Styrian women during
and after National Socialism
Karin M. Schmidlechner 

Eva Ursprung’s intensive engagement with National Socialism in Styria, as well as with the biographies of women who were active in the resistance against National Socialism — such as through her work 355 Days in the Earth Bunker—must also be viewed against the backdrop of the research and scholarly activities of Karin Maria Schmidlechner. In cooperation with Heimo Halbrainer, Schmidlechner published the volume Out of Sight: A Biographical Approach to Ambivalent Life Scenarios of Styrian Women in the War and Postwar Period, thereby providing a foundation for Ursprung’s investigation of the women of Judenburg. This research led her on a search for traces of the resistance fighters Johanna Grimming and her daughter Anna Winkler, whose story had been suppressed and forgotten.

With their volume, Schmidlechner and Halbrainer succeeded not only in expanding the scope of scholarly engagement with the everyday lives of Styrian women during the war and postwar periods, but also, through their portraits, in bringing into focus women whose life paths after the war did not correspond to the dominant image of women, such as that of the so-called ​“rubble women” (Trümmerfrauen). This includes the life stories of Jewish women, Romani women, informants, and women who participated actively and passively in the resistance. In this respect, they also demonstrate that resistance was not solely a male affair.

In this lecture, Schmidlechner will discuss the plurality of Styrian women’s realities under National Socialism and in the postwar period, thereby not only questioning but also deconstructing the sometimes prevalent narrative of the modest, compliant woman or the industrious ​“rubble woman.” In fact, the life scenarios of women in Styria during that period were generally characterized by ambivalence, which will be explored here through the lens of situated knowledge.