The first shelter for battered women was opened in West Berlin in 1976, created by women of the autonomous women's movement with funds from the FRG's Ministry of Family Affairs. The Berlin project triggered a wave of women's shelters foundations, which were granted financial aid on the basis of Paragraph 72 of the Federal Social Aid Law. For example, the city council of Cologne decided in December 1976 to finance the women's shelter set up by a social worker. In subsequent years, women's shelters were founded in other German cities. Most of them were projects of the autonomous women's movement.