Gender Relations In German History

This collection of essays examines the construction of gender norms in early modern and modern Germany.; The modes of reinforcement by the state, the church, the law and marriage, and the resistance to these norms by individuals, are central to each of the contributions.; It examines discourses of the body and sexuality and the relations between gender and power. Similarly, the usefulness of the "public/private paradigm" familiar to gender historians is further challenged.

First published in 1996. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

A range of startling case-studies from German society between the Renaissance and the Enlightenment.

Although “entanglement” has become a keyword in recent German history scholarship, entangled studies of the postwar era have largely limited their scope to politics and economics across the two Germanys while giving short shrift to social and cultural phenomena like gender. At the same time, historians of gender in Germany have tended to treat East and West Germany in isolation, with little attention paid to intersections and interrelationships between the two countries. This groundbreaking collection synthesizes the perspectives of entangled history and gender studies, bringing together established as well as upcoming scholars to investigate the ways in which East and West German gender relations were culturally, socially, and politically intertwined.

To provide a critical overview in a comparative German-American perspective is the main aim of this volume, which brings together experts from both sides of the Atlantic. Through case studies, it demonstrates the extraordinary power of the gender perspective to challenge existing interpretations and rewrite mainstream arguments.

Since the unification of the DDR and the GDR, women living in the former East Germany have lost many of the advantages that came with a planned economy. This collection of essays examines the reinvented meaning of gender and the experience of East German women since unification.

Throughout the Weimar period the so-called “masculinization of woman” was much more than merely an outsider or subcultural phenomenon; it was central to representations of the changing female ideal, and fed into wider debates concerning the health and fertility of the German “race” following the rupture of war. Drawing on recent developments within the history of sexuality, this book sheds new light on representations and discussions of the masculine woman within the Weimar print media from 1918–1933. It traces the connotations and controversies surrounding this figure from her rise to media prominence in the early 1920s until the beginning of the Nazi period, considering questions of race, class, sexuality, and geography. By focusing on styles, bodies and identities that did not conform to societal norms of binary gender or heterosexuality, this book contributes to our understanding of gendered lives and experiences at this pivotal juncture in German history.