writing has been particularly inspirational; I hope that a few notes of his poetic song resound in the present work. I am indebted to Ann Taylor Allen both for the model her work has provided and for her very helpful comments on the manuscript. I am also grateful to the anonymous readers of Berghahn Books for their thoughtful review of the text and I wish to thank Marion Berghahn for her support of The Surplus Woman.
Denison University has been a most collegial environment in which to write this book. Conversations with my colleagues in the history department have helped me to think through the complexity of the past in general and this project in particular. Adam Davis, Jack Kirby, Margaret Meriwether, and Donald Schilling have provided advice and encouragement at critical moments. Mitchell Snay read the full manuscript and offered valuable comments. I owe a special debt of gratitude to my mentors Amy and Michael Gordon, both of whom first showed me the promise of the historian within. I wish to thank my colleagues Gary Baker, Gabriele Dillmann, Barbara Fultner, John Kessler, and Jonathan Maskit for their willingness to discuss the nuances of translation (unless otherwise indicated, all translations herein are mine). David Anderson and Keith Boone of the Office of the Provost helped me to arrange a leave schedule that contributed greatly to the completion of this book. Mary Jane Dennison and Deborah Bennett have given significant assistance over the life of this project; I am most grateful for their help.
The greatest debts are personal. My sons Jack and George are inspirational beyond words. To paraphrase Ruth Bré, they are my happiness and my future. My husband, Ted Burczak, has been a model of good discipline, intellectual accomplishment, and life balance. He has created an environment in which I could complete this book; it would not exist without him. I thank the Burczaks, Kratkys, and Mowerys for their faith in me. I have been fortunate to have the sustaining friendship of Larry Murdock, Dave Bussan, Laura Moller, Mark Moller, and the women of PWG. My father and brother, the two Jerry Dollards, have been the source of limitless encouragement and laughter. Finally, the women in my family have provided me with a legacy of strength, warmth, and resilience. I am most grateful to Jane Fustini, Jean Owens, Shirley Dollard, Carol Greer, and the late Leota Dollard and Joan Morrison for providing inspiration. In a book so immersed in maternalist thought, it seems fitting to acknowledge and celebrate my own maternal line: Catherine Wesdock Test, Eileen Test Dollard, and Lynne Dollard Mowery. This book is for them.
I wish to thank the following venues for their support of my work and the permission to reprint portions and excerpts. Portions of chapters 1 and 2 appeared as “The Alte Jungfer as New Deviant: Representation, Sex, and the Single Woman in Imperial Germany,” in the German Studies Review 29 (2006): 107-126. An earlier partial version of chapter 5 can be found as “Sharpening the Wooden Sword: Education and Marital Status in Imperial Germany through the work of Helene Lange,” in Women's History Review 13 (2004): 447-466. Sections of the introduction and conclusion appeared as “Marital Status and the Rhetoric of the Women's Movement in World War I Germany,” in the Women in German Yearbook 22 (2006): 211-235.
ABBREVIATIONS
| ADKF | Archiv des Katholischen Frauenbundes |
| ADL | Allgemeiner Deutscher Lehrerinnenverein (General Association of German Female Teachers) |
| BDF | Bund Deutscher Frauenvereine (Federation of German Women's Associations) |
| BfM | Bund für Mutterschutz (Federation for the Protection of Mothers) |
| DBBF | Deutsche Bund zur Bekämpfung der Frauenemanzipation (German Federation to Combat Women's Emancipation) |
| DDP | Deutsche Demokratische Partei (German Democratic Party) |
| DEF | Deutsch-Evangelischer Frauenbund (German Protestant Women's Association) |
| ESK | Evangelisch-Soziale Kongress (Evangelical Social Congress) |
| KDF | Katholischer Deutscher Frauenbund (Catholic German Women's Association) |
| SDAP | Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei (Social Democratic Worker's Party) |
| SJDR | Statistisches Jahrbuch für das Deutsche Reich |
| SPD | Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (Social Democratic Party of Germany) |
| VSDR | Vierteljahrshefte zur Statistik des Deutschen Reichs |
Introduction
SINGLE WOMEN IN IMPERIAL GERMANY
The first issue of the magazine Die Frau (The Woman) announced its purpose in October 1893 with an ambitious subtitle: “A monthly journal for the complete life of women in our time.”1 The lead article by editor Helene Lange described the term ‘woman’ as bringing forth “an abundance of pictures and thoughts…the poetry of the domestic hearth, the creative and protective mother, the faithful nurse and educator…pictures of completely carefree grace.”2 Only women of privileged classes had ever been so carefree. But Lange declared that in the past few decades, such cozy images had been disrupted when “a callous hand brushed across the domestic hearth and directed millions of women out into the world.”3 The “callous hand” extended from the arm of industrialization. Lange contended that industry had displaced millions of middle-class females from their roles as domestic helpmates in the homes of parents, married brothers, and wealthier families seeking governesses or household managers. These forced outcasts comprised the Frauenüberschuß, or surplus of women. In her overture to the women of the modern age, Lange decried the “bitter peril” and “spiritual distress” that confronted the unwed bourgeois women of the German empire.
But Die Frau, along with the broader German women's movement, did not intend to leave these women in such a dire predicament. Together, the publications, organizations, and leadership of the women's movement would bring about “a new time…in which the woman…would stand before great challenges, her horizons would expand, her view would deepen; when powers which had so far slumbered would uniquely have to unfold.”4 Out of the ‘bitter peril’ of the unmarried, strong and dynamic females would emerge. Compelled by the Frauenüberschuß, the German women's movement crafted its mission.
Eleven years after Die Frau began publication, women's rights advocate Elisabeth Gnauck-Kühne published a volume of fairy tales “for the young and old.”5 Gnauck-Kühne's foray into fantasy was unusual for an author who spent most of her career engaged in demographic and social analyses. She intended to evoke in these stories the traumas of the modern age, especially those affecting women. One stirring tale, “Die Nachtigall” depicted the life of a nightingale who lived in a lush green valley. The splendor of the land inspired the nightingale:
“When I see such beauty my heart swells with air in my breast and I have to sing”…Joyously and devoutly, the song sounded through the quiet evening air, so that the frogs in the pond stopped croaking, the gnats stopped dancing, and over in the farmyard the young farmer in shirtsleeves…took the pipe out of his mouth and called through the open window into the gloomy room: “Listen, listen, the nightingale is singing.” And those returning through the valley…stood as if transfixed and put their finger to their mouths, held their breath, and waved to stragglers to be quiet: “The nightingale is singing! Listen, listen, the nightingale is singing!”6
The nightingale lived quite happily—until one day a frog disparaged her song. The frog accused the nightingale of fraudulence, arguing that the bird's joyful noise misrepresented reality: “You are alone. Even the gnats are swarmed together, and my kind also answers me—just listen.” And sure enough, a chorus of croaks responded
