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BARBARA D. WRIGHT
of Connecticut
University
582
WRIGHT:Expressionism and German Feminism 583
Yet even Kerr cannot resist a reference to the supposedly comical effect
of the suffragists, "welche die Haltung wackerer Hydinenergibt" ("Votes
for Women,"Pan, 1912/1913).Erich Muihsamdenounces female disenfran-
chisement as "brutal, dumm, gemein und in hohem Masse empirend"; at
the same time, however, Miihsam regrets publicly that women pour so
much energy into this struggle for "Rechte, die keine Rechte sind" and he
urges them to attend instead to the more "urgent" struggle for sexual
emancipation in their personal lives ("Die Stimmrechtsamazonen,"Kain,
1911/1912).In a similar vein, Kurt Hiller praises Helene St6cker precisely
because she is not workingfor suffrage but for something "moreimportant,"
namely sexual emancipation ("Helene St6cker: Geschlechtspsychologie,"
Zeit-Echo, 1915/1916).Although the circles of artists and writers around
the Expressionist periodicals include a number of important women, these
women do not come to the defense of the women's movement or suffrage,
at least not in the pages of the periodicals.
Meanwhile, in the supposedly apoliticalSturm, Herwarth Waldenpub-
lishes Paul Scheerbart's "Emanzipations-Novellette,"a piece calculated to
reduce the women's movement to absurdity. Scheerbart is not an Expres-
sionist, but he enjoys great popularityamong Expressionist literati and his
works appear in literally dozens of issues of Der Sturm. In the "Emanzipa-
tions-Novellette" the following exchange takes place:
"Papa," rief Hedwig,"Diegro8eEmanzipation ist da. Wie
ich michfreue!"
"Woist sie denn?"fragteder Papa will man
sich... emanzipieren?" .... "Wovon
"VonunseremSonnensystem," sagte Hedwig.
It is no coincidence that the young woman'sname is Hedwig Bohl, echoing
the name of feminist Hedwig Dohm; the point of the parody, of course, is
to demonstrate the futility and absurdityof attempts at emancipationfrom
the male principleand the culture it has created, symbolicallyrepresented
by the sun and the solar system.
The voices openly opposed to female suffrage are a good deal less
ambivalent about where they stand. The fiercest opposition comes from
the Austrian periodicals Der Brenner and Die Fackel. For example, in 1914
Die Fackel,edited by KarlKraus, prints "Momentanphotographien
kimpfen-
der Suffragetten"which are captioned "Der letzte Schrei der Wollust."On
the facing page, the magazine carries three short articles bearing the triple
message of housewifely stupidity,the idiocy of the women'smovement, and
the intellectual inferiority of a female writer. Kraus'spoint is blunt enough:
the suffrage movement is merely the productof sex-starved imbeciles who
should be wrestling in bed instead of in the street outside Buckingham
Palace. Two years earlier, Kraus is incensed, not merely that educated
women are demanding the vote, but that there should be such a thing as
594 THE GERMANQUARTERLY Fall1987
Geist im Mutterrecht,"and she promises that out of this spirit will come
a democratic, egalitarian and tolerant society, committed to the welfare of
all ("Geburtder Miltter,"Die weissenBlitter 1916). However,other (male)
Expressionists like Otto Freundlich are not receptive to the notion of
spiritual rebirth through the action of women; instead, Freundlichargues
that with his "mannlicherGeistespotenz,"man must transcend his physical
birth through a second, spiritualrebirth-one that will sever once and for
all his connection to the female: "Jeder... muf3teeinmal im stillen die
Nabelschnurzerrissen haben, die ihn mit den alten Miittern verband"("Das
kommende Reich,"Die Aktion, 1917).
Mirten's assessment of the role women can play in social and political
change remains unique in its optimism; only a few weeks after the end of
the war, women begin to express their disappointmentwith the course of
events. Anna Siemsen laments that newly-franchised women have done
nothing to stop the conflict and bloodshed of civil war, and she asks why
women, now the majorityof the electorate, have not forced the government
to disarm ("Andie Frauen,"Das Forum, 1919).The answer lies in the pages
of DieAktion, where CharlotteKlein observes that women are an essentially
conservative electorate, divided, moreover,by class interests ("Frauenwahl-
recht und Demokratie,"Die Aktion, 1918). Meanwhile a host of males such
as Franz Blei ridicule "die Kom6die des Stimmzettels" ("Die Btichse der
Pandora,"Die Rettung, 1919) and call for the creation of a new "erotic
culture" in which women will be spared integration into the state but
allowed to remain true to their "anarchic"nature. Raoul Hausmann calls
for the "Aufl6sungdes btirgerlichenFrauentypus"(DieErde, 1919),rejection
of the intellectual "mlinnlicherFrauentypus,"and the creation of a "new
woman."At this juncture in history, he argues, women no longer need to
choose between the role of mother and prostitute; instead, they are free
to recognize the "Gleichzeitigkeitvon Mutterschaftstriebund dirnenhafter
Einstellung"and can joyfully accept the fact that they are both! Editha von
Miinchhausen,meanwhile, advocates that women'seducationfocus on care
of children and the household; she opposes female employmentoutside the
home, and she recommends that men be given preference over women in
hiring because male unemploymentposes a greater risk to the state. Along
with equal rights for illegitimate children, legal abortion, and easing of
divorce laws, she calls for a new system of franchisement: every woman
should be granted an additionalvote for each minor child in her care ("Das
neue Recht der Frau,"Der Revolutiondr,1919).
The general picture which emerges is that of a "new woman"who will
found a "new family" and usher in a return to matriarchy of sorts, all
Hedwig Dohm's attempts to demystify motherhoodnotwithstanding.In this
new social organizationwomen will be "liberated"from other cares so that
they can devote themselves fully to their unique "womanly"functions;men,
concomitantly,are to be relieved of all burdens and responsibilities within
WRIGHT: Expressionism and German Feminism 597
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