The evening is part of the series of events designed by Gernot Waldner entitled "Die Gegenwart des Roten Wien" (25 / 11 - 30 / 11), Organized by Kunstverein Alten Schmiede. Cooperation partners are the Wien Museum, Wiener Bildungsakademie, Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum, the laundrette in the Karl-Marx-Hof,  brut. Details about the other events can be found here: https://www.alte-schmiede.at/programm/

A reading followed by a debate introduces and comments on historical texts from the Red Vienna era, focusing on the key finding that women’s political demands from the 1920s seem to be highly pressing again today: What are the issues we still fight about, the achievements we find to be endangered, and what has been achieved at all? Like then, many debates today revolve around female workers keeping wages down or, in other words, the gender pay gap, control of the female body, rights to autonomy and abortion and structures of violence in constrained social situations. Authors of the texts and ideas read and discussed include sociologist/politician Käthe Leichter, writers Veza Canetti and Gina Kaus and social democrats Therese Schlesinger and Adelheid Popp.

Veronika Hofeneder is a scholar for literature and German studies, whose publications include works on Gina Kaus and Vicki Baum and on the culture and literature of the inter-war period. Historian Marie-Noelle Yazdanpanah’s fields of study include women’s studies and consumer culture in Red Vienna as well as housing in the past and present. Finally, the texts of award-winning writer Olga Flor repeatedly deals with feminism, politics and the role of women in our society.