Weimar through the Lens of Gender: Prostitution Reform, Women's Emancipation, and German Democracy, 1919-33 (review)

Julia Roos's discussion of the legal status of female prostitution, a topic hotly debated during the Weimar Republic, illuminates crucial historical questions and demonstrates the solidity of feminist political power under the Republic, as well as the vulnerability of democracy to attack from the Right. Before 1927, a regionally varied system of police-regulated prostitution (Reglementierung) allowed German women to sell sex as long as they submitted to regular medical exams and followed a host of police dictates both motley and extreme. Prostitutes had to dwell in certain neighborhoods or buildings, were barred from certain spaces like the Berlin Zoo, and were subject to bizarre stipulations, such as Munich's prohibition on prostitutes' riding bicycles. Reglementierung drew the ire of feminists from the 1890s onward—not only for its degradation of prostitutes, but also for its sexist double standard: no restrictions applied to male clients. Police could force any women whom they suspected of prostitution to register; thus, technically any woman could be forced against her will into a sexist system founded on arbitrary police power rather than on the rule of law.

The growth of women's political influence under Weimar spelled the end of Reglementierung. Feminists and female politicians across the political spectrum united to pass the 1927 Law for Combating Venereal Disease (Reichsgesetz zur Bekämpfung der Geschlechtskrankheiten), which replaced Reglementierung with welfare services while enabling German women to sell sex free of police harassment. Female prostitutes themselves used the law to advocate for better working conditions. In short, this reform marked the considerable success of female emancipation under the Republic.

Yet the feminist victory had sinister implications. Roos notes the limits of feminist and left-wing empathy for prostitutes, concluding that the new welfare measures ultimately had “highly ambiguous implications” (169) for prostitutes' lives. Moreover, the reform provoked a backlash among police, right-wing and Christian voters, and even the Catholic Center Party (Zentrum). Roos argues that the backlash undermined support for democracy. The National Socialists capitalized on this by positioning themselves as guardians of traditional morality. Roos presents the 1927 reform as a missing piece in the story of why the Republic fell and why key groups backed the Nazis. Once in power, the latter forsook many of their conservative allies on this issue and brought back Reglementierung with a vengeance, creating a uniquely misogynist, rationalized, and brutal system of state-regulated brothels.

This important and wonderfully detailed book makes a convincing case for the success of feminist agendas under the Weimar Republic. Roos's thorough analysis of the politics of prostitution is a boon to students of this period, from undergraduates to seasoned scholars. Her work on opposition to the 1927 law in the early 1930s, Franz von Papen's coup in Prussia, and Hermann Göring's later reforms in Prussia strongly suggests that the politics of female prostitution, together with a broader “moral agenda” (177), helped drive many Germans toward right-wing, authoritarian forms of government.

Other pieces of Roos's “backlash” argument are suggestive but less convincing, such as the contention that frustration with the prostitution reform garnered Center Party support for the Enabling Law of March 1933. In fact, the party had backed the reform in 1927. Moreover, prostitution was apparently not at issue during the Reichstag delegation's intense debate about whether to vote for the Enabling Law; the meeting minutes record no mention of it.

In addition, some readers may wish that Roos had expanded the scope of this excellent study. The 1927 law did not pertain only to female prostitution. It also legally obligated all Germans to know their venereal disease status and to seek treatment if necessary. In arguing for the law as a victory for feminists and prostitutes, Roos disputes other studies that point to the interventionist nature of this new universal obligation, yet...