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Few figures in modern German history are as central to the public memory of radical protest than Ulrike Meinhof, but she was only the most prominent of the countless German women-and militant male feminists-who supported and joined in revolutionary actions from the 1960s onward. Sisters in Arms gives a bracing account of how feminist ideas were enacted by West German leftist organizations from the infamous Red Army Faction to less well-known groups such as the Red Zora. It analyzes their confrontational and violent tactics in challenging the abortion ban, opposing violence against women, and campaigning for solidarity with Third World women workers. Though these groups often diverged ideologically and tactically, they all demonstrated the potency of militant feminism within postwar protest movements.
List of contents
Acknowledgements
Note on Translations
List of Figures
List of Abbreviations
Introduction Chapter 1. The New Women's Movement in West Germany
Chapter 2. Terrorism, Feminism and the Politics of Representation
Chapter 3. Militant Feminist Protest against the Abortion Ban
Chapter 4. Women Fighting Back: Feminist Responses to Violence against Women
Chapter 5. Sisters in Arms? Militant Feminist Protest and Transnational Solidarity
Conclusion Bibliography
Index
About the author
Katharina Karcher is Lecturer in German in the Department of Modern Languages at the University of Birmingham. Her research interests include feminist theory, European women’s movements, and the histories of protest, extremism and violence in the Federal Republic of Germany.
Summary
Few figures in modern German history are as central to the public memory of radical protest than Ulrike Meinhof, but she was only the most prominent of the countless German women—and militant male feminists—who supported and joined in revolutionary actions from the 1960s onward. Sisters in Arms gives a bracing account of how feminist ideas were enacted by West German leftist organizations from the infamous Red Army Faction to less well-known groups such as the Red Zora. It analyzes their confrontational and violent tactics in challenging the abortion ban, opposing violence against women, and campaigning for solidarity with Third World women workers. Though these groups often diverged ideologically and tactically, they all demonstrated the potency of militant feminism within postwar protest movements.
Additional text
“Karcher offers a refreshing perspective on the history of the New Women’s Movement in West Germany and its relationship to militancy in this long-overdue study. Any future scholarship on feminist activism in Germany will need to consider this provocative and revealing book.” · Patricia Melzer, Temple University
