What a wonderful, successful celebration!

The Künstlerhaus am Lehnbachplatz was packed for the first summer reception under the new chairwoman Maryam Giyahchi. Many more committed women than expected came to celebrate the Munich Women's Association.

With currently 70 member associations, the Munich Women's Association is not only the largest but also the oldest association of women's organizations in Germany. Founded in 1914 by Luise Kiesselbach, it is non-partisan and non-denominational.

As an influential network, it represents the interests of women, promotes their influence at the local level, and supports women's projects and initiatives in Munich. Current project: A memorial on Frauenplatz to commemorate femicides.

Of course, all Munich SI clubs are also members of the city association.

Tuesday, September 9th 2025

Elisabeth Schwarzhaupt – Courage, Responsibility and Impact

Lecture

Dr. Dorothea Schwarzhaupt-Scholz

Tuesday, 14 October 2025 at 7 p.m.
Preparation for our club's 50th anniversary
Internal club evening

Saturday, October  11th 2025,

"Bodies in Salzburg"

Excursion to Salzburg with an exclusive guided tour of the Spallart Collection

Club excursion

Information and registration under:

Despite the rainy weather, a dozen club sisters and a few guests gathered cheerfully at Nymphenburg Palace, where the Wittelsbach family spent their summer months. The origins of the palace just outside the city gates can be traced back to Henriette Adelaide of Savoy, who brought the Italian way of life to Munich and was an important advisor to her husband: it was a gift to mark the birth of the long-awaited heir to the throne.

It is thanks to Marie Leopoldine, the last, very young Kur princess, that Bavaria was not sold off to Austria. After her elderly husband passed away, she developed an incredible entrepreneurial spirit and became the richest woman in Bavaria!

The self-confident Caroline of Baden, who insisted on furniture for children in their chambers, for example, could be traced in three rooms, some of which had been freshly restored.

After the rulers, Susanne, with her incredibly broad knowledge, also introduced us to some extraordinary life stories of women from Ludwig I's gallery of beauties.

The trip ended on a successful conclusion at the Metzgerwirt restaurant with amicable exchanges between club sisters and guests.

Sisters, should prostitution have a prosperous future in Germany?

At one of our last club evenings, we heard a very convincing plea for the so-called "Nordic Model", which is used in Scandinavia to enforce the criminalisation of sex buyers, pimps and brothel operators.

Liane Bissinger and Dr. Inge Kleine from KOFRA (Communication Centre for Women in Work and Life) gave us an insight into the state of the discussion. Contrary to what is often claimed, the legislative changes of 2002 and 2017 have not improved the situation of prostitutes in Germany, on the contrary, they have massively worsened it and made Germany the brothel of Europe.

How should this now look in the future? Laws are legal norms: They determine how something has to be. The current legislation promotes prostitution and in particular leads to sex buyers being able to consider themselves law-abiding.

Feelings of shame due to deliberate violations of norms are either not built up in the first place (young clients) or greatly reduced by the lack of social sanctions and the assumption that they are 'only' using a completely legal service.

In addition, prostitution is a flourishing business in which everyone earns a lot of money, at the expense of the people who have to prostitute themselves and are usually suffering and traumatised. Is this really how it is supposed to go on??

Is this what we want or is it not time for a paradigm shift?

SI unites women from all continents, cultures and professions to work to improve the lives of women and girls worldwide and to contribute to better global understanding.

It is the world's largest service organisation of professional women with a socio-political commitment.

The organisation therefore provides a global professional and social network through its members and through international partnerships.

Worldwide, SI is represented in 118 countries with around 70.000 members in 2.900 clubs.

Soroptimist International Germany (SID) currently consists of 224 clubs with over 6.700 members.

Soroptimist International

Awareness - Confession - Movement