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| The
Founder |
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 Annette Kuhn was born May 22, 1934 in
Berlin, the second child of classicist Käthe Kuhn, née Lewy, and
philosopher Helmut Kuhn. In her autobiography Ich trage einen goldenen Stern
- Ein Frauenleben in Deutschland [I am wearing a golden star - A woman's life
in Germany], Berlin 2003 Annette Kuhn recounts childhood experiences in
english and U.S. emigration and the difficulty for a child of exile to
reintegrate into the everyday life of
 German schooling after 1948. Shaped by the silence in
her family and in German post-war society it was only as an adult that she
began to trace her Jewish roots.
Therefore, the foundation is closely
related to the memory of her mother who eventually in 1959, together with
Helmut Gollwitzer and Reinhold Schneider, published the volume Du hast mich
heimgesucht bei Nacht. Abschiedsbriefe und Aufzeichnungen des Widerstandes 1933
- 1945 [You came for me in the night. Farewell letters and notes from the
resistance 1933-1945].
In 1964 Annette Kuhn took the chair of
Medieval and Contemporary History at the Pedagogical University Bonn, at the
time the youngest female professor in West-Germany. She published pathbreaking
works on critical pedagogy in history and peace pedagogy. Since the 1980s the
women's movement increasingly shaped her scientific work. In 1986 she received
the first professorship in women's history.
 The "philospher with a teacher's sensibility
and teacher with philosophical passion" (Aufbau-Verlag) was and remains an
instigator: Barred from 1992 to 1996 from being an examiner she remained a
mentor for students who wanted to try their skills in applied projects. Her
office at Schlosskirche (the church in the baroque palace that houses the
University of Bonn) was both editorial office and history workshop. She
initiated numerous projects that have made visible the life and work of women
throughout history, including a series of original sources Frauen in der
Geschichte [Women in history] and Chronik der Frauen [Womens' chronicle]. A
complete list of publications by and about Annette Kuhn is available at the
 Catalogue of the German National
Library.
 In June 1999 Annette Kuhn became emerita; her women's history chair
has not been filled since. In early 2000 she founded the association House of
Women's History. She continues to be the scientific director of the
POLITEIA-Project and co-editor of Spirale der Zeit [Spiral of time]
and Schriftenreihe Haus der FrauenGeschichte [Publications from the
House of Women's History]. In 2004 she received the Johanna Loewenherz
Prize and in 2006 the Bundesverdienstkreuz (Order of federal
merit).
 In the
recently published Historia - Frauengeschichte in der Spirale der Zeit
[Historia - Women's history in the sprial of time] Annette Kuhn presents
her notion of the seven Zeit-Räume or time spaces of history
[the German word Zeit-Raum literally means ‚time room' and signifies era
or epoch]. Apparent in each of these time spaces is a matriarchal pattern of
women's thinking and doing. This pattern spread through the middle Eastern
cultures and crucially influenced the Christian middle ages and modern Europe.
With her foundation Annette Kuhn took an important step towards
realising her vision of creating a real House of Women's History.
She is
looking forward to your support! |
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