Infanticide and Abortion in Early Modern Germany

222 Pages·2016·2.76 MB·English

by  Margaret Brannan Lewis

Infanticide and Abortion in Early Modern
Germany
This book is the first work to look at the full range of three centuries of the early modern
period in regard to infanticide and abortion, a period in which both practices were regarded
equally as criminal acts. Faced with dire consequences if they were found pregnant or if they
bore illegitimate children, many unmarried women were left with little choice. Some of these
unfortunate women turned to infanticide and abortion as the way out of their difficult
situation. This book explores the legal, social, cultural, and religious causes of infanticide and
abortion in the early modern period, as well as societal reactions to them. It examines how
perceptions of these actions taken by desperate women changed over three hundred years and
as early modern society became obsessed with a supposed plague of murderous mothers,
resulting in heated debates, elaborate public executions, and a media frenzy. Finally, this book
explores how the prosecution of infanticide and abortion eventually helped lead to major
social and legal reformations during the Age of the Enlightenment.
Margaret Brannan Lewis is an assistant professor of history at the University of Tennessee
Martin.
The Body, Gender and Culture
Series Editor: Marjorie Levine-Clark
For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com
10 Blake, Gender and Culture
  Helen P. Bruder and Tristanne J. Connolly (eds.)
11 Age and Identity in Eighteenth-Century England
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12 The Politics of Reproduction in Ottoman Society, 1838–1900
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13 The Study of Anatomy in Britain, 1700–1900
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14 Interpreting Sexual Violence, 1660–1800
  Anne Greenfield (ed.)
15 Women, Agency and the Law, 1300–1700
  Bronach Kane and Fiona Williamson (eds.)
16 Sex, Identity and Hermaphrodites in Iberia, 1500–1800
  Richard Cleminson and Francisco Vázquez García
17 The English Execution Narrative, 1200–1700
  Katherine Royer
18 The Early Modern Child in Art and History
  Matthew Knox Averett (ed.)
19 Infanticide and Abortion in Early Modern Germany
  Margaret Brannan Lewis
Forthcoming Title
British Masculinity and the YMCA, 1844–1914
  Geoff Spurr
Infanticide and Abortion in Early Modern
Germany
Margaret Brannan Lewis
First published 2016
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2016 Margaret Brannan Lewis
The right of Margaret Brannan Lewis to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77
and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Lewis, Margaret Brannan, author.
Title: Infanticide and abortion in early modern Germany /
by Margaret Brannan Lewis.
Description: New York : Routledge, 2016. | Series: The body, gender
and culture ; 19 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015045282 (print) | LCCN 2016001139 (ebook)
| ISBN 9781848935549 (hbk) | ISBN 9781315621937 ( )
Subjects: LCSH: Infanticide—Germany—History. | Abortion—
Germany—History.
Classification: LCC HV6541.G3 L49 2016 (print) | LCC HV6541.G3
(ebook) | DDC
364.152083/20943—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015045282
ISBN: 978-1-848-93554-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-62193-7 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
Figures
Table
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 The Baby in the Pig Sty: Defining the Crime
2 “Such Barbarous Mothers There Are These Days”: A Growing Problem
3 Beware the Kinderfresser: Violence Toward Children in Print Culture
4 “The Child Was Fresh and Perfect”: The Influence of Experts
5 “Sighs of the Poor Sinner”: Sensationalism and Enlightenment
Conclusion
Works Cited
Index
Figures
2.1 Marginalia depicting the execution of Kunigunda Kelblingerin, Ulm, 1598
3.1 Lorentz Schultes, Der Kinderfresser , Augsburg, ca. 1600
3.2 Albrecht Schmid, Die Butzen-Bercht , Augsburg, 1701
3.3 Georg Kreß, News from Silesia , Augsburg, 1606/7
3.4 Hans Rampf, A Shocking, Unheard New Report of a Gruesome Murder, Augsburg, 1585
3.5 Nikolaus Schreiber, News from Louvain: Of a Starving Woman Who Hanged Herself and
Her Three Children, Cologne, 1591
3.6 Wolfgang Richter, A True and Shocking New Report, Frankfurt, 1626
3.7 Hans Sachs and Erhard Schön, The Lament of the Suffering People , Nuremberg, between
1550 and 1566
4.1 Abortifacients supposedly used by Margarete Leonhartin, Nördlingen, 1621
5.1 The innocent Maria Magdalena Bertzin, gruesomely murdered by her own father at the
tender age of 14 weeks , Augsburg, 1740
5.2 Thomas Bäck, Execution of Maria Elisabetha Beckensteinerin , Augsburg, 1742
Table
2.1 Infanticide prosecutions and executions in Augsburg, 1560–1639
Acknowledgments
Many people have helped in the creation of this book. I could not have completed this
research without the extensive support of many people and institutions.
First of all, I would like to thank Erik Midelfort for all of his guidance and inspiration over
the past decade. He believed in my project first, and I hope it does not disappoint.
There are many scholars and friends from across the globe to whom I owe thanks for their
advice, input, encouragement, and company: Beth Plummer, Ann Tlusty, Helmut Graser, Mary
Lindemann, Tim Fehler, Joel Harrington, Joy Wiltenburg, David Myers, Duane Osheim, Sophie
Rosenfeld, Paul Halliday, Laura Stokes, Laura Kounine, Hannah Murphy, Lindsay Starkey, Erin
Lambert, Ashley Elrod, Jessica Otis, Kristen Lashua, and the Slawik family.
The University of Virginia, the Doris Quinn Foundation, and the John Anson Kittredge Fund
aided in the early stages of research and writing. The support of the Fulbright Commission
allowed me to complete my initial research in 2009 and 2010. The Central European History
Society generously sponsored later stages of my research in the summer of 2014. The German
Historical Institute has been vital to my development as a historian through their graduate
student seminars and conferences. I would like to particularly thank the Herzog August
Bibliothek for their support and for the scholarly community they host that allowed me to
complete the final stages of research and writing in 2014 and 2015.
The staffs of the Stadtarchiv Augsburg, Stadtarchiv Memmingen, Stadtarchiv Ulm,
Stadtarchiv Nördlingen, Staats-und Stadtbibliothek Augsburg, and the Bayerische
Staatsbibliothek were also generous with their collections and guidance.
I want to express deep gratitude for my colleagues at the University of Tennessee Martin,
both in the history department and beyond, who have been incredibly welcoming and
encouraging in my first years on the job. Additionally, my students at UTM and their
enthusiasm for the unusual, the weird, and the early modern have kept me inspired
throughout this long process.
I owe a special thanks to Katie and Florian Snow for repeatedly being my home away from
home during several research trips to Germany. My family, and especially my parents, are the
best an academic, or anyone, could ask for. They have been the ultimate cheerleaders and
examples.
Finally, I owe everything to Martin Kane. He has been my primary source of love, sanity,
companionship, encouragement, meals, technical support, and proofreading for this entire
project and for the past several years. I could not imagine a better partner for life’s adventures.