MAKING THE CASE AGAINST PARAGRAPH 218: NARRATIVE AND DISCURSIVE STRATEGIES IN ELSE KIENLE'S FRAUEN: AUS DEM TAGEBUCH EINER ÄRZTIN★

Abstract

This article analyses Dr Else Kienle's 1932 text Frauen: Aus dem Tagebuch einer Ärztin within the context of the debates around women's access to abortion in Weimar Germany. Access to abortion was a widely debated topic in Weimar Germany and public demonstrations against Paragraph 218 of the Weimar penal code, which outlawed abortion, occurred following the 1931 arrest of Dr Kienle. I argue that, as a non-partisan work written from the perspective of a practising doctor, Kienle's text offers an innovative contribution to these debates. While Kienle's arrest is frequently cited as a key moment in the Weimar abortion debates, her writing has received limited critical attention. My analysis of the literary and discursive strategies employed by Kienle in Frauen: Aus dem Tagebuch einer Ärztin reveals that Kienle goes beyond the arguments of the women's and socialist movements. Kienle's text should be read as an attempt to broaden the reach of the campaign against Paragraph 218. The book adopts an innovative and experience-led approach, which reveals the medical, psychological, and social implications of limiting women's access to abortion, and which only re-emerged in the Federal Republic of Germany in the 1970s.