Feminist, lesbian, and radical in the GDR: on the East Berlin lesbian initiative ‘Lesbians in the Church’

written by

Maria Bühner

published 13. September 2018

Lesbians in the Church was the first independent lesbian group in the GDR. It was the lack of freedom of assembly and association that led the Lesbians in the Church to the Protestant Church in July 1983.

Footnotes Selected publications Related topics

Topics

Politics, Law & Society

The Origins of ‘Lesben in der Kirche’

‘Lesben in der Kirche’ emerged from the mixed ‘Arbeitskreis Homosexuelle Selbsthilfe’ (Homosexual Self-Help Working Group), which was founded in 1982 by like-minded members of East Berlin’s underground gay and lesbian subculture. The decision to organize independently of men was sparked by a new bill proposing that women, too, should be compulsorily drafted for military service. An initial meeting of sixteen women at a private home in November 1982 was broken up by the Volkspolizei (national police), yet the women were not to be thwarted. They regrouped shortly afterwards under the aegis of the Protestant Church, some of them as ‘Frauen für den Frieden’ (Women for Peace) and others as ‘Lesben in der Kirche’. By explicitly foregrounding lesbian issues, the LiK women hoped to step out of the shadowy world of underground subculture and gain a critical voice and a distinct public profile.1Karstädt, Christina / Zitzewitz Anette v.: ... viel zuviel verschwiegen. Eine historische Dokumentation von Lebensgeschichten lesbischer Frauen in der DDR, Berlin 1996, 156–57.

Opportunities to organize politically were nonetheless very limited, as Marinka Körzendörfer recalls: “From the start, we regarded our lesbian focus as a political undertaking, since our aim was to voice criticism of the status quo. In the GDR, this was possible only within the Church.”2Ibid., S. 155. In 1983, the lesbians participated in their first ‘Friedenswerkstatt’ (peace workshop), in Rummelsburg (East Berlin), and chose to highlight the difficult situation of sexual minorities as a peace issue.3Robert-Havemann-Gesellschaft (RHG)/GrauZone (GZ)/A1/1455, Lesben in der Kirche, Warum wir uns für den Frieden engagieren, 1984. LiK was able to network and gain a degree of visibility at this event, for the annual peace workshops attracted between 1,500 and 3,000 people; new contacts proved invaluable. That same year, LiK was assured a church venue in which to hold regular events. Not all parishes were open to gay and lesbian initiatives: homosexuality was still often discussed in discriminatory terms or even dismissed out of hand. In the following years, LiK had to address problems of this sort.4RHG/GZ/A1/29, Lesben in der Kirche, Informationspapier vom Arbeitskreis Homosexuelle Selbsthilfe – Lesben in der Kirche, 1985/86, 2. To make matters worse, its members (like those of other working groups within the Church) were not actually of the Christian faith, but had resorted to using church venues solely due to the lack of alternatives.5Schmidt, Kristine: Lesben und Schwule in der Kirche, in: Sonntags-Club (Hg.): Verzaubert in Nord-Ost. Die Geschichte der Berliner Lesben und Schwulen in Prenzlauer Berg, Pankow und Weißensee, Berlin 2009, S. 198-220, hier S. 212-215.

Friedenswerkstatt — LiK position paper on the subject of peace.

Arbeitskreis Homosexuelle Selbsthilfe Berlin — Group presentation Lesbians in the Church, Marinka Körzendörfer Collection

Working Methods and the Issues Addressed

Beginning in summer 1983, LiK was able to use rooms at the Philipuskapelle [chapel] in the Hohenschönhausen district of East Berlin. It had initially foreseen a working group together with a number of gay men—but the men’s dominance led to a parting of ways after only two meetings, as Körzendörfer reports.6RHG/GZ/A1/2572, Marinka Körzendörfer: Fast zehn Jahre Lesbenbewegung in der DDR und ihr Übergang in die bundesdeutsche Wirklichkeit, 1993/95, in: Gehrke, Bernd/ Rüddenklau Wolfgang (Ed.): ... das war doch nicht unsere Alternative. DDR Oppositionelle zehn Jahre nach der Wende, Münster 1999, 168‒177.  Eighteen months later, LiK began using rooms of the Gethsemane parish in the Prenzlauer Berg district of East Berlin. Open meetings took place every two weeks; they were prepared in advance in private apartments by a small core of around ten members. The composition of the core often fluctuated, making continuous progress impossible.7Karstädt / Zitzewitz: ... viel zuviel verschwiegen, 173-180.

Arbeitskreis Homosexuelle Selbsthilfe Berlin - Lesben in der Kirche (2) — LiK working paper on the situation of lesbians in the GDR

Open meetings attracted around sixty attendees. Advertising the events was difficult: firstly, because the programs and other publications could be distributed only if they bore the words ‘for internal church use only,’ and secondly, because the sole means of duplicating such material were carbon copies on a typewriter, or letterpress (matrix prints). Personal networks were therefore all the more important.8Krug, Marina: Die Gruppe Arbeitskreis Homosexuelle Selbsthilfe. Lesben in der Kirche in Berlin/DDR – November 1982 bis Sommer 1986, in: Dennert, Gabriele et al. (Ed.): In Bewegung bleiben. 100 Jahre Politik, Kultur und Geschichte von Lesben, Berlin 2007, 110–111.  In the fall of 1983, Marina Krug and Gabi Baum penned a comprehensive, groundbreaking fifteen-page working paper that inspired a social scientific examination—and a feminist analysis—of the circumstances of lesbians in the GDR.9RHG/GZ/A1/1453, Krug, Marina / Baum, Gabi, Arbeitspapier des Arbeitskreises homosexuelle Selbsthilfe Berlin, 1983, 14.

The authors posited the idea of coming out to establish a political lesbian identity in response to the prevailing marginalization of lesbians,10For a more detailed discussion, see Maria Bühner on lesbian activism in the 1980s: [W]ir haben einen Zustand zu analysieren, der uns zu Außenseitern macht, 2017, http://www.europa.clio-online.de/essay/id/artikel-4126 (Themenportal Europäische Geschichte. Clio-online), accessed May 17, 2018.  and they pointed out that lesbians faced dual discrimination: “We must acknowledge that not only our homosexuality is problematic [sic!], but also the situation we live in [sic!]”.11Krug / Baum: Arbeitspapier (Anm. 9), 14. However, criticism voiced by the group and in particular by certain of its members was not limited to gender relations between men and women or the problems of lesbians in the GDR12Karstädt / Zitzewitz: ... viel zuviel verschwiegen, 162.; further criticism was incited by exchanges with other oppositional groups likewise active under the umbrella of the Protestant Church.

Within the LiK, both self-help and so-called consciousness-raising groups were vital means to develop “lesbian solidarity” and improve lesbians’ personal understanding of their identity.13Krug/Baum: Arbeitspapier, 13. The group’s meetings were opportunities to come together and exchange news and views frequently—and consciously—without men around. Program topics for the second half of 1984 included ‘Coming-Out: Talking about Our Lives’, ‘Women’s Sexuality’, and ‘Women in the Church’. In addition, there were cultural events with celebrities, such as a concert by Maike Nowak or a reading by Irmtraud Morgner. In subsequent years, events took place on sexism in language, criticizing patriarchy, feminist theology, alcoholism, and lesbian herstory.14For example, RHG/GZ/A1/1453, Programm des AK Homosexuelle Selbsthilfe der Gethsemane-Gemeinde in Berlin – Lesben in der Kirche, 1985 (1. Halbjahr). For the collected programs and further information about the group, see Kenawi, Samirah: Zeigen wir uns, damit man uns nicht verleugnen kann. Die ‚Lesben in der Kirche‛ (Berlin: unpublished manuscript in the GrauZone Archiv, Berlin, 2003. There were group trips and celebrations, too.

Networking and Visibility

Sammlung: Veronika Noack (3) — Self-drawn map marking cities with gay labour groups - some of which were lesbian-only - and state clubs

The group was well connected to other networks. It had numerous contacts in the GDR and collaborated on projects such as the (from ’83 onwards) annual conference of the ‘AK Homosexualität in der Kirche’ (Homosexuality in the Church) and the ‘AIDS-Gruppe’ (working group on AIDS), among other gay and lesbian groups and women’s liberation groups.15Kenawi, Samirah: Frauengruppen in der DDR der 80er Jahre. Eine Dokumentation, Berlin 1995, 84. There were international contacts too, with the Netherlands and the United States, for example, and particularly with the Federal German Republic (FRG). In 1985, the African-American poet and activist Audre Lorde and the feminists behind the Berlin publishing house Orlando Verlag paid a visit to ‘Lesben in der Kirche’.16Krug: Die Gruppe Arbeitskreis Homosexuelle Selbsthilfe, 110.

Certain members of the LiK group were also active in workshops entitled Psychosoziale Aspekte der Homosexualität (Psychosexual Aspects of Homosexuality), which took place from 1985 to 1990. It was hoped that exchange between professionals and activists would illuminate the social situation of homosexuals and inspire proposals for how to improve it.17Sektion Ehe und Familie der Gesellschaft für Sozialhygiene der DDR / Sektion Andrologie der Gesellschaft für Dermatologie, (Eds.). Psychosoziale Aspekte der Homosexualität, (Jena: manuscript, 1986) and “Psychosoziale Aspekte der Homosexualität. II,” workshop in Jena, 1989.  These conferences were part of the state’s endeavors during the second half of the 1980s—in the framework of its paternalistic welfare program—not only to address and resolve the problems of its homosexual citizens, but also to thereby preempt such citizens taking action on their own initiative and perhaps becoming too critical.18Scholz, Juliane: Die andere Liebe (The Other Love): „Fürsorgediktatur“ and LGBTIQ in the GDR in the 1980s, unpublished paper presented in 2016 at the 40th iteration of the German Studies Association’s annual conference, at the workshop “Queering Socialist Media Landscapes”; Konrad Jarausch, February 11, 2010, Fürsorgediktatur, http://docupedia.de/zg/jarausch_fuersorgediktatur_v1_de_2010 (= Docupedia-Zeitgeschichte), accessed March 8, 2018. Some members of the group seized the opportunity to feature in the program broadcast by DT 64, the East German radio station for the younger generation, under the title Mensch Du – Ich bin lesbisch! (Hey, Man—I’m a Lesbian!).19Schenk, Christian: Wir im Rundfunk. Mensch Du – Ich bin lesbisch, in: Grau, Günther (Hg.): Lesben und Schwule – was nun? Frühjahr 1989 bis Frühjahr 1990. Chronik – Dokumente – Analysen – Interviews, Berlin 1990, S. 88-90.

Confrontation with the State:20This subheading was inspired by reading Samireh Kenawi, “Konfrontationen mit dem DDR-Staat. Politische Eingaben und Aktionen von Lesben am Beispiel Ravensbrück,” in: Dennert et al.: In Bewegung bleiben, 118–21.Commemorative Events in Ravensbrück

Just like other groups that were active beyond the narrow limits set by the state, ‘Lesben in der Kirche’, particularly its ringleaders, were considered a severe menace to the state and were accordingly subjected to surveillance and repression by the Ministry for State Security (MfS).21Cf., for example, Bundesbeauftragter für die Unterlagen des Staatssicherheitsdienstes der ehemaligen Deutschen Demokratischen Republik (BStU), MfS HA XX/AKG, no. 853, sheet 279, and BStU, MfS HA XX/ARG, no. 853, sheets 246–255.  LiK’s attempts to win support for its cause among the general public are illustrated most notably by its work on the Ravensbrück memorial site.

A profound interest in raising public awareness of lesbian lives—past and present— motivated the group to visit and lay down wreaths at the Ravensbrück memorial site, formerly the largest concentration camp for women and girls. Around twenty members took part in the first group visit in 1984, with the declared aim—as they stated in the visitors’ book— of commemorating their “lesbian sisters”.22RHG/GZ/A1/1444, Eingabe an den Minister für Kultur Hans-Joachim Hoffmann vom 20. März 1984. But as their repeat visit a few days later revealed, not only had their entry in the visitors’ book been removed but also their ribboned wreath. A second entry in the visitors’ book was likewise removed.23Karstädt / Zitzewitz: ... viel zuviel verschwiegen, 168. The group thereupon appealed to the Ministry of Cultural Affairs to clarify the matter.24RHG/GZ/A1/1444, Eingabe an den Minister für Kultur Hans-Joachim Hoffmann vom 20.3.1984. They also addressed appeals to Günther Krusche, Superintendent of the Protestant Church, and to Gregor Gysi, Secretary of State for Church Affairs.25RHG/GZ/A1/1444, Brief an Staatssekretär Gysi, 20.3.1984; ebd. Brief an Generalsuperindent Krusche, 20.3.1984. However, the discussion with two ministry officials on August 21, 1984, rendered no tangible outcome.26RHG/GZ/A1/1444, Gedächtnisprotokoll zur Unterredung im Ministerium für Kultur am 21.8.84.

Eleven LiK members had hoped to take part in the event foreseen by the state for April 20, 1985, the 40th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp by the Allied Forces, but the Volkspolizei and the MfS intervened beforehand. The woman who had ordered a ribboned wreath was called in by the Volkspolizei, and the entire group was forbidden to take part in the event.27RHG/GZ/A1/40, Gedächtnisprotokoll Gespräch Kriminalpolizei 18. April 1985. Nevertheless, the eleven women traveled there, in smaller groups, but were arrested on arrival at the Fürstenberg railway station. They were then driven around for hours in a transporter, held and individually interrogated at a local school, and subjected to verbal and physical violence. Some of the women submitted a written record of their ordeal to the Ministry of the Interior.28RHG/GZ/A1/39, Eingabe an das Ministerium des Innern 3. Mai 1985. They also reported it to the celebrated author of the GDR Christa Wolf as well as to Anni Sindermann and Emmy Handke, the Chair and the General Secretary of the National Ravensbrück Committee, respectively.29Ibid., 170; RHG/GZ/A1/1444, Brief Emmy Handke 25.4.1985. Yet their letters did not have the success they had hoped for. It was probably also in reaction to their discussion with Sindermann on May 3, 1985, during which she expressed her disapproval of homosexuality and of the LiK group’s objective,30RHG/GZ/A1/1444, Gespräch mit Frau Anni Sindermann am 3.5.1985. that several members sent an appeal to the Ministry of the Interior under the heading “Inhumane Treatment at the Hands of Police Officers”.31RHG/GZ/A1/39, Eingabe an das Ministerium des Innern 3.5.1985.

Ultimately, the Ministry of the Interior did issue an informal apology,32Cf. RHG/GZ/A1/1444, Gedächtnisprotokoll und teilweise Mitschrift vom 31.5.1985, 13.00 bis 14.30 Uhr über das Gespräch bezüglich unserer Eingabe vom 3.5.85. and then, in 1986, as part of the reconciliatory outreach program, ‘Aktion Sühnezeichen’, did permit the group to visit the Ravensbrück memorial site, where the director himself gave the group a guided tour. The visitors noted that this time the meaning of the pink triangle was mentioned—which had not been the case when they first visited the site. Incidentally, it was not yet known that this insignia was worn solely by the men but not by the women imprisoned on account of their being gay. This time too, however, the entry made in the visitors’ book was later removed, and likewise the wreath the lesbians laid down.33RHG/GZ/A1/1444, Schilderung der Erfahrungen bei dem versuchten Gedenken. The visit was also intensely surveilled by the Stasi.34BStU, MfS, HAXX/9, Nr. 2039, Bl. 26–28. For a more detailed portrayal and appraisal of the commemorative events, see Bühner, Maria: Die Kontinuität des Schweigens. Das Gedenken der Ost-Berliner Gruppe Lesben in der Kirche in Ravensbrück, in: Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften, Vol. 29, 2018, no. 2 (Homosexualitäten revisited).

Arbeitskreis Homosexuelle Selbsthilfe Berlin - Lesben in der Kirche (1) — Memorial protocol about the LiK's visits to the Ravensbrück Memorial and their consequences

In conclusion, it can be stated that the group ‘Lesben in der Kirche’ played a vital role in the development of the lesbian movement in the GDR. The group’s political practices—from consciousness raising to regular events on different topics, from collaboration with other groups to visits to memorial sites—also had a significant effect on the work of other lesbian and gay groups in the GDR. In 1990, the group split into the nonprofit association of Christian lesbians, Thea belle e. V., and the Feministisch-lesbische-Arbeitsgruppe (Feminist-Lesbian Working Group, or FLAG). The latter was active until 1990 as a subset of the political party ‘Unabhängiger Frauenverband’ (Independent Women’s Association, or UFV).35Kenawi: Frauengruppen, 84.

Veröffentlicht: 16. July 2018

Written by

Maria Bühner

is a historian, cultural studies scholar, and activist. She is currently writing her dissertation at the University of Leipzig on the subjectivization of lesbianism in the GDR. She has been active in queer and feminist contexts since 2010. In addition, she lectures and leads workshops on queer issues.

Translated by

Jill Denton

Quote recommendation

Maria Bühner (2025): Feminist, lesbian, and radical in the GDR: on the East Berlin lesbian initiative ‘Lesbians in the Church’, in: Digitales Deutsches Frauenarchiv

URL: https://www.digitales-deutsches-frauenarchiv.de/en/topics/feminist-lesbian-and-radical-gdr-east-berlin-lesbian-initiative-lesbians-church

Last visited at: 19.03.2025

Footnotes

1
Karstädt, Christina / Zitzewitz Anette v.: ... viel zuviel verschwiegen. Eine historische Dokumentation von Lebensgeschichten lesbischer Frauen in der DDR, Berlin 1996, 156–57.
2
Ibid., S. 155.
3 Robert-Havemann-Gesellschaft (RHG)/GrauZone (GZ)/A1/1455, Lesben in der Kirche, Warum wir uns für den Frieden engagieren, 1984.
4
RHG/GZ/A1/29, Lesben in der Kirche, Informationspapier vom Arbeitskreis Homosexuelle Selbsthilfe – Lesben in der Kirche, 1985/86, 2.
5 Schmidt, Kristine: Lesben und Schwule in der Kirche, in: Sonntags-Club (Hg.): Verzaubert in Nord-Ost. Die Geschichte der Berliner Lesben und Schwulen in Prenzlauer Berg, Pankow und Weißensee, Berlin 2009, S. 198-220, hier S. 212-215.
6
RHG/GZ/A1/2572, Marinka Körzendörfer: Fast zehn Jahre Lesbenbewegung in der DDR und ihr Übergang in die bundesdeutsche Wirklichkeit, 1993/95, in: Gehrke, Bernd/ Rüddenklau Wolfgang (Ed.): ... das war doch nicht unsere Alternative. DDR Oppositionelle zehn Jahre nach der Wende, Münster 1999, 168‒177.
7
Karstädt / Zitzewitz: ... viel zuviel verschwiegen, 173-180.
8
Krug, Marina: Die Gruppe Arbeitskreis Homosexuelle Selbsthilfe. Lesben in der Kirche in Berlin/DDR – November 1982 bis Sommer 1986, in: Dennert, Gabriele et al. (Ed.): In Bewegung bleiben. 100 Jahre Politik, Kultur und Geschichte von Lesben, Berlin 2007, 110–111.
9
RHG/GZ/A1/1453, Krug, Marina / Baum, Gabi, Arbeitspapier des Arbeitskreises homosexuelle Selbsthilfe Berlin, 1983, 14.
10
For a more detailed discussion, see Maria Bühner on lesbian activism in the 1980s: [W]ir haben einen Zustand zu analysieren, der uns zu Außenseitern macht, 2017, http://www.europa.clio-online.de/essay/id/artikel-4126 (Themenportal Europäische Geschichte. Clio-online), accessed May 17, 2018.
11
Krug / Baum: Arbeitspapier (Anm. 9), 14.
12
Karstädt / Zitzewitz: ... viel zuviel verschwiegen, 162.
13
Krug/Baum: Arbeitspapier, 13.
14
For example, RHG/GZ/A1/1453, Programm des AK Homosexuelle Selbsthilfe der Gethsemane-Gemeinde in Berlin – Lesben in der Kirche, 1985 (1. Halbjahr). For the collected programs and further information about the group, see Kenawi, Samirah: Zeigen wir uns, damit man uns nicht verleugnen kann. Die ‚Lesben in der Kirche‛ (Berlin: unpublished manuscript in the GrauZone Archiv, Berlin, 2003.
15
Kenawi, Samirah: Frauengruppen in der DDR der 80er Jahre. Eine Dokumentation, Berlin 1995, 84.
16
Krug: Die Gruppe Arbeitskreis Homosexuelle Selbsthilfe, 110.
17
Sektion Ehe und Familie der Gesellschaft für Sozialhygiene der DDR / Sektion Andrologie der Gesellschaft für Dermatologie, (Eds.). Psychosoziale Aspekte der Homosexualität, (Jena: manuscript, 1986) and “Psychosoziale Aspekte der Homosexualität. II,” workshop in Jena, 1989.
18
Scholz, Juliane: Die andere Liebe (The Other Love): „Fürsorgediktatur“ and LGBTIQ in the GDR in the 1980s, unpublished paper presented in 2016 at the 40th iteration of the German Studies Association’s annual conference, at the workshop “Queering Socialist Media Landscapes”; Konrad Jarausch, February 11, 2010, Fürsorgediktatur, http://docupedia.de/zg/jarausch_fuersorgediktatur_v1_de_2010 (= Docupedia-Zeitgeschichte), accessed March 8, 2018.
19 Schenk, Christian: Wir im Rundfunk. Mensch Du – Ich bin lesbisch, in: Grau, Günther (Hg.): Lesben und Schwule – was nun? Frühjahr 1989 bis Frühjahr 1990. Chronik – Dokumente – Analysen – Interviews, Berlin 1990, S. 88-90.
20
This subheading was inspired by reading Samireh Kenawi, “Konfrontationen mit dem DDR-Staat. Politische Eingaben und Aktionen von Lesben am Beispiel Ravensbrück,” in: Dennert et al.: In Bewegung bleiben, 118–21.
21
Cf., for example, Bundesbeauftragter für die Unterlagen des Staatssicherheitsdienstes der ehemaligen Deutschen Demokratischen Republik (BStU), MfS HA XX/AKG, no. 853, sheet 279, and BStU, MfS HA XX/ARG, no. 853, sheets 246–255.
22 RHG/GZ/A1/1444, Eingabe an den Minister für Kultur Hans-Joachim Hoffmann vom 20. März 1984.
23
Karstädt / Zitzewitz: ... viel zuviel verschwiegen, 168.
24 RHG/GZ/A1/1444, Eingabe an den Minister für Kultur Hans-Joachim Hoffmann vom 20.3.1984.
25 RHG/GZ/A1/1444, Brief an Staatssekretär Gysi, 20.3.1984; ebd. Brief an Generalsuperindent Krusche, 20.3.1984.
26 RHG/GZ/A1/1444, Gedächtnisprotokoll zur Unterredung im Ministerium für Kultur am 21.8.84.
27 RHG/GZ/A1/40, Gedächtnisprotokoll Gespräch Kriminalpolizei 18. April 1985.
28 RHG/GZ/A1/39, Eingabe an das Ministerium des Innern 3. Mai 1985.
29
Ibid., 170; RHG/GZ/A1/1444, Brief Emmy Handke 25.4.1985.
30 RHG/GZ/A1/1444, Gespräch mit Frau Anni Sindermann am 3.5.1985.
31
RHG/GZ/A1/39, Eingabe an das Ministerium des Innern 3.5.1985.
32
Cf. RHG/GZ/A1/1444, Gedächtnisprotokoll und teilweise Mitschrift vom 31.5.1985, 13.00 bis 14.30 Uhr über das Gespräch bezüglich unserer Eingabe vom 3.5.85.
33
RHG/GZ/A1/1444, Schilderung der Erfahrungen bei dem versuchten Gedenken.
34
BStU, MfS, HAXX/9, Nr. 2039, Bl. 26–28. For a more detailed portrayal and appraisal of the commemorative events, see Bühner, Maria: Die Kontinuität des Schweigens. Das Gedenken der Ost-Berliner Gruppe Lesben in der Kirche in Ravensbrück, in: Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften, Vol. 29, 2018, no. 2 (Homosexualitäten revisited).
35
Kenawi: Frauengruppen, 84.