View source for Democratic Women's League of Germany

{{Short description|Mass women's organisation in East Germany}}
{{Infobox organization
| name                = Democratic Women's Federation of Germany
| native_name         = Demokratischer Frauenbund Deutschlands
| native_name_lang    = de
| named_after         = 
| image               = DFD Logo.png
| image_size          = 
| alt                 = 
| caption             = DFD logo
| logo                = File:Flagge Demokratischer Frauenbund Deutschlands.svg
| logo_size           = 
| logo_alt            = 
| logo_caption        = DFD flag
| merged              = 
| successor           = 
| formation           = {{start date and age|1947|03}}
| founder             = 
| founding_location   = 
| dissolved           = 1990
| merger              = 
| type                = [[Mass organization]]
| purpose             = [[Women's rights]]
| membership          = 1.5 million
| membership_year     = 1988
| parent_organization = [[National Front (East Germany)|National Front]]
}}

The '''Democratic Women's League of Germany'''<ref name="Shreir">{{cite book| editor-last=Shreir |editor-first=Sally |title=Women's Movements of the World : an international directory and reference guide |date=1988 |publisher=Longman Group UK |isbn=978-0-89774-508-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/womensmovementso0000unse_f7f1/page/98/mode/2up|pages=99–100}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Guenther |first=Katja |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iuaDoLY1ksQC&dq=%22Democratic+Women's+League+of+Germany%22&pg=PR11 |title=Making Their Place: Feminism After Socialism in Eastern Germany |date=2010 |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-8047-7072-9 |location=Stanford |pages=31 |language=en |quote=The official women's group of the SED, the Democratic Women's League of Germany dominated women's organizational efforts in the GDR [...]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=McCauley |first=Martin |author-link=Martin McCauley (historian) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W1mLCwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Democratic+Women's+Association+of+Germany%22&pg=PR10 |title=The German Democratic Republic since 1945 |date=1983 |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |isbn=978-1-349-18403-3 |location=New York |pages=38 |language=en |quote=[...] the Democratic Women's Association of Germany (DFD) was founded in March 1947.}}</ref> ({{langx|de |Demokratischer Frauenbund Deutschlands}}, or '''DFD''') was the [[Mass organization|mass women's organisation]] in [[East Germany]]. It was one of the constituent members of the [[National Front (East Germany)|National Front]] and sent representatives to the [[Volkskammer]]. In 1988, membership was 1.5 million.<ref>Dirk Jurich, ''Staatssozialismus und gesellschaftliche Differenzierung: eine empirische Studie'', p.32. LIT Verlag Münster, 2006, {{ISBN|3825898938}}</ref><ref name="Shreir"/>
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-76791-0012, Berlin, 15. Volkskammersitzung, Ilse Thiele.jpg|thumb|[[Ilse Thiele]] led the DFD for most of its existence (1953 to 1989).]]
The DFD did not have much independence from the ruling [[Socialist Unity Party of Germany|Socialist Unity Party]] (SED). [[Käte Selbmann]], a member of the DFD's executive board, complained that it was "a pre-school for women, neither as central as the [[Free German Trade Union Federation|FDGB]] nor even more important than any other mass organization to women's work, and absolutely subordinate to the SED",<ref name="Harsch">{{cite journal |last1=Harsch |first1=Donna |title=Approach/Avoidance: Communists and Women in East Germany, 1945–9 |journal=[[Social History (journal)|Social History]] |date=2000 |volume=25 |issue=2 |pages=176–178, 180 |doi=10.1080/030710200363186 |jstor=4286643 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4286643 |issn=0307-1022|url-access=subscription }}</ref> while historian Valerie Dubslaff writes that "the role of the department was therefore neither to represent the interests of women nor to promote them within the party, but to execute the political will of its leaders".<ref name="Dubslaff">{{cite journal |last1=Dubslaff |first1=Valérie |title=Les femmes en quête de pouvoir ? Le défi de la participation politique en République démocratique allemande (1949-1990) |journal=Allemagne d'aujourd'hui |date=2014 |volume=207 |issue=1 |page=37 |doi=10.3917/all.207.0033 |url=https://www.cairn.info/revue-allemagne-d-aujourd-hui-2014-1-page-33.htm?contenu=article |trans-title=Women in Search of Power? The Challenge of Political Participation in the German Democratic Republic (1949-1990) |language=fr |isbn=9782757406915 |via=[[Cairn.info]]}}</ref>

==Organization==
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1987-0305-102, Berlin, XII. DFD-Kongress.jpg|thumb|Representatives at the 12th DFD Congress in East Berlin, 1987]]
The DFD was established in March 1947 and had the following official aims:

*Removal of fascist ideas
*Education for women
*Equal rights
*Fair social living conditions
*Education of children in the spirit of humanism and peace
*Co-operation with the international women's movement

===Chairwomen of the Democratic Women's Federation of Germany===
{|class="wikitable"
!Name
 !Entered office
!Left office
|-
|[[Anne-Marie Durand-Wever]]
|1947
|1948
|-
|[[Emmy Damerius-Koenen]]
|1948
|1949
|-
|[[Elli Schmidt]]
|1949
|September 1953
|-
|[[Ilse Thiele]]
|September 1953
|November 1989
|-
|[[Eva Rohmann]]
|1989
|1990
|-
|[[Gisela Steineckert]]
|1990
|1990
|}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{commons category-inline}}

{{GDR political parties}}
{{Organizations of East Germany}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Democratic Women's League Of Germany}}
[[Category:Political parties in East Germany]]
[[Category:Women's wings of communist parties]]
[[Category:Organisations based in East Germany]]
[[Category:Organizations established in 1947]]
[[Category:1947 establishments in Germany]]
[[Category:Mass organisations of East Germany]]
[[Category:Feminist organisations in Germany]]
[[Category:Women's International Democratic Federation affiliates]]

{{Germany-org-stub}}