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Ronja Kemmer<\/strong> is a politician and one of the youngest members of the German Bundestag for the district of Ulm. She is also a member of the European Committee in Berlin, but whenever it is possible, she is enjoying Ulm, appreciating the high living standard of this city.
\nShe has always been very active in discussions about political issues and when finishing school, she started to engage in politics, especially in topics of education. For her it would be important that young people get involved in political debates, taking responsibility of their own life\u2019s, even when it is not easy to be youngster in political world today. She is supporting women to take more risks and get active, in business, in voluntary work or in politics.<\/p>\nHer advice for young women who want to start a political career?
\n\u2018You have to be active and you have to take some risks sometime. It is not a disaster if you fail, just try again. Don\u2019t let men always go first.\u2019<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/ronja-kemmer.de\/<\/a>
\nhttps:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ronja.kemmer\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n \n
USCHI KNAPP, Ulm<\/div>\r\n\r\n\n<\/p>\n
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Uschi Knapp<\/strong> is the Head of the \u201dRegion of Innovation\u201d Ulm<\/strong><\/p>\n
What advice would you give women who strive for a career?<\/em>
\nI don\u2019t believe that there is anything like the one real advice. So much depends on situations and different people that one meets at a certain point in time. Of course, being a woman \u2013 that\u2019s the experience I made – it’s almost always like you need to achieve a little bit more to be recognized. Male colleagues may just have a different appearance by nature. As a woman, you have to learn to develop your own way and not to want to be “the better man”.
\nMy advice: just be consistent, to be yourself and defend your own interests.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n \n
IRIS MANN, Ulm<\/div>\r\n\r\n\n<\/p>\n
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Iris Mann<\/strong> is a Mayor for culture, education and social affairs.<\/p>\n
Do you have a favorite place in Ulm? And what makes it so special for you?<\/em>
\nYes – the beach chair on my roof terrace. This is where I can look over the city in peace and quiet, with a clear view as far as the Alps and let my thoughts wander.<\/p>\nWhat should visitors in the city of Ulm definitely take a look at?<\/em>
\nDefinitely the Cathedral of Ulm and there climb the highest church tower in the world!
\n<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n \nARIANE M\u00dcLLER, Ulm<\/div>\r\n\r\n\n<\/p>\n
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Ariane M\u00fcller<\/strong> didn\u2019t plan a career as a musician. Although she studied journalism, she played music to finance her studies and at one point she realised \u2013 I am a musician!
\nWhen she earned her first money at the age of 14 playing the piano at a funeral, she thought: Wow, that is great, other people have work hard and get a job, but I am paid for just playing the piano!
\nToday she is very successful with her band \u2018Suchtpotential\u2019 (addictive potential). Together with her colleague Julia Gam\u00e9z-Martin she got an engagement for the Rocky Horror Picture Show at the theatre in Ulm and then the duo started to write own songs. Suddenly they had to engage management for booking \u2013 until now for over 100 shows a year.
\nAriane wants to reach people by using humour. People without humour are not in her target group. She likes to perform, it is fun for her.<\/p>\nAny advice for young women seeking a career in the music world?
\n\u2018It sounds quite general, but it is so important: Stay yourself and don\u2019t get bent by others. Of course, you need luck, too. If you are in a good mood, you must keep going on. Don\u2019t be affected by critical voices. If you do something well, it will eventually prevail.\u2019
\nAriane M\u00fcller has three children \u2013 any tips for mothers?
\n\u2018Having children shouldn\u2019t keep anyone from pursuing a successful career, especially not women. To be a mother is just a classic role model and we have to escape these gender stereotypes.\u2019<\/p>\nwww.youtube.com\/watch?v=SB46Tz63lsA<\/a><\/p>\n
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PETRA SCHMITT, Ulm<\/div>\r\n\r\n\n<\/p>\n
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Petra Schmitt<\/strong> is a Designer and creative artist.<\/p>\n
What is your favourite place in Ulm \u2013 and why?<\/em>
\nThere isn\u2019t the one and only favourite spot for me. Sometimes in any case that would be the “Stiege”, but in general it is the Danube area, especially in summertime. It is very important to me to have water in a city. Water is calming, it eases. In general I particularly like the many urban sites the city has to offer. Also the area of \u2018Kreuz\u2019, where we have our studio is very important to me. Here are many locations with special memories for me.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n \n
LEANDRA ARDIZZONE, Vienna<\/div>\r\n\r\n![](\"https:\/\/en.woman.danube-stories.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/adrezzoni.png\")
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Leandra Ardizzone<\/strong>, artist, painter, lives and works in Vienna since 2015. She intensively dealt with Elias Canetti\u2019s Crowds and Power in Palermo, in theatre workshops with Claudio Collov\u00e0. In Vienna, she tries to \u201cget lost in the city\u201d, she walks a lot, meets new people, she needs these impressions through her eyes. By this, she sees new aspects of Vienna every day and night, and then goes to her workspace, to draw and to paint. People\u2019s postures in public space<\/strong>, she says, remind her of Canetti\u2019s book: they are more vertical, stand alone side by side, the horizontal relations are missing.
\nShe has her own studio to work in, but supports herself by working in gastronomy. Many inspirations come from there as well: it helps to remember her past, and to connect with the present.<\/p>\nWhere to meet Leandra Ardizzone:<\/strong>
\nwww.facebook.com: Sirena sogna<\/a>
\nInstagram: Sirena sogna<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n \n
ELEONORE KLEINDIENST, Vienna<\/div>\r\n\r\n![](\"https:\/\/en.woman.danube-stories.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Lore_Kleindeinst_Vienna.png\")
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Eleonore – Lore – Kleindienst<\/strong>, architect and civil engineer, was born in Vienna in 1940. Already as a young child, she accompanied her father to his building sites in the Waldviertel, and became acquainted with the profession. She studied architecture at the Technical University Vienna; after graduation, she worked with several architects to learn more about planning. While on maternity leave with her second daughter, she devoted time to study sociology and psychology. Always interested in the social ideas and their architectural realisations of the Viennese interwar period, she wanted to move and change more, and participated in congresses on global housing challenges and in social research about living conditions: and \u2018slowly, things began to change in Vienna\u2019.<\/p>\n
She then was responsible for adaptation of Vienna\u2019s WUK – Werkst\u00e4tten- und Kulturhaus<\/strong> (a large building used by many independent groups for artistic and social initiatives), which became her first project as a civil engineer with her own bureau in 1985.<\/p>\n
The RosaLila Villa<\/strong> – a home for LBGTQ people – was a further step in her dedication to new forms of living; then followed the planning and realisation of the music club Chelsea<\/strong> at the G\u00fcrtel.<\/p>\n
Her career took on a new direction when Lore Kleindienst renewed village structures in the Waldviertel<\/strong> north of the Danube. She also got assignments to plan and build bridges<\/strong>, and gave a proof of her talent to connect, for movement and flows.<\/p>\n
Women in architecture<\/strong> became a later dedication of hers. Having organised a congress for female civil engineers in Austria, and an exhibition and a large-format book about 100 years of Women in technical professions, she then moved on to co-edit ArchitekTouren<\/strong>, a book about female architects\u2019 works in all Austrian federal states.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, she emphasizes, women are taking part in all relevant professional committees. Yes, a platform is needed from which opening and change can proceed!\u00a0The Danube Women City Guide is one of these platforms.<\/p>\n
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KARINE LABEL, Vienna<\/div>\r\n\r\n![](\"https:\/\/en.woman.danube-stories.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/KarinLabel.png\")
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Karine LaBel<\/strong> is a dancer and dance teacher.<\/p>\n
With her fusion between Afro-Haitian, modern and jazz dance, she is among those who re-interpret rhythmical movement.\u00a0At the age of 16 she attended her first dancing lesson in Port au Price, Haiti, Jazz dance. “At home, all children were dancing”, she remembers. When a friend of hers came to Haiti to learn how to play the drum, she followed his path to encounter the rituals and musical approaches of her home country. She\u00a0learned the background of the religion, the dance, singing, the drums. It was her teacher in Haiti who named her LaBel after the spiritual being \u2018la belle Venus\u2019. She went to Paris with him and made music there together.<\/p>\n
The embassy of Haiti engaged her in 1996 for an engagement in Vienna, a town, she knew a lot about already from TV, like the New Year’s Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and all the movies about the Austrian empress Elisabeth, Sisi. She came back to Vienna more often, for workshops, to talk about religion in Haiti at the University of Vienna; she played with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and had a performance in the Austrian television. At the first Hallamasch-Festival she won her first award and others followed. She could feel how important it was to bring this culture to Vienna. She could live here as an artist, write plays and give dance classes, e.g. at the international dance festival ImpulsTanz.<\/p>\n
What do you teach in your classes?<\/em>
\n“I found something the people were missing, this center, this inner information they were searching for. I learned from the Austrian students, what they need, and to be able to translate it, to have the capacity to teach this very strong art from Haiti. Teaching is about trust! I hold dance workshops in Vienna for over twenty years now.”<\/p>\nKarine, what are your favourite places in Vienna?<\/em>
\n“The WUK was an important place for me, my first workshops were there, I feel that my spirits are there, the building, the energy. I also like the Brunnenmarkt and the Arsenal, which has a very strong energy that I can still not describe. And the Museumsquartier: It is also a part of my beginning, where I rehearsed my first piece in Austria \u2013 back then, it was not so beautiful like it is today.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n \nSUSANNE LUSCHIN, Vienna<\/div>\r\n\r\n![](\"https:\/\/en.woman.danube-stories.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Susanne_Luschin_Vienna1.png\")
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Susanne Luschin<\/strong> is a pioneer of the early web- and television scene in Vienna. Today, she not only teaches video journalism at the participative community channel Okto TV, but also at the University of Vienna. Her own TV format is \u201cSenf\u201d (\u201cMustard\u201d). Tips where to go in Vienna is one of its contents, something she started in the 1990s with a telephone service line. She also had a Fake-News-Blog, was the host and DJ in a club, and participated in Austria\u2019s first privately-owned television channel TIV. Soon, she had her own show, and developed her talent for journalism, organization, and technical requirements. Supported by a dedicated and creative team, she produced legendary programs, with guests perching on inflated sofas and tubes.<\/p>\n
Later, in 2003, she started in mobile youth work, together with artist Amina Handke. Disadvantaged young people were supported, not only in creating videos, but also in finding jobs.<\/p>\n
Although she had creative experiences in Rostock and in Munich, the \u2018place to be\u2019 for her was Vienna. Having moved to Vienna from Graz when she was nineteen, first jobs soon materialized through friends. She designed and made costumes for the theatre and also for artistic contexts. Important was for her to meet people in the budding music club culture and in contemporary art galleries, places, where a certain mixture of people came together. Back then, she holds, \u2018you had to go, there was no internet, you had to read the papers yourself, attend concerts yourself\u2019.<\/p>\n
Where to see Susanne Luschin\u2019s recent film work:
\nokto.tv\/senf
\nokto.tv\/unicut<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n \n
MARTINA REITER, Vienna<\/div>\r\n\r\n![](\"https:\/\/en.woman.danube-stories.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Martina_Reiter_Vienna.png\")
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Martina Reiter<\/strong> is a musician. The sixth of eight children, she started her instrumental practice early, and developed her skills on the piano, the violin, and the viola. During her teenage years in Linz, she found her way into the alternative music scene<\/strong>, while keeping up her approach to classical music, in choir singing and orchestra playing.
\nIn Vienna, where she moved with 18, she took up her studies of music again at university. In the surroundings of squatted houses, she initiated the Culturehall<\/strong> and organized concerts and live music. In the late 1980s, her dream to move to New York materialized. There, she was again active in the movement for Housing is a Human Right<\/strong>. Back in Vienna, she organized cross-over concerts<\/strong> and early hiphop gigs<\/strong>. All this gave her the incentive to work on her own musical development, and she found new life in old classical music, and also in folk music of the Innviertel in Upper Austria. And getting closer to Jazz<\/strong> is presently an important way to find her inner music<\/strong>.
\nHer special interest is for people in Vienna to open up<\/strong> the \u201atemples of high-culture\u2019 to all<\/strong>, to bring music to children also from poor backgrounds, and to create more spaces in the city where people can meet.<\/p>\nPlaces in Vienna<\/strong>
\nThe Viennese Prater, the Danube Channel, the Goldene Saal in the Musikverein, many places on the Danube, but also the Viennese markets, the woods around Vienna, the green and the water.<\/p>\nListen to Martina Reiter’s music at\u00a0www.klassikconnection.at<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n
Photo credit: (c) Bernadette Reiter<\/p>\n<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n \n
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