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When Biology Became Destiny
This collection of essays analyzes the experience of women in Weimar and Nazi Germany—the first a period of crisis and polarization between right and left, and the second a period in which the right triumphed. The history documented in this book provides us with a perspective from which to analyze our own time, for in the history of Weimar and Nazi Germany we see the issues surrounding women, family, and reproduction as powerful mobilizing forces for both right and left.
378 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 22, 2012
it took quite some time to get through this book, owning more to its status as library book than anything about the book itself. that being said, it is a fairly specialized scholarly tome, asking without demanding some familiarity with both feminist and to a certain extent holocaust discourse. and that being said it remains surprisingly readable.
it is startling the extent to which the events and the social dynamics covered in this book, namely the machinations and agencies of coercion and control used by both nazi and conservative pre-nazi elements of german social and governmental agency are being repeated in the various contemporary 'wars on women' across the globe, particularly in the united states.
it is almost as if the conservative christian right, as typified by rick santorum and the like, have taken the nazi game book and are running it play by play.
i quote:
"On may 26, 1933, two pieces of penal legislation preceding the 1926 reforms were reintroduced, prohibiting the availability of abortion facilities and services. more important was the stricter handling of the old abortion law, resulting in a 65% increase in yearly convictions between 1932 and 1938, when their number reached almost 7000. From 1935 on, doctors and midwives were obliged to notify the regional State Health Office of every miscarriage. women's namesand addresses were then handed over to the police, who investigated the cases suspected of actually having been abortions. in 1936 Heinrich Himmler, head of all police forces and the SS, established the Reich's Central Agency for the Struggle Against Homosexuality and Abortion, and in 1943, after three years of preparation by the Ministries of the Interior and of Justice, the law entitled Protection of Marriage, Family and Motherhood called for the death penalty in "extreme cases.""
I recommend that anyone interested in protecting the rights of women in the contemporary scene read this book, the editors and contributors have done a valuable service in bringing to light hidden aspects of just how a particular mechanism of power used the biology of women, and particularly their unique reproductive capacity against them through an exploitative coercive system of control.
it is startling the extent to which the events and the social dynamics covered in this book, namely the machinations and agencies of coercion and control used by both nazi and conservative pre-nazi elements of german social and governmental agency are being repeated in the various contemporary 'wars on women' across the globe, particularly in the united states.
it is almost as if the conservative christian right, as typified by rick santorum and the like, have taken the nazi game book and are running it play by play.
i quote:
"On may 26, 1933, two pieces of penal legislation preceding the 1926 reforms were reintroduced, prohibiting the availability of abortion facilities and services. more important was the stricter handling of the old abortion law, resulting in a 65% increase in yearly convictions between 1932 and 1938, when their number reached almost 7000. From 1935 on, doctors and midwives were obliged to notify the regional State Health Office of every miscarriage. women's namesand addresses were then handed over to the police, who investigated the cases suspected of actually having been abortions. in 1936 Heinrich Himmler, head of all police forces and the SS, established the Reich's Central Agency for the Struggle Against Homosexuality and Abortion, and in 1943, after three years of preparation by the Ministries of the Interior and of Justice, the law entitled Protection of Marriage, Family and Motherhood called for the death penalty in "extreme cases.""
I recommend that anyone interested in protecting the rights of women in the contemporary scene read this book, the editors and contributors have done a valuable service in bringing to light hidden aspects of just how a particular mechanism of power used the biology of women, and particularly their unique reproductive capacity against them through an exploitative coercive system of control.
May 12, 2013
A clear-eyed look at the origins of Mother’s Day, among other topics. Renata Bridenthal was one of my history professors at Brooklyn College, and her essay (with Claudia Koonz), “Beyond Kinder, Küche, Kirche: Weimar Women in Politics and Work,” leads off the book.
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January 15, 2010Holocaust studies
March 19, 2015
A foundational text on women and the Holocaust. An important read for those interested in this subject
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews