Biyoloji Kader Olunca: Weimar ve Nazi Almanyası'nda Kadınlar

by Renate Bridenthal, Atina Grossman, Marion Kaplan

Burada toplanan Alman tarihi hakkındaki denemeler kadın ve aile konularının siyasallaşması -ve siyasal bakımdan tahrif edilişi- kadar, kadınların deneyimini de tartışmaktadır: kader olan biyoloji ve o kadere direniş. Yoğun siyasal karışıklık ve ekonomik yeniden yapılanma dönemine odaklanmaktayız: 1920'ler sırasında Alman ekonomisinin rasyonelleşmesi, 1930 başlarının Büyük Buhranı, Nazi zaferi, II. Dünya Savaşı'nın gelişi ve Holocaust.

Bu kitabı bir araya getirmek için dürtümüz hem siyasal hem de kişiseldi. 1960 sonlarından itibaren eylemci ve öğretim üyeleri olarak, öğrenci hareketlerinden ve Yeni Soldan ortaya çıkan feministler ve tarihçiler olarak kendi tarihlerimizden harekete geçtik. Kitaba, ekonomik krizin ve siyasal gericiliğin toplumsal refah kaynaklarını daralttığı ve “yeniden üretim politikaları” tartışmasını keskinleştirdiği Reagan'ın ilk yıllarında niyetlendik. Sağ bize ironik olarak, “kişiseli” soldan ya da kadınlar hareketinden daha militanca ve başarıyla siyasallaştırmayı becermiş görünüyordu. Yeni Sağ ve Ahlaklı Çoğunluk cinsellik ve üremenin, kürtaj ve doğum kontrolünün, kadınların ücretli emeği ve ailenin sürdürülmesinin devlet düzenlemesine tabi kamusal ve siyasal konular olduğunu güçlü bir şekilde iddia ederken, feministler ve solcular “özel tercih” hakkını savunmaya doğru gerilemekteydiler. “Kullanılabilir bir geçmiş” arayarak bu konulara dramatik şekilde, açıkça ve neticede korkunç biçimde karar verildiği Alman tarihine baktık.

Genres: History, Feminism, Gender, Womens, Germany

431 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

Reviews

[Max Renn · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Robert J. Howe · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Carrie]

Holocaust studies

[Beverley Chalmers · Rating 4 out of 5]

A foundational text on women and the Holocaust. An important read for those interested in this subject