Profile
Hedwig Pepelnik-Gründler
Birth:
1937
Training Location(s):
Mag., University of Applied Arts Vienna (1959)
Primary Affiliation(s):
TAMAR (counseling center for abused and sexually abused women, girls and children)
Catholic Women's Movement
Therapist and Supervisor in private practice
Career Focus:
Design, women's counseling, violence protection for abused women, girls and children, Gestalt therapy, supervision, lectures
Biography
Hedwig Pepelnik-Gründler is a supervisor and therapist, a Catholic women's movement counselor, and has founded and helped establish TAMAR, the first counseling center for abused and sexually abused women, girls, and children in Vienna.
Pepelnik-Gründler grew up in Vienna as the eldest of five siblings and moved with her family to Steyr in Upper Austria when her father became head of the Austrian energy supply company Ennskraftwerke. Her mother was still working at the time of the upbringings of her first two children and later became a housewife. Whereby Pepelnik-Gründler remembers her childhood as follows: "My mother didn't have the housemotherly thing, that already helped."
Pepelnik-Gründler graduated from high school, although she would have preferred to attend a higher technical school for carpentry (secondary vocational school with a focus on technical, industrial and arts and crafts subjects) in Salzburg. However, as a girl, she was not admitted to this educational path. Even though she had only a few school friends at high school, she experienced a feeling of cohesion within her own family, where she often looked after her siblings. As a teenager, Pepelnik-Gründler developed a strong connection to the Catholic Church, in which she also led girls' groups. As a young adult, she then joined the Catholic Women's Movement, which would mark the beginning of Pepelnik-Gründler’s feminist career.
After finishing school, Pepelnik-Gründler studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, graduating in design after four years. She worked as a designer in a lamp workshop for a year before marrying and having five children within seven years. When the youngest child died soon after birth, Pepelnik-Gründler wanted to stay at a medical rehabilitation clinic (in German so-called “Kur-Aufenthalt”), but her husband did not allow her to do so and, since partnership marriage was not yet legally regulated in Austria at that time, was able to forbid it. At this time Pepelnik-Gründler was about 30 years old and realized that due to her family situation a return to her profession would not be easily possible: "I thought to myself, if I now quickly get the children, I would have wanted a few, then I can continue to work."
Meanwhile, she continued to be involved in the Catholic women's movement, holding seminars and leading groups in rural areas and in Vienna, which ranged from self-confidence training to creative design. In the process, she became more and more aware of how many women, especially single mothers, were affected by violence and poverty, and that women, especially farmer women, could hardly dispose of their own spaces: "The only place where a woman could be by herself was on the toilet!" These experiences sharpened her view of the status of women and strengthened her feminist stance.
Thus, despite some resistance within church circles, Hedwig Pepelnik-Gründler, together with women from Protestant women's collectives, managed to found and establish the first contact point for women, girls, and children affected by violence and abuse in Vienna called TAMAR in 1989. At first, all TAMAR members worked on a voluntary basis, there was a telephone service and all material expenses were financed by donations. Only over the years the now publicly funded counseling center could be established with professionalized staff. Pepelnik-Gründler describes her motivation for founding this counseling center in the words "what had been done to the women, there was nothing left for me to do but to really put the emphasis on it". She is proud of the fact that this institution recently celebrated its 30th anniversary.
Furthermore, Pepelnik-Gründler, who in the meantime had separated from her husband, felt it necessary to professionalize herself even further. Therefore, she first completed a supervision training and then a therapy training as a Gestalt therapist, in which she could use her creative abilities. A small inheritance made the training financially possible for her. However, she also experienced the training for becoming a psychotherapist as discriminatory, since in the training contexts in the 1980s, men were still in charge and the social conditions of women were not part nor focus of the teaching content.
When Pepelnik-Gründler got divorced, Helene Klaar, a very well-known and popular feminist divorce lawyer in Austria, succeeded in obtaining a lifelong supplementary pension for her, which provided her with sufficient income - in addition to her own small pension.
As an activist, Pepelnik-Gründler was not only involved in the Catholic women's movement and participated, for example, in marches against the ordination of priests; in addition, she was also active in the peace movement and took to the streets together with the women of the autonomous women's movement. In doing so, Pepelnik-Gründler cooperated with women of all ideological persuasions. However, she was often surprised that she was repeatedly invited to hold a speech by feminists of the autonomous women's movement, although she made no secret of her religious stance. She also publicly discussed the right to abortion, which again did not conform with the line of the Catholic Church.
Originally, Pepelnik-Gründler had wanted to wait with ending her membership in the church until her children had completed their education and she would be financially responsible only for herself. At the age of about 50, however, Hedwig Pepelnik-Gründler sent back the award of the St. Stephen Order given to her in Gold, which she had received for her services to the archdiocese, and left the Catholic Church for good. Not only had she "split[n] the Catholic women's movement a bit" with her tolerant stance on abortion, but when women who wanted abortions were forced to confess to a bishop she said to herself "I can't take it anymore!"
In the year of 1990 the first Austrian Minister for Women’s Affairs Johanna Dohnal invited Pepelnik-Gründler to work for her in the newly founded Ministry for Women’s Affairs. However, Pepelnik-Gründler, now divorced, declined the offer for financial reasons, as this job paid too little for her to be able to financially support her four children who were still studying at that time.
In her work as a therapist, Pepelnik-Gründler is positive that she has helped many women build self-confidence. Although she herself never had mentors, she never missed them; instead, supervision and regular exchange with colleagues accompanied her professional career. In addition to her freelance work as a Gestalt therapist, Pepelnik-Gründler worked as an office assistant in a doctor’s office for a long time and thus provided herself with the basis for her own pension.
"Hedy, but you don't tell how you live!" Pepelnik-Gründler was told repeatedly from her family members and those around her, and she didn’t intend to do so in order to protect those close to her. Although Pepelnik-Gründler openly acknowledged her romantic relationships with women, this was not always possible for her partners too.
Among younger women, Pepelnik-Gründler observes a regression in relation to the feminist achievements of the 1980s and 1990s. "I think everything is going backwards, that they (are) so Biedermeierlich...there is not very much left of being feminist [...] they all just hope and that upsets me so much."
At the time of the interview, Pepelnik-Gründler is 84 years old and she continues to work as a therapist in private practice to this day.
By Emelie Rack & Susanne Hahnl (2022)
To cite this article, see Credits
Selected Works
By and about Hedwig Pepelnik-Gründler
Pepelnik-Gründler, H. (2021, September 30). Interview with S. Hahnl [Video recording].
Hedwig Pepelnik-Gründler
Birth:
1937
Training Location(s):
Mag., University of Applied Arts Vienna (1959)
Primary Affiliation(s):
TAMAR (counseling center for abused and sexually abused women, girls and children)
Catholic Women's Movement
Therapist and Supervisor in private practice
Career Focus:
Design, women's counseling, violence protection for abused women, girls and children, Gestalt therapy, supervision, lectures
Biography
Hedwig Pepelnik-Gründler is a supervisor and therapist, a Catholic women's movement counselor, and has founded and helped establish TAMAR, the first counseling center for abused and sexually abused women, girls, and children in Vienna.
Pepelnik-Gründler grew up in Vienna as the eldest of five siblings and moved with her family to Steyr in Upper Austria when her father became head of the Austrian energy supply company Ennskraftwerke. Her mother was still working at the time of the upbringings of her first two children and later became a housewife. Whereby Pepelnik-Gründler remembers her childhood as follows: "My mother didn't have the housemotherly thing, that already helped."
Pepelnik-Gründler graduated from high school, although she would have preferred to attend a higher technical school for carpentry (secondary vocational school with a focus on technical, industrial and arts and crafts subjects) in Salzburg. However, as a girl, she was not admitted to this educational path. Even though she had only a few school friends at high school, she experienced a feeling of cohesion within her own family, where she often looked after her siblings. As a teenager, Pepelnik-Gründler developed a strong connection to the Catholic Church, in which she also led girls' groups. As a young adult, she then joined the Catholic Women's Movement, which would mark the beginning of Pepelnik-Gründler’s feminist career.
After finishing school, Pepelnik-Gründler studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, graduating in design after four years. She worked as a designer in a lamp workshop for a year before marrying and having five children within seven years. When the youngest child died soon after birth, Pepelnik-Gründler wanted to stay at a medical rehabilitation clinic (in German so-called “Kur-Aufenthalt”), but her husband did not allow her to do so and, since partnership marriage was not yet legally regulated in Austria at that time, was able to forbid it. At this time Pepelnik-Gründler was about 30 years old and realized that due to her family situation a return to her profession would not be easily possible: "I thought to myself, if I now quickly get the children, I would have wanted a few, then I can continue to work."
Meanwhile, she continued to be involved in the Catholic women's movement, holding seminars and leading groups in rural areas and in Vienna, which ranged from self-confidence training to creative design. In the process, she became more and more aware of how many women, especially single mothers, were affected by violence and poverty, and that women, especially farmer women, could hardly dispose of their own spaces: "The only place where a woman could be by herself was on the toilet!" These experiences sharpened her view of the status of women and strengthened her feminist stance.
Thus, despite some resistance within church circles, Hedwig Pepelnik-Gründler, together with women from Protestant women's collectives, managed to found and establish the first contact point for women, girls, and children affected by violence and abuse in Vienna called TAMAR in 1989. At first, all TAMAR members worked on a voluntary basis, there was a telephone service and all material expenses were financed by donations. Only over the years the now publicly funded counseling center could be established with professionalized staff. Pepelnik-Gründler describes her motivation for founding this counseling center in the words "what had been done to the women, there was nothing left for me to do but to really put the emphasis on it". She is proud of the fact that this institution recently celebrated its 30th anniversary.
Furthermore, Pepelnik-Gründler, who in the meantime had separated from her husband, felt it necessary to professionalize herself even further. Therefore, she first completed a supervision training and then a therapy training as a Gestalt therapist, in which she could use her creative abilities. A small inheritance made the training financially possible for her. However, she also experienced the training for becoming a psychotherapist as discriminatory, since in the training contexts in the 1980s, men were still in charge and the social conditions of women were not part nor focus of the teaching content.
When Pepelnik-Gründler got divorced, Helene Klaar, a very well-known and popular feminist divorce lawyer in Austria, succeeded in obtaining a lifelong supplementary pension for her, which provided her with sufficient income - in addition to her own small pension.
As an activist, Pepelnik-Gründler was not only involved in the Catholic women's movement and participated, for example, in marches against the ordination of priests; in addition, she was also active in the peace movement and took to the streets together with the women of the autonomous women's movement. In doing so, Pepelnik-Gründler cooperated with women of all ideological persuasions. However, she was often surprised that she was repeatedly invited to hold a speech by feminists of the autonomous women's movement, although she made no secret of her religious stance. She also publicly discussed the right to abortion, which again did not conform with the line of the Catholic Church.
Originally, Pepelnik-Gründler had wanted to wait with ending her membership in the church until her children had completed their education and she would be financially responsible only for herself. At the age of about 50, however, Hedwig Pepelnik-Gründler sent back the award of the St. Stephen Order given to her in Gold, which she had received for her services to the archdiocese, and left the Catholic Church for good. Not only had she "split[n] the Catholic women's movement a bit" with her tolerant stance on abortion, but when women who wanted abortions were forced to confess to a bishop she said to herself "I can't take it anymore!"
In the year of 1990 the first Austrian Minister for Women’s Affairs Johanna Dohnal invited Pepelnik-Gründler to work for her in the newly founded Ministry for Women’s Affairs. However, Pepelnik-Gründler, now divorced, declined the offer for financial reasons, as this job paid too little for her to be able to financially support her four children who were still studying at that time.
In her work as a therapist, Pepelnik-Gründler is positive that she has helped many women build self-confidence. Although she herself never had mentors, she never missed them; instead, supervision and regular exchange with colleagues accompanied her professional career. In addition to her freelance work as a Gestalt therapist, Pepelnik-Gründler worked as an office assistant in a doctor’s office for a long time and thus provided herself with the basis for her own pension.
"Hedy, but you don't tell how you live!" Pepelnik-Gründler was told repeatedly from her family members and those around her, and she didn’t intend to do so in order to protect those close to her. Although Pepelnik-Gründler openly acknowledged her romantic relationships with women, this was not always possible for her partners too.
Among younger women, Pepelnik-Gründler observes a regression in relation to the feminist achievements of the 1980s and 1990s. "I think everything is going backwards, that they (are) so Biedermeierlich...there is not very much left of being feminist [...] they all just hope and that upsets me so much."
At the time of the interview, Pepelnik-Gründler is 84 years old and she continues to work as a therapist in private practice to this day.
By Emelie Rack & Susanne Hahnl (2022)
To cite this article, see Credits
Selected Works
By and about Hedwig Pepelnik-Gründler
Pepelnik-Gründler, H. (2021, September 30). Interview with S. Hahnl [Video recording].