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Abortion in Weimar Germany – the debate amongst the medical profession

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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References

ENDNOTES

1 The German Penal Code was introduced for the newly established German Reich in 1872. Articles 218–20 prescribed penal servitude for up to five years for pregnant women who had an abortion. If there were extenuating circumstances this could be reduced to imprisonment for not less than six months. The same penalties were prescribed for anybody helping to procure an abortion. If the operation was performed for money penal servitude for up to 10 years was prescribed; if it was performed without knowledge or consent of the woman the penalty was penal servitude for not less than two years; if an abortion ended in death of the woman the penalty was penal servitude for not less than ten years, or for life.

2 For abortion frequency see note 9 below.

3 Marschalck, Peter, Bevölkerungsgeschichte Deutschlands im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert (Frankfurt a.M., 1984), 145.Google Scholar

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5 Cf. Usborne, Cornelie, ‘“Pregnancy is the woman's active service”. Pronatalism in Germany during the First World War’, in Wall, Richard, Winter, Jay eds., The upheaval of war: Family, work and welfare in Europe, 1914–1918 (Cambridge, 1988), 389416.Google Scholar

6 SA Dresden, Aussm. 8644, preamble to the bill ‘concerning traffic with devices and potions to prevent births’, Bundesrat, , 8 11 1917, 4.Google Scholar

7 BA Koblenz, R 86, 2379, vol. 1, appendix to the bill concerning abortion and sterilization, 19 January 1918, 2; Reich health council, minutes, 21 12 1917, 2.Google Scholar

8 Cf. similar developments in nineteenth century America in Petchesky, Rosalind Pollack, Abortion and woman's choice: state, sexuality and reproductive freedom (London, 1984), 77.Google Scholar

9 For recent literature on demographic change and population policy see, for example, Knodel, , Decline of fertilityGoogle Scholar; Marschalck, , BevölkerungsgeschichteGoogle Scholar; Spree, Reinhard, ‘Der Geburtenrückgang in Deutschland vor 1939’, Demographische Informationen (1984), 4968Google Scholar; Bergmann, Anneliese, ‘Von der “unbefleckten Empfängnis” zur “Rationalisierung des Geschlechtslebens”. Gedanken zur Debatte um den Geburtenrückgang vor dem 1. Weltkrieg’, in Geyer-Kordesch, J., Kuhn, A. eds., Frauenkörper, Medizin, Sexualität (Dusseldorf 1986), 127–58Google Scholar; idem, ‘Die “Rationaliesierung der Fortpflanzung”: Der Rückgang der Geburten und des Aufstieg der Rassenhygiene/Eugenik im Deutschen Kaiserreich 1871–1914’, (Ph.D., Free University of Berlin, 1988)Google Scholar; Weindling, Paul, ‘The medical profession, social hygiene and the birth rate in Germany, 1914–18’Google Scholar, in Wall, R., Winter, J. eds, The upheaval of war, 417–38Google Scholar; Usborne, Cornelie, ‘The Christian churches and the regulation of sexuality in Weimar Germany’, in Obelkevich, J. et al. , eds, Disciplines of faith: Studies in religion, politics and patriarchy (London, 1987), 99112Google Scholar; idem, ‘“Pregnancy is the woman's active service”. Pronatalism in Germany during the First World War’, in Wall/Winter, Upheaval of war, 389416Google Scholar; Woycke, James, Birth control in Germany 1871–1933 (London, 1988).Google Scholar

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11 Dresden, SA, Aussm. 8664, preamble to bill against sterilization and abortion, 1918, Bundesrat printed matter, no. 148, 22 06 1918, 5.Google Scholar

12 BA Koblenz, R 86, 2379, vol. 1, newspaper cuttings on the disciplinary action against Gustav Henkel, professor of gynaecology and obstetrics in Jena, Thuringia, and director of the Jena university hospital for women, October to December 1917: Henkel, who was accused of serious negligence and misconduct, was found to have performed abortions and sterilizations on a large scale without sufficient grounds; ibid., minutes of the meeting of the Reich Health Council, 21 December 1918, p. 15 concerning the trial against the gynaecologist Hope Bridget Adams–Lehmann of Munich for suspected criminal abortions in 1913.

13 Koblenz, BA, R 86, 2379, vol. 1, Prussian Interior Minister to Reich Interior Minister, 19 01 1918Google Scholar; ibid., 1916 statistics by the sick fund of the General Electrical Society in Berlin: of 100 married women workers there were 65 ‘miscarriages’; of 100 unmarried women 59 ‘miscarriages’, of which the majority were undoubtedly abortions.

14 Cf. Duden, Barbara, ‘Keine Nachsicht gegen das schöne Geschlecht. Wie sich Ärzte die Kontrolle über die Gebärmutter aneigneten’, in Pazensky, S. V. ed., Wir sind keine Mörderinnen (Reinbek, 1980), 109–26Google Scholar; Huerkamp, Claudia, ‘Ärzte und Professionalisierung in Deutschland: Überlegungen zum Wandel des Ärzteberufs im 19. Jahrhunderts’, Geschichte und Gesellschaft, 6 (1980), 349382Google Scholar; idem, Der Aufstieg der Ärzte im 19. Jahrhundert (Göttingen, 1985)Google Scholar; Frevert, Ute, Krankheit als politisches Problem 1770–1880 (Göttingen, 1984)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, ‘Frauen und Ärzte im späten 18. und frühen 19. Jahrhundert – zur Sozialgeschichte eines Gewaltverhältnisses’, in Kuhn, A., Rüsen, J. eds, Frauen in der Geschichte II (Dusseldorf, 1982), 177212Google Scholar; Spree, Reinhard, ‘The impact of the professionalisation of physicians on social change in Germany during the late 19th and early 20th centuries’, Historical Social Research, 15 (1980), 2439Google Scholar; Kater, Michael H., ‘Professionalization and socialization of physicians in Wilhelmine and Weimar Germany’, Journal of Contemporary History, 20 (1985), 677701.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

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21 Reichstag printed matter, 1725, memorandum on state of public health, 1923/1924, 4: the rate of puerperal fever cases per 1,000 live and still births went up from 3.8 in 1921 to 4.7 in 1923. This is not surprising since 1923 was the peak of the inflation but it is interesting that the rise was blamed entirely on criminal abortions.

22 Cf. Woycke, James, Birth control in Germany 1871–1933 (London, 1988).Google Scholar

23 Cf. Grossmann, Atina, ‘Abortion and economic crisis: The campaign against paragraph 218’ in Bridenthal, R. et al. , eds, When biology became destiny: women in Weimar and Nazi Germany (New York, 1984), 6686.Google Scholar

24 Cf. Grotjahn, Alfred ed., Eine Kartothek zu Paragraph 218. Ärztliche Berichte aus einer Kleinstadtpraxis (Berlin, 1932)Google Scholar. Grotjahn published the medical diary of a small town practitioner who had procured over four hundred abortions in the space of two years but who, for obvious reasons, wished to remain anonymous.

25 Ärztliches Vereinsblatt (ÄV), 48 (1921), column 14Google Scholar; ibid., 52, (1925), 42–61, 57.

26 GSTA Dahlem, Rep 84a, 8232, Bl 90: in 1,925 of 6,707 cases prosecuted under article 218, 6,548 were punished with imprisonment (the majority to between 1–12 months) and only 113 to penal servitude.

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43 Bumm, , MMW, 1 02 1923Google Scholar; Vollmann, , Die Fruchtabtreibung, 23Google Scholar; cf. DrHüssy, Paul, Begutachtung und gerichtliche Beurteilung von ärztlichen Kunstfehlern auf geburtshilflich-gynäkologischem Gebiete (Stuttgart, 1935).Google Scholar

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53 Moses, Julius, ‘Der Kampf um die Aufhebung des Abtreibungsparagraphen’, Biologische Heilkunst, 34 (12 1929), 934.Google Scholar

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66 The law of 21 May 1976 permits surgical termination on medical, social and eugenic grounds within 22 weeks of pregnancy. Women have to have consulted both a doctor and a counsellor who is recognized by the state.

67 BA Koblenz, NL Lüders 133, petition by Berlin women doctors: abortion should be legal except if not performed by a physician, or if performed negligently or without consent. In case this was not acceptable abortion should be permissible on medical and socio-economic grounds; ibid., petition by Süßmann: only abortion on strict medical grounds should be permissible, necessitating a second opinion by a medical officer of health before each operation; this had been specifically rejected by the DÄVB.

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