Fraueninitiative Scharnhorst

Scharnhorst Women’s Initiative

Retrospective 2019

Women counselling women. Five thousand renters live in the satellite settlement of Scharnhorst near Dortmund. More than thousand of them are women living alone or with their children. A large percentage of them are on welfare. They need help in asserting their rights vis-à-vis the social welfare authorities. This documentary uses the point of view of a 26-year-old single mother of two to document the commitment of the women’s initiative. “In the group, I realised that I am not the isolated case I always thought I was.”

by Katrin Seybold (Director) Federal Republic of Germany 1978 German 12' Colour Documentary form

Crew

Director

Katrin Seybold

Katrin Seybold

Katrin Seybold was born in Bromberg (Bydgoszcz) in 1943 and raised in Stuttgart. After studying art history, she began shooting her first films in 1969 about the student movement in film cooperatives, and worked as an assistant director for Ula Stöckl and Edgar Reitz. Starting in 1975, she worked as a director for ARD and ZDF, founding her own production company in 1979. She made over 60 award-winning films and TV programmes on social questions and German history. She joined the Berlin Academy of Arts in 1994 and lived in Munich until her death in 2012.

Filmography (documentaries, selection)

1980 Schimpft uns nicht Zigeuner 1981 Wir sind stark und zärtlich 1982 Es ging Tag und Nacht, liebes Kind 1987 Das falsche Wort 1990 Deutsch ist meine Muttersprache 1994 Mut ohne Befehl 1998 Nein! Zeugen des Widerstandes in München 1933-1945 2008 Die Widerständigen. Zeugen der Weißen Rose 2015 Die Widerständigen „also machen wir das weiter ...“

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2025