DIDYMOS in the Media
It all began in 1972 with an article in the June issue of Germany’s Stern magazine which presented Erika Hoffmann as a modern woman who carried her children in a sling.
There are now many other media outlets, print and online, reporting on the topics of babywearing, sustainability and fair production in conjunction with DIDYMOS. You will find a selection of these publications here.
Source: Humboldt Forum, Edition No. 1, June 2017
"MOTHER AND BABY: CHEEK BY JOWL
The renaissance of the baby sling was inspired by non-European examples
Walk around Berlin these days and you might encounter someone carrying their baby in a sling. [...] This was clearly not the case 45 years ago. Back then a baby being carried in a sling in public was a sensation considered worthy of an entire article in the popular magazine "stern".[...] The woman at the center of all the attention was Erika Hoffmann, the mother of four children. A woman who somehow had to get through her day without having a grandmother around to help out and, more often than not, without any support from the children's father, who was working to put bread on the family's table."
This article originated in a lively exchange of correspondence between the author Jane Redlin and Erika Hoffmann: (Translation by DIDYMOS)
“I had a very intensive correspondence with your mother many years ago subsequent to the exhibition „Kinder mobil“ (2007) (“mobile children”) and about the related subsequent research on this subject. […] She is a remarkable woman. I have become acutely aware of the extreme efforts she has taken upon herself because of the Baby Wrap Sling.
The results of our correspondence were presented 2014/15 in the small studio exhibition „Nach Europa getragen – Die (Wieder-) Entdeckung des Babytragetuchs“( “Carried as far as Europe-The rediscovery of the Baby Wrap Sling”). [...] A photograph of the exhibition can be found in the book ‘Prinzip Labor: Museumsexperimente im Humboldt Lab Dahlem’ ('Principle laboratory: experiments with museums in the Humboldt Lab Dahlem') which was published 2015 by the Nicolai publishing house.”
Author: Dr. Jane Redlin, custodian at the Museum Europäischer Kulturen - Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (Museum of European Cultures - National Museums in Berlin)
Source: Fachforum Tragen (http://www.fachforum-tragen.de)
(3.11.2017)
"Das Fachforum TRAGEN im Interview mit Tina Hoffmann von DIDYMOS
DIDYMOS ist das Urgestein der deutschen Trageszene.
Die Geschichte der Firma beginnt 1971, als Gründerin Erika Hoffmann ihre Zwillinge Lisa und Tina in einem Tragetuch aus Mittelamerika trägt, um sich besser um den Haushalt und die Geschwisterkinder kümmern zu können. Didymos bedeutet im Altgriechischen übrigens Zwilling, daher kommt der Firmenname.
Erika Hoffmann hat infolgedessen mit dem Aufbau ihrer Firma maßgeblich dafür gesorgt, dass das Tragen ab Ende der 70er Jahre in Deutschland wieder salonfähig wurde.[...]
Tina Hoffmann, eins der Zwillingsmädchen von damals, hat inzwischen die Geschäftsleitung von DIDYMOS übernommen. Wir sind froh und stolz darüber, dass wir sie für unsere Reihe Firmenporträts interviewen durften und sind immer noch ganz beglückt über die vielen spannenden und interessanten Antworten.
Source: SAPIENS
(15.05.2017)
How Babywearing Went Mainstream
Strapping a baby to one’s torso used to be taboo in the West. Now the practice has given rise to a community that stretches around the globe.
[...] Babywearing slowly gained acceptance as approaches to parenting changed in the United States throughout the 1990s—most notably with a marked increase in rates of breastfeeding and a shift away from the idea that babies needed to be taught to self-soothe, McKenna says.
“Through the years, babywearing became less taboo,” says Tina Hoffman, managing director at Didymos, a German company that has been making woven wraps since 1972 when Hoffman’s mother needed something to carry her and her twin sister. The practice attracted a lot of stares and attention in their German village, but, Hoffman explains, her mother believed so strongly in the benefits of babywearing that she raised funds and started making and selling wraps.[...]"
Source: greenchild Magazine
(18.04.2017)
From Ancient Times to Modern Parenting: The DIDYMOS Babywearing Legacy
Sometimes it’s tough being the first one in the neighborhood trying a new thing. While babywearing is far from new, its journey into the mainstream consciousness has been a slow one. Back in 1972, Erika Hoffmann knew this exact feeling.
At a time when it was practically unheard of for children to sleep with their parents or even breastfeed, the creator of DIDYMOS wraps looked at raising her twins, Tina and Lisa, tried something that many women worldwide had done for centuries – tying the crying baby to her body to both soothe and get her own housework done.
The DIDYMOS Story
'Before then I had been fascinated by reports from distant countries where women pursued their daily work in a most uncomplicated way while intimately attached to their children,' Hoffmann explained. 'I owned a carrying shawl from Central America; but it seemed too exotic at first and that is why I had hidden it in the chest of drawers.'
'But now the time had come. I tried for a while until I found the right method and walked through our village where we had moved a few weeks before the birth of our twins. Very soon we were the talk of the village and not all the comments were positive. But the twins convinced me. They started smiling as soon as they saw the cloth, and I also enjoyed the physical contact, once with Lisa, then with Tina, just like a prolonged pregnancy.'"
Source: http://www.fairer-handel-aktuell.de
(20.02.2017)
"Das Babytragen hat DIDYMOS nicht erfunden, aber in der westlichen Gesellschaft war es lange in Vergessenheit geraten. Erika Hoffmann hat es 1971 wieder eingeführt und damit das Fundament für DIDYMOS geschaffen. Schon früh hatten sie Berichte aus fernen Ländern fasziniert, in denen Mütter ganz unkompliziert und mit ihren Kindern aufs engste verbunden ihrer täglichen Arbeit nachgehen." >><a href="http://www.fairer-handel-aktuell.de/2017/02/18/nachhaltige-babytragetuecher-von-didymos/"
Source: Ludwigsburger Kreiszeitung vom 16.7.2015
Ludwigsburger Kreiszeitung vom 8.12.2014
Source: Eltern 12/2013, Text by Nora Imlau with pictures by Nicolas Fabian Kammerer
Source: Heilbronner Stimme dated 9th March , 1972
Source: Stern, Edition 24/1972