Squatting of the Veterinary Hospital Graz Sigrid Schönfelder, 1991
“… the Government Is the Greatest Pimp”
With this slogan, a group of 15 women squatted the former veterinary hospital in the Zimmerplatzgasse in March 1991, which had been vacant for eight years, with the aim of establishing an independent women’s centre there. In a short time, the building was surrounded by 40 policemen and 17 firemen. As it was a building owned by the state government of Styria, it could not be evicted without the state government’s consent. After 40 days, and one day before the appointment with the property administration, the women had to give way to the bulldozers. There is no autonomous women’s centre in Graz up to the present day.
Photographs
10 × 15 cm
Lender: Permanent loan from STICHWORT. Archives of the Women's & Lesbians' Movement
STICHWORT. Archives of the Women's & Lesbians' Movement / Sigrid Schönfelder
Pioneer of Women’s Politics in Graz
With the women’s movement of the 1970s, feminist issues were introduced into politics. In Graz, Grete Schurz was significantly involved in this. In 1981, she initiated the Frauenhaus Graz (women’s shelter), the second one in Austria at that time. In 1986, she became the first independent gender equality officer. During her term of office until 1994, Grete Schurz notched up a number of successes; among other things, numerous forms of relief for single mothers, and the Women’s Council, which is still active today and unites the individual women’s organisations in Graz on the level of city politics.