The Eighteenth Century.
1.--Court Life in Germany.
Following the example set by Louis XIV. of France, most of the
princely courts, that were very numerous in Germany in those days,
indulged in an extravagance of outward display, especially in the
maintenance of concubines, that were in no relation to the size and
productiveness of their small domains. The history of the courts of
the eighteenth century constitutes one of the ugliest chapters of
history. One ruler tried to excel the other in hollow conceit, mad
extravagance and costly military sport. But it was especially in the
affairs with their courtesans that the wildest excesses were indulged
in. It is hard to tell which of the many German courts excelled in
this extravagant mode of living that had a corrupting influence on
public life. It was one to-day and another to-morrow. None of the
German states were spared this disgrace. The nobility imitated the
sovereigns and in the capitals the bourgeoisie imitated the nobility.
If the daughter of a bourgeois family was fortunate enough to please
one of the gentlemen of the court or His Serene Highness himself, in
nineteen cases out of twenty she considered herself highly favored,
and the family willingly consented to her becoming a princely or royal
concubine. Among the families of the nobility the same was the case if
one of their daughters found favor with the sovereign. Wide circles
were dominated by an utter lack of character and modesty. It was
worst of all in the two chief cities of Germany, Vienna and Berlin.
Although during a great part of the century Vienna was ruled by Maria
Theresa, known for her moral austerity, she was powerless against
the doings of the rich, profligate nobility and an eagerly imitative
bourgeoisie. By establishing purity commissions, that resulted in an
extensive system of espionage, she caused much bitterness and made
herself ridiculous. The results amounted to nothing. In frivolous
Vienna during the second half of the eighteenth century, proverbs
were circulated like the following: “one should love one’s neighbor
like meself; that means, one should love one’s neighbor’s wife like
one’s own”; or, “If the wife turns to the right the husband may turn
to the left; if she takes to herself a man servant, let him take a
lady friend.” How frivolously marriage and adultery were viewed at
that time, may be seen from a letter written by the poet Christian
von Kleist to his friend Gleim in 1751. It contains the following
passage: “I suppose you heard of the adventure of the landgrave
Henry. He has sent his wife to his country seat and intends to get a
separation from her because he found her with the Prince of Holstein.
The margrave would have acted more wisely if he had kept the affair
secret instead of causing all Berlin and half of the world to speak
of him. Besides, ~one should not judge a natural occurrence so
severely~, especially one who is not over virtuous himself. Disgust
is bound to result in matrimony, and by their acquaintance with other
amiable persons ~all men and women are induced to be faithless. How
can we be punished for something we have been forced to do?~” In
1772 the British ambassador, Lord Malmesbury, wrote the following
in regard to conditions in Berlin: “moral depravity prevails among
both sexes of all classes. To this is added a general insufficiency
of means, due partly to the heavy taxes imposed by the king, and
partly to the love of luxury introduced by his grandfather. The men
lead a dissolute life notwithstanding their limited means, and the
women are shameless harlots. They deliver themselves up to the one
able to pay the highest price; modesty and true love are foreign to
them.”
The worst conditions existed in Berlin during the rule of Frederick
William II. from 1786 to 1797. He set his people the worst possible
example. His court chaplain, Zoellner, even degraded himself by
marrying the king to his courtesan, Julie von Voss, although he had
another wife; and when she died soon after in childbirth, Zoellner
again consented to marry the king to another one of his courtesans,
the Countess Sophie von Doenhoff. Other rulers had set an equally bad
example at the beginning of the century. In July, 1706, Duke Louis of
Wurtemberg married, as an additional wife, his courtesan, Gravenitz,
the “corrupter of the country,” as she is still called in Wurtemberg.
His cousin, Duke Leopold, still excelled him in profligacy, for he
had three wives simultaneously, two of which were sisters. Of his
thirteen children he joined two in marriage. The doings of these
sovereigns caused much comment among their subjects, but that was all.
The marriage of the Duke of Wurtemberg with Graevenitz was annulled
by imperial intervention. But she entered into a mock marriage with
a profligate count, and thereupon remained for twenty years more
the duke’s concubine and the “corrupter of the country.”
2.--Commercialism and the New Marriage Laws.
The increasing power of sovereigns and the formation of larger states
had led to the institution of standing armies. These standing armies
and the extravagant mode of life indulged in at most of the courts,
could not be maintained without heavy taxation, and to make such
taxation possible a large, taxable population was required. Therefore
governments from the eighteenth century on, especially those of the
larger states, adopted measures for increasing the population and
for heightening the taxability of the inhabitants. The foundation
for such measures had been established by the social and economic
transformations referred to above, i. e., the discovery of America,
the discovery of the passage to India, and the circumnavigation
of Africa. This transformation first manifested itself in Western
Europe, but later in Germany also. The newly opened thoroughfare
had created new commercial relations of an extent undreamt of until
then. Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands and England were the first
to profit by the transformation; but France and eventually Germany
also were benefited by it. Of all these countries Germany was most
retarded in development, as a result of the numerous religious wars
and its political disunity. The establishment of a world market and
the constant opening of new markets for the products of European
industry, not only revolutionized the methods of production, but
also revolutionized the views, sentiments and conceptions of the
European nations and their governments. The former mode of production,
destined to supply only the daily needs of a given center and its
immediate vicinity, was superseded by manufacture on a large scale,
which implies the employment of a large number of workers and an
increased division of labor. The merchants possessing large financial
resources and broadness of perception, became the leaders along these
new lines of industry that partly replaced and partly abolished the
old handicrafts and put an end to their guild organization. Thereby a
period had been ushered in which made it possible for woman to resume
her industrial activity. The textile industries; cloth manufactury
and the manufacture of laces opened up to her new fields of activity.
At the close of the eighteenth century we already find 100,000 women
and 80,000 children employed in the textile and printing trades of
England and Scotland, unfortunately under conditions, both in regard
to wages and hours of work, that were simply appalling. Similar
conditions prevailed in France at the same time, where also tens of
thousands of women were employed in various manufactures.
This economic development demanded more people, and as the population
had been greatly diminished by the wars of conquest in Europe
during the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and by
the expeditions of discovery beyond the seas, the more advanced
governments found it necessary to facilitate marriage and the right
of settling. Spain, that by its imperialistic policy had become
greatly depopulated, was obliged as early as 1623 to pass a law
exempting from taxes for a number of years all persons who became
married between the ages of 18 and 25. Poor persons were even given
a dowry from public funds. Parents who had six or more male children
were entirely exempt from taxes. Spain also encouraged immigration
and colonization.
King Louis XIV. of France, who had decimated his people by his
numerous wars, found it necessary to counteract this devastation
by exempting from taxes for from four to five years all taxpayers,
who constituted a great majority of the population, if they became
married before the twentieth or twenty-first year of age. Complete
exemption from taxes was, furthermore, guaranteed to all who had ten
living children, provided that none of these had become a priest, a
monk or a nun. Noblemen having the same number of children, provided
that none of them had become priests, monks or nuns, received an
annual pension of from 1,000 to 2,000 livres. Citizens not subject
to taxation under the same conditions received one-half of this
amount. Marshal Maurice of Saxony even advised Louis XV. not to permit
marriages to be contracted for a longer period than five years.
In Prussia, by laws enacted in the years 1688, 1721, 1726 and
1736, and by various government measures, endeavors were made to
encourage immigration; especially were the immigrants welcomed who
had been subjected to religious persecution in France and Austria.
The theories in regard to population maintained by Frederick the
Great were expressed with brutal frankness in a letter written by
him to Voltaire on the 26th of August 1741. He wrote: “I consider
men as a herd of deer in the deer park of some great lord, having
no other task but to populate the park.” By his wars he certainly
made it necessary to have his deer park repopulated. In Austria,
Wurtemberg and Brunswick immigration was also encouraged and there,
as in Prussia, emigration was forbidden. Furthermore, in the course
of the eighteenth century, England and France removed all obstacles
to marriage and settlement, and other nations followed their example.
During three-fourths of the eighteenth century political economists
as well as the governments considered a large population the greatest
good fortune to the state. Only at the close of the eighteenth and
the beginning of the nineteenth century a reversion of opinion took
place. This was due to economic crises and to warlike and revolutionary
events, that continued during the first half of the nineteenth century,
especially in Germany and Austria. The age at which marriage was
permitted was raised again, and proofs were required showing that the
contracting parties were assured of a certain amount of wealth or a
secure income, and could maintain a given standard of living. To
the destitute, marriage was made impossible, and the municipalities
were given a great influence in determining under what conditions
marriages might be contracted. Occasionally peasants were even
forbidden to build their little homes, or compelled to tear them
down when they had been built without princely permission. Only in
Prussia and Saxony the marriage laws remained comparatively liberal.
Since human nature will not be suppressed, the result of all these
hindrances to marriage was, that in spite of all the harassing and
persecution, illicit relations greatly increased, and that in some
German states the number of illegal children was almost as great as
that of the legal ones. Such was the fruit of a paternal government
that prided itself on its Christian morality.
3.--The French Revolution and the Rise of Industry.
In those days the married woman of the middle class lived in severe
domestic retirement. The number of her domestic duties was so large,
that it was necessary for the conscientious housewife to be at her
post from morning till night, and frequently she could accomplish
all her tasks only with the aid of her daughters. It was necessary
to perform not only those daily domestic tasks that are still
performed by the present-day housekeeper, but also many others from
which modern woman has been freed by the industrial development.
She had to spin, weave and bleach, cut and sew all the garments,
manufacture tallow-candles and soap, and brew the beer. She was
indeed a perfect Cinderella and her only relaxation was going to
church on Sunday. Marriages were contracted only within the same
social circle. A severe and ridiculous caste feeling dominated all
social relations. The daughters were educated in the same spirit
and were maintained in close domestic confinement. Their education
was insignificant, and their intellectual horizon did not extend
beyond the commonplace domestic relations. To this was added an empty
superficial formality, that was supposed to make up for the lack of
intellect and education, making woman’s life a sheer treadmill. The
spirit of the reformation had degenerated into the worst kind of
pedantry; the most natural human desires and the joy of life were
crushed beneath a mass of apparently dignified, but soul-killing
rules of behavior. Emptiness and narrow-mindedness dominated the
middle class, and the lower classes lived under a leaden pressure
and in wretched conditions.
Then came the French revolution. It swept away the old political and
social order in France, and also wafted a breath of its spirit to
Germany, that could not long be resisted. French rule especially had
a revolutionizing effect upon Germany; it swept away what was old
and decrepit or, at least hastened its destruction. Though strenuous
efforts were made during the reactionary period after 1815 to turn
the course of development backward, the new conceptions had become
too powerful and were victorious in the end.
Guild privileges, lack of personal freedom, market privileges and
proscription were gradually laid on the shelf in the more advanced
states. New mechanical inventions and improvements, especially the
invention of the steam engine, and the resultant cheapening of
commodities, provided employment for the masses, including also the
women. Capitalistic industry was born. Factories, railroads and
steamboats were built, mines and foundries, the manufacture of glass
and china, the textile industry in its various branches, manufacture
of tools and machinery, the building trades, etc., rapidly developed.
Universities and polytechnical institutes provided the intellectual
forces required by this evolution. The new class that had come
into existence, the capitalist class, the bourgeoisie, supported
by all those who favored progress, insisted upon the abolition of
conditions that had become untenable. What had been shaken by the
revolution from below during the movement of 1848 and 1849, was
finally abolished by the revolution from above in 1866. Political
unity, according to the desire of the bourgeoisie, was established,
and this was followed by the final overthrow of all the remaining
economic and social barriers. Freedom of trade, right of settlement
and emigration, and the repeal of laws restricting marriage followed,
creating those conditions that capitalism needed for its development.
Besides the workingman, woman was the one to profit chiefly by this
new development, since it opened up to her new avenues and brought
her greater freedom.
Even before the new order had been introduced by the transformations
of the year 1866, several German states had removed a number of
the old, rigid barriers, which caused pedantic reactionaries to
predict the destruction of decency and morality. In 1863 the Bishop
of Mayence, von Ketteler, lamented that “to abolish the existing
barriers to marriage meant the destruction of marriage itself, since
now married couples were enabled to leave each other at will.” This
lament contains the unintentional confession that in modern marriages
the moral bonds are so weak, that man and wife can be kept together
only by force.
Since marriages now were contracted much more frequently than before
this period, a rapid increase of population resulted. This fact, and
the fact that the new, rapidly developing industrial system created
social problems that had not previously existed, caused the fear of
over-population to spring up again, as it did in former periods. It
will be shown what this fear of over-population amounts to; we will
test its true value.
Woman at the Present Day.