Feminist Publications in West Germany Today

The publications that West German feminists have developed in the last five years of this second wave of German feminism reflect the variety, scope and problems of a growing women's movement by providing important information to the public and by debating ideology, strategy and issues. The 1977 Frauenkalender lists over 100 organizational contact addresses, from urban women's cafes to provincial women's centers, from women's caucuses of mixed left or community organizations to lesbian separatist collectives. Within each women's center there are a multitude of smaller project and discussion groups. Such organizations are the basis of a communications network which distributes feminist literature throughout the Federal Republic where 11 cities already have women's bookstores which sell movement publications, feminist books from establishment presses, posters, records and speculums. Many feminist books and journals from autonomous women's press are distributed to women's, left and conventional bookstores through Frauenbuchvertrieb, a West Berlin based company whose catalogue appears biannually. Other sources for feminist literature are regular subscriptions to periodicals, display tables at conferences and collectives within women's centers. Two feminist periodicals, Emma and Courage, can be obtained at newspaper stands throughout the Federal Republic. Most of these publications are less than three years old. Experimentation with ideas and format is prevalent and is usually valued more highly than editorial consistency or consumer-ready slickness. The women who are creating a feminist communications network in the BRD are, for the most part, not professional journalists, but radical activists whose motivation to write, print and distribute literature comes from their sense of urgency about the need for feminist revolution. How they approach this task varies from one publication to another, depending on the philosophy, strategy and situation of each group or collective

Political science · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · European history and politics · History