Pillar 2:
Ecological transition in the field of culture

Priority 15:
Integrating gender issues and ensuring gender parity in local cultural policies

The City of Munich supports the #femaleheritage initiative to address significant gaps in cultural remembrance, particularly regarding the exclusion of women from collective memory.

The project, led by Monacensia (literature archive, Munich City Library), aims to challenge the historical absence of women in archives and cultural narratives. By focusing on curatorial research and interdisciplinary collaboration, the initiative invites citizens, artists, academics and cultural institutions to collectively uncover forgotten stories and ensure future omissions are avoided.

From 2020 to 2025, the project sought to integrate gender equality into cultural policies and explore new forms of remembrance culture through the extensive engagement of over 70 institutions across Germany.

Successful activities included: Monacensia Manifesto, a project on the new ways of remembrance, the founding of the FEMale*Society network, online blogs with 200+ specialist contributions, exhibitions, participatory literary workshops, events, school programmes and theatre festival, film portraits and videos published on platforms like YouTube and Literatur.tv.

Close collaboration with Wikipedia resulted in new wiki entries, links to valid archive sources and better resources in the public domain for #FemaleHeritage.

#FemaleHeritage’s success highlights the value of interdisciplinary, collaborative approaches to remembrance culture, offering valuable insights for other municipal institutions seeking to implement similar projects.

It demonstrates the importance of structural changes for an inclusive society, emphasizing dialogue, trust, and the need for time to develop cultural mediation. Under the patronage of the second Deputy Mayor of the city of Munich, the project has been extended for at least another three years.