About the Book “Pearls on the river. Berlin: City of Woman.”
There are many ways to experience the magic of Berlin city. Different paths can lead to fully unexplored places of the city. We looked at the city from a woman’s perspective, searching for traces and picking up even the tiniest clues. Our aim is to invite Berliners and visitors alike to follow our feminist curiosity about the past and present of Berlin’s women. This book offers a panorama of the city. At each location it indicates the presence of women, and especially their efforts to achieve creative spaces, equal rights, and emancipation. The focus is set on mere storytelling, not just listing and recounting events.
That’s why we chose utilizing keywords that open up stories about how Berlin’s women have lived, loved, struggled, worked, and suffered. The impact of women on the city is often hidden, or emerges only at a second glance; retracing it takes knowledge, passion, and a spirit of inquiry. Women´s struggle for political participation and the right to vote, to take control of their bodies and their lives, for education and careers, are at the heart of the stories we have chosen. They cover a surprisingly wide spectrum.
Our subject is a city – its present and its past, in individual and particular settings. We present those locations, which often bring light to things we never expected. Places like this reveal the traces of change, the loss, violence and the many layers and facets that make up the city’s complex fabric.
The photographs reflect women’s witty and sidelong views of this town, and they whet our appetite for more.
