Alice Sophie Schwarzer[1] (born 3 December 1942) is a German journalist and prominent feminist. She is founder and publisher of the German feminist journal EMMA. Beginning in France, she became a forerunner of feminist positions against anti-abortion laws, for economic self-sufficiency for women, against pornography, prostitution, female genital mutilation, and for a fair position of women in Islam. She authored many books, including biographies of Romy Schneider, Marion Dönhoff, and herself.
Schwarzer was born in Wuppertal, the daughter of a young single mother,[2] and was raised by her grandparents in Wuppertal;[3] she described them as anti-Nazis.[4] During World War II, they were evacuated to Bavaria, only returning to the Ruhr district in 1950.[4] After learning French in Paris, Schwarzer began a trainee job in journalism in Düsseldorf in 1966,[2][4] and was sent to Paris as a correspondent.[3]
She convinced the Stern magazine to do something similar in Germany;[3] and in June 1971, Schwarzer and 374 German women, including Romy Schneider and Senta Berger, confessed that they had an abortion in a successful campaign to legalize abortion in Germany.[4] Decades later, Schwarzer revealed she had never had an abortion.[3] She called her project Frauen gegen den § 218 ("Women against Section 218", which was the section of the German Penal Code that makes abortion illegal). In autumn 1971, Schwarzer released her first book of the same title. The illegality of abortion was upheld by the German Constitutional Court abortion decision, 1975.[3]
One of Schwarzer's best-known books is Der kleine Unterschied und seine großen Folgen (The little difference and its great consequences), which was released in 1975 and made her famous beyond Germany.[3] It was translated into eleven languages. Since its release, Schwarzer has become Germany's most high-profile but also most controversial feminist.[3]
Schwarzer c. 1977
One of her goals was the realization of economic self-sufficiency for women. She argued against the law that required married women to obtain permission from their husbands before beginning paid work outside the home. This provision was removed in 1976.[3]
In January 1977, the first issue of her magazine EMMA was published,[2] her focus of work as chief editor and publisher for the following years.[3]
With her PorNo campaign, started in 1987, she advocated the banning of pornography in Germany,[2] arguing that pornography violates the dignity of women, constitutes a form of media violence against them, and contributes to misogyny and physical violence against women. The ongoing campaign has not been met with much success.[5]
From 1992 to 1993, Schwarzer was host of the TV show Zeil um Zehn on German TV channel Hessischer Rundfunk.[2] With her frequent appearances in German TV talk shows, she has become an institution on German television in all matters related to feminism.[6]
Schwarzer in 2010
When EMMA changed to bimonthly release in 1993, she continued to write an increasing number of books, among them one about Petra Kelly and Gert Bastian, called Eine tödliche Liebe (Deadly Love), and biographies of Romy Schneider and Marion Dönhoff. In total, she has released 19 books as a writer, and 21 as publisher, as of 2014.[2]
Regarding prostitution in Germany, she campaigned against the law of 2002 that fully legalized brothels. She views prostitution as violence against women, and favors laws like those in Sweden, where the sale of sexual acts is legal, but their purchase is not.[7]
She published an autobiography, Lebenslauf (Curriculum vitae), in 2011.[3]
She has been highly critical of political Islamism and the position of women in Islam; she favors prohibitions against women in public schools or other public settings wearing the hijab, which she considers a symbol of oppression. She has warned of a creeping Islamicization of Europe, which, in her opinion, would lead to an erosion of human rights, especially women's rights.[8]
She has written in favor of the continued legality of circumcision of male children.[9]
In June 2018, Schwarzer married her long-time life and business partner Bettina Flitner.[10]
Her most recent book, Transsexualität. Was ist eine Frau? Was ist ein Mann? Eine Streitschrift (2022), she criticised transgenderism as a trend and advocates for retaining protections exclusively for biological women. For this, she has been criticised as "transphobic".[11]
In the 1980s, Schwarzer set up an account at the Zürich-based private bank Lienhardt & Partner to keep her assets hidden from German tax authorities.[13] During the following years, Schwarzer transferred earnings gained from book sales and public presentations to this Swiss bank account, thus avoiding taxation in Germany. Including interest and compound interest, her illegal assets piled up to an amount of 4 million euros.[13]
According to Section 371 of the German tax code ("Abgabenordnung"), the perpetrator of a tax fraud may avoid punishment if he or she admits to the offence and provides full disclosure of unpaid taxes to the authorities (German: strafbefreiende Selbstanzeige). Schwarzer attempted to make such disclosure in secret to German tax authorities. However, in February 2014, the German newspaper Der Spiegel wrote an investigative article on the topic, turning the whole affair public.[14]
As a reaction, Schwarzer made a statement on her private webpage on the matter.[15] Under the heading "In eigener Sache" ("on one's own account"), Schwarzer admitted to being a tax fraudster.[15] In that statement, Schwarzer tried to self-exculpate her crimes by claiming that in the past, she had been scared of political opponents in Germany and "was honestly afraid" that she might have to leave the country and thus needed to be financially prepared.[16]
In May 2014, German tax authorities and criminal prosecutors raided a number of properties owned by Schwarzer.[17] At the same time, judge-issued search warrants on several of Schwarzer's banking accounts were executed.[17] It turned out that Schwarzer's initial voluntary disclosure submitted to German tax authorities was incorrect and she had in fact never admitted the whole amount of her unpaid taxes. In such cases, voluntary disclosures do not have any exculpatory effect under German tax law. Consequently, in July 2016, Schwarzer was fined for tax fraud with a penalty of a six-figure amount by the Amtsgericht (local court) of Cologne.[18]
Der kleine Unterschied und seine großen Folgen. Frauen über sich; Beginn einer Befreiung. Protokolle und Essays.S. Fischer, Frankfurt 1975, several editions
So fing es an – 10 Jahre neue Frauenbewegung. Emma Frauenverlag, 1981.
Mit Leidenschaft. Texte von 1968–1982.Rowohlt Verlag, Hamburg 1982.
Simone de Beauvoir heute – Gespräche aus 10 Jahren. Interviews und Essays. Rowohlt Verlag, Hamburg 1982.
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↑ Kuzmany, Stefan (3February 2014). "Steuersünderin Alice Schwarzer: Die Einzige und ihr Eigentum". Spiegel Online. spiegel.de. Retrieved 16 September 2017. "Seit Menschengedenken wird Alice Schwarzer zu jeder Talksendung eingeladen, in der auch nur im Entferntesten über so etwas wie Frauenrechte geredet wird.... Alice Schwarzer hält das Monopol auf die mediale Vermittlung des Feminismus in Deutschland." (Since time immemorial, Alice Schwarzer has been invited to every talk show in which women's rights are being discussed in even the slightest connection... Alice Schwarzer has a monopoly on the presentation of feminism in the German media.)
↑ "Alice Schwarzer schreibt: In eigener Sache". aliceschwarzer.de (in German). 2 February 2014. Archived from the original on 6 July 2017. "Ich habe in Deutschland versteuerte Einnahmen darauf eingezahlt in einer Zeit, in der die Hatz gegen mich solche Ausmaße annahm, dass ich ernsthaft dachte: Vielleicht muss ich ins Ausland gehen."
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