Submitted by:   Elizabeth Heineman <heineman@husc.harvard.edu>

A couple of quick additions to Michael Kater's references on this topic:

        Gabriele Czarnowski, *Das kontrollierte Paar,* on the
        bureaucracy/politics of approval for marriage.

        Norbert Schmacke, & Hans-George Guese, *Zwangssterilisiert -
        Verleugnet - Vergessen.*

        Peter Weingart et al, *Rasse, Blut und Gene*

Another reference in English:

        My dissertation, Elizabeth Heineman, *Standing Alone,* Chap 2 on
        permission to marry, Chap 3 on sterilization. (University of North
        Carolina, 1993).

In case the person making the inquiry doesn't read German, she should be
aware that Gisela Bock has a couple of articles based on her research on
sterilization in English.

Briefly, a 1935 law required that many applicants for marriage present an
*Ehetauglichkeitszeugnis,* which required research into one's forebears &
a physical exam.  In 1941, the requirement was changed to an
*Eheunbedenklichkeitsbescheinigung,* which required an interview but no
physical exam (the health departments were too busy with war matters).
Basically, Germans whose supposed flaws were already known either to the
health department or to the social services had to provide one of these
pieces of paper; the health departments weren't yet up to the task of
examining and/or researching every applicant for marriage, but after the
war, the control of marriage was to extend to the entire population.

One might come to the attention of the health department and/or social
services because of physical or mental health or because of perceived
"asocial" charactertics -- OR because of the physical or mental heatlh or
"asociability" of family members.  "Asociability" was a notoriously loose
category (and many "asocial" characteristics qualified one for a diagnosis
of mental illness), so, for example, if there was a family history of
out-of-wedlock births, welfare dependency, attendance at reform school,
etc., one might need to present the *Ehetauglichkeitszeugnis* prior to
marriage.

Officially, the physical exam for the *Ehetauglichkeitszeugnis*
served the purpose of approving or denying permission to marry, but
"flaws" discovered in the exam might then qualify one for a mandatory
sterilization.  A family's political background was not technically
grounds for refusal for permission to marry (or sterilization), but if,
say, the Communist relative had been imprisoned, a family background of
*criminal* behavior might suffice to justify a sterilization.  Or if kids
in the family had been harassed by their teachers for their family's
politics, had acted up, and then been reported to social workers as "bad
kids," this would establish a record of asociability.  It's also possible
that, although your interview subject describes herself as having been
physcially and mentally healthy (and perhaps was), the health authorities
just saw things differently, or that they saw the mental or physical
health problem of a family member as reason for sterilization.

Elizabeth Heineman
Bowling Green State University
eheinem@opie.bgsu.edu

Humanities & Social
Sciences Online

Copyright © 1995-2006 - Contact Us
RSS | Validate: XHTML | CSS