Women's Portraits

Christiane v. Lengerke

Her maxim: be positive, be flexible, be provocative

These are the mottos by which she lives. She organizes her life by reflecting on the traditions, looking for and finding her own way, and not accepting social obstacles.

Childhood, flight from home country, education

Christiane is born in 1937 in Brandenburg. She is the third child in the family and both parents are doctors. Her sheltered childhood soon finds an end, not only because of the war, but also because of a serious disease. Her right lower leg is septic. She is only eight years old when she is bedridden in a hospital.  She is haunted by nightmares even today when remembering that time. When the Russian army comes closer, her father not only organizes the family’s escape; but, also the escape of the wounded persons from his hospital. The transportation is bombed. Christiane depends completely on her family’s help as her leg is still in a plaster. A second operation and the scarce penicillin (which her mother makes available) finally helps her to recuperate her mobility.

In their new home in Marburg, Christiane enters directly from the first into the third form. She suffers not only from the stress at school but also from being discriminated against as the poor refugee girl without an own school bag.

Father’s death, studies and professional training, own family

 Christiane’s wonderful father dies when she is fifteen. So her mother has to take care of the family. Being a doctor her mother runs her own practice. She has a strong personality, is disciplined and powerful. She is a fine example for her children. Some of Christiane’s teachers are also role models whom she later emulates. She also wants to become a teacher because she likes to continue the family tradition of her grandmother, aunt and cousin. Besides she wants to be in opposition to her sister and brother, who are studying medicine.
Christiane studies German and English in Marburg, Edinburgh and Munich. Here she meets her husband, a student of medicine. They marry in 1962 and have a daughter and a son. They live in Berlin where Christiane is a teacher and later the headmistress of a secondary school and a teacher in a preparatory course for English. She is popular and successful.

Divorce and Coming out

After eleven years of marriage Christiane files for divorce. An aunt who had emigrated from Nazi-Germany to Turkey and then to France gives her advice for this serious decision. She is thirty-seven years old when she decides to follow her own way. Being young she had fallen in love with girls not knowing how to describe her inclination nor seeing role models for a homosexual life. At the time it was quite usual to get married and have children.
Her  coming out causes serious consequences. Her mother doesn’t talk to her for eight years. Her brother breaks their relationship completely. She has to claim for the right of seeing her son. In addition she has to bear telephone attacks. In spite of all these difficulties, she remembers that time as being happy.
Christiane joins the Lesbian and feminist movement of the seventies. She feels free. She is not discriminated against at school. She regularly meets her son. She’s an active member of the teacher’s union and she takes part in political groups. The nickname “Red Countess” is born which everyone talks about. Besides she and some friends from the lesbian activist centre run the first women’s book shop in Berlin (Labrys). But finally the many activities demand too much of her and she suffers burn out syndrome. In 1994 she retires. She is only 57 years old.

Partnership, Jardí de les Dones, Courses in Mallorca 

 Christiane lives together with her partner Gabriele since 1984. In 1987 they buy a large piece of land in Mallorca near Artà in order to escape and recover from the closed up Berlin after the disaster of Tschernobyl. Since 1997 they live there permanently.

By the time their place has changed into a women’s seminar centre with a “garden of women”, the “Jardí de les Dones” (in catalan). The retirement has turned into a new creative period of their life. They open a women’s centre (“Ca na Nofreta”) where they receive women to get them familiar with literature, music, art, archaeology, nature and landscape of Mallorca. Other workshops focus on the role of international women in cultural and historical contexts or on psychological problems.

In spite of some health trouble, the past five years have been the most beautiful and happy years for Christiane. Finally she can enjoy all that she has created together with her partner Gabriele.

Erla Spatz-Zöllner