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Cyankali
Paperback
First published January 1, 1975
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June 12, 2025
Friedrich Wolf is best remembered for his two sons: Konrad Wolf was East Germany's greatest film director, and Markus Wolf was the country's top spy. Yet the father was also a historical figure: Friedrich Wolf was a communist doctor who advocated for abortion rights in Weimar Germany however he could. He not only performed abortions himself, for which he was sentenced to prison, but he also spoke at political rallies and visited the Soviet Union (where abortion was legal until Stalin banned it). Most impressively, he wrote a successful play about abortion that got turned into a movie: Cyankali is German for potassium cyanide, which was used to terminate pregnancies.
Cynkali tells the story of a 20-year-old working-class woman. She and her boyfriend lose their jobs during a lockout, and just then she realizes she's pregnant. She looks for help everywhere: her neighbors, her boyfriend, her doctor, and then an underground abortionist. She eventually tries to end the pregnancy herself, and gets an infection. As she lays dying of a fever, the state is only interested in locking up as many people as possible.
The play was moving, but also extremely didactic, at times more like a political manifesto than a relatable story. Every scene features a woman is suffering or dying. Then again, official estimates put the number of illegal abortions at 800,000 per year (!) in Weimar Germany, so maybe this isn't that from the historical reality. Today, nearly 100 years later, paragraph 218 of the German criminal code still bans abortions. The SPD had the votes to abolish the paragraph last year, as they had promised to do, but they decided it wasn't worth it.
Cynkali tells the story of a 20-year-old working-class woman. She and her boyfriend lose their jobs during a lockout, and just then she realizes she's pregnant. She looks for help everywhere: her neighbors, her boyfriend, her doctor, and then an underground abortionist. She eventually tries to end the pregnancy herself, and gets an infection. As she lays dying of a fever, the state is only interested in locking up as many people as possible.
The play was moving, but also extremely didactic, at times more like a political manifesto than a relatable story. Every scene features a woman is suffering or dying. Then again, official estimates put the number of illegal abortions at 800,000 per year (!) in Weimar Germany, so maybe this isn't that from the historical reality. Today, nearly 100 years later, paragraph 218 of the German criminal code still bans abortions. The SPD had the votes to abolish the paragraph last year, as they had promised to do, but they decided it wasn't worth it.
Displaying 1 of 1 review