Women in a divided Germany – exhibition in the community center in Eisenhüttenstadt

The Protestant parish of Eisenhüttenstadt is showing the exhibition "Women in Divided Germany" in the community center at Robert-Koch-Straße 37 from 13 February to 3 July 2026.

The division of Germany has been history for over three decades. But many clichés about women from East and West Germany persist to this day. Where do these attributions come from? And how much is really behind them? The exhibition "Women in Divided Germany" explores these questions. Published by the Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship and curated by Clara Marz, the exhibition was conceived as a contribution to the 35th anniversary of German reunification.

The different realities of women's lives in the Federal Republic and the GDR in the 1970s and 1980s are depicted on 20 posters.

The aim of the exhibition is to make the diverse experiences of women visible and to show the similarities and differences in their German-German realities. In addition, the exhibition poses the question of whether women in both German states shared a common striving for self-determination in a male-dominated system despite different political and social conditions.

Christine Gerbich (Director, Museum Utopie und Alltag) has been invited to the opening, and there will be a panel discussion with Ruth Misselwitz (pastor, peace and environmental activist) and Dr. Elisabeth Raiser (historian and linguist) on the realities of women's lives in East and West with the opportunity for questions from the audience to be moderated. The musical framework will be provided by Uta von Willert (singer and choir director amaryllis berlin).