bus, or boat.

Together, women explore aspects of the cityscape that call women to mind. They bring to light sexism and discrimination against women, discussing feminism on the streets and sidewalks. Women’s history meets the present day in concrete and (extra)ordinary ways.

The diversity of the places visited dispels the idea that history is a monolith or a closed chapter. Tour participants can contribute their own stories. Walking in good company spawns a particular dynamic: it brings women’s history to life and keeps it in constant flux.

Interactive tours that involve the participants in playful ways were developed by the Berlin tour group Amanda and its successor ‘Zeitschritte’ (Steps in Time).17<p>Miss Marples Schwestern in Leipzig. Protokoll. Jahrestagung 1995 des bundesweiten Netzwerkes Miß Marples Schwestern – Historische Miss Marples Schwestern in Leipzig. Protokoll. Jahrestagung 1995 des bundesweiten Netzwerkes Miß Marples Schwestern – Historische Spurensuche nach Frauen vor Ort, 9.–11. Juni 1995 in Leipzig, Leipzig 1995, 3 and 23 f; Scheidle, Ilona / Miss Marples Schwestern (Ed.): Erinnern und Gedenken – Hat Gedenken ein Geschlecht? Dokumentation der 10. Jahrestagung von Miss Marples Schwestern – Netzwerk zur Frauengeschichte vor Ort, Wiesbaden 2000, 63–75; Miss Marples Schwestern Berlin (Ed.): Frauengeschichte in Szene gesetzt: Personen. Orte. Ereignisse. Dokumentation der 16. Jahrestagung 1.–4. Juli 2005 in Berlin, Berlin 2005, S. 7884 [PDF-Datei]; Jaiser, Constanze u.a.: Von Talkshows und Wäscheleinen. Ein anderer Weg in die Gedenkstätte Ravensbrück, Berlin 2009.</p> In Münster, Bettina Blum and her colleagues have developed a guided tour for the blind, with puppets and pictures that can be touched.

MMS Ensure that Women’s History Is Anchored in Public Space

From the very start, MMS women have been committed to planting permanent signs to commemorate women. Even before the network was founded, the Cologne Women’s History Association endeavored to set the record straight by having the name ‘Silk-makers’ Alley’ changed to its feminine form [in the German language]—for silk was, after all, mainly made by women. In Bad Waldsee, Margit Hofmeister contributed to the rehabilitation of women executed as ‘witches’ by launching an initiative to have a street named after Sibylle Schuler and a memorial plaque installed.

These are just two examples of the many commemorative plaques and street names that exist thanks to the work of MMS women. As mentioned above, a campaign to use equity legislation to influence public policy in Berlin resulted in the first official women’s quarter with its twenty streets and squares named for women. In Hamburg, an open-air gallery, the ‘FrauenFreiluftGalerie’, was created in cooperation with women artists.18<p>See:&nbsp;<a href="http://frauenfreiluftgalerie.de/">http://frauenfreiluftgalerie.de/</a&gt;, accessed on June 20, 2023.</p> UAnd the ‘FrauenOrte’ (Women’s Places) initiative launched in Saxony-Anhalt by Elke Stolze19<p>See:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.frauenorte.net/">http://www.frauenorte.net/</a&gt;, accessed on June 20, 2023.</p> has since been taken up in other federal states. 
With the ‘Garden of Women’ at the Ohlsdorf cemetery in Hamburg, Rita Bake ensured that the historical tombstones of important women would not be disposed of, but rather would be put on public view, long term, along with explanatory panels.20<p>See:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.garten-der-frauen.de">http://www.garten-der-frauen.de</a&gt;, accessed on June 20, 2023.</p>

Rita Bake has also compiled a database of Hamburg women’s biographies, which was first published in 2012 and is maintained to this day on a voluntary basis.21<p>See:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.hamburg.de/clp/frauenbiografien-suche/clp1/">http://www.hamburg.de/clp/frauenbiografien-suche/clp1/</a&gt;, accessed June 20, 2023.</p> The data on women’s places of residence and work has been available as an app since 2018.22<p>See:&nbsp;<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.phimobile.hamburg.fra…">https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.phimobile.hamburg.fra…;, accessed on June 20, 2023.</p> For Hilde Radusch (1903–1994), who was persecuted both as a lesbian and as an activist in the Communist antifascist resistance, MMS succeeded in 2012 in having a memorial site established and her final resting place declared a grave of honor by the Berlin Senate.

MMS has moved mountains, so to speak. But women are still not guaranteed equality, either in the history books or in society today. The work of ‘Miss Marples Schwestern’ is far from being over and done.

In 2018, the MMS archive was entrusted to the (slightly renamed) Berlin-based nonprofit archive FFBIZ.