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- Good morning, Dr Lüders. - Good morning.
May we do a quick interview with you?
Okay, but just a minute and not a second longer!
Then I have to leave this wonderful place, I'm afraid.
- I don't want to end up under a car either. - No!
- All the best on your 80th birthday. - Thank you.
And congratulations on your honorary doctorate.
We'd like to ask you a few questions.
How close are we to achieving
your greatest goal: equal rights for women?
We've come some way, but we're not there yet.
If we don't continue to fight, we'll lose what we've achieved so far.
- May I ask you another question? - Okay.
You're known in the Bundestag for your excellent mediating skills.
How do you view the role of women as mediators
in the business of politics today?
Politics today would not be possible without the mediating influence of women
because men have a strong tendency to quarrel
and women have an equally strong tendency to reconcile.
- Thank you. - My pleasure.
FEMOCRACY
DEAR GENTLEMEN
Power is viewed as something unfeminine. I've never understood that.
I can remember the first major event I was involved in,
with Susanne von Paczensky, and Eva Rühmkorf in Berlin.
Big posters everywhere. I was so proud.
And the posters said: "Women and power?" So with a question mark at the end.
I was the only person on the panel
who said I didn't see the point of the question mark.
That I want to have power, that power is not something bad per se.
Rather, the way that people wield this power can be bad
and this should be questioned.
But if I'm powerless, I'm not able to influence anything.
And precisely because I'm a woman, I don't want to be without influence.
I want power so that I can have a say
and fight for things that matter to me.
My German teacher always told me in no uncertain terms:
"Ursula, politics is not a feminine pursuit."
And the more she said that to me,
the more I exasperated her, of course.
She motivated me to get more and more involved in politics.
When I got my school leaving certificate, she said,
"We wish you all the best for the future,
that you become another Hamm-Brücher, but with our values."
Hamm-Brücher was a Bavarian politician
with a combative approach, who did a lot for educational policy,
but her combative way was not the convent school's style.
So I was allowed to follow in her footsteps,
as long as I stuck to their values.
Since entering Bavarian State Parliament in 1950,
Hildegard Hamm-Brücher has fought to improve educational policy.
Her independent spirit, moral courage and expertise
have made her one of the best-known cultural policymakers in Germany.
And what is currently her most pressing political goal?
Improvements to the external and internal conditions in schools for our children
are urgently required,
but have unfortunately been neglected all too often in the past.
My mother really urged me to study hard.
She hadn't got her school leaving certificate,
so she said, "Make sure you study, my girl!
No one can take that knowledge away from you."
My father was more conservative in these matters
and said, "Don't learn too much, my girl. You'll never find a husband!"
A woman faces two questions in life:
What should I wear? And what should I cook?
That was the image of the woman.
The man is the provider, the woman is the housewife and mother
and once he's reached a certain position, she makes it possible for him
to invite guests to the house,
to entertain and lead a social life.
And she can use her own education to nurture and develop the children.
I remember a girl in my class…
We were at a grammar school,
and she said she wanted to study maths.
We were her classmates and even we fell off our chairs
because we just couldn't imagine a girl studying maths.
Whenever a woman or a girl marched to a different tune,
it was made clear to her that she was breaking with convention.
"Ah, she will get married" followed me everywhere I went.
Up to and including the time I went to university.
When I started studying law in Berlin, less than 10% of the students were women.
Or in lectures in Hamburg when the famous Professor Raape
addressed the lecture hall with "dear gentlemen…"
in spite of the fact that I and the few other girls in the hall
had purposely sat in the front row, he continued to use "gentlemen".
MRS MINISTER
"… I still have the right to speak here!"
"You have entrusted me with the task of leading the German Reich."
"The reunification of our free fatherland, this is our ultimate goal."
"We want to take a chance on more democracy."
"There will be no experiments in the area of foreign policy!"
"No experiments because they would lead
to the downfall of the German people once again."
I was at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation yesterday, looking at the photos:
nothing but black suits.
Photos of the leading committees and ministers back then.
Black suits and not a woman to be seen.
At some point I said, "You can't have half a democracy.
A nation is made up of both men and women."
In general, I believe that women
have something to offer in all areas, including politics.
There's even a chance that a woman could become a federal minister.
I bet it'd liven up cabinet meetings, Minister.
But not just as décor, I hope!
I'd like to believe
there's many a capable woman in this grand country of ours
with the expertise required to add something
to the men's complex discussions on order and the country's future.
Yes, I was very serious just now: women can contribute to cabinet meetings
in a way that men can't, don't you think, Minister?
I do believe that women can help us with our work, also in the cabinet.
That was my first really significant experience
as a member of the Bundestag.
The female CDU MPs were summoned by Mrs Brauksiepe.
We decided to ask for a woman on every committee.
And Adenauer hadn't appointed a single woman to the cabinet.
Then four female MPs went to see Adenauer. Mrs Brauksiepe in an elegant little hat.
WOMEN AND THE CONFLICTING PRIORITIES OF TODAY'S SOCIETY
"Have the demeanour of a lady and fight like a warhorse."
Aenne Brauksiepe, CDU
And then they came back and said, "We've done it!"
And we enthusiastically backed Dr Schwarzhaupt.
She was fantastic.
She became Minister of Health, but that wasn't all she did.
As a very young woman,
she was also in Stresemann's German People's Party
in a leading administrative role.
Then she was very active in the Confessing Church
and then after the war she was active in the rebuilding efforts.
Dr Schwarzhaupt did a really good job
and introduced a lot of new things.
Such as food labelling and other things that hadn't existed before.
I swear, so help me God.
"Consider yourself a gentleman amongst gentlemen!"
Konrad Adenauer, 1961
Dr Schwarzhaupt, your appointment as Germany's first female minister
leaves us with the small dilemma of how address you.
"Minister" or the female form "Ministerin"?
I would say "Ministerin", as I am a woman
and as the German language
has a male and a female form for these kinds of words.
This may appear a little ungallant, but is it perhaps worth considering
whether a woman in politics should or must hold a particular position
just because she is a woman?
Your question doesn't strike me as that ungallant.
It's a question I've faced for 20 years, wherever I've worked.
But personally, I've had very encouraging experiences
which have shown me that women are capable of a great deal,
because people often expect a lot of us in other areas.
And we contribute something different to a man.
If I were to work like a man and talk like a man,
I may as well have sent my husband here 20 years ago.
But this isn't the case. "Vive la difference", if you will.
We all make our own unique contribution to get the job done.
REBEL WOMEN
- There's no one around to decide. - Gentlemen!
In the hour of need, decisive decisions must be decided!
And in the history of humankind, there were always plucky women
who stepped in to save the day.
I'm the firm's longest-serving employee, so I'm in command here!
Good heavens!
The women fought their battles alone at first, each to her own.
And then in the 1970s, women discovered each other, as it were,
women who were in the same situation.
We stopped competing against each other for that one post allocated to a woman.
Instead, we joined forces to fight for the creation of more "women's posts".
I started to get interested in politics and to take part in political events.
Up until then, I didn't believe in my abilities…
I should add that I was married to someone who didn't believe in them either.
And I started to go to political events and suddenly I realised:
"Oh, people listen when you make a point."
I suddenly felt two metres taller and really validated,
and worked up the courage to really get involved.
How do you manage to balance your career and your family life?
Unfortunately, this is a question that people only ask female politicians.
You have to make compromises
and organise your life a bit differently,
but you manage it, just like business women
and farmer's wives do.
The father of my children couldn't deal with this new role at all.
Suddenly I'd stopped being the person who idolised him as "lord and master"
and kept my mouth shut.
I developed my own opinions. He couldn't handle it and we separated.
In '68 I did my final exams in Berlin and then went back to Tübingen,
where I was chair of the district authority for a while.
And then from 1970, I led the Social Democrat women's wing
in Baden-Württemberg,
somewhat to the horror of the top brass in the region.
They weren't too happy about our good-natured "onslaught".
Because of course we said that in the upcoming local government elections
we wanted to increase the share of women on the municipal councils
by at least 50 percent, if not more.
And to achieve this, we examined the internal party regulations,
worked out how to put together a budget,
how to present ourselves,
how men typically behave when they're on committees
how they negate women, how we can tackle this, and so on.
We really enjoyed it, and it was a success, too.
My name is Herta Däubler-Gmelin, I'm 29 years old,
I've been an MP since 19 November, and I'm also a Swabian.
"In parliament a woman on her own is like a flower,
en masse, they are like weeds."
Throughout history A wind of emancipation has blown
From humans to infusoria
Women everywhere want to seize the throne
From the Amazons to the little madams in Berlin
A thundering roar can be heard
"What the men can do we learned long ago
And maybe we can do it better too!"
Out of the Reichstag, out they go!
Out of the Landtag, out they go!
Out of their manly manors, out they go!
We'll make them ours, don't you know?
Get the men out of here
Get the men out of there
Get the men out of everywhere
They've been around too long, I swear
Out of that house, out they trot
It's time that the women had a shot!
- May I? - Be my guest.
Try that on with the matron, Mr Körtler.
- You'll get a smack in the face. - Well, she might not like it.
But you do. It's clear as day.
You're mistaken.
I'm going easy on you because you're sick.
I don't feel that sick, actually.
The cheek!
- What's up? - Oh, nothing…
- Some people think nurses are fair game! - It's just harmless fun.
Before the summer recess, there was a big education policy debate in the Bundestag
and I was giving the last speech.
I made my way back to my seat and when I was halfway there,
Stücklen blocked my path and said,
"Ms Schuchardt…" And then he ran his thumb down my back.
And suddenly he gave the CSU a thumbs-up.
I said, "What was that about?"
"We made a bet: Is she wearing a bra or not?"
So I said, "And?" "She's not."
Someone must have tipped off the press.
The summer recess was over and I thought, "Oh, God, how terrible!"
So I went to the Executive Committee HQ
and said, "Mr Stücklen, I'm sorry. I didn't tell the press."
And he actually said to me, "Oh, don't worry, Ms Schuchardt,
it boosted my liberal image."
You had to learn to fend off the advances
without becoming the man's arch enemy in the parliamentary group.
Let me put this bluntly: we have nothing against old men,
nor do we have anything against old women, or against young women.
I'll just add that too. But… but…
Dear Ms… Ms Nickels, Ms Hickel, Ms Vollmer, Ms Schoppe,
we'll all grow old one day.
It's true that some of you look pretty good, but…
But… back to the topic of old men, I'll say this much:
the ravages of time are also taking their toll on you,
I'll just point that out.
You really had to master this game:
fend him off, but don't slight him as a man.
It was the same in all parliamentary groups.
And I'm sorry to say that journalists also made passes on us.
One of the most taboo subjects in the political arena
is the private life of politicians in Bonn.
A Sunday paper and the Greens have now lifted this veil of discretion.
The Green Party MP Klaus Hecker from Kronberg in Hessen
has come under fire
for allegedly groping the breasts of Green Party parliamentary group staff,
to put it rather crudely.
Ms Schoppe, is there any truth to the allegations against Mr Hecker?
Yes, Mr Hecker did indeed touch the breasts of three women.
Wouldn't it be better to solve this conflict on a personal level
instead of reaching for the political cudgel?
A slap in the face wouldn't have been unreasonable.
If it had been an isolated incident,
a conflict between Klaus Hecker and one woman, but it's not.
It's a problem in society and we want to highlight this.
What do you think about breast-grabbing and bum-pinching?
- It's a hot topic. - No one does that to me anymore!
You shouldn't do it at work, but in your free time, I think it's fine.
If it was something extra special, then I would do it.
Have you ever thought of doing something like that?
- Thought about it? I've done it! - And what happened?
Nothing. The woman said it was nice. But I wasn't in the Bundestag.
I looked after VIPs at the airport,
all the politicians who were "in" back then: Strauß, Stücklen…
I have to say that during my time working at the airport,
I didn't only see the politicians in a positive light.
When I think of the MeToo debate and some of the men I was looking after,
who got onto the plane in the morning, drunk out of their minds,
I could tell a story or two.
I have been touched and experienced other things.
I was at one of Richard Stücklen's events when I was starting out in politics.
I came in and he said, "She's not married. But she's not that ugly."
I would just have loved to…
If all those people hadn't been there, I would have slapped him.
A helping hand for lawyer Friedrich Bohl,
a member of Hesse State Parliament since 1970.
His next stop: Bonn.
Richard Stücklen explains to Mrs Bohl what she has let herself in for.
If my wife hadn't showed me so much understanding,
I would never have achieved what I have in politics
- over the last 31 years. - I bet!
You won't get anywhere if you don't have the right wife.
Some people also trivialise the MeToo debate today.
If women had spoken out sooner, people in these areas might have developed
a different kind of awareness.
GERMANY UNDER THE COVERS
I'd like to say a few words about yesterday evening,
ladies and gentlemen.
The loutish behaviour here last night was simply unacceptable.
You really have to raise your game, gentlemen,
to stop the values of this house going completely to the dogs.
The debate around Paragraph 218 has started once again.
This paragraph, which sets out certain conditions
to allow a woman to terminate a pregnancy,
has not lessened the suffering women must endure when they have an abortion.
If you listen to it again, it was a very unemotional speech.
She didn't really raise her voice.
She spoke rather quietly.
She probably knew what was coming and was bracing herself.
We are in a society which is standardising living conditions,
creating standard fashions, standard flats,
standard opinions, and also standard morals.
As a result, we now have couples going to bed in the evening
and performing a standard drill before going to sleep.
Which often involves the man performing a reckless act of penetration.
I say reckless, because most men
do not take any steps to prevent pregnancy.
I admired her for it.
I probably wouldn't have chosen those words in the Bundestag at that time,
but I agreed with them.
That speech was a moment to rejoice
for all women interested or involved in the women's movement.
No one had ever spoken like that in the Bundestag before.
We are calling for spousal rape to be made a punishable act.
We are asking you to finally acknowledge
that women also have a right to determine what happens to their bodies and lives.
We are asking all of you
to put a stop to the everyday sexism here in parliament.
The atmosphere during Waltraud Schoppe's speech was just disgusting.
Calling someone a "witch" may not be very nice,
but it's not below the belt.
They shouted out things that were clearly sexual.
Things like: "No one wants to sleep with you anyway."
Really nasty things that I'd never expected MPs to say.
I can see I've said the right thing:
I've touched a nerve.
It was, well…
it was awkward for the men at times.
You really felt sorry for the men who had to make such a racket
when she said certain things
because they felt that their innermost being was under attack,
that they were no longer accepted as the natural rulers of the world.
Our male colleagues hadn't realised how they actually treated us.
To them, we were like pretty trimmings, little flowers,
but not necessarily serious politicians
who had as much to say as they did.
It would be a real turning point
if we had a chancellor up here, for example,
who pointed out to us all
that there are forms of lovemaking which are sensual
and which completely eliminate the chance of getting pregnant.
However, you can only talk about something if you understand it a little.
In all seriousness, I'd never discuss this with the chancellor.
Anyone whose policies…
whose policies destroy the environment, and enable inhumane activities,
has forfeited the chance of being part of the conversation about sensuality.
The floor is yours: Mr Kleinert, Hanover.
President…
Ladies and gentlemen.
We are not half as uptight
as I would imagine many people may now think…
after hearing that speech just now.
There are many different people living in this land,
very healthy, balanced,
and merry people… merry in a perfectly healthy way.
But they don't make their lifestyle the topic of a plenary debate.
If I remember correctly, it was your first speech in the Bundestag
and you're met with this torrent…
of jocularity, but it didn't feel friendly or relaxed,
at least as far as I saw it…
It was more like you were being jeered at.
Well, I have to say: I never expected the parliament to be jocular or relaxed.
And when they started laughing and attacking me,
I thought to myself: "There's still a lot of groundwork to be done here."
And that's what us women plan to do.
WAR AND PEACE
TODAY IN PARLIAMENT
NATO'S DUAL-TRACK DECISION
The foreign policy of this country is hanging in the balance.
We must not allow the Soviet Union to succeed,
aided by its colossal efforts to expand its armaments,
which cannot be justified
by any discernible defence or security concerns,
in intimidating us here in Western Europe,
in curtailing our freedom to act on the political stage
and in breaking our ties with the United States.
President, ladies and gentlemen, first I'd like to ask you not to laugh.
The chain around my neck isn't carnival decoration.
In Hiroshima and Japan, it is more highly regarded than our Order of Merit.
And I'd ask you to give the chain the respect it deserves.
It's made up of a thousand cranes.
The crane is Japan's national symbol for happiness and peace.
And there's an old legend that goes:
Fold 1,000 cranes and you will be granted happiness, blessings and a long life.
And after the bomb fell,
a lot of survivors in a state of misery and desperation,
were emboldened by this thought
and they tried to fold 1,000 cranes
before they died from the radiation.
In 1982 I helped launch the peace movement in my region.
And I started a women's peace movement on purpose
because I realised
that it could help counteract the negative image of the peace movement,
that everyone was controlled by Moscow or they were freaks,
that they have nothing better to do all day than protest,
if mothers, grandmas and children were part of it.
So we weaved shut the gates of barracks, organised breakfasts…
The Commanding Officer even turned up on his bike to take a secret look.
They weren't counting on any of that and it turned their world upside down.
Ms Nickels,
Your dismay at the consequences of the disaster in Hiroshima is moving.
I share this dismay,
because as a child
I experienced the night-time bombing raids in my native Koblenz, which lay in ruins.
I was buried alive twice.
So I know what horrors war can bring.
I also know from what he has told me,
that our chancellor Helmut Kohl
also suffered very personal losses in the war.
Aged 13 he was enlisted in a school fire-fighting squad
during the bombing raids in Ludwigshafen.
And his brother died as a soldier.
Well, Helmut Kohl was an emotional man, it's important to know that.
And I recall getting down from the lectern and going down those two steps,
and going past where the chancellor was sitting.
He placed his paw on my shoulder as a gesture of recognition,
and told me I'd done a good job.
What I find so awful is that many people in the peace movement
are turning this dispute into a debate on basic principles.
That they view themselves as the "public conscience"
and destroy peace within our country with their intolerance.
I reject the claim that the peace movement is fear-mongering.
The fearmongers are sitting over there on the government bench,
spreading fear among us.
If our methods of peaceful resistance and civil disobedience
transgress legal regulations and laws,
it's because we rely on a higher law, the law of our conscience,
and because we know that the power of the state is not absolute.
Petra Kelly was already an icon back then. To some, she was a saint.
To others, she was…
They didn't have a terribly positive opinion of her.
But the women were strong, they were really strong,
and not just about the NATO decision.
Another huge issue was Wackersdorf, the reprocessing plant in Bavaria,
and women were incredibly active there.
A final word on the children in the peace movement.
Parents have been shamed
for bringing their children along to the peace protest on 22 October.
I have three children of my own and I can tell you this:
it's more the other way around.
Children as young as ten are taking their parents with them.
Two topics… Yes, I think that's good.
There are two topics close to their hearts:
The death of the forests and expanding armaments.
I'd like to conclude my speech with a banner carried by young people
which read: "You treat the planet
as if you had another one in the cellar."
Let's show them that they were wrong.
It was women, and women across all political parties,
who approached the debate on armaments, for example,
by addressing the real problems far more than the men.
This made me very happy to feel that something does unite us.
I won't pretend it's all harmonious, but there is a consensus,
perhaps because they're much more connected to everyday life.
As long as we're governed by men who only have missiles on the mind,
and not much else going on up there, things will not improve.
This country doesn't need new missiles. What this country needs is new men.
READING THE RIOT ACT
VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE IN HELMUT SCHMIDT 1 OCTOBER 1982
President.
Dear colleagues.
I cannot express my lack of confidence in the chancellor
considering that only a few months ago
I expressed my confidence in him.
I don't think either of these gentlemen deserve this.
Helmut Schmidt being toppled without the say of the electorate,
and you, Helmut Kohl, becoming chancellor without the say of the electorate.
Hildegard Hamm-Brücher was a very respected politician
who held some really fantastic speeches in the Bundestag.
She wasn't easy, nor were her dealings with women.
She wasn't a "woman's woman", we said back then.
It wasn't a given that she would stand up for other women.
But then the situation arose that we're all familiar with…
with the vote of no confidence.
And it was absolutely clear to us
once we'd decided to vote against it, that she would give the speech.
In my opinion, both of these courses of action
leave the unsavoury aftertaste of violated democratic principles.
One could say that they damage the moral and ethical integrity
of power changeovers.
And this is not…
This is not…
I'm sorry, but that's how I see it. You don't, and you also made that clear.
This is not an acceptable course of action.
It was clear to us all that this speech had set off an earthquake,
and then that this would send shockwaves throughout the FDP.
Just two years ago, the voters gave a clear mandate
in favour of a social-liberal coalition.
So we have to consult the voters
before we change this arrangement.
Handshake between Dr Hildegard Hamm-Brücher
and Chancellor Helmut Schmidt.
That was a very personal and succinct explanation
of how she will choose to vote in the upcoming ballot.
Some of what I have heard here today, the pleas,
the grievances and the emotions,
can only be viewed
as an attack on our constitution.
When a member of parliament chooses to express their opinion,
be they male or female members,
and state that they will act according to their conscience,
and this is then described as an attack on our constitution…
as an attack on our constitution,
then the leadership of the…
I only intend to say three sentences and I ask you to please hear me out.
I still have the right to speak here!
This constitution is a moral institution of German politics.
And if within this constitution,
whether it suits one person more than another in a particular situation,
we reach decisions, we work, we fight for a cause,
this cannot be viewed as immoral,
nor as unchristian, as the honourable lady suggests.
The MP Dr Helmut Kohl
has been elected as Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany.
For the voters, electing Helmut Kohl was a serious breach of trust.
It violated what had been promised before the election.
And we weren't alone: the people were up in arms.
It went against the principle of good faith
and that's also why
I was so upset with Genscher, who'd kept it secret to the last.
We never spoke again.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm a real veteran of the party conference circuit.
I've attended most of the conferences that have taken place in Germany since 1967,
but I've never experienced a conference where so many tears have been shed.
Something really must have happened within this party.
I hope that you will understand
that as a matter of self-respect in view of the outcome of these events,
I will not run for the National Board of the FDP.
There was more to come: for Ingrid Matthäus-Maier, re-electing Genscher
and approving the power handover in Bonn meant a loss of face for the FDP
and a new centre-right, pro-business stance.
Final concerns, final advice, final objections,
but they will not change her mind: the FDP is no longer her political home
and for a few moments the conference
loses its business-like mood when she explains:
So I have decided to resign from my posts in the FDP
and to leave the FDP.
She is not the only one to leave the party that evening,
others hesitate, at a loss.
Will this spark an exodus from the FDP after the conference?
This is what many fear.
And that's what happened too, with some tragic results.
I saw friendships
and even marriages fall apart because of the change of coalition.
Life changed for a lot of us after that. For me, for example.
There was never any doubt about it. I could never have voted for Kohl.
And I knew only too well
that my career as a politician would suffer as a result.
TAKING A CHANCE ON MORE WOMEN
May I introduce you to the chancellor?
He'll be happy to finally meet the chairwoman of a…
May I introduce Ms Matthäus? The chairwoman of our Young Democrats.
So you've already had dealings with each other?
Oh, yes, we have!
She is paraded around parties in Bonn like a bird of paradise, a rare specimen,
a woman who, aged 26,
is head of one of the three major political youth organisations.
But Ingrid Matthäus, new chairwoman of the Young Democrats,
wants to prove herself to her political fathers
and would rather challenge than please, especially her own party chairman.
Many people were surprised that a woman was made chair
of such a big organisation for the first time.
Do you think it's normal for a woman to hold such a position?
It's normal to me and it's not unusual in our organisation, the Young Democrats,
because we have chairwomen at municipal, district and state level.
But of course in public life up until now, it certainly hasn't been the norm.
But I hope that it will encourage a few other women to follow suit,
even if it doesn't solve the fundamental problems in our society
which still impede female emancipation.
I remember what the German Press Agency wrote,
and they weren't completely wrong: "aggressive and attractive".
I noticed early on that it can be a problem as a woman,
if you're active in the party,
if you're decisive,
you have a goal and are determined to get a majority.
If you were a man, I'm sure that people would say,
"Oh, he's so decisive, he has great ideas
and goals he wants to achieve!"
Over all my years in politics, I can say from experience
that when women say,
"I want this to happen and I'll fight for it",
it's viewed much more critically than if a man says it.
A man is viewed as decisive and not overbearing.
As it never rains but it pours,
our next item is about the expulsion of men
from the paradise of the Green front bench,
if indeed it ever was a paradise.
What happened in the Green Party is something familiar to all,
it seems to be the norm in the average marriage today:
the women took command.
In a marriage, this happens gently and almost imperceptibly over many years.
The ladies of the Green Party, however, managed to railroad it through,
in unsentimental fashion, using brute force.
The most rotten male chauvinists couldn't have managed such a feat.
We're trying out something new and sending a signal
to all women in our party to get more involved
and to women in other parties.
And we also want to send a signal beyond the borders of the Federal Republic
to encourage more women to play a part in politics.
Six women had been elected to the party executive
and they almost keeled over with shock.
It's hard to imagine, but the FAZ newspaper wrote:
"The men dutifully licked the boots of female emancipation
until they kicked them to the curb."
Or they talked about the "gynaecocracy", and I thought:
"My God, if you see a group of men, you don't say 'urolo…gracy', do you?"
The terms they came up with!
And these were serious presenters and journalists,
and this stuff just came out of them.
And everyone wanted to interview you, of course.
And it was an interesting experience.
I was standing next to Nowottny and thought:
"What's going on there?" Because he was really small.
He had this little transparent stool which made him taller than me, of course.
"Ah, that's how he does it." I had a whale of a time!
Christa Nickels' first day
as the newly elected Green Party Secretary.
On Tuesday, she took over the party helm in the Bundestag with five other women.
A surprise coup, the background of which is gradually becoming clearer.
Nervous yet high-spirited, Nickels starts business
with her colleagues from other parties.
You shouldn't blow your own trumpet and I don't want to praise myself,
but I do feel that I got off to a fairly good start today.
Of course I'm still rough around the edges,
I still have to settle in and get the hang of things,
but I've no doubt I'll manage that.
- So gender doesn't count in this job? - Certainly not.
It's your intellect that counts, and long hair doesn't stunt that.
When we voted in the women's executive,
a number of women in the SPD, left-leaning ones too,
were completely outraged:
"There's no need to throw the baby out with the bathwater!"
And the women from the CSU,
who had really socially conservative views,
they were really happy and congratulated us.
The world had gone topsy-turvy and we thought,
"What's got into the women in the SPD?"
I didn't really give the "feminarchy" in the Green Party
all that much thought.
But what I will say is:
I appreciate men
and think that the male perspective is important,
but not in that excess.
I congratulated them, I congratulated them in writing,
and they made that public, of course.
And then I got an angry letter from my parliamentary party secretary,
asking me if I'd taken leave of my senses.
Why was I supporting this nonsense and even congratulating them?
But without the women in the Green Party and without the SPD women's quota,
it would never have been possible in the CDU.
It's a little hard at first to be faced by a wall of men.
They have particular expectations of you, they want to see if you'll "man up".
And of course you still face prejudice. Here's a story from the last election.
I organised a get-together one Sunday in a village in Upper Bavaria,
which was a lot of work.
After the event, an elderly farmer came up to me:
"You'll find a good man, my girl. Then you won't need to do this anymore."
It had to happen then because women in general were taking a stand.
There was the new women's movement, Alice Schwarzer,
one thing enabled the other.
Things were happening inside and outside of parliament, "pollinating" each other.
Stand your ground, don't give in
You have got this far
Don't budge, don't let them win
Stay true to who you are
Under the pavement
There lies a beach
Reach out your hand and grab a stone from the sand
Don't let anyone tell you
What you should or should not do
You get to have your say
And do things just your way
Under the pavement
There lies a beach
Reach out your hand and grab a stone from the sand
Dance and give a twirl
You'll never be "their girl"
Scare them away
Laugh loud, now hear me say: Your turn!
Even old hands at the party conference circuit
cannot recall seeing as many women
at other events of this kind as there were at the CDU conference
in Essen's Grugahalle.
Heiner Geißler's vision of transforming the CDU
into an advocate of a "new partnership", as the Secretary General calls it,
made the mood at the CDU event at the heart of the Ruhr Valley
more amicable, and more importantly, showed that it was looking to the future.
The party wants to achieve equality between men and women
in everyday life by the year 2000.
An ambitious goal.
In the run-up to this conference, Heiner Geissler announced
that he would give up his post as Minister for Family Affairs afterwards
so that he could devote himself to his duties as General Secretary.
So I said to the Frauenunion: "Ladies, the time has finally come to demand
the appointment of a second woman in the cabinet.
Kohl can forget his conference in Essen if he doesn't pledge to do that."
I assume the CDU doesn't want to look utterly ridiculous
and will appoint a second female minister.
I believe that it should be at least three or four.
The number of CDU female ministers should at least correspond
to the number of female party members, considering the party's goals.
This is nothing new,
you know the numbers, I think it's 21 percent.
- I think we may have to… - May I comment on that?
- In a minute. - You keep going off topic.
No, I'll finish my point if I may.
So we'll have to make do with a second token woman.
And then the ladies replied,
"But then he won't choose one of us. He'll be really annoyed with us."
And I said, "Well, if you're too scared, I'll do it on my own."
And it got a lot of coverage in the press:
"Helmut Kohl can forget his party conference
if he doesn't pledge to appoint a second female minister."
And then he informed me, but not directly, of course:
I shouldn't get any ideas into my head. I was not going to be the second minister.
Just look at how events unfolded.
Before the conference, after publication of their principles,
a female politician stuck her neck out and said, "How about a second minister?"
From then on, it was all negotiated behind closed doors.
No woman dared say another word.
A very high-profile, capable female politician said to me, and I quote:
"Oh, we don't want to discuss that, because we know our Helmut Kohl.
If we mention it again, he'll be so mad we won't get a second seat."
- Oh no, that's just not true. - It is! There but for the grace of Kohl.
Kohl said to Schäuble and Geissler:
"I'm not that stupid: I won't do an Edward Heath
and let a Thatcher on board."
That really amused me when I heard about that.
But at the party conference, he had to announce
that a second woman would join the cabinet and that woman was Rita Süssmuth.
There she is: Professor Rita Süssmuth, Heiner Geißler's successor.
Up to now, she worked in social education in Dortmund.
The 48-year-old will become the new Minister of Family Affairs
in mid-September.
Her appointment came as a big surprise to many.
You're also said to be very loyal, but does this loyalty go so far
as to considering yourself a "transitional" minister?
Well, I am loyal if the situation and the people
require it and make it possible.
What's really important to me is that each person is true to themselves.
I am who I am.
My predecessor was a different person with his own identity.
Very self-assured, aren't you, Professor?
A number of female MPs in the CDU and CSU will not be pleased.
Yes, it's true, we were rather offended
when Rita Süssmuth turned up.
You see, the Union had been in opposition for so long.
There was no way to move up the ranks, and the women just ploughed on and on.
I did find it very difficult at the beginning.
They didn't rate my chances much in the papers:
"She'll be gone in six months."
I must admit
that this particularly spurred me on to say:
"That's not what I want.
If I take on this challenge, I'm going to stick it out."
Rita Süssmuth didn't have a political background.
She was a woman with traditional values,
but she was actually way ahead of her time.
She'd be a good fit for Angela Merkel's CDU today.
Back then, she was a pure white raven surrounded by a sea of CDU black.
And they'd got her on board
to give the impression that they were equipped for the future,
also because of the emerging women's movement
and the Green Party women in parliament.
And then she was confronted with the HIV crisis
and took a completely unorthodox approach.
Very effective, but very controversial within her party.
After fierce clashes with Bavaria, the minister pushed through
her policy of fighting AIDS with a comprehensive awareness campaign
and counselling, rather than tough new laws.
Tina, how much are these condoms?
We're not talking about showing understanding for the homosexual scene.
What is essential here is to make it clear that this is contra naturam,
which means "against nature", and is fundamentally deviant behaviour.
We finally have to make protection of the majority in our society
our top priority and stop concerning ourselves with
how we can better understand the margins of society.
We have to make these margins thinner. We have to thin them out.
We must make it clear to our young people that this does not offer them a future.
It highlighted all the things that were still taboo in society:
homosexuals,
who were painted as the villains spreading AIDS all across our country.
And taking a stand against that
naturally meant that I was often at odds with the official party line.
At some point, it was common knowledge that she and Helmut Kohl
had become adversaries.
He was absolutely furious that she was so different to how he'd imagined
and she was pretty shocked by the macho posturing,
not only in the case of Kohl, but in this milieu in general.
Rita Süssmuth on the way to announcing her candidacy
for the office of Bundestag President.
She had become a nuisance to the powers that be in Bonn,
who "promoted her out of the way" into the second-highest office of state.
We were all outraged.
And we all quickly tried
to get various proposals
off the ground in a way that would allow them to survive
when she wasn't there anymore to hold her protective hand
over certain important projects.
If I am elected to this office,
I will remain Rita Süssmuth and an active politician.
I have no intention of turning my back on politics.
I really wanted to remain a minister
and I came out of the meeting and wasn't one anymore.
For my team,
for our team and for me,
that was a really sad moment, and I thought I was powerless.
She also made something of the job of Bundestag President.
Because you can use the office in very different ways.
And she really did a lot to advance women's issues.
Whatever the topic, she never failed to address
sensitive points and take people to task.
Of course, at first people thought, "Now she's quiet. We've silenced her."
But she knew that they hoped this and she didn't give in.
Rita Süssmuth caused quite a sensation
at the party conference in Bremen in September 1989,
when she joined Lothar Späth and Heiner Geißler
in an unsuccessful attempt to oust the chancellor.
What would have become of the CDU as a party of the people,
if we hadn't had the women's party conference in Essen,
and as a result of this… and I say this after some consideration…
we didn't now have the most politically significant, popular
and respected woman in our midst, namely, Rita Süssmuth.
Where would we be then?
He'd probably had a different image of me: the good Catholic woman.
One of our own.
And that wasn't me.
I would never have been able to stay true to myself
if I'd fit that image.
PETRA AND HANNELORE
Oh, lovely.
The air is the best here.
I've noticed that you're rather fond of boots.
And I know that you've worn through a pair or two in the service of the party.
It goes without saying that these boots are black in line with party colours…
And above all they're meant to help you
to fight the next few election campaigns
at your husband's side.
Petra Kelly carries her own bags.
She doesn't deserve pity, yet some men in the Greens look on
as this woman slaves away until she drops.
After all, "she is emancipated",
meaning: she alone is responsible for her actions.
THE INTERVIEW CHALLENGE
Like many women, ma'am, you suffer from living
- in your husband's shadow. - So you always claim!
But doesn't it bother you
to be a silent, albeit attractive figure on the margins?
You're claiming I'm silent again, but you're not there all the time.
I accompanied a lot of Helmut Kohl's state visits.
She really shone on trips abroad, with her fluent English and fluent French,
which wasn't the case with Chancellor Kohl.
I got a real glimpse into this marriage,
but it never occurred to me to write or talk about it.
I didn't even talk to my husband about it.
A lot of people really underestimated this woman.
You also talked about bringing
more tenderness to politics.
Should politicians start hugging or even kissing each other?
That wouldn't be so bad, but they already do that enough, albeit in a formal way.
No, tenderness in politics means that it should be for the people,
it's about loving your neighbour, and tenderness also means
being careful about how you protect the integrity of what's important to you.
Politics also requires a certain caution if it strives to be ecological.
Tenderness means trying to understand each other,
deconstructing our image of the enemy, both out there and within.
We've finally made it into the Bundestag!
I see Petra Kelly as the first global politician.
She really valued people's rights to self-determination:
Aborigines, Native Americans,
and also the Black Power Movement.
She was a real role model and got sacks full of post.
Mr Beuys, it's not easy to describe Petra Kelly,
such a multi-faceted character, and so dedicated.
What would you say: is she a little work of art?
If she is a work of art, I'd say she's a big one.
A large, important and powerful work of art within the movement.
And, of course, above all she's a human being,
and her way of being comes across in such an uninhibited fashion,
with full force.
This force can't be brought to a halt, it can't be stopped.
A lot of people want Petra to finally stop,
but she's unstoppable, thank God.
In spite of all his talents, your husband is sometimes accused
of being provincial at heart.
- And this verdict rubs off on his wife. - Ah, I see.
Does it offend you when someone says,
"There is something rather provincial about that Mrs Kohl"?
We all have to come from somewhere.
Provincialism is a tricky question in my case.
In the introduction, you said I'd moved 17 times.
You were wrong. It was 19 times.
So which province are we talking about? You tell me.
Well, we could list all of the 17 or 19 places…
- But you know what I mean. - Of course.
I know you're trying to wiggle your way out of it.
So you don't think you're provincial?
You want to hear my personal opinion on whether I'm provincial? Just say so.
- No. - No.
- Period? - End of story.
Ms Kelly, you just said that the movement had a strength all of its own
and it had nothing to do with the media.
I heard you speak for the first time today and I must say
it has a whole lot to do with the media.
The media have painted such a picture of you,
I wondered who on earth would turn up!
And then you gave a speech like that. Good heavens!
She kind of lost her effect in parliament.
It was a bit like seeing a deer
who had been chased into that room.
Suddenly, all the magic was gone.
She really lost her impact
and the conservative politicians seized the chance to ridicule her.
Since I've been in Bonn, I've become more and more hostile towards men.
I'm talking from my own experience: for the first time I've lost my confidence
and everything that gave me courage to speak in public
in the Bundestag.
I get this tremendous fear and anxiety if I have to speak in the Bundestag.
I'm concerned because I can see that she's wearing herself out unnecessarily,
that she's giving too much of herself and letting herself be ripped to shreds.
And of course I'm also worried that she'll be exploited.
That's the big danger for anyone who becomes a prominent figure.
Yes, let's face it: the standards are set by some actress or other.
Who have been coached and styled for a particular role
and they have their lines.
And if they don't manage it, they repeat it thirty times over.
And then it's great.
People like me stand here at 8 p.m.
after five interviews and various other activities,
in "freefall", as it were, and have to ad-lib.
The lives of the former Green MPs
Petra Kelly and Gerd Bastian ended in tragedy.
This afternoon, investigators announced the cause of death:
The former Bundeswehr general firstly shot his 44-year-old partner.
Bastian then committed suicide.
The reasons behind his actions are still unclear.
Maybe Gert Bastian thought that if he couldn't be there to look after her,
she'd just fall apart.
That was a major error of judgement.
And a patriarchal, protective judgement, too.
Maybe Petra Kelly would have got burnout, as we call it today,
maybe she'd have disappeared for years, having treatment somewhere,
but I'm a hundred percent certain that Petra…
if she'd had the chance to grow old,
she'd have had a second shot.
Hannelore Kohl, the wife of the former federal chancellor, is dead.
She took her life in her house in Ludwigshafen-Oggersheim.
In farewell letters to family and friends she explained her motives:
she had a serious illness, an allergy to light.
The illness had left her barely able to leave the house.
After her funeral, Bernhard Vogel told me
that he'd gone to visit Hannelore,
and he'd arranged to go out and eat with her.
And Hannelore was wearing a white silk blouse,
which kind of draped over her hands,
with these wide sleeves.
And he could see these dark blotches on her skin,
wet blotches.
And when Hannelore noticed he was looking at them,
she pulled her sleeve back and you could see red, raw skin.
And then Bernhard Vogel said,
"A person can't carry on living like that.
That was the moment I realised this."
DAD
Otto Schily, SPD, will now speak.
Allow me to add some personal remarks.
My uncle Fritz Schily,
a sincere and honest man, was a colonel in the Luftwaffe.
Towards the end of the war, he was…
I'm sorry.
9 MAY 1945
Today we bring you the last Wehrmacht report of this war.
Since midnight the weapons on all fronts are silent.
By the order of the Grand Admiral,
the Wehrmacht ceased its hopeless fighting.
With this, a nearly six-year heroic struggle has ended.
It brought us great victories, but also heavy defeats.
The German Wehrmacht
has been honourably defeated by superior forces.
There will now be a three-minute silence.
After weeks of controversy, the exhibition is finally opening in Munich:
"The War of Extermination: the Crimes of the Wehrmacht from 1941 to 1944".
Lord Mayor of Munich, Christian Ude, today accused the CSU
of fuelling a Neo-Nazi campaign across Germany against the exhibition.
In my opinion, this exhibition is offensive towards my father.
I believe that it amounts to incitement of the people,
slandering the memory of the deceased.
- It's not… - Arsehole!
- …to show… - We don't want you here!
The press are liars! The press are liars!
- He's on your side! - The press are liars!
I can still remember how my sister and I
went to see the exhibition on the Wehrmacht
and how anxious we were.
We didn't talk about it until we left the exhibition.
We were both scared of the same thing:
it would have been a crazy coincidence, but we hoped we didn't see
any photos of our dad.
We were both really worried about it
and I think a lot of people in our generation
were worried about seeing their father or grandfather or brother,
seeing someone you didn't want to see there.
And then it even became a topic of debate in the Bundestag.
Everybody knew about it, but you didn't talk about it.
It was a really taboo topic.
Then people starting discussing it in public and in their families:
everyone had a story to tell
and it was like a veil of lead
which had enveloped post-war Germany.
Therefore this is a matter which affects our relations
with an entire generation of this country.
Whoever attempts, and attempts are being made,
to brand an entire wartime generation
as members and accomplices of a criminal organisation,
they want to strike Germany at its core, and we will fight back against this.
Christa Nickels, the floor is yours.
President, dear colleagues.
My mother told me that in the 1950s, my father…
a man toughened by life, who always worked hard,
never slept with the window open
and cried out in his sleep every night about fire, about children.
She said it was just awful.
Of course, I loved my father a great deal.
I never heard him talk about what it was like
to shoot at another human being for the first time.
And then there was that handshake between our chancellor and Mr Reagan
at Bitburg cemetery where SS soldiers are buried.
For the first time, I realised
that on the only photo of my father from this period,
he's in a black uniform with a skull and crossbones insignia.
I was already a Green MP by then.
I didn't dare ask my father about it.
I found it extremely difficult.
I just didn't have the heart to do it.
And then in 1989, with the Green Party parliamentary group
I went to Warsaw to commemorate 50 years since the invasion of Poland.
We went to Majdanek.
And I only know that Dad was in France, in Russia and in Poland.
I know that he was captured in Lviv.
Then I went to Majdanek concentration camp and I have to tell you
I really fell to pieces one night.
I was absolutely appalled by the camp,
but also by how these men had been exploited, my father included.
They were mainly men, men who loved life and their children.
I was appalled by how these men had been used in this criminal war.
They weren't strong enough to take another path.
They burdened themselves with a terrible guilt
and were too weak to take another path.
All of the men and the women and the children,
I'm the daughter of one of those soldiers,
feel the impact to this day.
And Mr Dregger, it's not true that if we show the wounds,
if we show the unvarnished truth and start to talk about it,
we're dragging the people involved through the mud or badmouthing them.
On the contrary, the best thing that could happen
would be to create a climate in Germany where the elderly fathers and mothers,
and the children, some older than others, I'm 45 now…
could come together and have a calm conversation
about what happened to them.
I wanted to say that and I must admit I'm impressed by the debate.
I thought long and hard about speaking up because of course people kept saying:
"How could you? He was your father."
But I'm not tarnishing the family name because anyone who knows me
knows how much I love and loved my parents, my father included.
And if this debate has helped in any way to change things
it's because we've started to present our political ideas and our own stories
in an honest, unvarnished way, using simple yet horrific images.
That's what I hope for, and I believe this Wehrmacht exhibition
may be able to set precisely this in motion,
unless we start to plaster over the wounds and give people false consolation,
stones instead of bread,
if today, we say to the people who were involved:
"It shouldn't hurt you anymore because you had no choice."
That doesn't help at all. Thank you.
MRS CHANCELLOR
Are women simply too modest in politics?
They say they're not after a majority, although more women vote than men.
But then to think you could be as strong or stronger in the various parliaments,
that we could have a female state minister-president,
a female party leader or even a female chancellor?
It wouldn't have been possible. You have to keep your feet on the ground.
A female chancellor in the 1970s and 80s was unthinkable.
You couldn't jump up and say, "Here I am!"
Even if you'd been blessed with every talent imaginable,
it wouldn't have made a difference.
If the choice had been between the most talented woman of the 1970s
and some dumb male clown, the clown would have got the job.
No question about that.
I always dreamed of being chancellor, if I'm really honest.
And someone else backed me too.
There's an old interview in the Spiegel
where Franz-Josef Strauß says which woman he'd choose as chancellor
and it was Renate Hellwig.
Of course, that was a red flag for Helmut Kohl.
But Strauß didn't do it to please you, he did it to annoy Helmut Kohl.
- Yes, but… - No, no.
All the same, I was the only candidate!
I did run for the post of Young Democrat Chairwoman.
We know. Did you want to be chancellor?
Well, I…
- You'd have been excellent. - Great, maybe so.
On the other hand,
chancellors always have this extreme desire,
this absolute need to gain power and they will stop at nothing.
I observed this and I partly admired it and partly feared it.
But I never wanted to be like that.
If I could have become chancellor without all that, then maybe.
And why can't you say, "Absolutely!
Theoretically speaking, I would have done it."
No, I can't!
Do you seriously think that my party
would accept Mrs Merkel's offer of talks under these circumstances
when she says she wants to become chancellor.
Let's not get too carried away now!
The German voters sent out a clear signal as far as the chancellor candidate goes.
"I swear that I will dedicate my efforts to the well-being of the German people
promote their welfare, protect them from harm,
uphold and defend the Basic Law and the laws of the Federation,
perform my duties conscientiously,
and do justice to all.
So help me God."
Sometimes history makes you lose hope.
But sometimes it also makes you want to let out a little whoop of joy.
I mean…
of course I can't support everything Angela Merkel does politically.
But what I find really wonderful
is how she became chancellor and how long she's stayed chancellor.
At any rate, she's very adept at dealing with power.
The way she fends off her older and younger rivals
with a flick of the wrist… it's certainly impressive.
"You must fight tooth and nail, but make it appear smooth and effortless."
I learned this lesson, too, and I know that "fight" isn't the right word…
in the context of the women's movement
and certainly not for male-female relations,
but it is the right approach.
In 1908 women weren't even allowed
to attend political events or meetings of political associations.
In 1918 they first got the vote.
Then it was taken away again.
They "manned up" during the war,
but then let themselves be driven back into the kitchen,
making space for the men who had returned from the war.
These things take time, you know,
because it's a battle, a battle for power.
Each position which is occupied by a woman
won't be occupied by a man anymore, so they have something to lose.
So we have to make it clear that it's not really a loss.
Maybe it's better if men and women join forces.
But implanting this awareness
in people's minds,
that's difficult.
But maybe we'll manage it over the next 25 years.
I think we will.
Are we all ready?
Well… we're done.
"Ladies, if we do nothing today,
we will live tomorrow as we did yesterday."
Unfortunately, this appeal by Annemirl Bauer from 1988
still rings true today.
For the first time in 20 years,
the share of women in the Bundestag has fallen to just 30.7 percent.
Women are still paid less than men, are less likely to be promoted
and carry the greatest burden in family life.
Populists would like to send women back to the kitchen and nursery
and the Internet is rife with hate against dedicated female politicians.
What former Health Minister Käte Strobel once said
is as relevant today as ever:
"Politics is far too serious a matter to be left in the hands of men alone!"