Alice Schwarzer about Rita Süssmuth: So wonderful too much

AWhen the education professor and Beauvoir admirer Rita Süssmuth was appointed to the Bonn cabinet in 1985, she invariably encountered colleagues who were married to housewives. Chancellor Helmut Kohl in the lead. The conflict was inevitable.

It would only take three years before the Chancellor harshly told the unpopular that she could sneak out and pushed her to the post of President of the Bundestag. The Spiegel then sent a load of shot after the person who had been shot down, confirming that he had “slept through a few days”.

The fact that Rita Süssmuth then polished up the dusty post with the bell is another matter. Julia Klöckner, who has now led the dull office to unimagined glamor, can thank her for that to this day.

It was the legendary CDU General Secretary Heiner Geißler who discovered feminism back then. After all, in 1985. He quickly declared the party conference in Essen to be a “women’s party conference” with the motto: “Partnership 2000”. I was there too. And several CDU MPs whispered to me, blushing: “I’m called ‘Alice’ in my local club.” So the time was ripe.

But who was Rita Süssmuth? She was the daughter of a school principal who had given her the advice: “Never get married!” The father’s daughter didn’t exactly follow this, but at least she chose a man who “did more around the house than I did” and supported her path with approval. The historian and then dean of the University of Düsseldorf was always at her side. When her daughter was born, Rita only took what was then limited maternity leave. And most recently, the educator headed an entire research institute: Advice for politics came from the “Woman and Society” house.

Now Rita Süssmuth should make this policy herself. But they left “Lovely Rita” like that Emma called her affectionately and ironically. “It was too much for the gentlemen that you could still see her self-confidence,” I wrote at the time. “It was too much for them that she welcomed the SPD’s quota system with a wink! It was too much for them that she, the Catholic, campaigned against AIDS with a condom over her head! It was too much for them that she campaigned for the punishment of marital rape! It was finally enough for them when she publicly called the witch trials in Memmingen, at least, ‘outrageous’!”

Political seriousness with lots of fun

At the end of her time as President of the Bundestag, Rita Süssmuth once again threw herself fully into the cause of women. She took part in a “Bonn women’s alliance” that I initiated, in which the top politicians from all parties joined in in 1998. The goal: more weight! More participation! More rights for women! Also in politics. Even back then, the fight against pornography and sexual violence was at the forefront of the politicians’ programmatic demands. (And what happened to it?!) “Pornography is sexualized misogyny,” said the press release from the 15 top politicians. “That is why the motive of hatred of women must be introduced into the legislation,” they demanded across party lines. One of them: Rita Süssmuth.

However, this political seriousness was preceded by a lot of fun. The food in Ursula Männle’s Bavarian branch is unforgettable: roast pork with dumplings. And first the bubbling champagne at Rita Süssmuth, served by men in black suits and white gloves. Yes, the tax money was wisely invested.

Those were the Bonn years. The ladies seem to have been more rebellious then than they are today. Albeit with zero success. Rita Süssmuth was very present in them. In the Berlin Republic, the tough, tender Süssmuth was a little more lost. But she has retained her special ability: to be resistant and intelligent at the same time.