'The Time is Coming':Women Writers in the Expressionist Journal Die Aktion (1911-1932)

The journal Die Aktion, published between 1911 and 1932 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf, was one of the leading fora for literary Expressionism in Germany. In its first issue, the editor Franz Pfemfert explicitly connects the political and cultural aims of the journal, highlighting its left-wing stance while also declaring his intention to engage in ‘Kulturkampf’ (cultural struggle) and challenge the staid artistic and literary culture of the Wilhelmine era. Scholarship on the journal has, to date, tended to focus either on its socialist politics and opposition to the First World War or on the work of the male Expressionist writers and artists who published in it. However, little attention has been paid to the significant number of women who had their work published in the journal, such as Claire Goll, Margarete Kubicka, Henriette Hardenberg, Angela Hubermann, Emmy Hennings, Mia Morgenroth and others. This chapter focuses on literary and essayistic texts by female authors whose work was published in Die Aktion, showing how the literary and political scope of the journal is broader than has previously been acknowledged. It argues that these female writers introduce a specifically gendered dimension to their understanding of the relationship between their poetic writing and political activism. Their work often questions existing patriarchal norms, appealing to women to find their individual voices and speak out against their exclusion from the public sphere, while their protest against convention is reflected formally in their aesthetic experimentation and break with artistic and literary tradition. Overall, the chapter shows how the ‘Kulturkampf’ (cultural struggle) identified by Pfemfert poses a challenge, not only to the political and literary culture of the period, but also to the rigid social structures that constrained women and assigned them to fixed gender roles.