Ellen Pfeiffer Award recipient in 2011
This is the nomination that was submitted by WIMA Germany: Monika Greiderer has been an active German WIMA member since around 1978 and she was the main organiser of two international WIMA rallies: 1999 WIMA Fantastica in Austria and 2009 WIMA Italia in Italy.
But she is much more than this. She is the founder of the ‘South Germany Women Motorbike Meeting.’ In 1994, she had the idea of a special national meeting for motorcycling women just to shorten the time between two international WIMA meetings. Other women were infected by her great idea and started to organise national meetings for motorcycling women all over Germany. Organisers were the different women’s groups in Oberbayern, Niederbayern, Franken and Baden-Württemberg. It was rotating in springtime each year between these four areas.
Verena Reindl added this information more recently: Above all, Monika is owed praise for her endurance through 45 long years to build up and conserve the regular meeting of ‘Münchner Frauen Motorrad Stammtisch’ which has around 40 members. Patiently and bravely she has been meeting twice a month since 1979 with the various members, organising riding weekends at the start and the end of the motorcycling season. Outside this period she organises a Christmas dinner and a skiing weekend in January.
In 1979 she was also the co-founder of Hexenring, an organisation for motorbike-riding women to have contact all over Germany. The idea is simple: A woman is riding through Germany, she needs a sleeping place, a cup of coffee or some technical help; if she is a member of Hexenring, she can ask the other members about this. Hexenring still exists and is run by a handful of women including WIMA Germany member Elke Geier.
Every time she met a woman she asked her: ‘Have you ever heard about WIMA? No? Come and join us, it is like a whole family all over the world and we all like motorbike-riding, having fun, talking about the difference between the countries, and more.’
Throughout these years, Monika has become an admirable model of a women-focused and very engaged motorcyclist. She continues to do a lot for women’s motorbike riding and, last but not least, she has ridden more than a million kilometres on her different motorbikes.
