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Infanticide and Abortion in Early Modern Germany PDF

222 Pages·2016·2.76 MB·English
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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   Helen Yallop 12 The Politics of Reproduction in Ottoman Society, 1838–1900   Gülhan Balsoy 13 The Study of Anatomy in Britain, 1700–1900   Fiona Hutton 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 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 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, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. 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.

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This book is the first work to look at the full range of three centuries of the early modern period in regards 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 c
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