information | articles | conference | resourses | links

 

Women archives / documentation / networks and minority archives / platforms in Austria

Nikola Langreiter, Margareth Lanzinger, Edith Saurer

Within the Austrian state- and federal state archives (Staatsarchiv, Landesarchive) until now there is – as far as we know – no systematic approach or intend to prepare a specific catalogue indicating the documents written by women or concerning women ‘hidden’ in the archival holdings. In this respect, we only know about an Italian initiative: The association Archivio per la memoria e la scrittura delle donne / Archive of Women’s Memory and writings. One aim of the association among others is to map all the documents relevant for Women’s His-tory within family archives in Tuscany – preserved at the state archive of Florence and else-where.
This form of achievement of the women’s studies in the field of archives – central to a culture of remembrance – probably encounters a lot of logistic and financial difficulties.
So we have to underline that except for Ariadne which is a part of the Austrian National Li-brary, all the archives and initiatives mentioned subsequently depend on financial support by ministries, communal or regional funds, by EU-programs or by sponsors and membership fees. For most of the funds one has to apply every year or, in the case of research projects, every two or three years. Only the Sammlung Frauennachlasse / Collection of Women’s estates and biografiA are connected with institutions the Research Platform of the University of Vienna “Repositioning of Women’s and Gender History in the New European Context” (Sammlung Frauennachlasse) and the IWK – Institute of Science and Art – (biografiA).

• Sammlung Frauennachlasse – Collection of Women's estates

The Sammlung Frauennachlasse initiated by Edith Saurer in 1989 at the Department of His-tory of the University of Vienna pursues the goal of documenting private writings and photo-graphs by women (or also by couples, children and relatives, other persons close to the women), to order them, systematically register them through exact indexes and make them accessible for academic use. This new institution publicized ongoing interest in the documen-tation and analysis of private writings by women with simultaneous announcements in news-papers and other media and has been contacted again and again by people seeking an institu-tionally rooted and publicly accessible place for these kinds of memoirs, either as descendants or as still actively writing women. As a result, the archive meanwhile comprises around ninety separate collections. Their volume ranges from a few writings to correspondence from different phases of life, all the way to extremely extensive collections. As the collection is constantly growing, it is increasingly turning into a panopticon of historical situations and occasions of writing, which were able to motivate even women from lower social classes or milieus with little recourse to education to write much earlier than had long been assumed.
The Sammlung Frauennachlasse is supported by the City of Vienna and the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research, since 2006 when it has been integrated in the Research Platform “Repositioning of Women’s and Gender History in the New European Context“ it is financed by the University of Vienna. < http://www.univie.ac.at/Geschichte/sfn/>

• Stichwort Archiv – Archives of the Women’s & Lesbian’s Movements

(Stichwort = German for keyword, cue, a propos)
Library, documentation and multimedia in Vienna – for women only, transgenders welcome
Stichwort is a political project of the autonomous women's and lesbians' movements. At the centre they collect all kinds of documents pertaining to the women's and lesbians' movements and provide access to a broad range of literature relevant to feminist research. They also or-ganize a wide range of events, such as readings, discussions, exhibitions, workshops etc. In-formation about their activities can be found in a bi-annual “Stichwort-Newsletter”.
The association Women's Studies and Female Living, which is the responsible organisation behind this archive, is supported by the state and the community. Subsidies cover the current costs of Stichwort, but do not stretch too many of the plans or long-term maintenance con-cerns. Stichwort is also supported by contributions and fees (sponsorship or membership). <http://www.stichwort.or.at/english/frames-e/index-e.htm>

• Ariadne – service centre at the Austrian National Library in Vienna

Its main areas of work are: the collection and documentation of women's, feminist and gender studies, elaboration of the library's historical holdings, online database (articles from journals, anthologies) retrieval of women specific material.
The Ariadne online-project “Women in Motion” presents discourses and documents of the Austrian historical women's movement (1848–1918); with a chronology, information on per-sonalities, associations and organisations, schools and educational institutions, women’s peri-odicals and associated texts. They provide full texts online, supplemented with a thematic, an alphabetical and a chronological index and a bibliography. The Ariadne women also con-ducted various projects, such as “Women vote!” – a online-exhibition on “85 years of women’s vote in Austria”. In addition to the mentioned sources Ariadne provides a content-index and articles of selected Historical Women’s Journals online. <http://www.onb.ac.at/ariadne/ev/ariadindex_ev.htm>

• biografiA – biographical database and dictionary on Austrian Women

biografiA started in 1998 to create a biographical database and write a dictionary on Austrian Women (first step: women of the19th and 20th centuries, the time span should be expanded in future and reach back to the Middle Ages).
The project is situated at the “Dokumentationsstelle Frauenforschung” / Documentation Cen-tre for Women’s Studies at the IWK– Institute of Science and Art in Vienna and supported by the state and the community. The institute offers an institutional basis, to finance the project work – including e.g. projects on women scientist, women authors, Jewish women and au-thors etc. – biografiA has to apply for research funding (Austrian Science Fund, Fund of the Austrian National Bank), partly it also works on behalf of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research. < http://www.biografia.at/> (German only)

• frida – The Austrian Network of Information and Documentation Centre for Women’s Studies

frida is a on-profit-making organisation; at times self-employed women working on research projects on a contract basis; otherwise unpaid/voluntary work by members of the organisation.
frida was founded in 1991/1992 by a group of committed women and feminists in documenta-tion centres, libraries or those working independently, on autonomous projects or in political organisations dealing with women's issues; mission is to represent the interests of women, to act as a discussion forum and to be a specialist and political network for women.
Research projects e.g.: thesaurA – a feminist thesaurus for Austria (1993–96); co-organisation of the “29th Meeting of Women's Archives and Libraries” (German-speaking) in Vienna (1997); participation in "Roundtable for Women-Specific Documentation" (June 1999); par-ticipation in the research project "Biographical Database” and “Dictionary of Austrian Women” (biografiA); as well as network activities, annual teaching of a module on women's documentation as part of the training course for documentalists. frida is a networking initia-tive it has no facilities for collecting items. < http://www.frida.at/english.htm>

Minority archives / platforms in Austria

• Forschungszentrum fur historische Minderheiten / Research Center for Historical Minorities

The aim of the Research Center is to preserve the historical heritage of the Czech and Slovak Minorities in Vienna and to build up a research and documentation centre with an archive and a library. The archive disposes at the moment of historical libraries founded as social democ-ratic initiatives (Bucherverein, Arbeiterbibliothek Favoriten), of the library of Karl V. Matal, a journalist and social democratic politician (1923-2001), of documents of the Czech Social Democratic Party in Austria. It is financed by the City of Vienna and ERDF, the European Regional Development Fund. <http://www.fzhm.at/>

• Initiative Minderheiten – Platform for Minorities in Austria

The Initiative Minderheiten is a non-governmental and non-profit organisation, a platform and a network for minorities since 15 years. The Initiative has two offices: one in Innsbruck and one in Vienna.
The Initiative Minderheiten has been advocating for and contributing to creating a society that acknowledges and affords equal treatment and equal rights to minorities in their individual life concepts regardless of their ethnic, social or religious affiliation, sexual orientation or disability. The Initiative Minderheiten defines a minority as people who experience discrimi-nation based on their ethnic, social or religious affiliation, sexual orientation or disability. In Austria, legally recognized ethnic groups are also considered minorities, as well as migrants and refugees, lesbians and gays, and people with disabilities. The Initiative Minderheiten definition is not based on a group’s number of members, but rather on their lack of power in comparison to that of the hegemonic majority.
Initiative Minderheiten edits a quarterly journal “STIMME von und fur Minderheiten” (VOICE of and for Minorities) and produces the bi-monthly radio programme “STIMME” that airs on several free radio stations across Austria. It cooperates with associations, organi-sations and individuals involved in minority issues.
The initiative is supported by several Austrian ministries, the European Commission and the European Social Fund and others.
On their website there is a menu point “Archive and Library” – in fact there is only a library (books, periodicals). <http://minderheiten.at//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8&Itemid=15>