“All Germans are equal in front of the law. In principle, men and women have the same rights and obligations.”[1]
November 1918 saw dramatic change to the political landscape of Germany. The abdication of the Kaiser and proclamation of a republic were momentous upheavals followed by a constitution allowing all adult Germans the right to vote. For the first time in the history of the German states the electorate included women. Far from being a minority group that would have a largely insignificant impact on electoral results, women had abruptly become the largest demographic with the right to cast a ballot.
It would be logical to assume that such an important event would have been subjected to considerable and detailed study; however until relatively recently historiography has contained few serious attempts to examine the role of women in the political world of Weimar Germany. For a great part of the twentieth century women were considered to base their political opinions entirely on emotion. This idea is intrinsically Freudian and was upheld by men such as Joachim Fest, Hermann Rauschning and Richard Grunberger.[2] Fest devotes pages to his out-dated and bizarre psychoanalysis, in which he attributes the success of Hitler’s political speeches to the “…excessive emotionalism…”[3] and “…motherly…”[4] feelings of women towards Hitler and refers to their behaviour at rallies as like “…the public sexual acts of primitive tribes.”[5] Whilst Grunberger provides useful statistics in regard to women in Weimar Germany, he talks of the “…emotion guided woman” and suggests that the entire female crowd at public occasions would show “…a form of mass hysteria known as Kontaksucht…”[6]
Need an essay assistance?
Our professional writers are here to help you.
Among more recent academics is Julia Sneeringer who argues that “…the gender dimensions of political mobilization have remained largely invisible in German historiography.”[7] This is a much more plausible statement than the assertion of mass hysteria being women’s only notable characteristic in regard to politics in the Weimar period. It has been academics such as Sneeringer, Cornelie Usborne and Raffael Scheck who have, in recent years, covered much ground in providing a realistic analysis of women in Weimar Germany. Scheck’s work on right-wing women has provided much insight into the aspirations and opinions of this group, orientating the work beyond the question of Hitler’s popularity, which dominates much of the previous historiography. Usborne has discussed important issues, such as the abortion debate and the way in which female activists engaged with them in a political setting.
Whilst this dissertation will be examining the impact of female emancipation in Weimar Germany, it will also consider the rights that women did not yet have, such as the entitlement to abortion. Although women had more legal rights than their counterparts in many other countries, they did not have equality with men in all spheres of life, as would be implicit in a modern Western context. Many people still considered a woman’s ideal place to be in the household; emancipation is a process and could not conceivably have materialised overnight with the Weimar Constitution. This is not to ignore the large changes that were taking place regarding women, such as involvement in political parties. It is exactly in this historical context that the emancipation of women should be considered.
With motherhood at the
Order this paper