Monika Barz

Monika Barz (born 5 April 1953) is a German academic. She was Professor for Women and Gender Studies at the Protestant University of applied sciences Ludwigsburg (Evangelische Hochschule Ludwigsburg) in Ludwigsburg between 1993 and 2016. She is known in Germany as a pioneering campaigner for feminist causes, including lesbian rights.

Life Monika Barz was born in Castrop-Rauxel, near Dortmund. Her early training was in Mathematics and in Sports Education, after which she became a lower and middle school teacher. She studied for her degree level teaching qualification at the University of Tübingen.

In 1987 Barz, Leistner and Wild published the book "„Hättest Du gedacht, dass wir so viele sind? Lesbische Frauen in der Kirche." ("Would you have thought that there are so many of us lesbian women in the church?"). Taken together, the book and the annual Bad Boll lesbian meetings triggered a response across the German speaking world: the annual meetings became a protected space in which lesbian churchwomen were able, for the first time, to create networks and collaborative quasi-political structures. New groupings emerged such as LUK ("Lesbians and the church"), the MuM ("Mary and Martha network") in Bad Boll, and later the "Labrystheia" and NKL ("Network of Catholic Lesbians") networks. In 2012 Monika Barz was herself a co-founder of the LSBTTIQ Baden-Württemberg network which drew together around 100 organisations and initiatives from the LGBT sector in the region. For her years of commitment and dedication she was honoured in 2016 with the "Golden pin-badge" ("Goldene Ehrennadel").

Politics From 1985 till 1993 Monika Barz was a local councillor in Nienburg/Weser, representing the little known (even in Lower Saxony) "Voters' Initiative for Democracy and Environmental Protection" ("Wähler- und Wählerinnen Initiative für Demokratie und Umweltschutz" / WIDU) party. In 2016 she stood for election to the Bundestag as a candidate for the German Green Party, but it appears to have been her first step into mainstream national politics at this level, and her name was too far down on the party list for her to stand a realistic chance of election.