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Outsider Bodies, Everyday Lives: Single Mothers and Their Children in Red Vienna

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 March 2023

Britta McEwen Open the ORCID record for Britta McEwen [Opens in a new window]
Britta McEwen*
Affiliation:
Department of History, Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska, USA
*
Corresponding author: Britta Mcewen, email: brittamcewen@creighton.edu
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Abstract

Healthy bodies were central to the welfare projects of Red Vienna, 1919–34. This article traces the discourse of care surrounding single mothers and their children within the interwar Viennese welfare system, paying particular attention to the ways their bodies were described, monitored, and maximized for social utility. It establishes a shift in the perception of “worth” for these citizens, and then contrasts this stated value with the remembered experiences of children growing up without legal fathers in Red Vienna.

Keywords

womenchildrenRed Viennawelfarehistory of everyday life
Type
Article
Information
Austrian History Yearbook , Volume 54 , May 2023 , pp. 177 - 191
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Center for Austrian Studies, University of Minnesota

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References

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4 For a review of Habsburg-era practices and outcomes, see Hecke, Dr. Wilhelm, “Fragen der Unehelichenfürsorge,” Blätter für das Wohlfahrtswesen 29, no. 280 (July–August 1930): 184–89Google Scholar. For a more sustained look at the discourse surrounding prewar structures of “illegitimacy,” see Britta McEwen, “Shame, Sympathy, and the Single Mother in Vienna, 1880–1930,” Journal of Women's History (forthcoming).

5 Across nineteenth-century Europe, millions of women abandoned their children in foundling houses. Vienna's foundling house was one of the busiest on the continent, accepting more than 700,000 infants over two centuries. See Matschinegg, Ingrid, Pawlowsky, Verena, and Zechner, Rosa, “Mütter in Dienst – Kinder in Kost: Das Wiener Findelhaus, eine Fürsorgeeinrichtung für ledige Frauen und deren Kinder,” L'Homme. Zeitschrift für feministiche Geschichtswissenschaft 5, no. 2 (1994): 60–80Google Scholar, 62. See also Verena Pawlowsky's excellent monograph on the Vienna founding house: Mutter ledig – Vater Staat: Das Gebär- und Findelhaus in Wien 1784–1910 (Vienna, 2001).

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7 Although I am very interested in lived experiences, I recognize that this term is complicated by its lack of an opposite. When I refer to “embodied experience,” I mean the ways that individuals perceived their physical selves, as determined by material means, language, and, most of all, the city's physical environment. Although inspired by feminist history, I do not engage current debates about “lived experience” as it is understood in identity politics or Critical Social Justice theory.

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14 In many ways, medical understandings of the soldier's body during World War I could be transferred to anxieties about the social body after the war. The soldier “became a stitched-together group of systems, fragile because material forces of war, such as bullets and shrapnel intruded into him, and because his own constitution was such as to facilitate his collapse.” Geroulanos and Meyers, The Human Body in the Age of Catastrophe, 10.

15 Elizabeth Domansky establishes these “internal enemies” as threats to the national body (in this case Germany's) during WWI. See “Militarization and Reproduction in World War I Germany,” in Society, Culture, and State in Germany, 1870–1930, ed. Geoff Eley (Ann Arbor, 1997), 427–64, 455. On women as national protagonists during this period, see Belinda J. Davis, “Food, Politics, and Women's Everyday Life during the First World War,” in Home/Front: The Military, War, and Gender in Twentieth-Century Germany, eds. Karen Hageman and Stefanie Schüler-Springorum (Oxford, 2002), 115–38.

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17 Haider, Wien 1918, 149–55.

18 I take the idea of Red Vienna as an Enlightenment project from Wolfgang Maderthaner's “Das kommunale Experiment: die ‘Veralltäglichung’ der Utopie?” in Das Rote Wien 1919–1934: Ideen, Debatten, Praxis, eds. Werner Michael Schwartz, Georg Spitaler, and Elke Wikidal (Basel, 2019), 24–29, 24. For a withering exploration of SDAP attempts to engender neue Menschen, see Gruber, Helmut, Red Vienna: Experiment in Working Class Culture (New York, 1991), especially 45–80Google Scholar.

19 On the process of serving victims of the war, see Ke-chin Hsia, “A Partnership of the Week: War Victims and the State in the First Austrian Republic,” in From Empire to Republic: Post-World War I Austria, eds. Günter Bischof, Fritz Planner, and Peter Berger (New Orleans, 2010), 192–221.

20 Sixty percent of Viennese SDAP voters by 1930 were also party members. See Höbelt, Lothar, Die erste Republik Österreich (1918–1938): Das Provisorium (Vienna, 2018), 72CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On the atmosphere of latent civil war in interwar Austria, see Rauchensteiner, Manfried, Unter Beobachtung: Österreich seit 1918 (Vienna, 2017), 84–108CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On women as new voters, see Pelinka, Anton, Die gescheiterte Republik: Kultur und Politik in Österreich 1918–1938 (Vienna, 2017), 194–202CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

21 Many areas of Europe perceived this “population emergency” after World War I and responded with the language of “race hygiene.” See Kühl, Stefan, Die Internationale der Rassisten. Aufsteig und Niedergang der internationalen Bewegung für Eugenik und Rassenhygiene im 20. Jahrhundert (Frankfurt, 1997), 41–53Google Scholar. Austrian statisticians were particularly struck by the dip in marriages celebrated during the war years, which would result in fewer (legitimate) children. See Statistik, Bundesamt für, Die Bewegung der Bevölkerung in den Jahren 1914 bis 1921 (Vienna, 1923), 10–16Google Scholar on marriage; 30–35 on infant mortality rates.

22 Kautsky, Karl, Der Kampf gegen den Geburtenrückgang (Vienna, 1924), 7Google Scholar.

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24 Die Neue Frau (Vienna, 1924).

25 Katrin Pilz explores the creation and placement of this statue, as well as provides photographs of it at the new KÜST building that opened in 1925, in “Mutter (Rotes)Wien,” in Das Rote Wien 1919–1934, eds. Werner Michael Schwarz et al., (Basel, 2019), 74–81, 75. The original KÜST began serving children in 1910.

26 On SDAP leadership views of women and especially sexuality, see Gruber, Red Vienna, 178.

27 On the sense of emergency regarding declining birth rates, see Hecke, Wilhelm, “Fürsorgeforderungen aus der Bevölkerungsverteilung,” in Zeitschrift für Kinderschutz, Familien- und Berufsfürsorge 16, no. 6 (Juni 1924): 102–7Google Scholar.

28 Viennese sociologist Rudolf Goldscheid developed the idea of citizens as “organic capital” in Vienna; Tandler used the term widely. See Julius Tandler, Ehe und Bevölkerungspolitik (Vienna, 1924), 1. See also Julius Tandler, Wohltätigkeit oder Fürsorge? (Vienna, 1925), 5.

29 Gerlinde Hinterleitner, “Das Süßeste, was dem Weibe werden kann, ist die Mutterschaft: Uneheliche Mutterschaft in Wien, 1918–1938” (Ph.D. diss., Universität Wien, 1989), 5.

30 On Vienna's illegitimacy rates being lower than those of rural areas in the interwar period, see Wegs, J. Robert, Growing Up Working Class – Continuity and Change Among Viennese Youth, 1890–1938 (University Park, 1989), 127Google Scholar. On infant mortality rates, see Hinterleitner, “Das Süßeste,” 65

31 The phrase is taken from a 1905 issue of Mutterschutz, as quoted in Andrea Czelk, “Frauenrecht und Mutterschutz,” in Frauenrecht und Rechtsgeschichte: Die Rechtskämpfe der deutschen Frauenbewegung, eds. Stephan Meder, Arne Duncker, and Andrea Czelk (Cologne, 2006): 351–66, 361.

32 The images of a women and children agonizing due to sexual ignorance or oppression were surprisingly common in interwar Vienna's sexual reform movement. See McEwen, Britta, Sexual Knowledge: Feeling, Fact, and Social Reform in Vienna, 1900–1934 (New York, 2012) especially Chapter 4Google Scholar.

33 Hecke, “Fragen der Unehelichenfürsorge,” 187.

34 Wilhelm Hecke, “Statistik der Unehelichkeit in Oesterreich,” Mitteilungen des Volksgesundheitsamtes im Bundesministerium für soziale Verwaltung 9 (September 1935): 77–79.

35 This is especially true for Tandler, who during the war formulated a series of policy changes that would increase the quality and quantity of the population, starting with removing the stigma of “illegitimacy.” See Julius Tandler, “Krieg und Bevölkerung,” as reprinted in Karl Sablik, Julius Tandler, Mediziner und Sozialreformer: Eine Biographie (Vienna, 1983): 113–21, 120.

36 An excellent guide to services can be found in Jugend in Not: Ein Jahrbuch der Fürsorge des Allgemeinen Verbandes f. freiwillige Jugendfürsorge in Wien (Vienna, 1924).

37 Several scholars have explored French interwar pronatalism. See especially Mary Louise Roberts, Civilization Without Sexes: Reconstructing Gender in Postwar France, 1917–1927 (Chicago, 1994); Downs, Laura Lee, Childhood in the Promised Land: Working-class Movements and the Colonies de Vacance in France, 1880–1960 (Durham, 2002)Google Scholar; Childers, Kristin Stromberg, Fathers, Families, and the State in France, 1914–1945 (Cornell, 2003)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

38 On the Vienna Bund für Mutterschutz, see Britta McEwen, “A Home for Mothers in Vienna: Community and Crisis,” in Kinship and Community: Society and Culture in European History, eds. Jason Coy et al. (New York, 2015), 89–106.

39 Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv, MAbt 119. A32 5218/28, Bund für Mütter- und Kindesrecht, “Statuten.” Emphasis in the original.

40 These terms are central in Julius Tandler, Ehe und Bevölkerungspolitik. The text is little concerned with marriage, and instead focuses on repopulating Austria, which should seek to “not inhibit the instinct to breed, but rather to enlarge upon it, to make it responsible, and even to rationalize it.” Tandler, Ehe und Bevölkerungspolitik, 4.

41 I am grateful to Katya Motyl for highlighting this insight, found in Hayes-Conroy, Jessica and Hayes-Conroy, Allison, “Visceral Geographies: Mattering, Relating, and Defying,” Geography Compass 4 (2010); 1273–83, 1277CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Motyl uses this concept to problematize the relationships between the environment and the body. See Motyl, Katya, “Re-Embodying History's ‘Lady’: History, Materiality, and Public Space in Early-Twentieth-Century Vienna,” Gender & History 33, no. 1 (March 2021): 169–91CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 174.

42 Die Gemeinde-Verwaltung der k.k. Reichshaupt- und Residenzstadt Wien im Jarhre 1910 (Vienna, 1911), 339–42.

43 Das Wohlfahrtsamt der Stadt Wien und seine Einrichtungen 1921–1931 (Vienna, 1931), 24.

44 Statut für das niederösterreichische Landes-Zentralkinderhim in Wien (Vienna, 1910), 4.

45 Hinterleitner, “Das Süßeste,” 65. This similarity extends to the possibility of anonymously delivering a child there, just as one was allowed to do in the foundling house system. See Ein Führer durch die neue Anstalt (Vienna, 1910), 13–14.

46 Bundeshauptstadt Wien: Die Gemeindeverwaltung 1919–1922 (Vienna, 1927), 292.

47 Die Verwaltung der Bundeshauptstadt Wien in der Zeit vom 1. Jänner 1923 bis 31. Dezember 1928, 2. Band (Vienna, 1933), 730.

48 Gulick, Austria from Habsburg to Hitler, 520.

49 Gustav Reither, “Das Zentralkinderheim der Stadt Wien,” Blätter für das Wohlfahrtswesen 23, no. 242 (March–April 1924): 21–25, 22.

50 Reither, “Das Zentralkinderheim,” 22.

51 Gustav Reither, “Das Wiener Findelhaus im Wandel der Zeiten,” Blätter für das Wohlfahrtswesen 28, no. 271 (January–February 1929): 65–71, 70.

52 Reither, Gustav, “Erfahrungenin der geschlossenen Säuglingsfürsorge,” Blätter für das Wohlfahrtswesen 29, no. 282 (November–December 1930): 314–15Google Scholar, 314.

53 Ein Führer durch die neue Anstalt, 7.

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57 Sample forms are reprinted in Moll, Die Reichsanstalt für Mutter- und Säuglingsfürsorge in Wien, 70–71.

58 Moll, Die Reichsanstalt für Mutter- und Säuglingsfürsorge in Wien, 59.

59 Moll, Die Reichsanstalt für Mutter- und Säuglingsfürsorge in Wien, 86.

60 Das Wohlfahrtsamt der Stadt Wien und seine Einrichtungen, 1921–1931 (Vienna, 1931), 52.

61 “Wer kommt in der Mutterberatungsstelle?” Neues Wiener Abendblatt 295 (25 October 1925), 5.

62 Hinterleitner, “Das Süßeste,” 89.

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65 Gulick, Austria from Habsburg to Hitler, 513.

66 Gottleib, Karl, “Die Mütterberatungsstelle als Zentrum der ärztlichen Jugendfürsorge,” Blätter für das Wolhfahrtswesen 25, no. 258 (November–December 1926): 113–14Google Scholar. See also “In der Mutterberatungstelle,” Das Kleine Blatt 57 (4 April 1927): 1–2.

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68 “Die Mutterhilfe der Stadt Wien,” Blätter für das Wolfahrtswesen 26, no. 264 (November–December 1927): 186–89.

69 “Staatliche Erziehungsbeiträge für die unehelichen Kriegerwaisen,” Blätter für das Armenwesen der Stadt Wien 15, no. 180 (December 1916): 212–13.

70 Das Jugendamt der Stadt Wien (Vienna, 1933), 11–13.

71 Das Jugendamt der Stadt Wien, 19. See also Hinterleitner, “Das süsseste,” 87.

72 Felix Faschank, “Die öffentliche Berurfsvormundschaft,” Vortrag im Radio Wien am 24. Mai 1930, reprinted in Blätter für das Wohlfahrtswesen 29, no. 280 (July–August 1930): 153–56, 154. See also Gulick, Austria from Habsburg to Hitler, 512.

73 See, for example, Klumker, Chrisian, “Die rechtliche Stellung der Berufsvormundschaft,” Zeitschfrift für Kinderschutz und Jugendfürsorge 1, no. 2 (1900): 41–44Google Scholar; or Wiess, Siegfried, “Die Aufgaben der öffentlichen Säuglingsfürsorge in Österreich,” Zeitschfrift für Kinderschutz und Jugendfürsorge 1, no. 3 (1901): 73–79Google Scholar.

74 Gulick, Austria from Habsburg to Hitler, 513.

75 Gulick, Austria from Habsburg to Hitler, 510.

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77 “Child Welfare in Austria,” The Lancet 215, no. 5549 (January 1930): 35–36, 36.

78 Johanna Kalisch, in Verein “Dokumentation lebensgeschichtlicher Aufzeichnungen,” hg.“Als lediges Kind geboren … ” Autobiographische Erzählungen 1865–1945 (Vienna, 2008): 159–88, 176.

79 Kalisch, “Als lediges Kind geboren … ” 181.

80 Kalisch, “Als lediges Kind geboren … ” 184.

81 Kalisch, “Als lediges Kind geboren … ” 185.

82 Maria-Luis D., in Geboren 1916: Neun Lebensbilder einer Generation, eds. Gert Dressel und Günter Müller (Vienna, 1996): 174–213, 176.

83 Maria-Luis D., Geboren 1916, 176.

84 Maria-Luis D., Geboren 1916, 181. Maria-Luis entered the pool in street clothes and remembered that by the time she had walked home, she was dry enough that her mother did not notice.

85 Maria-Luis D., Geboren 1916, 181.

86 Maria-Luis D., Geboren 1916, 182.

87 Herta Koller, “Kindheit,” From the collection “Dokumentation Lebensgeschichtlicher Aufzeichnungen,” Institute für Wirtschafts- u. Sozialgeschichte, Universität Wien, 2.

88 Koller, “Kindheit,” 3.

89 Maria Galhuber, “Meine Lebenserinnerungen,” From the collection “Dokumentation Lebensgeschichtlicher Aufzeichnungen,” Institute für Wirtschafts- u. Sozialgeschichte, Universität Wien, 1.

90 Galhuber, “Meine Lebenserinnerungen,” 1.

91 Galhuber, “Meine Lebenserinnerungen,” 1.

92 Luise Zipperle, in Verein “Dokumentation lebensgeschichtlicher Aufzeichnungen,” hg.,“Als lediges Kind geboren … ” Autobiographische Erzählungen 1865–1945 (Vienna, 2008): 204–26, 207.

93 Luise Zipperle, “Als lediges Kind,” 206.

94 Luise Zipperle, “Als lediges Kind,” 208.

95 Ernestine Wollner, in Verein “Dokumentation lebensgeschichtlicher Aufzeichnungen,” hg.,“Als lediges Kind geboren … ” Autobiographische Erzählungen 1865–1945 (Vienna, 2008): 247–84, 252.

96 Ernestine Wollner, “Als lediges Kind,” 254.

97 Charlotte Keltner, in Eva Hiss, hg., Ziehkinder (Vienna, 1994): 194–97, 194.

98 Charlotte Keltner, Ziehkinder, 194.

99 Charlotte Keltner, Ziehkinder, 195.

100 Charlotte Keltner, Ziehkinder, 195.

101 Charlotte Keltner, Ziehkinder, 195.

102 Kaschuba, Wolfgang, “Popular Culture and Workers’ Culture as Symbolic Orders,” in The History of Everyday Life: Reconstructing Historical Experiences and Ways of Life, ed. Lüdke, Alf, trans. Templer, William (Princeton, 1995), 169–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 170.

103 Statistiches Taschenbuch Wien, 1933, as cited in Gulick, Austria from Habsburg to Hitler, 514. The rates in 1918 were certainly inflated by the starvation blockade of Vienna, so the celebrated improvement may be less impressive.

104 Wilhelm Hecke, Die Unehelichen in Oesterreich,” in Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik, ed. Ludwig Elster (Jena, 1930), 573–92, 591.

105 Kautsky, Der Kampf gegen den Geburtenrückgang, 8.

106 For a sensitive, complex reading of the KÜST and city initiatives for children's well-being, see Wolfgruber, Gudrun, “Messbares Glück? Sozialdemokratische Konzeptionen zu Fürsorge und Familie im Wien der 1920er Jahre,” L' homme: Zeitschrift für feministische Geschichtswissenschaft 10, no. 2 (1999): 277–94Google Scholar. The old KÜST is today a center for children named the “Julius-Tandler-Heim.”