'100,000 Mothers at the Brandenburg Gate' campaign - An interview with two initiators

Mother's Day is primarily used to promote the sale of flowers and chocolates. At the same time, the image of the mother is exaggerated on this day and displayed in kitschy colours. At the same time, on this and the other 364 days of the year, people are left alone and overburdened with caring responsibilities. In view of a society in which caring for children and relatives in need of care still predominantly affects women*, various organisations, including the Müttergenesungswerk, Evangelischer Fachverband für Frauengesundheit, Arbeitskreis Frauengesundheit and the MütterMachtPolitik initiative, are organising a large demonstration and rally on 10 May: 100,000 mothers in front of the Brandenburg Gate!

In the following you will first find ways to join in and support and then a conversation with two organisers, Antje Krause and Rebekka Rupprecht. The interview was conducted by Carola Eckstein and Matthias Neumann.

Information about the rally: https://hunderttausendmuetter.de/demoroute/

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And here is the interview:

Carola: Nice to have you here! Perhaps you would like to start by briefly introducing yourselves and the campaign?

Antje Krause: Thank you very much for the invitation to the interview. We as a campaign were very pleased, because of course we know Care Revolution and really appreciate your work.

I am Antje Krause. I have been working in the field of maternal recovery for 25 years - initially as a social worker and therapist, and for the last 14 years also as managing director of the Haus Daheim clinic, a preventive and rehabilitation clinic for mothers. Before that, I worked at a women's refuge.

Rebekka Rupprecht: My name is Rebekka Rupprecht. I am the Managing Director of the Mothers' Convalescence Centre - a charitable foundation that is 75 years old this year. The Müttergenesungswerk has been committed to the health of mothers from the very beginning, and since 2013 it has also been committed to fathers and carers. Care work is therefore a key issue for us, especially with regard to staying healthy.

Antje: The following story is part of the campaign: In 2023, we organised a specialist day on maternal health via the Women's Health Working Group (AKF) - out of frustration at the lack of attention paid to this topic. In the end, we had to realise: There is far too little movement, the need is huge. That was in autumn, when the tractor drivers paralysed Berlin. We saw how much space (mostly) men were able to devote to the issue of diesel taxes. And then our colleague Dagmar Hertle asked: "Is it not possible to gather 100,000 mothers in front of the Brandenburg Gate and stand up for maternal health?"

This sentence was like a spark. Whenever we mentioned the idea, we got great feedback: "Yes, that would be it!"

It quickly became clear that this could not be a private initiative. The Evangelical Association for Women's Health (EVA) then decided to use its 55th anniversary in 2025 as an opportunity to initiate the campaign. And other supporters quickly joined in: the AKF, the Müttergenesungswerk and Sarah Zöllner's "Mütter Macht Politik" initiative. It was important to us right from the start that it wasn't about our organisations - we wanted to bring the issue to the fore.

Then it became clear that it's not just about health - if we want to improve maternal health, we have to tackle the structures. That's why we included the topic of equality. We no longer just want to talk and demand - we want to celebrate the vision: now is the time. We are no longer waiting. We are calling for an absolutely equal division of resources and care work. And that's exactly where our campaign concept came from.

Matthias: You are calling for the consistent inclusion of mothers in socially relevant decisions. What exactly should this look like? Should experts speak from a mothers' perspective or do you want to give mothers the space to speak for themselves?

Rebekka: That's exactly what it's about: giving mothers the space and the opportunity to speak for themselves and contribute their concerns and perspectives. Incidentally, this also corresponds to what we repeatedly find in the human rights conventions: Participation of those who are directly affected. Of course we need studies and an overarching perspective - but we also need the voices of those who are in the thick of it. At all levels! Local politics is a good example: there you can see how different spaces for living together can look and how coexistence is shaped depending on which perspectives are included. Urban planning, playgrounds, nursery places, places in care centres - all of this is related to perspectives.

Gender budgeting also plays a role: in public spaces, for example, sports programmes for boys are often funded more than those for girls - which means that families have to make up for this privately. So there are many places where mothers themselves are the experts on issues and can have the best say. And that's exactly where they need the space. However, they often lack the time and energy to get involved because mothers carry the main burden of caring work and, in case of doubt, not only look after their children and work, but also care for relatives at the same time. They are so involved that they often simply don't have the time resources to get involved.

Antje: I'd like to add a concrete example. Let's take the heat: women are more affected by it and have to drink more - but there are hardly any public toilets. There are free urinals for men and paid toilets for women. Where can they wash their hands, practise hygiene, change nappies? Where is there shade, seating, safe routes? There needs to be a diverse range of people on committees with caring responsibilities - mothers, people with a history of migration, people with disabilities. Mothers make up 80 per cent of women - if we bring about change here, everyone benefits, including fathers. It's about shared responsibility.

Matthias: On the one hand, you are calling for the knowledge and experience of mothers to be utilised: Mothers are at the centre of these efforts and therefore they are the ones who have the most to say. On the other hand, you say: We want to move away from placing this responsibility on mothers and say that you're not just addressing mothers, but all people with caring responsibilities.

Rebekka: Yes. We think from the perspective of those who do the care work. Their perspective must be made visible - it belongs in the social and political debate. These people do an enormous amount - mostly unpaid - and our society would collapse without them. We start with mothers, i.e. the large group that bears this care responsibility, but we do not exclude anyone. We want to think inclusively. It takes a bit of "rattling" to get the issue on the agenda and for something to happen. This is exactly what we want to achieve with the call for a national health target, so that it is really addressed from the outset.

Carola: So it's also about redistributing responsibility. Because society still expects mothers to step in - whether for children or caring.

Antje: Absolutely. During the coronavirus crisis, it became clear how quiet many mothers were. They have endured so much, which was also evident in our clinics. Refugee mothers in particular carry an incredible burden. What they say, what they endure, how much pressure they bear is totally shocking. The situation of mothers must be made invisible. It's not just about family, but also about work. When a child is ill, the mother is usually absent - with all the consequences for the job, including the fear of losing it. There needs to be an attitude that says: of course you can be absent with small children. And we need society as a whole to take responsibility for children.

Carola: Things are better organised in other countries. Here, mothers usually stay at home because they often earn less.

Antje: Yes, lower earnings are part of the problem. Women often have up to 40 per cent less pension entitlement. And this is tacitly accepted - along the lines of: "You wanted children, see how you manage."

Matthias: So a culture of contradiction and resistance is needed?

Rebekka: Yes - and the knowledge of one's own rights. We have a great diversity of people in our country, including those who do care work. And they have different resources - be it education, income, time or energy. We must always take this into account. We have to create equal opportunities. That means we have to keep looking: Where do we need to put someone in a position to be able to utilise certain rights that may already exist in the same way as another person who perhaps has easier access to certain information and can finance a lawyer, for example? These are also important basic conditions so that, in case of doubt, you can confidently stand up to your own boss or colleagues and set boundaries. But you can only do this with support, information, a good network and, in the best case, a local culture that promotes this. And with the right bosses - especially many more female bosses, who probably have a better understanding of care responsibilities.

Carola: Are there problems in the healthcare system that specifically affect mothers, beyond obstetrics?

Antje: Yes - mothers carry a huge burden and this leads to exhaustion and illness. If we individualise social problems, we run the risk of illness becoming chronic. Mothers need the feeling that they can shape things, that they can participate. And there are mothers - especially refugees - who have no access to the system at all, even though they have a right to it. Racism, discrimination, fear of deportation: this leads to them not seeking help.

Carola: This means that mothers are overwhelmed, left alone, sometimes idealised and therefore even more overwhelmed.

Antje:... and then the overload is interpreted as an individual failure.

Carola: It's a social problem that is reflected individually in the healthcare system.

Antje: Exactly. Let's take partner violence: mothers become ill as a result. In therapy, it is often reduced to the individual level without considering the social environment. Misogyny plays a major role in this.

Rebekka: Motherhood doesn't just begin with the birth, but much earlier. To what extent is my personality, my body, my being taken into account in society? There are many places where we see that this is still not happening enough. Perhaps we don't realise in every situation in everyday life that we are not all equal. But there are phases of life and decision points where things change very quickly. We see this in relationships. The relationship may start out relatively 50/50, but the moment a family is started, there is an extreme imbalance. Then there are factors such as: Women earn less, lose their independence, are pushed into care work - with health consequences. We know that the health of mothers is more precarious than that of women who are not mothers. If, for example, we stay at home and have no or much less interaction because we have to concentrate on care work, then this is not healthy in the long term.

The moment a family is started, the balance often tips. Women earn less, lose independence and are reduced to care work - with health consequences. Isolation is not healthy in the long term.

Carola: I have experienced this problem with physical self-determination on a massive scale. It somehow ends the moment you get pregnant. Then everyone tells you what to do and what not to do. And if you decide otherwise, you're put under pressure.

Matthias: Finally: You have explained very impressively how big and how fundamental the problems are. The 10th of May in front of the Brandenburg Gate won't change that. What do you hope to gain from the action and do you have any ideas about what will happen next?

Antje: We hope that many people will take a stand: We no longer accept these abuses - not in housing, not in childbirth, not in exhaustion. We want to create a feeling of solidarity, tell new stories, bring a vision to life. It's not about shouting out demands, but about showing ourselves: We are many. Half of society are women, 80 per cent of them mothers - we are the majority.

Rebekka: We invite everyone to share this vision with us. It's not an exclusive topic - on the contrary. The 10th of May is the beginning of a journey that we are embarking on, with a very optimistic vision, but also the realism to take every single step to make a difference. We already have many allies and want to move forward together - step by step.

And now: sign up as a supporter on our website, share the demo date, get involved. We need reach, we need you!

Matthias: Thank you very much - hopefully we'll see you on 10 May.