“HYSTERIA,” “totalitarian feminism,” “witch hunt”:the—in fact rather timid—response to the #MeToomovement in Germany was met with hostility by themainstream public discourse, as these dismissivelygendered retorts indicate. An unjustified anddisproportionate reaction, one might argue, asGermany never witnessed a genuine wave of activismalong the lines of the protests triggered by thelaunch of the famous hashtag in October 2017 in theUnited States. While in other European countries,such as France, Sweden, and Norway, nationalvariants of #MeToo initiated an intense publicdebate over laissez-faire attitudes toward sexualmisconduct that raised awareness about the scale ofrape culture and structural sexism in our societies,Germany has remained noticeably quiet. With theexception of only a few major accusations (e.g.,against film director Dieter Wedel and the formerpresident of the Munich Academy of Music, SiegfriedMauser), the German campaign against sexualharassment and sexual violence was quicklyredirected into a broader—though certainlyurgent—debate on inequities between the sexes andthe gender pay gap.

Historian Jessica Gienow-Hecht has argued that two keyfactors may be responsible for the lukewarmreception of #MeToo in Germany: first, an increasingskepticism toward social and cultural trends comingfrom the United States, especially since DonaldTrump's election in 2016; and second, the somewhatindolent character of some expressions of Germanfeminism, which seem to have been “lagging behindfor the last 40 or 50 years.” This stagnation isreflected in Germany's not always flatteringposition in European statistics when it comes towomen's rights: it was not until 1997 that rapewithin marriage was recognized as a crime by theGerman Parliament; the number of Frauenmorde (femicides)continues to be worryingly high; and polls indicatethat an alarming “40% of women in Germany reporthaving experienced sexual or physical abuse.”Furthermore, the number of German women in positionsof power is still relatively low, despite thecountry having been led for sixteen years by afemale chancellor. Like other Western democracies,Germany seems to have failed to identify and fosterpositive models of female leadership, as evidencedby the disturbingly stereotyped—if not downrightantifeminist— portrayals of career women and femalepolitical leaders not only in German publicdiscourse but also across a variety of culturalartefacts.