Christa Nickels: Against ridicule and scorn – for women’s rights

With his documentary “Die Unbeugsamen”, Torsten Körner drew a kind of political drama of the post-war period and focused on women pioneers in the struggle for women’s rights. One of them is Christa Nickels.

“We come a long way, dear child, and we have to go far. Don’t worry, everyone is with you who were before you” and who are still to come, the video conversation with Christa Nickels ends with this excerpt from Heinrich Böll.

I’m left in a pensive mood, organizing my notes and saving the recording on my voice recorder. I am one of those young women who learned to walk on the foundations of those who exposed themselves to ridicule and insults during their struggle in order to make a difference. One thing becomes clear to me: standing still is not an option, we have taken over the baton and must now do our part.

For the past 16 years we have had a Federal Chancellor in Angela Merkel. For many, this fact is the ultimate proof that a fight for more equality is no longer necessary. But especially in crisis situations such as the pandemic, one thing becomes very clear: The foundation that was created by female political pioneers quickly cracks and again mainly weighs on the shoulders of women. This is shameful for Christa Nickels.

Christa Nickels is one of the political pioneers who fought for women’s rights

Brigitte: Ms. Nickels, are we on the right track in terms of equality?

Christa Nickels: Much has already changed for the better. But there is still an infinite amount to be done. So it is still the case today that the most dangerous place for women is unfortunately in the family – even if this has now become a social issue. But right now, the current experiences from the pandemic with its lockdowns show how pitifully fragile the whole network of childcare, school and social assistance still is.

In an interview you once said that women still stand back too much and do not stand up for themselves and their demands. What else should we as women work on?

The problem is that many young women think that we have long since achieved equality. That this is not the case often only becomes apparent when family planning is due, when the “mother’s trap” snaps shut mercilessly. But then it is too late, the knowledge would have needed it beforehand. We have to work hard to reconcile work and family.

When you went into politics you were the mother of two young children. How did that look for you?

At that time I was a young woman of 25 years and had two small kindergarten children. I was employed as a night watch in an internal intensive care unit. At that time, you could only work part-time in a qualified manner if you were on the night shift. However, this also gave me the opportunity to be there for my children during the day and also the time to get involved politically – which would not have been possible in alternating shifts.

What were your aspirations when you entered politics?

One had the feeling that everything that did not suit the established politics of the time ricocheted off the parliaments like a rubber wall. I was very enthusiastic about the claim that democracy means that all citizens can contribute and help shape it. And when I realized that exactly that was failing due to the hardened structures, I felt motivated to do something about it. And I wasn’t alone there. It was the time of great civil society initiatives: the women’s movement, the student movement, the environmental movement, the peace movement.

After working with the social democratic women for two years without becoming a member, you decided in favor of the Greens and even became a founding member of the party in North Rhine-Westphalia. Has the Greens always had a right to equal rights?

Since the women’s movement was one of our founding currents, this was of course a very important principle that was also widely accepted. And then we entered the Bundestag almost equally in 1983. The proportion of women in the Bundestag was thus in double digits again – just slightly above the proportion of 1919. If you imagine that, it was actually quite an embarrassment, so many decades later.

Spokespersons for the Greens in the Bundestag: Heidemarie Dann (from left), Annemarie Borgmann, Antje Vollmer, Erika Hickel, Waltraud Schoppe and Christa Nickels in the Bundestag in Bonn.

© Sven Simon / imago images

How did you try to strengthen the position of women within the party?

There was still a lot of pioneering work to be done. At the time, I was very committed to holding large women’s assemblies in the regional Green Associations, where we exchanged views on all topics relevant to women’s politics and worked out implementation strategies. We have fought through the minimum quota for all offices and mandates in our party statutes, which means that the odd places on the list go to women and thus ensure that at least half of the offices and mandates are held by women. None of that fell into our lap, it had to be fought hard. From other parties and the public there was initially ridicule and scorn based on the motto: These are only quota women.

How did you perceive this headwind at the time?

We didn’t start the party out of boredom. Almost every one of us had already looked around at other parties and couldn’t find the right one. Our frustration limit was already very high and we had a thick skin. We were under no illusions and were absolutely willing to go through it.

The documentation shows your speech during the arms debate, at which you then presented Chancellor Helmut Kohl with a wreath made up of 1,000 cranes.

Yes, they were origami cranes. In Japan, the crane is the symbol of long life and healing. These crane chains were made by the radiation sick of the Hiroshima catastrophe in the hope of surviving. The chain that I handed over during the arms debate was given to me by peace activists to bring them into the discussion. I was in Hiroshima in 1982 myself, visited long-term survivors in nursing homes and walked through the city with Professor Moritaki, who survived the atomic bomb as a child, and thus experienced the horror of the atomic bomb in a moving way.

How did the MEPs react to your speech?

At the very beginning there was laughing and bullying, but with every further word it became calmer. “Die Zeit” had the leading article on the front page: “The chain of 1000 cranes” and wrote: “There was a moment when the Chancellor showed cracks in his armor when Christa Nickels spoke and then handed him the chain “. And that was actually the case. It was a very intense experience for me.

Wasn’t that speech a little unconventional?

Yes, the handover of the chain was a completely unusual stylistic device. It was important to me to preserve the dignity of the house, but still bring in what drove people on the street. That is also the special thing that Thorsten Körner captured with the documentary: In a special way, it was and is often still women who jump over the shadow of conventions and dare to say something unheard of. And that was the case in all areas, for example also on the subject of rape in marriage and contraception, where colleague Detlef Kleinert commented: It had no place in the Bundestag, it was something private. But the private is political.

You are referring to the speech by Waltraud Schoppe, who spoke in a very factual tone about the topics that brought the men’s world to a boil. In this speech she wanted a Chancellor with whom one could talk about topics such as contraception. With the nice subordinate clause, if he knew what to do with it.

Yes, especially colleagues on the side of the CDU / CSU were out of control and covered the plenary with an obscene, disgusting carpet of sound. Waltraut Schoppe simply said that it was absolutely necessary that men and women equally take responsibility for pregnancy, child-rearing and family life.

Why was it important for you to be part of the documentation?

At first I was very skeptical because I enjoyed being able to live according to my style in old age, free of public interest. But then I saw the great chance that this film showed for the first time what contribution to democracy politicians from all parties in the Bonn Republic made in the post-war era. I am sure that this film strengthens the roots of democracy.

Brigitte

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