**Gender and Protest**

# **Gender and Protest**

On the Historical and Contemporary Interrelation of Two Social Phenomena

Edited by Frank Jacob and Jowan A. Mohammed

The publication of this work in Open Access was made possible by the financial support from Nord Universitet.

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© 2023 with the author(s), editing © 2023 Frank Jacob and Jowan A. Mohammed, published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston. This book is published with open access at www.degruyter.com.

Cover image: Harris & Ewing, Washington, D.C. Inez Milholland Boissevain preparing to lead the March 3 suffrage parade in Washington, D.C. United States New York, 1913. Mar. 3. Library of Congress, National Woman's Party Records, Group II, Container II:274, Folder: Individual Photographs Nos. 18-70 "B", https://www.loc.gov/item/mnwp000008/. Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck

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#### Table of Contents

Frank Jacob and Jowan A. Mohammed

1 Introduction: On the Interrelation of Gender and Protest 1

Sabine Müller

2 Women, War, and Dynasty: Tomyris versus Kyros in Herodotos and Polyainos 7

Sigrun Borgen Wik

3 The Voice of Reason or Unintended Protest? Whetting by Servile Women in the Íslendingasǫgur 29

Beñat Elortza Larrea

4 Aristocratic Women as Leaders of Dissent in Medieval Scandinavia: Source Misrepresentation, or Agency through Ultranormativity? 47

Mariela Fargas Peñarrocha

5 Secrecy, Seduction and Protest among Women: Litigation over a Marriage in 17th-Century Barcelona 65

Frank Jacob

6 Emma Goldman, Gender Related Protest, and Anarchist Radicalism as a Crime 85

Jowan A. Mohammed

7 Female Education as a Form of Protest: How 19th-Century Women Were Trained to Resist in New York City 103

#### Steinar Aas

8 Male Radicalism in the Wake of Revolution and Antimilitarism: A Norwegian Case Study 125

Florian Wenninger

9 On the Role and Patterns of Female (Protest) Action in the February Uprising of 1934 149

VI Table of Contents

Martin Göllnitz

10 The Cultivation of Militant Masculinity: Gender-Specific Dimensions of Violence and the National Socialist Stormtroopers 181

Jana Günther

11 Feminist Protest as Body Politics 201

Heike Mißler


Index Terms 253

#### Frank Jacob and Jowan A. Mohammed

# 1 Introduction: On the Interrelation of Gender and Protest

Gender and protest are both social phenomena and powerful historical determinants.¹ While the first is a socio-cultural construct, the second is usually an expression of social unrest, although the latter does not have to be shared by a majority of society. As gender is, to cite Judith Butler's classic work Gender Trouble, "culturally constructed"² and consequently "neither the causal result of sex nor as seemingly fixed as sex,"³ it is a fluid category, open to steady processes of redefinition depending on the society in question or the latter's representatives that formulate the respective categories. Since existent gender norms can be contested, re-defined, changed, and ultimately accepted or abolished, there is a lot of potential for protest formation within this process. One can therefore argue that the genesis of protest in relation to gender can have multiple reasons. It can be


In addition to these different forms of gendered protest formation, there are also protests that are perceived as gendered due to their participants, their aims and demands, or the respective reports about a specific kind of protest.

Since protest as such is usually stimulated, as Jacques Rancière emphasized, by the political exclusion of a part of society whose representatives demand access to

3 Ibid.

<sup>1</sup> The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines protest as 1) "a solemn declaration of opinion and usually of dissent," 2) an "act of objecting or a gesture of disapproval," and 3) "a complaint, objection, or display of unwillingness usually to an idea or a course of action." Merriam Webster, s.v. "Protest," accessed November 26, 2022, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/protest. The contributions of the present volume refer to protest in most of these senses and therefore offer critical insights into a wide spectrum of protests in relation to gender.

<sup>2</sup> Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (London/New York: Routledge, 1999 [1990]), 9–10.

Open Access. © 2023 the author(s), published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111102757-001

the historical stage and equality with regard to political decision-making and the existent socio-political regulations,⁴ it is hardly surprising that a link to gender as a protest-relevant factor can be identified. This, however, must also be understood in its intersectionality with other forms of protest like class struggle,⁵ antiracism, anti-colonialism, etc.⁶ If a protest is related to gender issues or if these become part of a broader protest movement later depends on the specific process of protest formation.⁷ Very often, larger protests combine different interest groups, and not all of them have to participate for the same reason.⁸ Nevertheless, revolutionary transformation processes in particular have a strong gender aspect, e. g., the current revolutionary movements in Belarus or Iran,⁹ although the history of revolutions has tended to neglect the role of female protest and only used women as revolutionary allegories while overlooking their historical contribution as important protesters of the first hour.¹⁰

While revolutionary transformations frequently promise the renegotiation and reconfiguration of existent gender norms and the break up of gender-related limitations for some, such transformative changes are often feared by those in power, e. g., the patriarchic elites, who tend to act in a counterrevolutionary manner to defend the existent order, from which they naturally profit in one way or

<sup>4</sup> Jacques Rancière, Das Unvernehmen: Politik und Philosophie, 7th ed (Berlin: Surhkamp, 2018), 44.

<sup>5</sup> Vincent Streichhahn and Frank Jacob, eds., Geschlecht und Klassenkampf: Die "Frauenfrage" aus deutscher und internationaler Perspektive im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert (Berlin: Metropol, 2020).

<sup>6</sup> Dana R. Fisher, Dawn M. Dow and Rashawn Ray, "Intersectionality Takes It to the Streets: Mobilizing across Diverse Interests for the Women's March," Science Advances 3, no. 9 (2017): https:// www.science.org/doi/epdf/10.1126/sciadv.aao1390.

<sup>7</sup> Debra C. Minkoff, "The Sequencing of Social Movements," American Sociological Review 62, no. 5 (1997): 779–799.

<sup>8</sup> See Frank Jacob, #Revolution: Wer, warum, wann und wie viele? (Marburg: Büchner, 2022), 42–56. 9 For Belarus, see Fred Pleitgen and Mary Ilyushina, "Women in White Become Faces of Belarus Protests as Thousands are Arrested after Disputed Election," CNN, August 13, 2020, accessed November 15, 2022, https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/13/europe/belarus-protest-arrests-intl-hnk/index. html; Andreas Rostek, Thomas Weiler, Nina Weller and Tina Wünschmann, eds., Belarus! Das weibliche Gesicht der Revolution (Berlin: Edition FotoTapeta, 2020); Alice Bota, Die Frauen von Belarus: Von Revolution, Mut und dem Drang nach Freiheit (Berlin/Munich: Berlin Verlag, 2021); Olga Shparaga, Die Revolution hat ein weibliches Gesicht: Der Fall Belarus (Berlin: Suhrkamp, 2021). For the current events in Iran, see Zachary B. Wolf, "Iran's 'Women's Revolution' Could Be a Berlin Wall Moment," CNN, October 7, 2022, accessed November 18, 2022, https://edition.cnn.com/2022/10/ 07/politics/iran-women-protest-revolution-what-matters/index.html; Soona Samsami, "Women Are Leading a Revolution in Iran," The Washington Times, October 11, 2022, accessed November 18, 2022, https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/oct/11/iranian-women-are-leading-a-revolutionin-iran/.

<sup>10</sup> Jacob, #Revolution, 32–33.

another. The struggle for new gender norms is consequently often related to protest, although the latter is dependent on its perception as an act that could be considered as protest. The cover image of the present book suffices to highlight this precondition for gendered protest. When Inez Milholland Boissevain (1886–1916) ¹¹ led the Woman Suffrage Procession in Washington, DC on 3 March 1913,¹² her riding a horse the way she did was understood as an act of protest, as it did not comply with the socially accepted norms in relation to the way women were supposed to ride or present themselves in public. Sitting on a white horse, facing forward, wearing a crown, and being dressed in a white robe was obviously an act that could only be perceived as out of the ordinary. Taking these aspects into consideration also makes it clear that gender norms can be essential to determine whether or not a particular action is perceived as a protest by the public or other interest groups.¹³ This also means that interpretations of protest actions of the past, in particular when related to long outdated gender norms or roles, can change over time and depend on their place of perception, e. g., within the media,¹⁴ and may today no longer be considered an act of protest but rather as nothing unusual. Throughout the ages, as the contributions of the present volume emphasize in relation to different time periods, forms of protest could change, very often in accordance with or as a consequence of the transformation of gender norms society accepted as valid. Protest could also be "gendered" in different ways,¹⁵ as several different perspectives within the following chapters will show. In addition, the means to protest were very diverse over time and could be expressed by prominent political figures,¹⁶ as well as by writers or artists.¹⁷ However,

<sup>11</sup> Linda Lumsden, Inez: The Life and Times of Inez Milholland (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2004).

<sup>12</sup> Woman Suffrage Procession, "Official Program Woman Suffrage Procession," Washington, DC, March 3, 1913, accessed November 19, 2022, https://www.loc.gov/item/rbpe.20801600/.

<sup>13</sup> Lee Ann Banaszak, Shan-Jan Sarah Liu and Neslihan Burcin Tamer, "Learning Gender Equality: How Women's Protest Influences Youth Gender Attitudes," Politics, Groups, and Identities (2021), doi:10.1080/21565503.2021.1926296.

<sup>14</sup> Jilly Boyce Kay and Kaitlynn Mendes, "Gender, Media and Protest: Changing Representations of the Suffragette Emily Wilding Davison in British Newspapers, 1913–2013," Media History 26, no. 2 (2020): 137–152.

<sup>15</sup> Kyle Dodson, "Gendered Activism: A Cross-national View on Gender Differences in Protest Activity," Social Currents 2, no. 4 (2015): 377–392.

<sup>16</sup> Olympe de Gouges and Louise Michel, active during the French Revolution and the Paris Commune, respectively, are just two examples of many. Sandrine Bergès, Olympe de Gouges (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022); Florence Hervé, ed., Louise Michel oder: Die Liebe zur Revolution (Berlin: Dietz, 2021).

<sup>17</sup> See, for example, Jowan A. Mohammed, Mary Hunter Austin: A Female Writer's Protest Against the First World War in the United States (Wilmington, DE: Vernon Press, 2021); Talesha Wilson and

usually, the possibility for such actions ultimately depended on the availability of resources, the accessibility of protest-related spaces, and the possibility of establishing an agency for a broader movement through particular acts of protest.

Most of the contributions to the present volume were initially discussed at a workshop at Nord Universitet in Bodø, Norway, organized by the editors in early December 2021. The aim was to bring together scholars from different disciplines working on varying perspectives of gender and protest within chronologically and geographically disparate contexts. Due to the broad variety within the presented cases of gender and protest, the chapters have been arranged chronologically. The publication of this volume in a full and free open access format allows interested scholars, students, and activists to read those parts that are most interesting to them. Nevertheless, the editors hope that the volume will provide one of the main advantages typical of such diverse anthologies: to stimulate further critical thinking about the categories of gender and protest, especially regarding their specific and reciprocal relationship. The latter seems to be particularly important again in the 21st century; revolutionary movements are frequently relying on forms of "gendered protest," while conservatives fear another culture clash (Kulturkampf) due to the demands for more gender equality, which is also being expressed through language and addressed through affirmative actions.¹⁸ Even today, protesting women or members of the LGBTQIA+ community are not only expressing a form of "gendered" protest but are at the same time being confronted with protests against their demands or claims. Therefore, counterprotest movements are forming themselves along the lines of "gendered" fears or constructed menaces. Consequently, the ways one can look at the amalgamation of the two social phenomena from the earliest historical times until today seem to be very broad and offer numerous critical insights.¹⁹ Such insights shall be offered by

Ethan Sharp, "Women, Art, and Hope in Black Lives Matter," The Journal of American Folklore 134, no. 534 (2021): 434–443.

<sup>18</sup> Oliver Maksan, "Woke Identitätspolitik: Die Kulturkämpfer der bürgerlichen Mitte blasen zum Angriff," Neue Zürcher Zeitung, November 8, 2022, accessed November 19, 2022, https://www.nzz.ch/ feuilleton/woke-identitaetspolitik-die-denkfabrik-r21-blaest-zum-kulturkampf-ld.1710978?reduced= true.

<sup>19</sup> Some recent works on these social phenomena in different contexts include, among others, Hannah Awcock, "New Protest History: Exploring the Historical Geographies and Geographical Histories of Resistance through Gender, Practice, and Materiality," Geography Compass 14, no. 6 (2020): https://doi-org.ezproxy.nord.no/10.1111/gec3.12491; Eloisa Betti, Leda Papastefanaki, and Marica Tolomelli, eds. Women, Work, and Activism: Chapters of an Inclusive History of Labor in the Long Twentieth Century (Budapest: Central European University Press, 2022); Sealing Cheng, "Feeding Hungry Ghosts: Grief, Gender, and Protest in Hong Kong," Critical Asian Studies 54, no. 3 (2022): 327–347.

the following contributions, which allow an initial glimpse into a field of study that is much more extensive than can be considered here and yet offer many moments of enlightenment and a better understanding of the world in which we currently live.

#### Works Cited


Bergès, Sandrine. Olympe de Gouges. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022.


Pleitgen, Fred and Mary Ilyushina. "Women in White Become Faces of Belarus Protests as Thousands are Arrested after Disputed Election." CNN, August 13, 2020. Accessed November 15, 2022. https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/13/europe/belarus-protest-arrests-intl-hnk/index.html.

"Protest." In Merriam Webster Dictionary. Accessed November 26, 2022. https://www.merriam-webster. com/dictionary/protest.

Rancière, Jacques. Das Unvernehmen: Politik und Philosophie, seventh edition. Berlin: Surhkamp, 2018.

Rostek, Andreas, Thomas Weiler, Nina Weller and Tina Wünschmann, eds. Belarus! Das weibliche Gesicht der Revolution. Berlin: Edition FotoTapeta, 2020.

Samsami, Soona. "Women Are Leading a Revolution in Iran." The Washington Times, October 11, 2022. Accessed November 18, 2022. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/oct/11/ira nian-women-are-leading-a-revolution-in-iran/.

Shparaga, Olga. Die Revolution hat ein weibliches Gesicht: Der Fall Belarus. Berlin: Suhrkamp, 2021. Streichhahn, Vincent and Frank Jacob, eds. Geschlecht und Klassenkampf: Die "Frauenfrage" aus

deutscher und internationaler Perspektive im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Berlin: Metropol, 2020.


Sabine Müller

# 2 Women, War, and Dynasty: Tomyris versus Kyros in Herodotos and Polyainos

#### Introduction

The perception of warfare as a male sphere of action influenced Greek and Roman writers throughout antiquity.¹ In the Homeric Iliad, with its massive impact on ancient Greek and Roman literature, the Trojan warrior Hektor departs for the fight, telling his wife Andromakhe that war is the business of men.² This scene of farewell with all its socio-cultural implications is faintly echoed by the Greek biographer Plutarch (early second century AD) when describing the departure of the Theban general Pelopidas to war against the Spartans. His wife begged him through tears not to lose his life—only to be sharply reprimanded for being ignorant regarding military requirements: a commander ought to be told not to lose the lives of others.³

Military camps, battlefields, garrisons, and forts were and often still are viewed as male spaces: as the domains of soldiers and their (male) commanders. The latter were expected to be clever strategists, brave fighters, and good comrades, sharing the toils of their troops.⁴ However, this image of an exclusively

<sup>1</sup> Acknowledgments: I am grateful to Frank Jacob and Jowan Mohammed for their kind invitation to their volume and to Johannes Heinrichs for his helpful suggestions.

See Stephan Schmal, "Ares und Aphrodite. Kämpfende Frauen in der antiken Ethnographie und Geschichtsschreibung," in Geschlechterdefinitionen und Geschlechtergrenzen in der Antike, eds. Elke Hartmann, Udo Hartmann and Karen Pietzner (Stuttgart: Steiner, 2007), 99–100; Rosmarie Günther, "Der Krieg: Sache der Männer?" in Geschlechterdefinitionen und Geschlechtergrenzen in der Antike, eds. Elke Hartmann, Udo Hartmann and Karen Pietzner (Stuttgart: Steiner, 2007), 87; Laura McLure, Women in Classical Antiquity: From Birth to Death (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2020), 42–47; Conor Whately, An Introduction to the Roman Military: From Marius (100 BCE) to Theodosius II (450 CE) (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2021), 186; John W. I. Lee, "Daily Life in Classical Greek Armies, c. 500–330 BC," in New Approaches to Greek and Roman Warfare, ed. Lee L. Brice (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2020), 43.

<sup>2</sup> Il. 6.492–493.

<sup>3</sup> Plut. Pelop. 20.1–2.

<sup>4</sup> Christiane Kunst, "Wenn Frauen Bärte haben: Geschlechtertransgressionen in Rom," in Geschlechterdefinitionen und Geschlechtergrenzen in der Antike, eds. Elke Hartmann, Udo Hartmann and Karen Pietzner (Stuttgart: Steiner, 2007), 251–252; Whately, Roman Military, 211. The ideal commander is described in Xen. Mem. 3.1.6. On the commander as an ideal of masculinity: Kordula

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male world is an artificial construct. In reality, instead of just black and white, there were many gray areas.

Particularly during the last three decades, representatives of a "new military history" have emphasized that female individuals were integral to war in multiple ways—not just as victims.⁵ For example, certain goddesses were associated with war.⁶ In daily life, women participated in the defense of besieged cities or formed part of a wider military community as the consorts or wives of soldiers, sharing their life in the camps.⁷ In Argead and Hellenistic times, individual Macedonian royal women appeared in the military sphere as agents of their house, particularly in the position of safeguarding dynastic claims.⁸ While the separation of high-rank-

6 Johan Flemberg, Venus armata: Studien zur bewaffneten Aphrodite in der griechisch-römischen Kunst (Stockholm: Paul Åström, 1991); Schmal, "Ares," 111. F.i., Paus. 2.5.1; 3.15.10; 3.23.1; Plut. Mor. 239a, 317 f; Anth. Gr. 9.320, 16.171; 16.173–177; Quint. Inst. 2.4.26; Paus. 2.5.1.

7 On women participating in the defense of cities: Pasi Loman, "No Woman No War: Women's Participation in Ancient Greek Warfare," Greece and Rome 51, no.1 (2004): 34–54; Whately, Roman Military, 185; Lee, "Daily Life," 43. On living with soldiers: Penelope M. Allison, People and Spaces in Military Bases (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013); Sara E. Phang, The Marriage of Roman Soldiers (13 BC–AD 235): Law and Family in the Imperial Army (Leiden: Brill, 2001); Elizabeth M. Greene, "Roman Military Communities and the Families of Auxiliary Soldiers," in New Approaches to Greek and Roman Warfare, ed. Lee L. Brice (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2020), 149–160; Whately, Roman Military, 13, 21, 136, 211–216. However, the presence of women in camps was perceived ambiguously in Rome (see Tac. Ann. 3.33–35) and occasionally treated as a symptom of the loss of morals of the commander by ancient writers: Schnegg, Geschlechtervorstellungen, 138–139; Whately, Roman Military, 213–214.

8 Elizabeth D. Carney, "Women and basileia: Legitimacy and Female Political Action in Macedonia," Classical Journal 90 (1995): 367–391; Elizabeth D. Carney, Women and Monarchy in Macedonia (Norman: Gerald Peters Gallery, 2000); Elizabeth D. Carney, "Women and Military Leadership in

Schnegg, Geschlechtervorstellungen und soziale Differenzierung bei Appian aus Alexandrien (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2010), 114–138.

<sup>5</sup> See, among others, Jacqueline Fabre-Serris and Alison Keith, eds., Women and War in Antiquity (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2016); Elizabeth Donnelly, "Women and War in the Greek World," in A Companion to Greek Warfare, eds. Waldemar Heckel, Fred S. Naiden, E. Edward Garvin, and John Vanderspoel (Malden/Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2021), 329–338. However, female suffering in times of war (captivity, enslavement, violence, rape, continuous sexual abuse) is still a central subject. Kathy L. Gaca, "The Andrapodizing of War Captives in Greek Historical Memory," Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 140 (2010): 117–161; Kathy L. Gaca, "Girls, Women, and the Significance of Sexual Violence in Ancient Warfare," in Sexual Violence in Conflict Zones, ed. Elizabeth Heineman (Philadelphia/Oxford: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011), 73–88; Schnegg, Geschlechtervorstellungen, 136–137; Günther, "Krieg," 95–97; Christian Rollinger, "Vae victae: Die Frau als Beute in der antiken (römischen) Kriegsführung," in Gender und Krieg, eds. Christine Walde and Georg Wöhrle (Trier: WTV, 2018), 91–126; Maria A. Liston, "Skeletal Evidence for the Impact of Battle on Soldiers and Non‐Combatants," in New Approaches to Greek and Roman Warfare, ed. Lee L. Brice (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2020), 89.

ing Roman women from the military sphere was much stricter, individual elite women became visible during the crises of the late Roman Republic and occasionally in imperial times when they were associated with the military activities of their male relatives.⁹

Greek and Roman authors tend to perceive the involvement of women in the military sphere as transgressive. Frequently, in an implied reversal of gender roles, those women were styled as acting like men.¹⁰ Often, women associated with warfare were also perceived as "barbarians" or representatives of "tyrannies."¹¹ Counter-images like these served to confirm the values and norms of the respective author and his audience—such as the belief that in a civilized society, war was (still) a man's world.

On the whole, however, the matter of the perception of women and war in Greek and Roman literature is much more complex. Individual authors had

10 Schnegg, Geschlechtervorstellungen, 45; Kunst, "Bärte," 251–253; Veit Rosenberger, "Die List und das Göttliche: Religion bei Polyainos," in Polyainos: Neue Studien, ed. Kai Brodersen (Berlin: Verlag Antike, 2010), 144. F.i., Hdt. 1.175 and 8.104 (when trouble was ahead, the priestess of Athena in Pedasos, situated above Halikarnassos, grew a beard); 8.88.3 (Xerxes on the deeds of Artemisia in the naval battle: she had become a man); Just. 1.8.2 (Tomyris was not alarmed "non muliebriter [like a woman]" at the approach of the Persian enemy);14.6.1 (on Olympias in the Wars of the Successors: she had "cum principum passim caedes muliebri magis quam regio more fecisset [committed great slaughter among the nobility throughout the country, in manner more like a woman than a royal]" trans. J. Selby Watson); App. An. 29.123–127 (on the women of Petelia defending the city like men); Vell. Pat. 2.74.3 (on Fulvia: she had "nihil muliebre praeter corpus gerens [nothing of a woman about her except for her body]").

Macedonia," The Ancient World 35 (2004): 184–195; Sabine Müller, "Argead Women," in The Routledge Companion to Women and Monarchy in the Ancient Mediterranean World, eds. Elizabeth D. Carney and Sabine Müller (New York/London: Routledge, 2021), 300–301; McLure, Women, 133–150. For a discussion of this role in medieval times, see Beñat Elortza Larrea's paper in the present volume.

<sup>9</sup> Roman Republic: Günther, "Krieg," 89–94; Kunst, "Bärte," 251–253; Francesca Rohr Vio, Le custodi del potere: Donne e politica alla fine dalla repubblica romana (Roma: Salerno Editrice, 2019); Amy Richlin, "The Woman on the Street: Becoming Visible in Mid-Republican Rome," in New Directions in the Study of Women in the Greco-Roman World, eds. Ronnie Ancona and Georgia Tsouvala (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021), 213–230; McLure, Women, 155–257, 264–265. Imperial times: Francesca Cenerini, Dive e donne: Mogli, madri, figlie e sorelle degli imperatori romani da Augustus a Commodo (Imola: Angelini Editore, 2009); Mary T. Boatwright, Imperial Women of Rome: Power, Gender, Context (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020).

<sup>11</sup> Schmal, "Ares," 104–106. F.i., Xen. Hell. 3.1.10–15 (on Mania from Dardanos, the widow of a local governor); Just. 2.4.32–33; 12.3.5–7; 42.3.7; Curt. 6.5.24–32; Diod. 17.77.1–3; Strab. 11.5.4; Plut. Alex. 46.1–2 (on Thalestris, the fictitious ruler of the Amazons who allegedly met Alexander III). On the traditional stereotypes of "barbarians" in general, see Frances Pownall, "barbaroi," in Lexicon of Argead Makedonia, eds. Waldemar Heckel, Johannes Heinrichs, Sabine Müller and Frances Pownall (Berlin: Frank & Timme, 2020), 134–135.

their individual approaches. While the attitude of Greek and Roman writers toward women's involvement in military matters tends to range from skepticism to criticism and objection, this contribution argues that there was also room for exceptions (and occasionally at least ambiguous judgments), depending on the literary context, genre, intellectual background, and specific intention(s) of the individual author.

To illustrate this argument, Herodotos' and Polyainos' accounts of the involvement of the Massagetan ruler Tomyris in the war against Kyros II of Persia will be discussed. The events date to the last campaign of Kyros II's reign (559–530 BC). He was reported to have died in battle against the Massagetai, in ancient sources characterized as nomads and Skythians.¹² Their lands are located northeast of the Kaspian Sea.¹³ It is important to note that we are dealing with parts of the legends predominant in the accounts of Kyros' life. As a consequence, the founder of the Persian Teispid Empire appears as a semi-fictitious literary figure.¹⁴ The historical background of Kyros' last campaign in Central Asia is uncertain; it probably served to secure the northern frontier of his empire.¹⁵ As for the definition of protest in this case, it is a a public expression of disapproval on two different levels. First of all, there is Herodotos as the author who recorded the events in question, integrating the narrative in his history of the Persian Wars including the rise of the Persian Empire, and shaping it in accordance with his philosophical-teleological worldview. Making his thoughts on the lack of moderation of politicians and con-

<sup>12</sup> Pierre Briant, Histoire de l'Empire Perse de Cyrus à Alexandre (Paris: Fayard, 1996), 60; Marc van de Mieroop, A History of the Ancient Near East c. 3000–323 BC (Oxford: Blackwell, 2007), 287; Robert Rollinger, "Das teispidisch-achaimenidische Großreich," in Imperien und Reiche in der Weltgeschichte, vol. I, eds. Michael Gehler and Robert Rollinger (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2014), 150; Maria Brosius, A History of Ancient Persia: The Achaemenid Empire (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021), 30; Robert Rollinger, "From Assurbanipal to Cambyses," in A Companion to the Achaemenid Persian Empire, vol. I, eds. Bruno Jacobs and Robert Rollinger (Oxford: Wiley, 2021), 370. For the Skythian origin of the Massagetai: Hdt. 1.201 (as a legomenon). See also Amélie Kuhrt, The Persian Empire: A Corpus of Sources from the Achaemenid Period (London/New York: Routledge, 2007), 100, n. 5. The last text of the Babylonian documents providing us with evidence on his regnal years is 12 August 530, and the earliest dated by his successor Kambyses II is 31 August 530.

<sup>13</sup> Rüdiger Schmitt, "Massagetae," Encyclopaedia Iranica, accessed April 11, 2018, http://www.ira nicaonline.org/articles/massagetae.

<sup>14</sup> Maria Brosius, "Cyrus the Great: A Hero's Tale," in Cyrus the Great: Life and Lore, ed. M. Rahim Shayegan (Cambridge, MA/London: Harvard University Press, 2018), 170–182.

<sup>15</sup> Briant, Histoire, 60; Christopher Tuplin, "Revisiting Dareios' Scythian Expedition," in Achaemenid Impact in the Black Sea: Communication and Powers, eds. Jens Nieling and Ellen Rehm (Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 2010), 301. Such conflicts occurred since the northern frontier of Kyros II's empire abutted regions in which Skythian or Sakan ethnic groups or people who had contact with them dwelled.

querors publicly heard as a historiographer and thinker, Herodotos makes an individual statement regarding the insatiability and ruthless methods of an depraved conqueror such as Kyros II. It is a critical literary reflection on political immoderation and the (mis)use of the law of the stronger.

Second, the following deals with Tomyris' public expression of discontent and objection to the supreme power attempting to integrate also her realm into its empire. After Kyros' string of successes, Tomyris is the first and also last one to manifest her political dissent and claim to autonomy. Far more than just an individual statement of Tomyris, her stand against the "imperialistic" power, embodied by Kyros, is a stand of a whole ethnic group, the Massagetans under the rule of her house. Tomyris is the figurehead and leader of the protest of her people, thus the objection to lose their freedom and subjected by a foreign king. Her expression of political dissent can be divided into two stages: first, the peaceful, diplomatic expression of the Massagetans' refusal to surrender to Kyros, and second, the organized, military resistance of her people.

#### Herodotos and Tomyris

The earliest literary version of Tomyris' fight for the autonomy of her realm against the Persian conqueror is preserved by Herodotos. As a "Geschichtsdenker,"¹⁶ he gave the story a specific teleological and philosophical coloring in accordance with major themes of his Histories: the importance of moderation, the need to refrain from transgressing boundaries established by the gods as the driving forces of human fate, the changeability of careers, and the connection between immoderation, hybris, and divine punishment.¹⁷ The high relevance of Kyros' death to Herodotos' ideas is underlined by his unusual decision not to share his knowledge about the variants of Kyros' end with his audience. By confining himself to the version he regarded as the most convincing, he intended his audience to remember exactly this lesson of immoderation and punishment.

Since the Herodotean Kyros did not experience any setbacks, his conquests corrupted him. Once a moderate and wise king, he transformed into a hubristic

<sup>16</sup> Johannes Heinrichs, Ionien nach Salamis: Die kleinasiatischen Griechen in der Politik und politischen Reflexion des Mutterlands (Bonn: Habelt, 1989), 130.

<sup>17</sup> Julia Kindt, "Delphic Oracle Stories and the Beginning of Historiography: Herodotus' Croesus logos," Classical Philology 101 (2006): 47; Tuplin, "Revisiting," 301 (it "smells of emblematic stereotype"). On Herodotos' Histories as a "complex elusive process," see John Marincola, "Herodotus and the Poetry of the Past," in The Cambridge Companion to Herodotus, eds. Carolyn Dewald and John Marincola (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 20.

tyrant who believed himself to be invincible and superior to all others.¹⁸ Herodotos does not mention any strategic reasons for Kyros' ambition to conquer the territory of the Massagetai; instead, he focuses on Kyros' insatiable greed for power. Portrayed as his counterpoint, Tomyris appears as a tragic warner, a literary role central to Herodotos' work:¹⁹ "The Herodotean Tomyris is a proud, noble figure who would not stoop to deception and she is wiser, braver, and more moral than Cyrus."²⁰

On the death of her husband, the ruler of the Massagetai, power passed into her hands.²¹ There is no bias in Herodotos' portrayal of Tomyris as a woman participating in politics. She appears as a legitimate agent of her house, the protector of her husband's legacy, and a fighter for her son's future, safeguarding his succession. Apparently, Herodotos is familiar with female agency in elite families and knows that the dynastic aspect of Tomyris' activity justifies her spaces of action regarding politics and war.

Tomyris tried to protect her realm and was not tricked by Kyros' (false) marriage proposal to her. Knowing that it was onlyapretext, she rejected him, suggesting that he should be satisfied with what he had.²² When he crossed the Araxes, Kyros transgressed a symbolic boundary, ultimately unveiling his expansionist immoderation and sealing his fate.²³ The only way was down: by using evil, low-key trickery to invade the territory of the Massagetai, a people with a modest and sparse lifestyle, the founder of an empire with its huge and victorious army shamed himself. He lured a third of the enemy's army into a trap by laying out a feast for them involving the treacherous gifts of civilization: plenty of delicious food and wine, unknown to the Massagetai.²⁴ Drunk and overfed, the soldiers were

<sup>18</sup> Hdt. 1.204.2. See also Josef Wiesehöfer, Das antike Persien von 550 v.Chr. bis 650 n. Chr (Zürich: Patmos, 1993), 73, 79; Susan O. Shapiro, "Learning through Suffering: Human Wisdom in Herodotus," Classical Journal 89 (1994): 353.

<sup>19</sup> Deborah Gera, Warrior Women: The Anonymous Tractatus de Mulieribus (Leiden: Brill, 1997), 197; Johan Weststeijn, "Wine, Women, and Revenge in Near Eastern Historiography: The Tales of Tomyris, Judith, Zenobia, and Jalila," Journal of Near Eastern Studies 75, no. 1 (2016): 93 (the "Kassandra Motif"), 95. On the tragic warner in Herodotos in general, see Richmond Lattimore, "The Wise Adviser in Herodotus," Classical Philology 34 (1939): 24–5.

<sup>20</sup> Gera, Warrior Women, 197.

<sup>21</sup> Hdt. 1.205.1. See also Schmal, "Ares," 103, 109–10.

<sup>22</sup> Hdt. 1.205–206. See also David Asheri, Alan Lloyd, and Aldo Corcella, A Commentary on Herodotus, Books I-IV (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 214.

<sup>23</sup> Hdt. 1.209.1. See also Reinhold Bichler, Herodots Welt (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2000), 267–268. 24 Weststeijn, "Wine," 93: a Trojan Horse motif. On wine's symbolic meaning, see also Sabine Müller, "Völlerei, wundersame Brotvergrößerung und Kannibalismus: Politische und soziale Konnotationen des Essens bei Herodot," in Gastrosophical turn: Essen zwischen Medizin und Öffentlich-

easy prey for the Persians, who killed many of them and took the rest captive, among whom was their commander Spargapises, Tomyris' son.²⁵

It is difficult to find an explanation for why Tomyris was still in the regnal position despite her son having come of age and even being mature enough to lead troops.²⁶ Perhaps the task of mothers in a dynastic context to safeguard their sons' future in times of crisis played a role. In addition, on a literary level, women displaying more virtues than men, in particular in a domain considered to be "male," served as a stylistic device to blacken the portraits of those men, in this case, Kyros.

Informed about the calamity, Tomyris demanded that Kyros return her son and leave her realm. Herodotos uses her message to foreshadow the way in which Kyros' treacherous gift of wine would turn against him:

ἄπληστε αἵματος Κῦρε, μηδὲν ἐπαερθῇς τῷ γεγονότι τῷδε πρήγματι, εἰ ἀμπελίνῳ καρπῷ, … τοιούτῳ φαρμάκῳ δολώσας ἐκράτησας παιδὸς τοῦ ἐμοῦ, ἀλλ᾽ οὐ μάχῃ κατὰ τὸ καρτερόν. νῦν ὦν μευ εὖ παραινεούσης ὑπόλαβε τὸν λόγον: ἀποδούς μοι τὸν παῖδα ἄπιθι ἐκ τῆσδε τῆς χώρης ἀζήμιος, Μασσαγετέων τριτημορίδι τοῦ στρατοῦ κατυβρίσας. εἰ δὲ ταῦτα οὐ ποιήσεις, ἥλιον ἐπόμνυμί τοι τὸν Μασσαγετέων δεσπότην, ἦ μέν σε ἐγὼ καὶ ἄπληστον ἐόντα αἵματος κορέσω.'

Bloodthirsty Cyrus, do not be uplifted by this business; namely, that with the fruit of the vine … that with such a drug you have triumphed over my son, by trickery not in a battle of strengths. Now, take this piece of good advice from me: return my son and depart this land unpunished; you have done enough insolence to a third of the forces of the Massagetae. If you don't, I swear by the sun, lord of the Massagetae, that for all your insatiability of blood, I shall give you your fill of it.²⁷

Kyros ignored her, while a deeply ashamed Spargapises committed suicide.²⁸ Only now, in the absence of a male representative of her house, did Tomyris adopt the role of a military leader, filling the gap left in the ranks of command. She gathered her forces and defeated the Persians in a hard-won battle. Kyros fell, and Tomyris kept her promise:

ἀσκὸν δὲ πλήσασα αἵματος ἀνθρωπηίου Τόμυρις ἐδίζητο ἐν τοῖσι τεθνεῶσι τῶν Περσέων τὸν Κύρου νέκυν, ὡς δὲ εὗρε, ἐναπῆκε αὐτοῦ τὴν κεφαλὴν ἐς τὸν ἀσκόν, λυμαινομένη δὲ τῷ νεκρῷ

keit, eds. Christian Hoffstadt, Franz Peschke, Andreas Schulz-Buchta, and Michael Nagenborg (Bochum/Freiburg: Projekt Verlag, 2009), 175–178.

<sup>25</sup> Hdt. 1.211.1–3.

<sup>26</sup> Gera, Warrior Women, 199.

<sup>27</sup> Hdt. 1.212.2–3. Trans. A. Kuhrt.

<sup>28</sup> Hdt. 1.213.

ἐπέλεγε τάδε: 'σὺ μὲν ἐμὲ ζῶσάν τε καὶ νικῶσάν σε μάχῃ ἀπώλεσας, παῖδα τὸν ἐμὸν ἑλὼν δόλῳ: σὲ δ᾽ ἐγώ, κατά περ ἠπείλησα, αἵματος κορέσω.'

Tomyris filled a skin with human blood and searched among the Persians for Cyrus' corpse. When she found it, she put his head into the skin, and abused the dead man with these words: "Although I am alive and have gained a victory over you in battle, you have destroyed me, because you took my son by trickery. Now I shall do just as I threatened and give you your fill of blood."²⁹

According to some scholars, in this final scene, Herodotos' portrayal of Tomyris is no longer positive but reveals a darker side of her as a bloodthirsty, vengeful, and cruel person.³⁰ However, Tomyris' portrait is not blackened but still positive. She has fought for her realm, the Massagetai, their autonomy, and the honor of her house. Her victory was won by strength, not by deceit. She was not carried away by negative desires. In her straightforward way, she kept the promise she had given to Kyros. Far from being triumphant, Tomyris appears as a broken person: she has lost her son, the future of her house, and failed in safeguarding his succession and securing her husband's legacy. Therefore, the final scene shows the ugly face of war, not of Tomyris: violent actions causing violent reactions and parents burying their children, the (lost) hopes for the future.³¹ This is Herodotean imagery at its most expressive.

Later authors in Roman times made Tomyris appear particularly vengeful by reporting that she had Kyros' head cut off before plunging it in the blood.³² This element was also central to her image as a champion of freedom in European art from late medieval to early modern times.³³ Perhaps, when they made Tomyris cut off Kyros' head, those later writers had in mind the mutilation of Leonidas'

<sup>29</sup> Hdt. 1.214.4–5. Trans. A. Kuhrt.

<sup>30</sup> Gera, Warrior Women, 197; Reinhold Bichler and Robert Rollinger, Herodot (Hildesheim: Olms, 2001), 104; Schmal, "Ares," 103, n. 18. It is also difficult to accept Carolyn Dewald's interpretation that the punishment of Kyros formed part of a "funny story." Carolyn Dewald, "Humour and Danger in Herodotus," in The Cambridge Companion to Herodotus, eds. Carolyn Dewald and John Marincola (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 157.

<sup>31</sup> See Kroisos of Lydia on the effects of war: Hdt. 1.87.4.

<sup>32</sup> Just. 1.8.13; Val. Max. 9.10.ext. 1; Oros. 2.7.6; Luk. Charon 13.

<sup>33</sup> Sabine Müller, "Perspectives in Europe in the Middle Ages and the Modern Era," in A Companion to the Achaemenid Persian Empire, vol. II, eds. Bruno Jacobs and Robert Rollinger (Oxford: Wiley, 2021), 1485–1487. Tomyris appeared as a prefiguration of the Virgin Mary's victory over the devil, typologically grouped with Judith killing Holofernes and Jael murdering Sisera, and was incorporated into the Nine Worthy Women. Weststeijn, "Wine," 102.

body after the battle of Thermopylai. According to Herodotos, Xerxes gave the order to cut off Leonidas' head and fix it to a pole.³⁴

However, in the case of Tomyris, such a detail is not confirmed by Herodotos. His account—according to which she found his corpse and put his head into a skin filled with blood—does not imply that she cut it off. It only means that she did not plunge his whole body into some container filled with blood but limited herself to his head—for symbolical and metaphorical reasons.

In accordance with the drinking metaphor, Kyros' mouth was crucial to the punishment mirroring his evil deed: he had been immoderately bloodthirsty and killed her son and a third of her army by making them "poison" themselves with wine. In consequence, she made him drink his fill of blood: a retaliation and thus a principle Herodotos regarded as just.³⁵ There was no need to cut off the head to keep her promise; it would even have hampered the drinking metaphor since she treated him and spoke to him as if he were still alive and able to suffer his punishment.³⁶

Herodotos' impressive scene of Kyros' posthumous punishment contains the element of the "abusive mouth," an image current in Greek literature.³⁷ Kyros' negative portrayal in this matter resembles the literary type Nancy Worman characterizes as the "cannibalistic warrior" who insists on a fair portion of the enemy's blood.³⁸ One is also reminded of the later Platonic image of the transformation of the prostates (leading politician) into a tyrant. The latter does not refrain from the blood of his fellow citizens, tasting it on his lips and tongue, metaphorically becom-

<sup>34</sup> Hdt. 7.278.1–2. Herodotos strongly disapproves of this mutilation, stating that it violated the nomoi.

<sup>35</sup> Heinrichs, Ionien, 131.

<sup>36</sup> It may be a weak argument; however, in Hdt. 1.214.4, Tomyris mocked the dead person, not his head. Furthermore, Kyros' body was entombed in his capital Pasargadai (Arr. An. 6.29.4–7) and, roughly two centuries later, Alexander III visited the tomb and paid funereal honors to the corpse: Curt. 10.1.22–38; Arr. An. 6.29.4–11; Strab. 15.3.7–8; Diod. 17.107. See also Johannes Heinrichs, "'Asiens König': Die Inschriften des Kyrosgrabs und das achaimenidische Reichsverständnis," in Zu Alexander d. Gr. FS G. Wirth, vol. I, eds. Wolfgang Will and Johannes Heinrichs (Amsterdam: Hakkert, 1987), 487–540; Johannes Heinrichs, "Kyros II, as a Reference," in Lexicon of Argead Makedonia, eds. Waldemar Heckel, Johannes Heinrichs, Sabine Müller and Frances Pownall (Berlin: Frank & Timme, 2020), 308. It is reported that the body lay in a coffin; there is no mention of a decapitation (Curt. 10.1.32). The primary Alexander historiographers were familiar with Herodotos and frequently borrowed from him. If they did not see any implication in his account that Kyros had been decapitated, this tradition must have emerged later on. The earliest reference is in Pompeius Trogus (Augustan times).

<sup>37</sup> Nancy Worman, Abusive Mouths in Classical Athens (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008).

<sup>38</sup> Worman, Abusive Mouths, 30–35. This is essentially based on examples from the Homeric epics.

ing a wolf.³⁹ In Herodotos, Kyros' abusive mouth receivesatreatment that reflects his last campaign.

It has been argued that Tomyris has much in common with another female warrior in Herodotos: Artemisia of Halikarnassos.⁴⁰ She was likely a local celebrity in Halikarnassos, Herodotos' home town, and he does not conceal his pride in her deeds.⁴¹

During the Persian Wars, after the death of her husband, the tyrant of Halikarnassos, she took over the tyranny, probably because her son was still a minor.⁴² Allied with Xerxes, instead of sending her son, who had apparently grown up in the meantime, to war, Artemisia furnished and commanded five ships. Styling her as a tragic warner, Herodotos emphasizes that she was the only one of Xerxes' commanders to give him the sound advice not to fight the Greeks at sea (which he ignored).⁴³ In 480 BC, she participated in the naval battles off Cape Artemision and Salamis.⁴⁴ Although she was with the defeated and even rammed and destroyed an allied ship during her escape, Herodotos introduced her to his audience as a person possessing courage and andreia (manly spirit), a virtue particularly associated with warrior skills.⁴⁵

Herodotos' local patriotism may have played a certain role. In addition, the portrayal of Artemisia served as a stylistic device to characterize Xerxes (ambiguous: appreciating her fighting spirit but rejecting her sound counsel) and his commanders (many of whom could not measure up to her). Christopher Pelling pointed out that Herodotos' Artemisia confirmed and challenged several stereotypes of gender simultaneously.⁴⁶ In fact, Herodotos constantly plays with the idea of gender hybridity. Artemisia is associated with andreia, adopts her son's military role, and compares the superiority of the Greeks at sea to that of men

<sup>39</sup> Plat. Rep. 565d–566a. See also Barton Kunstler, "The Werewolf Figure and Its Adoption into Greek Political Vocabulary," Classical World 84 (1991): 193–194: "the murder of fellow citizens is perceived as the murder of kin whose blood the killer tastes."

<sup>40</sup> Gera, Warrior Women, 199; Schmal, "Ares," 103–104.

<sup>41</sup> Hdt. 7.99. See also Richard Stoneman, Xerxes: A Persian Life (New Haven, CT/London: Yale University Press, 2015), 123.

<sup>42</sup> Hdt. 7.99.1. See also Gera, Warrior Women, 206.

<sup>43</sup> Hdt. 7.99.1–3; 8.68.1–69.2; Christopher Pelling, "Speech and Narrative in Herodotus," in The Cambridge Companion to Herodotus, eds. Carolyn Dewald and John Marincola (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 110.

<sup>44</sup> Hdt. 7.99.2; Paus. 3.11.3.

<sup>45</sup> Hdt. 7.99.1. See also Schnegg, Geschlechtervorstellungen, 40, 43–44.

<sup>46</sup> Pelling, "Speech," 120, n. 32; Rosalie V. Munson, "Artemisia in Herodotus," Classical Antiquity 7 (1988): 91–106; Violaine Sebillotte-Cuchet, "Hérodote et Artémisia d'Halicarnasse, deux métis face à l'ordre des genres athénien," Clio: Femmes, Genre, Histoire 27 (2008): 15–33; Stoneman, Xerxes, 147.

over women. Impressed by her warrior skills, Xerxes is reported to have stated that the men had become women and the women had become men.⁴⁷ While, at first sight, the image of war as a male business is confirmed, there is also room for women who adopted "male" roles when they acted as agents of their house.

Due to Herodotos' impact on ancient historiography,⁴⁸ Tomyris continued to be remembered. Different versions of her role in the fight against Kyros emerged.⁴⁹ Later authors, particularly in Roman times, tended to portray her less favorably and Kyros in a more positive way.⁵⁰ For example, in Augustan times, Pompeius Trogus blamed Tomyris' young and inexperienced son—who preferred feasting to fighting—for being tricked and slain by Kyros. Trogus' Tomyris does not have much in common with Herodotos' straightforward, virtuous champion of her country. Apparently in accordance with Trogus' generally negative image of treacherous "barbarians,"⁵¹ she defeats Kyros by deception and massacres him and 200,000 Persians. On top of this, immediately after the scene of her mutilation of Kyros' body (including his decapitation), the audience is provided with an appraisal of Kyros' excellence throughout his life.⁵²

<sup>47</sup> Hdt. 7.99.1; 8.68.1–2; 8.88.3. This is particularly emphasized and elaborated by Polyain. 8.53 (explaining Artemisia's action as a stratagem) and the anonymous Tractatus de mulieribus 13. Xerxes gives Artemisia a complete suit of armor as a reward and the captain a dustaff and spindle. See Pelling, "Speech," 110; Stoneman, Xerxes, 147.

<sup>48</sup> Simon Hornblower, "Herodotus' Influence in Antiquity," in The Cambridge Companion to Herodotus, eds. Carolyn Dewald and John Marincola (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 306–318.

<sup>49</sup> Gera portrays her as cunning and wily, credited with ploys and a counter-stratagem. Gera, Warrior Women, 187–204.

<sup>50</sup> Strab. 11.8.5–6 mentions Kyros' successful ruse, the drunken Massagetai falling victim to it, and the bravery of the other Massagetai fighting him, but fails to mention Tomyris and her son. Val. Max. 9.10 ext. 1 focuses entirely on the mutilation of Kyros' head as an act of revenge by a bereaved mother whose son was slain by him. Oros. 2.7.1–6 refers to the trap laid by Kyros and the death of Tomyris' son (not by suicide but at the hands of the Persians). Tomyris is depicted as a vengeful mother: she threw Kyros' head into a bag of blood and mocked him in an "unwomanly fashion." The anonymous Tractatus de mulieribus 12 refers to Herodotos but gives a significantly different version of the events: Kyros' ruse is omitted. He defeated the Massagetai in a battle and took Tomyris' son captive. Tomyris asked him to be satisfied with the victory, return her son, and retreat. Kyros refused since her son had committed suicide in the meantime. Tomyris attacked and defeated him and mutilated his body as an act of revenge.

<sup>51</sup> Just. 41.3.10.

<sup>52</sup> Just. 1.8.1–9.13.

#### Polyainos and Tomyris

In the early 160s AD, Polyainos wrote his version of Tomyris' fight against Kyros.⁵³ It was the time of the Second Sophistic, when displaying knowledge of the Greek literary heritage with its icons such as Herodotos was of crucial importance to intellectuals in the Roman Empire.

Polyainos' account of Tomyris' deeds formed part of the ruses of women in book eight of his "guidebook of military knowledge," a collection of stratagems from the mythological era to Augustus.⁵⁴ The work was dedicated to Marcus Aurelius and his co-emperor Lucius Verus; its political background was provided by the latter's Parthian campaign. A child of the Second Sophistic, Polyainos treated knowledge of the (predominantly Greek and Macedonian) past as a helpful tool to cope with concerns of the present. Perhaps seeking literary patronage, he arranged history as a museal space and offered his audience historical examples perceived as universal lessons.⁵⁵

<sup>53</sup> On Polyainos as a Second Sophistic author and the importance of Greek paideia to him: Maria Pretzler, "Polyaenus the Historian? Stratagems and the Use of the Past in the Second Sophistic," in Polyainos: Neue Studien, ed. Kai Brodersen (Berlin: Verlag Antike, 2010), 86–90, 106; James Morton, "Polyaenus in Context: The Strategica and Greek Identity in the Second Sophistic Age," in Polyainos: Neue Studien, ed. Kai Brodersen (Berlin: Verlag Antike, 2010), 109–112. On the date of his work: Klaus Geus, "Polyaenus travestitus? Überlegungen zur Biographie des Polyainos und zur Abfassungszeit seines Werks," in Polyainos: Neue Studien, ed. Kai Brodersen (Berlin: Verlag Antike, 2010), 67–68. It is generally believed that Polyainos used Plutarch's Mulierum Virtutes, among many other sources, for his collection of female ruses (8.26–71). See Philip A. Stadter, Plutarch's Historical Methods: An Analysis of the Mulierum Virtutes (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1965), 13–29; Fabio Tanga, Plutarco, La virtù delle donne: Mulierum Virtutes (Leiden: Brill, 2019), lxxiv–lxxvi (lxxvi: "una influenza molto probabile"); Aaron L. Beek, "Mercenaries and Moral Concerns," in Greek and Roman Military Manuals Genre and History, eds. James T. Chlup and Conor Whately (London/New York: Routledge, 2021), 121. However, due to the uncertainty about its date, it is debated if he used the anonymous Tractatus de Mulieribus. It is believed by Gera: see Gera, Warrior Women, 37. For the opposite view, see Ruth E. Harder, "Weibliche Strategien unter männlichem Blick? Die Frauen in den Strategemata des Polyainos," in Geschlechterdefinitionen und Geschlechtergrenzen in der Antike, eds. Elke Hartmann, Udo Hartmann and Karen Pietzner (Stuttgart: Steiner, 2007), 192; Kai Brodersen, "Mannhafte Frauen bei Polyainos und beim Anonymus de mulieribus," in Polyainos: Neue Studien, ed. Kai Brodersen (Berlin: Verlag Antike, 2010), 152–153.

<sup>54</sup> Everett Wheeler, "Polyaenus: Scriptor Militaris," in Polyainos. Neue Studien, ed. Kai Brodersen (Berlin: Verlag Antike, 2010), 30. It is commonly known by the title Στρατηγήματα, while the manuscript tradition gives the title as Στρατηγικά.

<sup>55</sup> His audience is thought to have been an educated elite, not necessarily military experts. See Pretzler, "Polyaenus," 104–107. On his suggested search for literary patronage, see Wheeler, "Polyaenus," 7. On the audience of military manuals in general, see Nadya Williams, "The Blind Leading

Polyainos proudly stresses his Macedonian descent: due to his Macedonian spirit, he thought of himself as an expert in victories over the Persians (equated with the contemporary Parthians).⁵⁶ His Macedonian self-image may also have been crucial to his attitude toward the military role of royal women such as Tomyris: Polyainos' research on Macedonian history provided him with prime examples of royal women's warlike appearances as a means of dynastic agency.

Due to the clan nature of Macedonian rule in Argead and Hellenistic times, royal family business was essentially political: all of its members could represent their house.⁵⁷ Because of the ubiquitous character of war, individual Macedonian royal women could become visible in the military sphere in the fields, following the categorization of Elizabeth Carney, of battlefield command, symbolic leadership, or administrative leadership.⁵⁸ While Polyainos apparently advertised the Macedonian image of leading women who could appear in socially ruling positions and make decisions, it is difficult to say if this attitude was more than another element of his literary Macedonian self-fashioning and the appreciation of examples of the "good old" past as a characteristic of Second Sophistic writers. As a Roman and Macedonian dedicating his work to the Roman emperors, it was surely no sign that Polyainos had a sense of the past Macedonian societies having some sort of "cultural superiority." Ruth Harder has suggested that it was a way to pay respect to Marcus Aurelius' wife Faustina.⁵⁹ This may or may not be the case. Perhaps, it may rather be the typical attitude of Second Sophistic writers to glorify the past and see certain incidents as paradigmatic.

As for the ruses of Macedonian royal women, Polyainos' emphasis on the recurring theme of fighting for their families shows that he was familiar with the

the Blind? Civilian Writers and Audiences of Military Manuals in the Roman World," in Greek and Roman Military Manuals: Genre and History, eds. James T. Chlup and Conor Whately (London/New York: Routledge, 2021), 70–71.

<sup>56</sup> Polyain. 1 pr.; Suda s.v. Polyainos. See also Peter Krentz and Everett Wheeler, Polyaenus: Stratagems of War, vol. I (Chicago: Ares Publishers, 1994), xi–xii; Maria T. Schettino, Introduzione a Polieno (Milano: ETS, 1998), 25–28; Pretzler, "Polyaenus," 86–87, 95; Geus, "Polyaenus travestitus," 57– 59; Morton, "Polyaenus in Context," 112–113; Wheeler, "Polyaenus," 37.

<sup>57</sup> Elizabeth D. Carney, "Macedonian Women," in A Companion to Ancient Macedonia, eds. Joseph Roisman and Ian Worthington (Oxford/Malden: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), 409; Elizabeth D. Carney, King and Court in Ancient Macedonia: Rivalry, Treason, and Conspiracy (London/New York: Routledge, 2016), 7–8, 11; Elizabeth D. Carney, Eurydice and the Birth of Macedonian Power (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019), 8; Müller, "Argead Women," 294.

<sup>58</sup> Carney, "Women and Military Leadership," 184. See also Elizabeth D. Carney, "Foreign Influence and the Changing Role of Macedonian Royal Women," Archaia Makedonia 5 (1993): 313–323; Carney, Women and Monarchy, 69.

<sup>59</sup> Harder, "Weibliche Strategien," 197–198.

connections between dynastic agency and royal women's spaces of action, particularly in times of crisis when they safeguarded the succession.⁶⁰ It has been pointed out that Polyainos did not stress any difference between male and female ruses.⁶¹ This may have been a result of his Macedonian studies and Macedonian self-conception.

Due to his Second Sophistic background, Polyainos can be expected to be familiar with Herodotos, and thanks to his Macedonian descent, he was able to make sense of the military aspect of Tomyris' public role. In addition, although he pays tribute to the Hellenocentric convention by characterizing "barbarians" as most deceitful and perfidious, his worldview is actually universal.⁶² Thus, he admits that "barbarians" were capable of good commandership and clever stratagems.⁶³ His treatment of Tomyris involves a reversal of Herodotos' account:

Τόμυρις Κύρου στρατεύσαντος ἐπ' αὐτὴν προσεποιήσατο δεδοικέναι τοὺς πολεμίους. ἔφυγε μὲν τὸ Μασσαγετικόν, ἐπῆλθε δὲ τὸ Περσικὸν καὶ κατέλαβεν ἐν τῷ στρατοπέδῳ πλῆθος οἴνου, τροφῶν, ἱερείων, οἷς ἀνέδην ἐχρήσαντο καὶ δαψιλῶς διὰ νυκτὸς ὅλης ὥσπερ νενικηκότες. ἐπεὶ δὲ πολὺν οἶνον καὶ τρυφὴν ἔκειντο καθεύδοντες, ἐπελθοῦσα Τόμυρις δυσκινήτως ἔχοντας Πέρσας αὐτῷ Κύρῳ διέφθειρεν.

Tomyris: When Cyrus advanced against the Massagetae, Tomyris their queen retreated before him. The Persian army, closely pursuing her, entered and plundered her camp. There they found a great quantity of wine, and all sorts of provisions; on which they indulged immoderately, revelling throughout the night, as if they had obtained a victory. In that situation Tomyris attacked them, and cut them to pieces, while they were partly buried in sleep, and partly so drenched with wine, and surfeited with banqueting, that they could scarcely stand upright; and Cyrus himself was slain.⁶⁴

Polyainos attributes the ruse to her and isolates her fight from its dynastic context by failing to mention her son. At first sight, bearing in mind the negative connotation of the ruse in Herodotos, Polyainos seems to be another of those authors who portrayed Tomyris unfavorably as a perfidious "barbarian" and deprived her of her role as an avenger and counterpart of the immoderate tyrant.

<sup>60</sup> See Polyain. 8.50; 8.57; 8.58; 8.60.

<sup>61</sup> Harder, "Weibliche Strategien," 191–192.

<sup>62</sup> Polyain. 7 pr.; Pretzler, "Polyaenus," 99–101; Wheeler, "Polyaenus," 49, 51, 54. On the archetypal image of the dishonest "barbarian" in Greek Persika with its impact on later ancient writers, see Irene Madreiter, Stereotypisierung—Idealisierung—Indifferenz: Formen der Auseinandersetzung mit dem Achaimeniden-Reich in der griechischen Persika-Literatur (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2012), 100–101, 151–153.

<sup>63</sup> Polyain. 7 pr.

<sup>64</sup> Polyain. 8.28. Trans. R. Shepherd.

However, Polyainos only includes successful ruses as examples of clever and effective leadership, refrains from criticizing his protagonists (even in the case of sacrilege),⁶⁵ and frequently alters or invents details "so as to make a stratagem seem more successful or vivid."⁶⁶ Thus, in the case of Tomyris, he focuses on her skills as a clever commander who carefully laid a trap, remained composed when being pursued, and wisely anticipated the Persian lack of discipline when it came to wine. Tomyris demonstrated her mastery of the "trinity of stratagemic doctrine": planning, foresight, and timing.⁶⁷ In order to add her deeds to his female ruses and make her appear particularly clever, Polyainos focused on the decisive stratagem of the war and ascribed it to the winner. His erudite audience could probably have been expected to be familiar with the dynastic background of Tomyris' activities. However, since he, unlike Herodotos, did not want to portray her as a tragic winner, he had good reason to ignore her son. She was the Massagetan ruler, thus the defender of the dynasty. While Herodotos did not seem to be disturbed by her political role, he was surely aware of the fact that some of his audience from mainland Greece who were not familiar with Eastern structures regarded Kyros' fight against and defeat by a woman as disgraceful.

Two further aspects emphasize the favorable nature of Tomyris' portrayal. In the first book, Polyainos ascribes a similar ruse to Dionysos: when conquering India, the god made use of wine to befuddle the enemy.⁶⁸ Dionysos' additional stratagem of disguising his soldiers as bacchants and hiding their weapons under thyrsoi and ivy is related to the first ruse in book four, Polyainos' "favorite" book since it was dedicated to Macedonian stratagems.⁶⁹ According to him, the proto-historical Argead ruler Argaios tricked the invading Illyrians into believing that his small force was a huge one. He presented to the enemy Macedonian girls, female devotees of Dionysos, who carried thyrsoi instead of spears and had their faces covered with wreaths. The Illyrian ruler mistook them for men

<sup>65</sup> Rosenberger, "List," 148; Beek, "Mercenaries," 129; Conor Whately, "Military Manuals from Aeneas Tacticus to Maurice: Origins, Scholarship, Genre, Audience, and History," in Greek and Roman Military Manuals: Genre and History, eds. James T. Chlup and Conor Whately (London/New York: Routledge, 2021), 18. For examples of ruses involving sacrilege, see Polyain. 1.45; 7.35.2.

<sup>66</sup> Morton, "Polyaenus in Context," 122; Stadter, Plutarch's Historical Methods, 19.

<sup>67</sup> Wheeler, "Polyaenus," 29.

<sup>68</sup> Polyain. 1.1. When they began to dance and celebrate orgies, they were easy prey. See Rosenberger, "List," 134. Apparently, Polyainos hinted at Euripides' Bakchai with its special meaning to Macedonia (see Bakch. 409–411, 565–575). Euripides enjoyed the patronage of the Argead ruler Archelaos; the Bakchai might even have been performed first in Macedonia. See Frances Pownall, "Euripides," in Lexicon of Argead Makedonia, eds. Waldemar Heckel, Johannes Heinrichs, Sabine Müller and Frances Pownall (Berlin: Frank & Timme, 2020), 228–229. 69 Polyain. 4 pr.

and retreated. A grateful Argaios built a temple to Dionysos Pseudanor ("sham man") and called the priestesses Mimallones ("imitators of men").⁷⁰ It is suggested that this tradition celebrated the military aspect of the public role of some individual Macedonian (Argead and Ptolemaic) royal women.⁷¹ Given this, Polyainos established a literary link between Tomyris, Dionysos (who gave wine to mankind), and Macedonian (royal) women who were associated with warlike appearances.⁷² In the eyes of a proud Macedonian, this was surely a favorable depiction.

#### Conclusions

Ancient war, upheavals, and protests were not only a man's world. While there was a tendency in Greek and Roman literature to define war and protest as a male domain and perceive female involvement as transgressive, on the whole, the individual perception depends on the historical background, literary context, intention, and perspective of the author in question. This has been demonstrated by the example of Tomyris' fight against Kyros, the protest of a female leader against the annexation of her realm by a ruthless conqueror, in Herodotos and Polyainos. It has also been shown that protests by female protagonists defending their realm, dynasty, or the regnal claims of male members of their family would only be considered as such if they complied with the author's intention or stylistic tradition.

It seems to have been clear to both authors that Tomyris' role as a widowed royal woman who had to safeguard her son's future and preserve her husband's legacy provided her with military and political spaces of action. Herodotos and Polyainos both describe her fight against Kyros as legitimate. However, in accordance with their different genres, intentions, and worldviews, the versions differ completely. In accordance with the essential messages of his Histories, Herodotos creates a paradigm of the consequences of expansionist immoderation, ascribing the

<sup>70</sup> Polyain. 4.1. Cf. Kallim. F 503 Pf. Argaios is mentioned in the Argead genealogy preserved by Hdt. 8.139. See Rosenberger, "List," 143–44; Francesca Angiò, "Callimaco Fr. 503 Pf., Posidippo e le Mimallones." Papyrologia Lupiensia 27 (2018): 7–16; Francesca Angiò, "Mimallones," In Lexicon of Argead Makedonia, eds. Waldemar Heckel, Johannes Heinrichs, Sabine Müller and Frances Pownall (Berlin: Frank & Timme, 2020), 344–45.

<sup>71</sup> Olympias: Ath. 13.560 f; Adea-Eurydike: Diod. 19.11.2; 19.11.9; Ath. 13.560 f; Arr. Succ. 1.23; Arsinoë II: Poseidipp. Ep. 36 AB; Berenike II: Catull Carm. 66.25–28; Hyg. Astron. 2.24.11–18; Arsinoë III: Polyb. 5.83.3; 5.84.1; 5.87.6.

<sup>72</sup> While it is generally suggested that he published his collection in different stages, he might have been aware of the links. On the collection's publication: Whately, "Military Manuals," 18.

role of the tragic warner to Tomyris. At the end of the war, there are only losers on both sides.

Conversely, Polyainos wants to provide his audience with successful, memorable ruses. Unlike Herodotos, his Tomyris is no tragic winner but a clever strategist and commander with excellent timing and foresight. Polyainos' Macedonian identity may have contributed to his acceptance of the involvement of Macedonian and non-Macedonian royal women in war.

#### Works Cited


Bichler, Reinhold, and Rollinger, Robert. Herodot. Hildesheim: Olms, 2001.



Gera, Deborah. Warrior Women. The Anonymous Tractatus de Mulieribus. Leiden: Brill, 1997.


Pretzler, Maria. "Polyaenus the Historian? Stratagems and the Use of the Past in the Second Sophistic." In Polyainos. Neue Studien, edited by Kai Brodersen, 85–107. Berlin: Verlag Antike, 2010.

Richlin, Amy. "The Woman on the Street: Becoming Visible in Mid-Republican Rome." In New Directions in the Study of Women in the Greco-Roman World, edited by Ronnie Ancona and Georgia Tsouvala, 213–230. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021.


Rosenberger, Veit. "Die List und das Göttliche: Religion bei Polyainos." In Polyainos. Neue Studien, edited by Kai Brodersen, 133–148. Berlin: Verlag Antike, 2010.

Schettino, Maria T. Introduzione a Polieno. Milano: ETS, 1998.

Schmal, Stephan. "Ares und Aphrodite. Kämpfende Frauen in der antiken Ethnographie und Geschichtsschreibung." In Geschlechterdefinitionen und Geschlechtergrenzen in der Antike, edited by Elke Hartmann, Udo Hartmann and Karen Pietzner, 99–116. Stuttgart: Steiner, 2007.


Wiesehöfer, Josef. Das antike Persien von 550 v. Chr. bis 650 n. Chr. Zürich: Patmos, 1993.

Williams, Nadya. "The Blind Leading the Blind? Civilian Writers and Audiences of Military Manuals in the Roman World." In Greek and Roman Military Manuals Genre and History, edited by James T. Chlup and Conor Whately, 55–77. London/New York: Routledge, 2021.

Worman, Nancy. Abusive Mouths in Classical Athens. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.

Sigrun Borgen Wik

# 3 The Voice of Reason or Unintended Protest? Whetting by Servile Women in the Íslendingasǫgur

#### Introduction

It is often the case in the Old Norse sagas that the only thing more potentially destructive than the weapons of men are the words of women. Nowhere else is this as literal as in the scenes of whetting, where the man's honor is used as leverage to force him into taking revenge, and many bloodfeuds are ignited due to a woman's insistence. The role of this female whetter is a well-known motif in the 13th-century sagas of Icelanders (Íslendingasǫgur), but while the most recognizable whetters are elite, Icelandic women, some of the most curious cases are those of low-status slaves and servant women, who with their words can influence their masters to a lethal degree.¹ What was the purpose of including these literary scenes of unfree and servile women momentarily controlling their male masters? Did the saga authors with these scenes intentionally or unintentionally create depictions of some form of gendered protest?

The dynamic between the whetted free yeoman farmer and the whetting servile woman stands in stark contrast to how servile women are generally shown to be regarded and treated in the sagas and in the Old Norse legal codes. For example, in the older legal codes such as the Norwegian Frostaþingslǫg, a man could kill his own slave without repercussions if he confessed to it.² Furthermore, while rape

2 "Den ældre Frostathings-Lov," in Norges Gamle Love Indtil 1387 [NGL], vol. 1, eds. R. Keyser and P. A. Munch (Christiania: Chr. Gröndahl, 1846), 5:20. Similar laws are found in Grágás: see the Konungsbók in Islændernes lovbog i fristatens tid [K] ed. Vilhjálmur Finsen (Copenhagen: Brødrene Berlings bogtrykkeri, 1852), § 111. See also Staðarholsbók in Grágás: Efter Det Arnamagnaeanske

<sup>1</sup> The collective term used in this chapter for slaves, unfree women, and servants is servile women. This umbrella term has been chosen because it is not always stated exactly what social position these female whetters had, as they are often referred to simply as kona (woman) or griðkona (servant woman). More often than male slaves, the women are not given names and are instead referred to with these titles, as well as the more specific ambátt (slave woman.) See Ruth Mazo Karras, Slavery and Society in Medieval Scandinavia (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1988); Ruth Mazo Karras, "Concubinage and Slavery in the Viking Age," Scandinavian Studies 62, no. 2 (1990): 141–162. For a more recent look at Old Norse slavery, see Stefan Brink, Thraldom: A History of Slavery in the Viking Age (Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2021).

Open Access. © 2023 the author(s), published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111102757-003

and sexual assault were generally judged harshly in the sagas, even if the act was done by a man of high position against a free woman from a free family, this was not the case when the act was committed against a female slave. According to the Icelandic law code Grágás, there was no punishment for the sexual exploitation of slaves or sexual slavery.³ While the socially inferior female whetter's unequal relationship with the whetted male can, to some extent, be determined by the conversation between the two, it is also their uncharacteristic directness in these moments, this subversion of roles, and the inherent disrespect and challenge of his most important possession, his honor, which makes this role so transgressive, as well as a depiction of protest, unintentionally or not.

The sagas mostly describe the lives of the wealthier families in Iceland, and it was their wealthy and influential descendants who had the stories of their esteemed ancestors retold and later written down in the 13th century. The characters that are named and followed in the narratives are either in positions of relative wealth or deal with those who do. Slaves and servants are never the real protagonists in the sagas, and it is rare that their inner lives are displayed. Those few times where they are given this focus and occasionally are shown to act based on their own will are used to explain an action which in turn will have consequences for the more affluent main characters. In few other cases is this as noticeable as in the whetting and whetting-like scenes.

#### Whetting and Gender

The most distinctive part of whetting compared to most forms of influence and skills that a character may have in the sagas is that this act is shown to be an external form of influence driven by men's dependency on honor as a social currency. It is external as the whetter does not need to be in possession of any unique skills, nor do they have to be of a particular status or gender to refer to the com-

Haandskrift Nr. 334 Fol. Staðarhólsbók. [St] ed. and trans. Vilhjálmur Finsen (Copenhagen: Gyldendalske Boghandel, 1879).

<sup>3</sup> For example, a man had the right to buy a female slave with the intention of sexual intercourse (til karnaðar). Ruth Mazo Karras, "Servitude and Sexuality in Medieval Iceland," in From Sagas to Society: Comparative Approaches to Early Iceland, ed. Gísli Pálsson (London: Hisarlik Press, 1992), 302; Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist, "Rape in the Icelandic Sagas: An Insight in the Perceptions about Sexual Assaults on Women in the Old Norse World," Journal of Family History 40, no. 4 (2015): 440.

munity's expectations of upholding one's honor.⁴ This presents whetting as a unique tool for those with an otherwise very restricted Handlungsspielraum (freedom of action) and otherwise limited influence within the society portrayed in the Íslendingasǫgur. This action is then used by a character to get their will across, most often by those who do not belong in the able-bodied, influential male sphere, be it women, feeble or aged men, or similar less influential groups.

In the context of these depictions of whetting, protest is defined here as a public display of objection and an act of dissent against social norms and hierarchies, which in this case includes the sagas' depictions of the servile woman whetter speaking up against the male master. Whetting, as it is presented in the sagas, is defined here as the act of inciting someone to do as you wish, generally against their better judgment, based on the outside threat of societal emasculation and reputational damage. The whetting includes a taunt, questioning or challenging the man's honor and masculinity, and the issuing of an ultimatum that states that if he does not do as she says, his honor will be forfeit in the eyes of his milieu. His reaction might be anger, resistance, or offense toward the whetter, but most often, he still feels obligated to go through with his vengeance. After he has gone through with it, his honor may be temporarily restored, but as tends to happen within the sagas, someone from the killed man's family will soon also wish to take revenge, which creates a cycle that only will stop with the reconciliation of reasonable men at the assembly (Þing). With this, the whetter is shown here to be able to pose a threat to masculine elite roles by simply voicing their doubt of or objection to the man's actions and thus his status within the honor- and masculinity-dominated order.

In Old Norse literature, honor is presented as an all-compassing ideal, as well as a social currency, and because of this, the act of social extorsion in the form of whetting is shown to often succeed with the whetted man subjecting himself to the whetter's will. Preben Meulengracht Sørensen presents honor as the fundamental ethical value system in society, which lacks a superior power structure to control it:

<sup>4</sup> Scholarly works on feuds, honor, and whetting include William Ian Miller, Bloodtaking and Peacemaking: Feud, Law and Society in Saga Iceland (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990); Preben Meulengracht Sørensen, Fortælling og ære: Studier i islændingesagaerne. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1995; Sarah M. Anderson and Karen Swenson, eds., Cold Counsel: Women in Old Norse Literature and Mythology: A Collection of Essays (New York: Routledge, 2002); Carolyn Anderson, "No Fixed Point: Gender and Blood Feuds in Njal's Saga," Philological Quarterly 81, no. 4 (2002).

Til et samfund, der bygger på individets ukrænkelighed og ansvar for sig selv, og som ikke har nogen overordnet magtinstans, der kan kontrollere ukrænkeligheden og ansvarligheten, hører et stærkt udviklet begrep om personlig ære.⁵

To a society built upon the individual's inviolability and self-reliability and without a superior power structure to control the inviolability and responsibility follows a strongly developed concept of personal honor

This strict view of honor and masculinity is also visible in some of the oldest Old Norse law codes, such as the Norwegian Gulaþingslög and the Icelandic Grágás, where slander directed at a man's masculinity and honor were harshly punished with outlawry.⁶ Men fight and kill in response to these kinds of offenses multiple times in the sagas, but in contrast, female whetters are generally not shown to be similarly punished for questioning or even rejecting a man's masculinity.⁷ This also goes for those who are subjugated to the whetted men.

Despite the differences in class and their masters' control over them, as well as the fact that these servile women are challenging the former's honor, they are almost never shown to be punished for it. At best, the men come with an accusation of the whetter's bad intentions and of the servile woman's negative character before finally enacting what they were whetted into doing. These reactions are not unique to the female servants and can be more direct and personal in cases where a close relative or wife whets.⁸ This is likely due to their offense being perceived as more personal. This stands in stark contrast to the many cases of physical and deadly retributions when men disgrace and deny a man's masculinity.⁹

<sup>5</sup> Sørensen, Fortælling og ære. 187. For more on Old Norse honor, see also Helgi Þorláksson, "Virtir menn og vel metnir" Sæmdarmenn. Um heiður á þjóðveldisöld, eds. Helgi Þorláksson et al. (Reykjavík: Hugvísindastofnun Háskóla Íslands, 2001), 15–22; Vilhjálmur Árnason, "An Ethos in Transformation: Conflicting Values in the Sagas," Gripla 20 (2009): 225.

<sup>6</sup> In Gulaþinglög § 138, K § 237, and St § 375 derogatory speech can be punishable by outlawry. In St § 376, there are three fullrettisorð (words requiring full personal compensation) that are severe enough to incur outlawry, as well as to be killed for: if a man calls another man ragr (unmanly and perverse), or used sexually by a man, or sodomized. A similar punishment is found in Gulaþinglög § 196. See "Den ældre Gulathings-Lov" in NGL.

<sup>7</sup> One noticable exception here is Grettir from Grettis saga, but who himself stands out from societal norms.

<sup>8</sup> One example is Flosi's reaction in Brennu-Njáls saga: "'You vile beast!' he said, 'you would rather that we did what would harm us the most. Cold are the counsels of women!'" Brennu-Njáls saga, ed. Einar Ól. Sveinsson, Íslenzk fornrit [ÍF] XII (Reykjavík: Hið Íslenzka Fornritafélag, 1954), ch. 116. 9 For more on defamation and libel speech, and the laws on it, see Preben Meulengracht Sørensen, The Unmanly Man: Concepts of Sexual Defamation in Early Northern Society, The Viking Collection: Studies in Northern Civilization (Odense: Odense University Press, 1983). 14–17.

The lack of repercussions for these servile women's offensive and harmful whetting may have several explanations. For one, there is the narrational intent behind the scenes. Like with other cases of whetting, these scenes are there to explain how and why certain acts of bloodfeud were initiated by the men being forced into action by reminders of honor spoken by someone else. They can also be considered a literary device to highlight the fragility of the honor of the men being forced into action. In this way, these unnamed characters are manifestations of the local community's opinions, expectations, imaginations, as well as traditions. This is further supported by how they are rarely given names or a background and seemingly only appear for the brief scene to take place before disappearing from the saga afterward. Their lack of personality and any visible intention(s) also means that they are also rarely given much with regard to negative or positive traits in comparison to the whetters' position over the whetted individual. As they are rarely given depth, be it personal motivations, kinship mentions, or even names, there is the notion that they are less like proper characters and more like representative voices or mouthpieces of the public opinion of the saga's setting, as well as the whetted man's surroundings.

In cases in which the whetters are the wives, mothers, or sisters of the whetted man, the intention is generally the re-establishment of his honor and revenge—not just for his sake but also for that of his family. This is most often the act of revenge against another person or family for an action that has caused grief, the loss of a family member, or the loss of honor. The whetter thus makes use of the external societal demand to uphold one's own honorable social status through revenge, giving them access to influence they would otherwise not possess over the whetted man. In cases where the whetting is successful, it is shown to have grave consequences, such as death and further feuding until a peaceful settlement can be achieved between the surviving men. Therefore, through the manipulation of social expectations for men and their honor, the female whetter imposes their will, going against the social order that is otherwise shown, which reads as a form of protest. This transgressive action of whetting is an act of protest by way of the whetter forcefully getting their way by using social constructs that otherwise exclude women against the men around them. Furthermore, this protest is gendered in the way whetting is primarily shown in the Íslendingasǫgur to be an action performed by women against men.¹⁰

<sup>10</sup> The act of whetting is often considered dishonorable for men, and male whetters are generally emasculated in one way or another, such as the old and weakened father or the despicable and cowardly man who cannot or does not dare to fight. In both cases, the characters lack masculinity and honor, which is shown to be either pitiful or loathed. Their emasculated roles also relate to the

In contrast to the cases of whetting by women of higher social rank, there is a curiosity about servile women whetting, their presented motivation for it or lack thereof, and the reasoning that the author has for portraying them in such a manner. While acts of whetting done by wives and family members tend to be motivated by a collective sense of honor connected to the family, there are also cases of whetting where it is the woman's self-interest that is shown as the driving force behind it.¹¹ In these cases, she is shown to be wanting something for herself in what is portrayed in a more egoistical way, be it petty, personal revenge against a man that narratively contrasts with the communal idea of honor or the motivation of greed. In the cases of servile women, however, it is harder to tell what the saga author intends their motivation to be, as they are usually given limited descriptions and are only shown for a brief time. This raises the question of whether or not servile women of the 10th-11th century would have been affected by the dishonor that befell the man and his family, but there are few signs of this within the 13th-century depictions of them. Instead, the explanation may be that these nameless servile women are simply the designated mouthpieces in the narrative for the local society's view of honor and the specific situation at hand. In this case, it is likely that they were used to re-establish a sense of conformity in the way the rigid honor system was maintained. Furthermore, they might have been used as a way of explaining why the protagonist decided to perform these often otherwise unexplainable and dangerous actions.

#### Whetting as Protest

With this narrative-based intention in mind, can whetting still be considered protest? Within the saga narrative, someone with little influence within the social sphere is somehow able to help manipulate and force their will forward to change events in a way that would otherwise not be possible for them, as the ideals of masculinity and honor are something that they themselves lack due to either their own gender, their social position, or their inability to fit within the ideal. Of the otherwise less influential groups, there are servants of the men who tend to be in full control of their lives but who, through whetting and the external influence it is based on, are pressured into doing a possibly deadly action. One such example is found in Hrafnkels saga Freysgoða when the servant woman (griðko-

gendered aspect of whetting as they are shown to be unable to personally bring out the revenge that is deemed necessary.

<sup>11</sup> Particularly negatively depicted examples of this are the whetting of Freydís Eiríksdóttir from Grœnlendinga saga and those of Hallgerðr and Queen Kormlöð from Brennu-Njáls saga.

na) decides to whet the aging Hrafnkell into taking vengeance for an offense committed by the brother of the man she spots while working:

Kona ein var við vatnit ok þó lérept sín. Hon sér ferð manna. Griðkona sjá sópar saman léreptunum ok hleypr heim. Hon kastar þeim niðr úti hjá viðarkesti, en hleypr inn. Hrafnkell var þá eigi upp staðinn, ok nǫkkurir vilðarmenn lágu í skálanum, en verkmenn váru til íðnar farnir. Þetta var um heyjaannir. Konan tók til orða, er hon kom inn: "Satt er flest þat, er fornkveðit er, at svá ergisk hverr sem eldisk. Verðr sú lítil virðing, sem snimma leggsk á, ef maðr lætr síðan sjálfr af með ósóma ok hefir eigi traust til at reka þess réttar nǫkkurt sinni, ok eru slík mikil undr um þann mann, sem hraustr hefir verit." … Lætr griðkonan ganga af kappi.¹²

A woman was washing linens by the waterside when she saw men passing by. The servant woman collected the linens and ran home, and there she threw them down by a stack of wood and ran inside. Hrafnkell had not gotten up from bed, and some of his followers lay about in the hall, but the workmen had already each gone about their business as it was the hay-making season. As she stepped inside, the woman said: "The old saying is true, that everyone becomes wretched with age. There is little value in the honor that was earned early if a man later lets himself be disgraced and has no courage to get justice, and it is shocking for a man who has previously been so tough." … The servant woman kept at it.

In this scene, the reader follows this unnamed servant woman and her engagement with the matter at hand and how her words are essential in involving Hrafnkell in the manhunt described in the following chapter. With her words that refer to her master's weakened sense of honor due to his age, as well as to the splendidness of the opponent, she successfully pressures Hrafnkell into action. Soon he and seventeen men are heavily armed and set off to chase the offender. Hrafnkell's reaction to this excessive berating is also telling: "Kann vera, at þú hjalir helzti margt satt, eigi fyrir því, at þér gangi gott til" (You might be right aboutalot, even if you are not saying it with goodwill).¹³ The reader has not been given any impression of the relationship between the servant woman and Hrafnkell beforehand, and while the speech refers to his honor (or the loss thereof) as well as the advice on what to do to make him regain it, it is Hrafnkell who implies that she is disregarding his wellbeing, or even instigating something that may harm him. This is not unique, as whetted men sometimes make similar exclamations after a whetting when this has been performed by their relatives or wives. However, while these related characters have the excuse of also being connected by a shared sense of honor, the serv-

<sup>12</sup> "Hrafnkels saga Freysgoða," in Austfirðinga sögur, ed. Jón Jóhannesson, ÍF XI (Reykjavík: Hið Íslenzka Fornritafélag, 1950), ch. 8. 13 Ibid.

ant woman supposedly does not have this and is thus seemingly driven by unknown, possibly ill intentions.

This is not to say that servile women are not shown to care for what befalls others and their kin. In one example from Brennu-Njáls saga, a nameless woman of unspecified but seemingly inferior social position (kona) witnesses the fight between the hero Gunnarr and the man Otkell and rushes home to the farmer and saga villain, Mǫrðr, to beg him to stop the fighting. Mǫrðr, being the ruthless man he is, refuses her requests, even when she, as if voicing the moral code he is expected to follow, says: "Eigi munt þú þat vilja mæla… þar mun vera Gunnarr, frændi þinn, ok Otkell, vinr þinn" (You cannot mean that when your kinsman Gunnarr and your friend Otkell are there).¹⁴ Mǫrðr tells her off for this: "Klifar þú nǫkkut ávallt, mannfýla þín?" (Can you never hold your tongue, you old hag?).¹⁵ He pointedly ignores the battle. Here, too, the unnamed woman is not seen again, nor is her engagement with the fight explained, even if she evidently is shown to care for the fight at hand, as well as for Mǫrðr's relationship with the two men. From a narrative perspective, her role is primarily to bring the news to Mǫrðr, whose disregard for the concept of honor and the two men is highlighted, while she represents the common man's perspective of righteousness. Still, it shows a woman regarded as less than Mǫrðr speaking up against him by referring to his familial obligations and honor, even if, when dealing with someone as despicable as Mǫrðr, she does not succeed.¹⁶ She is also not shown to be punished for her actions, besides his insult.

Another example might be the female servant (heimakona) in Eyrbyggja saga who successfully rouses Þorleifr kimbi and his companions to battle with discreet yet inciting words. This happens after she sees their enemy pass by to deliver the fine for killing one of Þorbranðr's slaves:

Hurðin var opin, en heimakona ein var í durunum ok heyrði váttnefnuna; gekk hon þá tíl stofu ok mælti, "Þat er bæði," sagði hon, "at hann Steinþórr af Eyri er drengiligr, enda mæltisk honum vel, er hann fœrði þrælsgjǫldin."¹⁷

The gate was open, and a servant woman was in the doorway and heard the witness-naming. She then stepped into the living room and spoke: "That Steinþórr of Eyri was manly and spoke well when he brought the slave's fine."

<sup>14</sup> Brennu-Njáls saga, ch. 54.

<sup>15</sup> Ibid.

<sup>16</sup> The display of a servile woman being more knowledgeable about honor and a man's obligations toward it further shames Mörðr in comparison.

<sup>17</sup> Eyrbyggja Saga, ed. Einar Ól. Sveinsson, ÍF IV (Reykjavík: Hið Íslenzka Fornritafélag, 1957), ch. 44.

While not as direct as some of the other cases of whetting, it is still the words of the servant that at last drives the already angered men to action: "Ok er Þorleifr kimbi heyrði þetta, þá hljóp hann fram ok aðrir Þorbrandssynir, ok síðan gengu fram allir, þeir er í stofunni váru" (And when Þorleifr kimbi heard that, he rushed out with the other sons of Þorbranðr. After that, all the men that were in the living room followed).¹⁸ There might be a connection between her actions and the story of the killed slave. The slave, called Egill the Strong, is said to be unhappy with his unfree status, and he frequently asked Þorbranðr and his sons to free him, stating that he would do anything in return. Egill is then tasked to kill one of the Breiðvíking men, the enemies of Þorbranðr's sons, but he fails and is killed.¹⁹ Considering the care given to explaining Egill's motivations, the reader is presented with an instance of poetic justice: The masters first send a slave to take revenge, who is killed in his pursuit for freedom, only to be sent to their own deaths by another servile person to maintain their honor soon after.

Besides whetting, servile people also appear when voicing their opinion against a free man's current status and their lack of freedom.²⁰ Late in Egils saga Skallagrímssonar, when the once strong Egill has grown old and feeble, some working women mock him when he stumbles and falls over:

Konur nǫkkurar sá þat ok hlógu at ok mæltu: 'Farinn ertu nú, Egill, með ǫllu, er þú fellr einn saman.' Þá segir Grímr bóndi: "Miðr hæddu konur at okkr, þá er við várum yngri."²¹

Some women saw that and laughed at it, saying: "You are badly off now, Egill, when you fall over by yourself." Then Grímr the farmer said: "Women mocked us less when we were younger."

Later, Egill is further brushed aside when he becomes blind and struggles to warm himself by the hearth without getting in the workers' way. The woman preparing the food (matseljan) even orders him to get out of their way and go back to his bench so that they can do their work: "'Statt þú upp,' segir hon, 'og gakk til rúms þíns ok lát oss vinna verk vár'" ("Get up, you," she said, "and go to your

<sup>18</sup> Forest S. Scott has pointed out that while women might have felt a responsibility as a guardian of honor, this specific case might be more motivated by her social class than her gender. Forest S. Scott, "The woman who knows: Female characters of Eyrbyggja Saga," Parergon 3, no. 1 (1985): 77. 19 Eyrbyggja saga, ch. 43.

<sup>20</sup> While the identities of the different people who chide Egill in his old age are somewhat vague in this example as they are only referred to as konur, matseljan, and maðr, the activities that they are said to do allow us to assume them to be workers or servants, and thus people who would be below Egill, the uncle of the lady of the house.

<sup>21</sup> Egils saga Skallagrímssonar, ed. Sigurður Nordal, ÍF II (Reykjavik: Hið Íslenzka Fornritafélag, 1933), ch. 85.

bed and let us do our work").²² Here, the text and the following stanzas said by Egill point out his physical deterioration and similarly declining hierarchal position, and the working women are presented as those who judge men's worth. When it comes to old men, such worth is lacking, which seemingly mirrors the general societal view.²³ In this case, the working women are even allowed to order the old warrior around without repercussions. As with Hrafnkell, the servant women are quick to judge the man perceived to have fallen from might and grace.²⁴

At times, servile women voice the prevailing sentiment on their lesser status when mocking men. One such case is found in Svarfdæla saga, where a slave woman (ambátt) appears in the living room door and sees the young boy Klaufi fighting Þórðr, a male slave:

Þeir takast fangbrǫgðum ok glíma lengi, þar til ambátt ein kom í stofudyrrnar ok kallar þetta ambattáfang, er hvárrgi fell, ok bað þá kyssast ok hætta síðan. Klaufi reddist við þetta ok tekr Þórð upp á bringu sér ok keyrir niðr fall mikit, svá at allir ætluði hann meiddan.²⁵

They started wrestling and did it for a long time until a slave woman stood in the living room door and called this a slave woman's fight, as none fell, and told them to kiss and make up. Klaufi was angered by this and lifted Þórðr up above his chest and threw him hard onto the floor, and everyone thought he was badly injured.

Her reaction to seeing the two men wrestling is to compare their fight to a "slave woman fight" (ambáttafáng) in a derogatory manner, referring to them not only as feminine but also unfree, something that would undoubtedly be beneath both the

<sup>22</sup> Ibid.

<sup>23</sup> For more on the negative image of old men, see Ármann Jakobsson, "The Specter of Old Age: Nasty Old Men in the Sagas of Icelanders," The Journal of English and Germanic Philology 104, no. 3 (2005); Jón Viðar Sigurðsson. "Becoming 'Old', Ageism and Taking Care of the Elderly in Iceland c. 900–1300," in Youth and Age in the Medieval North, ed. Shannon Lewis-Simpson (Leiden: Brill, 2008), 227–242.

<sup>24</sup> While many of the cases of servile whetters are female, male servile whetters are also occasionally shown to speak up in tense situations, albeit not as distinctly and directly as the female servile whetters. There are also several non-whetting cases where slaves, húsmenn, and other kinds of servants are shown to talk back to both their owners and other free men, whereupon they might be threatened in return or get away with it. See, for example, the húsmaðr in Hænsa-Þóris saga and Narfi in Kormáks saga. There are also male servants who comment on the current situation, especially if they are pulled into feuds, such as the servants who are ordered to kill someone else's servants in Brennu-Njáls saga. Non-servile male whetters appear to be more limited when it comes to whetting as they are more likely to face the punishment for libel speech.

<sup>25</sup> "Svarfdæla saga," in Eyfirðinga sǫgur, ed. Jónas Kristjánsson, ÍF IX (Reykjavík: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1956), ch. 13.

young, free boy and the male slave.²⁶ This and the additional request for them to kiss and make up seemingly further enrages Klaufi and drives him to beat up and kill the male slave to prove her wrong. Despite his actions against the male slave to prove himself, however, he is not said to punish the woman for her outspokenness.

The tradition of the outspoken servile character is not unique to the Íslendingasǫgur, as the stock character of the clever slave is found within ancient Greek and Roman comedy, although these tend to be male slaves.²⁷ However, these comedic stock characters are often shown to be less concerned with their master's honor than with cheating their master out of his money and, in general, with getting even.²⁸ In Perinthia (The Girl from Perinthus), Daos the slave says: "A slave who is blessed with an easy-going, empty-headed master and cheats him hasn't accomplished any mighty deed in making a yet greater dolt of the one who was a dolt long since."²⁹ Meanwhile, in Mostellaria (The Haunted House), Theopropides' slave Tranio at one point says: "dicito iis, quo pacto tuus te servos ludificaverit." (tell them how your slave made a spectacle out of you).³⁰ These characters are tricksters and are often given despicable or feeble traits, but they are still shown to possess more control and understanding of the situation than their owners, and this is not always portrayed negatively.³¹ In Pseudolus, a slave makes a similar yet less self-criminalizing statement: "'Take me as your counsellor,' he says. '…often has

<sup>26</sup> At the end of the previous chapter, Griss says that he intends to subdue the young Klaufi like a slave ("Gríss kvaðst vildu þrælka Klaufa"), only for the next chapter to show Klaufi being anything but subdued, as well as the servile people's own lack of submission. This could be intended as a joke or a comment on servile people's behavior. "Svarfdæla saga," ch. 13.

<sup>27</sup> The Plautine slave in particular displays traits of cleverness as the one making plans and leading the young master and his friends. See Ferdinand Stürner, "The Servus Callidus in Charge," in A Companion to Plautus, ed. George Fredric Franko and Dorota Dutsch (2020); See also Kathleen Mc-Carthy, Slaves, Masters, and the Art of Authority in Plautine Comedy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000); Ben Akrigg and Rob Tordoff, eds., Slaves and Slavery in Ancient Greek Comic Drama (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013).

<sup>28</sup> Amy Richlin, Slave Theater in the Roman Republic: Plautus and Popular Comedy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017), 203.

<sup>29</sup> Menander, "The Girl from Perinthus," in Menander: The Principal Fragments, ed. and trans. Francis Greenleaf Allinson (London: William Heinemann, 1921), 423.

<sup>30</sup> Titus Maccius Plautus and William Ramsay, "Mostellaria," in Mostellaria of Plautus, ed. George G. Ramsay (Oxford: Macmillan, 1869), 1150; Richlin, Slave Theater in the Roman Republic, 20.

<sup>31</sup> Amy Richlin suggests that slaves or freed people may have been the audience, or an audience, for some Roman comedy. This, together with the roles being played by lower-class people and slaves, would in turn shape the depiction of the clever, underdog slave. Richlin, Slave Theater in the Roman Republic, 12–14.

a slave of good character been more prudent than his master.'"³² While their motivations might vary, the audience is still often expected to sympathize with the slaves, while their Roman owners may, in turn, be made fun of.³³ Unlike the slaves in Greek and Roman comedies, who are sometimes given personalities, self-serving agendas, as well as pride in their own intriguing, this is rarely the case for the servile people in the Íslendingasǫgur. What the literary traditions do have in common is the theme of the socially inferior and otherwise seemingly powerless character being able to control their superiors by way of counsel or whetting and how their actions can be connected to societal fears of uncertainty underneath the comedic twist.³⁴

#### Sympathy for the Protesting of Enslaved Women?

Besides whetting, slave women are shown to perform other acts of protest and show a sense of honor in the sagas, and sometimes these acts are supported by the narrative. Perhaps the most discussed example is that of Melkorka, an Irish princess who is made a slave and eventually brought to Iceland by her owner Hǫskuldr. During her first years as a slave and concubine, she refuses to speak to Hǫskuldr or anyone else, instead pretending to be mute and secretly teaching her son, Óláfr, Irish.³⁵ This is shown as a private protest, where only her use of her speech, language, and name is something she can control and withhold at will. Both her

<sup>32</sup> Philip Whaley Harsh, "The Intriguing Slave in Greek Comedy," Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 86 (1955), 139; Roberta Stewart, "Who's Tricked: Models of Slave Behavior in Plautus's 'Pseudolus'," Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome. Supplementary Volumes 7 (2008): 69–96.

<sup>33</sup> Richlin, Slave Theater in the Roman Republic, 26.

<sup>34</sup> A comedic role related to the outspoken slave is that of the satirical "little man" of low or unremarkable standing, whose taunts toward those in power are softened by the humor. This allows them to challenge the position of the powerful men in charge. E. Paul Durrenberger and Jonathan Wilcox describe this character within the Old Norse sagas as follows: "The little man's satire of those in power shows the use of humor to decrease the perceived honor of its target. This is centrally achieved through the use of insults, which makeatwofold contribution to the stock of honor. The one casting the insult increases his honor-account by his display of wit, while the humor decreases the reputation of the characters he or she verbally attacks." E. Paul Durrenberger and Jonathan Wilcox, "Humor as a Guide to Social Change: Bandamanna Saga and Heroic Values," in From Sagas to Society: Comparative Approaches to Early Iceland, ed. Gísli Pálsson (London: Hisarlik Press, 1992), 117. These types of characters also share similarities with the role of the jester, in which he and he alone can safely make fun of his superior's faults. See Beatrice K. Otto, Fools Are Everywhere: The Court Jester Around the World (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001). 35 Laxdæla saga, ed. Einar Ól, Sveinsson, ÍF V (Reykjavik: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 1934), ch. 13.

self-imposed silence and her secret communication with her son are actions done in opposition to her masters and to her status as a slave.³⁶ Her opposition does not end there as, after a rivalry and physical confrontation with the housewife Jorunn, during which Melkorka does not hesitate to strike her back, Hǫskuldr must send her away to her own farm, Melkorkustǫðum. With time, she feels neglected by Hǫskuldr, and she decides to make him regret it: "Melkorku þykkir Hǫskuldr gera svívirðliga til sín; hefir hon þat í húg sér, at gera þá hluti nǫkkura, er honum þœtti eigi betr" (To Melkorka, it seemed that Hǫskuldr.was treating her shamefully, and she decided to do something for which he would be sorry).³⁷ What she decides to do is, first, make her son leave Iceland to connect with her Irish family and, second, marry a free man, two things that she knows will infuriate Hǫskuldr. She also shows discontent with her status, albeit more in how it is related to her son: "Eigi nenni ek, at þú sér ambáttarsonr kallaðr lengr" (I no longer want to hear you be called a slave woman's son).³⁸ In the end, both her plans succeed, and Óláfr travels to Ireland and gains much honor and respect thanks to his mother's background and efforts.³⁹

The tragic fate of Yngvildr fagrskinn (fair-cheek) in Svarfdæla saga is a more brutal depiction of a proud free woman-made-slave,arare case of a woman's whetting and intervention being thoroughly punished. Yngvildr is a former concubine (frilla) who is made Klaufi's wife, and as she is deemed responsible for the deaths of him and Karl the Older, she is sold several times to large and evil-looking men (miklir ok illiligir) by Karl Karlsson.⁴⁰ Karl the Younger does this in an attempt to break her spirit and have her admit defeat, and in the following years, she endures extensive abuse and torture, something that is exceptional in the Íslendinga-

<sup>36</sup> Jóhanna Katrín Friðriksdóttir, Valkyrie: The Women of the Viking World (London: Bloomsbury, 2020), 125.

<sup>37</sup> Laxdæla saga, ch. 20.

<sup>38</sup> Ibid.

<sup>39</sup> The author of Laxdœla saga is particularly invested in Óláfr's rise in status, and in turn Melkorka's, and even makes the saga hero Egill Skallagrímmsson speak up in his favor when his daughter Þorgerðr at first refuses to marry him due to him being the son of a slave girl. He goes so far as to say that Óláfr is much better off on his mother's side than on his father's side and that this should more than suffice for him and Þorgerðr (Er hann miklu betr borinn í móðurkyn en fǫðurœtt, ok væri oss þat þó fullboðit). This is also of importance for the descendants, such as the saga's hero Kjartan, who is stated to be named after the Irish king, and his great-grandfather, Myrkjartan. Laxdœla saga, ch. 20, 23; William Norman, "The Treatment of Irish Ancestry in Laxdœla saga and Njáls saga," Saga-Book 41 (2017): 98–100.

<sup>40</sup> While concubines' positions can vary, in the Íslendingasǫgur, the term frilla is closely connected with slavery. Ruth Mazo Karras, Unmarriages: Women, Men, and Sexual Unions in Medieval Europe (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012), 106; "Svarfdæla saga," ch. 26.

sǫgur, especially for women.⁴¹ Yngvildr's protests against submitting to her male masters are expressed several times, such as in the moments where she refuses to say what Karl demands of her: "… ok váru skapsmunir hennar inir sǫmu" (… and her attitude was still the same). A similar sentiment is shared by her masters: "Vit bǫrðum hana aldri svá, at hon vili vinna fyrir okkr" (We could never beat her enough to make her work for us).⁴² Unlike Melkorka, however, this pride is not rewarded, and after years of abuse, Yngvildr at last lets go of her pride and submits, whereupon the men all blame and reject her for their feud. The last that is said of her is that it is uncertain whether she married again or whether she killed herself due to grief.⁴³

In both of these women's cases, their portrayals differ from most of the unfree women as they are both named characters and are shown to have a past as free women with relations to other free characters. They both show acts of protest against their subjugation by their male masters, either by refusing to work or by withholding information and parts of themselves. They are both shown not to be slaves originally, and their role as such is either undone by the end of the saga or otherwise changes. Still, seemingly only Melkorka's pride and protest are regarded in a positive light, considering how she is regarded by her surroundings as well as how she is rewarded by the narrative. Meanwhile, Yngvildr's protest breaks down, and her torture does not end before she gives in, something Karl the Younger suggests, as if to justify his actions: "Þá mun ek af leggja heðan í frá, ok svá mundak gert hafa, ef þú hefðir þetta fyrr mælt" (Then I will stop this, and I would have done so if you had said this earlier).⁴⁴ However, after she gives in, Yngvildr is still rejected by the men Karl returns her to, which raises the question of

<sup>41</sup> The abuse and physical descriptions of Yngvildr's body are uncharacteristically graphic, including whipping, her being described as nude and bloody all over (alblóðug ǫll), and how her capturer would rather torment her to death than sell her at a loss (Eigi nenni ek at selja hana með affǫllum, heldr mun nek kvelja hana til dauða). "Svarfdæla saga", ch. 27.

<sup>42</sup> For more on Yngvildr's story, see Robin Waugh, "Misogyny, Women's Language, and Love-Language: Yngvildr fagrkinn in 'Svarfdæla saga'," Scandinavian Studies 70, no. 2 (1998): 151–194; Helga Kress, "Taming the Shrew: The Rise of Patriarchy and the Subordination of the Feminine in Old Norse Literature," in Cold Counsel: Women in Old Norse Literature and Mythology, eds. Sarah M. Anderson with Karen Swenson (New York: Routledge, 2002), 88–89; "Svarfdæla saga," ch. 27.

<sup>43</sup> Suicide is another rare occurrence in the Íslendingasǫgur, in particular when it is due to grief rather than as a way of maintaining allegiances or honor, such as is seen in Vatnsdæla saga. Marion Poilvez, "A Troll Did It?: Trauma as a Paranormal State in the Íslendingasögur," in Paranormal Encounters in Iceland 1150–1400, eds. Ármann Jakobsson and Miriam Mayburd (Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2020), 74, n. 34; "Svarfdæla saga," ch. 28.

<sup>44</sup> "Svarfdæla saga," ch. 27.

whether or not her protest was considered the correct action or not after all.⁴⁵ As Robin Waugh says, the treatment of Yngvildr reveals a particularly strong disdain for the act of whetting, even compared to other sagas that show disapproval of the action.⁴⁶ Unlike the other cases of whetting women made into scapegoats, whether servile or free, no other woman receives the same punishment as Yngvildr for daring to intrude into the masculine, free sphere.

#### Conclusion

It is not difficult to presume that the primary intention behind the servile women's whetting from the saga author's perspective was to make them voice the common view of the people of the past, thus using them as a voice to push for conformity in terms of abiding by the ideals of honor and revenge.⁴⁷ Separated from the intention behind the depictions of the whetting servile woman, however, they still appear as vehicles of protest against the powerlessness of slavery and, in particular, against female servitude versus male mastery. The impression given in the sagas for a reader is the repeated imagery where women, even servile women, can state their opinion, and at times, with the help of social expectations, honor, and the threat of disgrace, they are also able to force their male masters into action. In these special moments, the roles can be turned on their head, thanks to the rigidness and demands of honor and masculinity, something that otherwise is part of the slave woman's subjugation. Whether or not the saga authors intentionally wished to create a symbol of protest in this and whether these scenes speak for a social fear is difficult to say. The saga authors were not incapable of displaying themes of protest in the sagas, as acts of dissidence, reaction, and discontent are shown frequently in the sagas, such as in the stories of outlaws, which by their very categorization depict those who go against the rules of their society. The ideals and the depictions of these outlaws' lives sometimes stand as possible contemporary reactions of the 13th century toward the past. As such, having servile women, the socially lowest people of the past, demand action from their male masters might, intentionally or not, not only serve to make them mouthpieces of the Old

<sup>45</sup> Melkorka's more positive portrayal might also have to do with how her protest facilitates the empowerment of her son Óláfr and his descendants, while Yngvildr is a concubine who mainly protested for her own pride's sake.

<sup>46</sup> Such as Brennu-Njáls saga and Gísla saga Súrssonar. Waugh, "Yngvildr fagrkinn in 'Svarfdæla saga'," 157.

<sup>47</sup> This demand for honor may be portrayed in a positive or negative light, depending on the intention of the individual saga author, or, as is the case in some sagas, the message may be mixed.

Norse society's demand of honor but also be the author's statement on how the heathen slave masters of their past could be slaves to the demands of retribution too.

#### Works Cited


Nordal, Sigurður, ed. Egils Saga Skalla-Grímssonar. ÍF II. Reykjavik: Hið Íslenzka Fornritafélag, 1933.


Ramsay, William. The Mostellaria of Plautus, edited by George G. Ramsay. London: Macmillan. 1869.


#### Beñat Elortza Larrea

# 4 Aristocratic Women as Leaders of Dissent in Medieval Scandinavia: Source Misrepresentation, or Agency through Ultranormativity?

Throughout the European Middle Ages, most forms of political, societal and economic power, including outward expressions of authority, were largely limited to aristocratic men. Whether this power involved wielding public authority, leading military expeditions, or taking part in ritual and performative activities – such as holding court, participating in acts of homage or entering contracts of vassalage –, the plethora of primary sources show that the arena of power was overwhelmingly limited to men belonging to the aristocratic stratum.

There are, of course, a few notable exceptions. Matilda of Canossa (r. 1075– 1115), for instance, ruled Tuscany as a margravine for almost 40 years and was a staunch political and military ally of Gregory VII, whom she aided consistently throughout the Investiture Controversy, the Papacy's drawn-out conflict with the German kings.¹ In Scandinavia, Margrete I (r. 1375²-1412) is a similar outlier. Initially 'merely' the mother of Olav IV of Denmark and Norway, she secured wide political power in both kingdoms during her son's minority, eventually also becoming the regent of Sweden in 1389, and virtually ruled over the three Scandinavian realms until her death in 1412.³ From a broader perspective, nevertheless, these select few women are statistical anomalies. They managed to occupy positions of authority customarily reserved for men, and they did so remarkably successfully – as both Matilda and Margrete were extremely accomplished temporal rulers, if predictably demonized by their contemporaries –, but the situations that allowed them to rule resulted from rare and unpredictable historical circumstances.

Rather than recounting the careers of these successful yet exceptional female rulers, however, this contribution focuses on 'regular' aristocratic women, who were often perceived as – or portrayed as – normative by their contemporaries,

<sup>1</sup> Alison Creber, "Women at Canossa: The Role of Royal and Aristocratic Women in the Reconciliation between Pope Gregory VII and Henry IV of Germany," Stoicamente 13 (2017), http://dx.doi.org/ 10.12977/stor681.

<sup>2</sup> Margrete ruled Denmark from 1375, Norway from 1388, and Sweden from 1389 onward.

<sup>3</sup> Vivian Etting, Queen Margrete I (1353–1412) and the Founding of the Nordic Union (Leiden: Brill, 2004).

Open Access. © 2023 the author(s), published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111102757-004

and explores how they were able to influence decision-making processes from the societal role that had been ascribed to them. As such, the main goals of this chapter are two-fold. It primarily explores the forms of gendered dissent that could be wielded by aristocratic women as a tool to exert active agency in medieval Scandinavia, as exemplified by two case studies. It focuses, therefore, on forms of protest from within the established order – dissent – rather than external, more clearcut protest, as these women supported their children from within aristocratic circles during dynastic crises and internal struggles rather than attempting to subvert the established political order from the outside. As a secondary aim, this contribution examines the narrative sources' descriptions of the women selected as case studies and considers whether these characterizations are accurate.

Two case studies have been selected for the purposes of this study. These are Inga of Varteig, the mother of Håkon IV Håkonsson (r. 1217–1263) of Norway, and Ingebjørg Håkonsdatter, daughter of Håkon V Magnusson of Norway (r. 1299– 1319) and mother to Magnus Eriksson of Norway and Sweden (r. 1319–1355/ 1364).⁴ Both women have several traits in common: they were medieval Scandinavian aristocrats, were related to ruling royal dynasties, and played important roles when securing their sons' election as king. The prelude to these royal elections also saw both women as leading dissenting figures against the established socio-political order: Inga opposed the organized ecclesiastical resistance to her son's candidacy, while Ingebjørg played a leading role in an aristocratic revolt against the Swedish Crown. Their activities within these movements, however, were inherently tied to gendered roles, as they largely acted on behalf of others as mothers, wives and widows rather than as political agents in their own right.

# Two Case Studies in Focus: A Short Biographical Overview

As mentioned above, this chapter explores the representation of two Scandinavian aristocratic women as case studies. The lives of these two aristocrats – Inga of Varteig and Ingebjørg Håkonsdatter – have certain similarities, especially when their political roles and their treatment in the narrative corpus are taken into account. Since mentions of their life in the sources are succinct and the political struggles in

<sup>4</sup> Magnus Eriksson was deposed as king in Norway in 1355, when he was forced to abdicate in favor of his son Håkon, but he retained the Swedish throne until he was deposed in 1364. Ole Georg Moseng et al., Norsk historie I: 750–1537 (Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 2007), 320–324.

which they were involved were lengthy and complex, a biographical overview of both women is in order.

Inga of Varteig (c. 1185–1234) was born near Sarpsborg in Østfold in the late 12th century. Her parentage is unknown, but Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar mentions that she was of good lineage and related to a kin group known as Varteigingar, or men from Varteig.⁵ She was the high-status concubine (frille) of Håkon III Sverresson of Norway (d. 1204) during the latter's stay in Sarpsborg. She had a son with him, Håkon Håkonsson, who was born in 1204. The rule of Håkon III and his successors, however, was not unopposed. He was the king recognized by the Birkebeiner, one of the factions of the "period of internal struggles" (innbyrdesstridene) that took place between c. 1130 and c. 1240;⁶ however, at the time, eastern Norway was controlled by the opponents of the Birkebeiner – the Bagler – and Inga fled the area to ensure her son's safety. After crossing Dovrefjell in the winter of 1205–1206, Inga and Håkon arrived at the Birkebeiner court in Nidaros, only to be relocated to Bergen shortly afterward.⁷

From 1207 onward, Inga and Håkon resided in the court of Håkon Galen, the jarl of the Birkebeiner faction, in Bergen.⁸ Around that time, she married Vegard of Verdal, an aristocrat of the same faction, with whom she had a son. Following the death of Inge Bårdsson (r. 1205–1217), Inga – together with her husband – moved to secure her son Håkon's election as king. The latter's candidacy, however, was opposed by Skule Bårdsson, the late ruler's half-brother and jarl of the Birkebeiner, as well as by the Norwegian bishops. Skule had a long martial career behind him, and he was largely favored by segments of the military aristocracy and the prelates, while Håkon was supported by 'newer' aristocrats from western Norway who owed their status to his grandfather Sverre Sigurdsson (r. 1174–1202), as well as by the peasantry.⁹ Curiously, Håkon was also supported by the bishop of Bergen, Håvard, who might have regarded the prospects of an underage king as being conducive toward peace negotiations with the Bagler faction.¹⁰

In order to ensure Håkon's election by proving his ancestry, Inga offered to undergo a trial by ordeal in 1217. She prayed and fasted in Nidaros in preparation for the ordeal, but the canons of the cathedral refused to permit the trial on the grounds that the archbishop was absent. In 1218, during a meeting in Bergen, Hå-

<sup>5</sup> Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar, ch. 1.

<sup>6</sup> Sverre Bagge, From Viking Stronghold to Christian Kingdom: State Formation in Norway, c. 900– 1350 (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2010), 42–46.

<sup>7</sup> Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar, ch. 3–5.

<sup>8</sup> Ibid., ch. 7–9.

<sup>9</sup> Bagge, From Viking Stronghold, 59.

<sup>10</sup> Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar, ch. 18.

kon's opponents demanded a trial by ordeal, and Inga obliged. After fasting and praying at Kristkirken, she bore the hot iron; according to Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar, the iron did not leave a mark, thus proving Håkon's parentage and securing his election. In the years that followed, Inga appears to have largely remained at her son's side in Bergen and even accompanied him during his military expeditions in Østlandet; for instance, Inga does not appear to have been in Hålogaland when her husband was killed there in 1221. After being widowed, Inga seldom appears in the sources until her death in 1234 is recounted.

Ingebjørg Håkonsdatter (1301–1361) was a Norwegian princess and the only legitimate child of Håkon V Magnusson (r. 1299–1319), who, in turn, was the grandson of the aforementioned Håkon Håkonsson. Ingebjørg was brought up at the Norwegian royal court until she married Erik Magnusson of Sweden, Duke of Södermanland, in 1312. This marriage was undoubtedly part of a broader political alliance as Håkon V supported Erik and his brother Valdemar in their struggle against their brother, King Birger Magnusson (r. 1290–1318). The early years of the marriage were relatively uneventful, and Ingebjørg gave birth to a son, Magnus Eriksson, in 1316.¹¹

In 1317, however, hostilities between Birger and the dukes broke out once more when Erik and Valdemar were imprisoned at Nyköping Castle at the king's behest. Ingebjørg immediately sprang into action, mobilizing her husband's allies and even negotiating with Danish aristocrats for military support against Birger and his ally, Erik VI Menved of Denmark.¹² Dukes Erik and Valdemar were murdered in 1318, but Ingebjørg continued to act in her late husband's name as duchess dowager. Danish and Swedish aristocrats launched several expeditions against the Swedish Crown, conquering most royal castles and forcing Birger into exile.¹³ After the death of Håkon V in 1319, Ingebjørg's son Magnus acceded to the Norwegian throne, and he was also elected king of Sweden later the same year.

After she oversaw Birger's deposition and secured her son's election, Ingebjørg became one of the most powerful political figures in Sweden, and her power and influence in Norway remained considerable.¹⁴ She acted as the de facto leader of the Swedish royal council and controlled an expansive network of castles centered around her stronghold of Varberg. Ingebjørg also took many decisions as a territorial princess, perhaps best exemplified by her abortive expedition to Skåne in 1322, launched in conjunction with her favorite and future husband, the Danish aristo-

<sup>11</sup> Grethe Authén Blom, "Ingebjørg med Guds miskunn Kong Håkons datter, Hertuginne i Sviarike. Bruddstykker av et politisk kvinneportret," Historisk tidsskrift 60, no. 4 (1981): 424–426.

<sup>12</sup> See DS 2146 and DS 2147.

<sup>13</sup> Erikskrönikan, lines 4042–4297.

<sup>14</sup> Blom, "Ingebjørg med Guds miskunn," 426–428.

crat Knud Porse.¹⁵ Her uncompromising attitude and reliance on foreign favorites, however, led to growing opposition from the Swedish aristocracy, and her holdings were confiscated and her decision-making powers removed by the royal council in 1326.¹⁶ Following her fall from grace, Ingebjørg lived in close proximity to her son Magnus until she passed away in 1361.

Although Inga's and Ingebjørg's lives and political careers diverged considerably, there are also clear commonalities. The political activities of the two women helped secure their sons' election as king in Norway and Sweden, respectively, but their actions took place – at least, prima facie – within the normative bounds expected from women of their status and period. Indeed, the narrative corpus largely presents both women as ideal aristocratic women and paragons of virtue.

#### Political Agency and Descriptions in the Narrative Corpus

The roles of Inga and Ingebjørg in the political arena are primarily recounted in the narrative corpus, although Ingebjørg also appears in a few diplomas from the early 14th century, as will be further discussed below. As mentioned above, the main role that they had as political actors was – according to the narrative sources – to secure their respective sons' elections as rulers in Norway and Sweden. Both women played a decisive role during these elections, but their presence in the sources is extremely limited, as they are largely relegated to the background and are only mentioned in passing. However, the inclusion and characterization of Inga and Ingebjørg in the narrative corpus, limited as it is, provides pertinent information regarding how their actions were interpreted and conveyed by the source writers and the high aristocrats that commissioned the texts.

The only source where Inga of Varteig appears is Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar, a contemporaneous kings' saga that details the life and deeds of Inga's son, Håkon IV Håkonsson (r. 1217–1263). The work was completed around 1265, only a few years after Håkon's death. Mentions of Inga in the text are relatively limited, and the sections where her character or agency is evident are even more scarce. Somewhat surprisingly, however, the first chapter of Hákonar saga mentions Inga and her good stock, as well as the relationship between her and Håkon III Sverresson:

<sup>15</sup> K. H. Karlsson, "Knut Porse," in Nordisk Familjebok: Fjortonde Bandet, Kikarsikte-Kroman, ed. Theodor Westrin (Stockholm: Nordisk familjeboks förlags aktiebolag, 1911), 426. 16 Blom, "Ingebjørg med Guds miskunn," 450–451.

#### 52 Beñat Elortza Larrea

Þar var þá hjá honum kona sú er Inga hét, goð kona ok trúlynd. Hon var góðra manna, frændkona Auðunar í Borg.

At that time, there was a woman in his [Håkon III Sverresson's] household who was called Inga, a good and honorable woman. She was of good lineage and a kinswoman of Audun in Borg.¹⁷

#### Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar, ch. 1

After recounting Inga and Håkon's dramatic escape from Østlandet to Trøndelag, she largely disappears from the narrative until the royal election of 1217. Following a tense discussion among the hirð-members of the Birkebeiner and many allodial farmers from the Frostating district, Håkon's supporters mention they would be willing to undergo trial by ordeal, although none volunteer.¹⁸ The next chapter, however, begins with Inga's intention to undergo trial by ordeal:

Þeir gengu nú af tinginu. En Inga, móðir konungssonar, fór til Pétrskirkju ok fastaði þar til járns, sem siðr er til.

They thus left the assembly. Nevertheless, Inga, the mother of the king's son, went to Saint Peter's church and fasted there before the trial of iron [i. e., trial by ordeal], as is customary. Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar, ch. 17

Inga's plans were thwarted by the canons of Nidaros cathedral preventing the trial due to the absence of the archbishop, who was visiting the northern reaches of his archdiocese in Hålogaland.¹⁹ Inga's actions nevertheless seem to have been beneficial to Håkon's supporters as they sent a summons to the Øreting – an assembly that met outside Nidaros, whose primary role was the election of kings through acclamation²⁰ – and promptly elected young Håkon as king.²¹

<sup>17</sup> All Old Norse quotations from Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar are taken from Þorleifur Hauksson, Sverrir Jakobsson and Tor Ulset, eds. Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar I. Bǫglunga saga (Reykjavik: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 2013) and Þorleifur Hauksson, Sverrir Jakobsson and Tor Ulset, eds. Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar II. Magnúss saga Lagabœtis (Reykjavik: Hið íslenzka fornritafélag, 2013). English translations are my own.

<sup>18</sup> Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar, ch. 16.

<sup>19</sup> The archbishop of Nidaros was also the diocesan bishop and, as such, had the obligation of performing visitas throughout the bishopric. The diocese of Nidaros extended far to the north along the coast and encompassed Hålogaland, the northern reaches of the Norwegian kingdom, comprising the modern-day county of Nordland and southern Troms. Eirin Holberg and Merete Røskaft, Håløygriket (Bergen: Fagbokforlaget, 2015), 351–363.

<sup>20</sup> Unlike the larger provincial law-assemblies (lagting), the Øreting did not have broad legislative or judicial functions but was gathered for royal elections throughout the 13th century. These elections were performed through acclamation (konungstekja) until the practice became superfluous when Håkon IV Håkonsson introduced a new law of inheritance that established primogenital suc-

However, the royal election remained contested since both Skule Bårdsson and the majority of the prelates openly doubted Håkon Håkonsson's parentage. In 1218, during a meeting in Bergen, these aristocrats demanded a trial by ordeal. The case was thoroughly discussed by the assembled aristocrats and farmers alike, and Hákonar saga contains lengthy speeches attributed to Håkon and other leaders. Nevertheless, neither the presence of Inga nor mentions of her are included in the text, even though she would be the one to undergo the trial.²² Unlike the previous attempt, Inga's trial of hot iron is described at some length. This time, it begins with a fasting period:

Eftir þessa stefnu gekk konungsmóðir til kirkju at fasta til járns.[…] En tólf men váru fengnir til at gæta útan kirkju, bæði nætr ok daga, at engir spillendr kvæmi til.

After this meeting, the king's mother went to the church to fast before she bore the iron. […] Twelve men guarded the church both night and day to ensure that nobody came to disturb the fast.

Hãkonar saga Hákonarsonar, ch. 46

Before the trial had been conducted, one of Skule Bårdsson's retainers, a Brabançon by the name of Sigar, tried to give healing herbs to Inga, but he was deeply mistrusted by Håkon's men and turned away by Dagfinn bóndi, a sysselmann from Bergen.²³ Dagfinn, in turn, secretly warned Inga not to accept any aid from anyone.²⁴ The significance of the episode hinges upon Inga's passivity: while both Sigar and Dagfinn take action and have dialogue in the text, Inga is merelyabystander, and she simply listens to Dagfinn's advice without saying anything in return. Her role as a passive agent is further highlighted by the trial itself:

Um daginn eftir prímamál bar konungsmóðir járn eftir réttum tíma, ok greiddisk þat hit bezta af hennar hendi. … Um daginn at réttum tíma þá kom konungr ok erkibyskup, jarl ok allir biskupar ok höfðingjar með öðru fólki út til Kristskirkju. Ok er leyst var hönd konungsmóður þá gerði Guð þar miklar jarteinir með sinni miskunn at hon var vel skír, ok sögðu þat allir þeir er sá at miklu var þá fegri hönd hennar en áðr hon tók undir járnit. Sönnuðu þat bæði vinir ok óvinir.

cession in 1260. David Brégaint, Vox Regis: Royal Communication in High Medieval Norway (Leiden: Brill, 2016), 319–325.

<sup>21</sup> Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar, ch. 18–20.

<sup>22</sup> Ibid., ch. 43–45.

<sup>23</sup> A sysselmann was a type of royal official that became common throughout Norway from the late 12th century onward. Bagge, From Viking Stronghold, 53.

<sup>24</sup> Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar, ch. 47.

That day after primal [around 6 A.M.], the king's mother bore the iron at the appointed time, and it went well. … That day [when the hand was to be revealed], at the right time, the king and the archbishop, the jarl and all the bishops and the chieftains and other people came to Kristkirken. When the bindings were undone from the hand of the king's mother, the grace of God made a great sign happen: she was completely unharmed, and all who saw the hand said that it was more beautiful than before she had borne the iron. Both friends and enemies said that.

#### Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar, ch. 48

Inga's presence in the trial itself is likewise limited, as most of the text focuses on the aristocracy's reaction rather than on her actions. Only one sentence – bar konungsmóðir járn – has Inga as the subject. This episode is consistent with her previous appearances, as she represents the paragon of the pious Christian woman whose actions prove Håkon's parentage. After the 1218 meeting in Bergen, Inga all but disappears from Hákonar saga, and she is mentioned in passing only a handful of times.

Ingebjørg Håkonsdatter is very seldom mentioned in Erikskrönikan, the only narrative source that provides details of her life. Erikskrönikan, or the Chronicle of Duke Erik, was written in the early 14th century, and it is a long poem recounting the main political events in Sweden between c. 1220 and 1319 – although its focus is the eponymous Duke Erik Magnusson, Ingebjørg's husband, who was murdered in 1318.

The lack of details regarding Ingebjørg's political activities in Erikskrönikan is staggering, especially when her crucial role as kingmaker and leader of the royal council from 1318 onward is taken into account. She is mentioned only five times in the text, and her name is never given; she is presented only as either "the daughter of King Håkon" or "the duchess." The three earliest mentions are connected to her two betrothals and her marriage to Erik Magnusson. These descriptions highlight her fairness and royal lineage, but nothing is said of her character:

Här sigx at hertugh Erik hade fäst / en jomfru han unte bezst / the vänasta ther man matte see, / konungsins dotter af Norighe.

Here is told how Duke Erik was engaged / to a maid, whom as his favourite he gauged, / as pretty as the praises sing / and a child of the Norwegian king.²⁵

Erikskrönikan, lines 1832–1835

<sup>25</sup> All Old Swedish quotes from Erikskrönikan have been taken from Sven-Bertil Nilsson, Erikskrönikan (Stockholm: Prisma, 2003). All English translations have been taken from Erik Carlquist and Peter C. Hogg, The Chronicle of Duke Erik: A Verse Epic from Medieval Sweden (Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2012).

Sidhan foor han til Stensöö, / ok konungen gaff honom sina möö / ok wordo ther satte med helom hugh, / ok drogh sidhan engen wid annan strugh.

He thereupon to Stensö did proceed, / the king to give him his daughter agreed, / and they became there fully reconciled / and from further rancour then resiled.

Erikskrönikan, lines 3438–3441

The wänasta jomfru man haffwer set / war other, twa konungsdötter.

The fairest maidens one would ever see / were there, two daughters of a king.²⁶ Erikskrönikan, lines 3505–3506

The only clear reference to Ingebjørg's political agency appears later in the text. In 1318, following the imprisonment of Erik and Valdemar Magnusson, the duchess took her young son Magnus from the castle at Skara and fled from Birger's forces, seeking the protection of the dukes' aristocratic allies. This action is referred to succinctly in the text:

Tha hertuginnan the tidande fik / at them första swa misgik, / tha rymde hon a Skara hus / ok henne son jomker Magnus.

When the news to the duchess was brought / that things for the princes were so fraught, / she then the castle at Skara forsook / and her son, young Lord Magnus, with her took. Erikskrönikan, lines 3978–3981.

The final mention of Ingebjørg appears at the end of the poem, which recounts her son's succession as Norwegian king. Once more, the duchess is not mentioned by name, but rather her lineage is highlighted in order to strengthen Magnus's dynastic status:

Än a konung Magnus som walder war / ok konungs nampn i Swerike baar. / Han haffde skilt wid konung Hakon / swa när at han war hans dotterson.

Apart from Magnus, who was elected before / and the royal title in Sweden bore. / In kinship so close to King Håkon was he / as the son of the latter's daughter to be.

Erikskrönikan, lines 4530–4533

The typification of Ingebjørg's character is very clear: She is presented as a bride, a wife and a mother whose main narrative role is to highlight Erik Magnusson's status and aristocratic connections and to justify Magnus Eriksson's accession to the Swedish and Norwegian thrones. Despite this clarity, the absence of her name

<sup>26</sup> In 1312, Erik Magnusson married Ingebjørg Håkonsdatter, while Erik's brother Valdemar Magnusson married Ingebjørg's cousin, Ingebjørg Eiriksdatter, the daughter of Eirik II Magnusson of Norway (r. 1280–1299). Carlquist and Hogg, The Chronicle of Duke Erik, 251–252.

throughout the poem is puzzling, particularly when minor characters – such as participants in a Swedish expedition to Karelia in 1300 or Christiern and Walram, foreign retainers who harmed the dukes during their imprisonment – are named, often more than once.²⁷ An examination of the administrative corpus and a reconsideration of Ingebjørg's career after her son's election in 1319, however, may help to elucidate the treatment she receives in Erikskrönikan.

The overarching narratives found for both Inga and Ingebjørg, therefore, are rather unequivocal: both are presented as good and caring mothers who fit the expected parameters of women of their status. There is very little textual evidence that reveals active political agency on their part; their behavior can be identified as one of extreme normativity, and their limited political activities are presented as acts of Christian piety – in Inga's case – or omitted entirely – in the case of Erikskrönikan's retelling of Ingebjørg's actions. This initial perspective, however, can be reframed when other methodological approaches and diplomas from the administrative corpus are taken into consideration.

#### New Approaches and New Perspectives

The ultra-normative depictions of Inga and Ingebjørg presented by the narrative sources suggest that neither of the women exercised any form of political agency. However, a reappraisal of the narrative corpus, using innovative methodological approaches and the consideration of administrative documents, suggests that these depictions are not necessarily accurate.

The innovative approach in question was used by Thomas Heebøll-Holm in his study of the imprisonment of Ingeborg Valdemarsdatter, which was presented at the International Medieval Congress in 2019.²⁸ Ingeborg had several similarities to the subjects of this chapter: she was a Scandinavian aristocrat of royal stock and used the normative tools available to her as a form of protest. Ingeborg Valdemarsdatter (1174–1237) was the daughter of Valdemar I of Denmark (r. 1157–1182) and sister of the Danish kings Knud IV (r. 1182–1202) and Valdemar II (r. 1202– 1241). In 1193, she was married to Philip II Augustus of France, who immediately sought an annulment the day after the wedding on the grounds of non-consumma-

<sup>27</sup> Beñat Elortza Larrea, "Kinsmen, Friends or Mercenaries? Problematising the Presence of International Forces in Scandinavia between the Twelfth and the Fourteenth Centuries," Scandia Journal of Medieval Norse Studies 4 (2021): 250.

<sup>28</sup> Thomas Heebøll-Holm, "The Material Conditions of Queen Ingeborg's Confinement in France, 1193–1213" (unpublished manuscript, July 3, 2019).

tion and consanguinity.²⁹ The French ruler was opposed by Ingeborg's own friends as well as by the Papacy, as evidenced by Innocent III's interdict against France in 1200. The conflict flared strongest between 1193 and 1203, but Ingeborg remained unrecognized by Philip II Augustus until she was suddenly reinstated as queen in 1213.³⁰

From a historiographical perspective, Ingeborg's imprisonment has been largely interpreted as a conflict between the temporal power of the French king and the spiritual power of the Papacy; Ingeborg was merely a victim in this struggle rather than an active participant.³¹ However, by looking at the letters written by the imprisoned queen, her friends and Innocent III, Heebøll-Holm argued that Ingeborg fully embraced her status as a prisoner and brought it to near martyr-like levels.³² In her letters, she described herself as being destitute, endlessly in prayer, and as in a prison (she never claimed that she was in prison, as this was untrue).³³ Both her personal correspondence and letters written by others highlight comparisons between Ingeborg and biblical characters, as well as her abject misery (miseria), even though financial documents prove that she was very well cared for, with Philip's allocation of funds to Ingeborg often surpassing the budget reserved for other members of the royal family.

In his study, Heebøll-Holm concludes that Ingeborg consciously chose to portray herself as a "weak, pious and obedient wife," while in fact using this eschewed portrayal as a means of spurring the Papacy into action – which she was extremely successful in doing.³⁴ It can be argued that a similar tendency can be discerned in

30 Heebøll-Holm, "Material Conditions."

32 Heebøll-Holm, "Material Conditions."

<sup>29</sup> John W. Baldwin, The Government of Philip Augustus: Foundations of French Royal Power in the Middle Ages (Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1986), 82–85.

<sup>31</sup> A review of selected publications about Ingeborg and Philip II Augustus suggests that this perspective has not changed considerably for many decades. Some publications mention Ingeborg's distress or unhappiness, but never her active agency. Johannes CHR Steenstrup, "Ingeborg av Frankrig," in Dansk Biografisk Leksikon, VIII. Bind, Holst – Juul, ed. C. F. Bricka (Copenhagen: Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag, 1894), 279–281; Baldwin, The Government of Philip Augustus, 82–87; Jim Bradbury, The Capetians: Kings of France, 987–1328 (London: Hambledon Continuum, 2007), 183–184; Constance M. Rousseau, "Neither Bewitched nor Beguiled: Philip Augustus's Alleged Impotence and Innocent III's Response," Speculum 89, no. 2 (2014): 410–436.

<sup>33</sup> Ibid.

<sup>34</sup> Despite being famous for his harsh conflict-resolution approaches against temporal power, Innocent III only placed three realms under an interdict during his Papacy: England, Norway and France. He did, however, place several princes under papal excommunication and often threatened rulers with interdicts against their holdings. John C. Moore, Pope Innocent III (1160/61–1216): To Root Up and to Plant (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 52–76.

the case of Ingebjørg Håkonsdatter and, to a lesser degree, in the case of Inga of Varteig, as the pious and ultra-normative depictions of both women in the narrative corpus misrepresent the agency that each had in the political arena.

This misrepresentation is especially clear in Ingebjørg's case. While she remains unnamed and depicted as a wife and mother in Erikskrönikan, administrative documents show that this was certainly not the case. Following her escape from Skara in 1318, Ingebjørg joined forces with her cousin and sister-in-law, Ingebjørg Eiriksdatter, and negotiated an alliance with the Archbishop of Lund, Esger Juul, and Christoffer of Halland-Samsø, the younger brother of Erik VI Menved of Denmark. While Erik and Valdemar had been killed early in the year, the duchesses seem to have been unaware of their murder and, at this point, acted as their husbands' representatives.³⁵ The formula used at the beginning of the charter highlights the role of the duchesses as political actors, as it follows the same format used by male aristocrats:

Omnibus præsens scriptum cernentibus Ingeburgis et Ingeburg Dei gratia Ducissæ Suecorum omnesque Consiliarij ipsarum salutem in domino sempiternam.

From Ingebjørg and Ingebjørg and all of their counsellors, by the grace of God duchesses of the Swedes, to all of those who read or listen to this letter, may the Lord ever preserve and keep you.

DS 2147 (April 1318)

After the deaths of the dukes were made known at the end of June, Ingebjørg continued to exercise the territorial lordship attached to her title as she confirmed several privileges given to different monasteries and bishops throughout 1318 and 1319.³⁶ By the time Magnus Eriksson was elected king in July 1319, Ingebjørg's precedence as the foremost authority in the realm was clear, as the aristocracy's confirmation of ecclesiastical privileges highlights. This diploma, issued in Lödöse, is named Ratificatio libertatum ecclesie facta per dominam ducissam et regni consiliarios (Ratification of the freedoms of the Church made by her ladyship the duchess and the counselors of the realm) and places Ingebjørg first on the list of issuers.³⁷

Ingebjørg's depiction in Erikskrönikan, therefore, does not portray her political agency accurately. This discrepancy is even more puzzling when Sven-Bertil

<sup>35</sup> DS 2147 details the duchesses' promise to maintain the Danes' estates in Sweden. The diploma detailing the Danish aristocracy's military support (DS 2146) had been issued in Kalmar four days earlier. Carlquist and Hogg, The Chronicle of Duke Erik, 254.

<sup>36</sup> E. g. DS 2158, DS 2159 (August 1318); DS 2214 (November 1319).

<sup>37</sup> DS 2200 (July 1319).

Jansson's interpretation of the authorship of Erikskrönikan is considered, as he suggests that Ingebjørg could have been one of the sponsors of the chronicle.³⁸ A possible explanation for this divergence in representation can be discerned in light of Heebøll-Holm's analysis. It is possible that Ingebjørg could have chosen to appear merely as a good wife and mother in the narrative, even when her temporal power after 1318 was considerable.³⁹ As such, the ultra-normative behavior shown by Ingebjørg in the text could be ascribed to her own personal agenda, whereby she chose to be depicted as the ideal paragon of womanhood. Alternatively, if the text was composed after her fall from grace in 1326, the sponsors of the text – the members of the royal council who deposed her – might have attempted to minimize her presence in the story.

Inga of Varteig's depiction in Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar is more problematic as there are no additional documents, administrative or otherwise, that contradict the account of the text – the only written record of Inga's existence is the saga itself. Nevertheless, there is some circumstantial evidence in the text which suggests that Inga's aristocratic status and influence might have been greater than the passive, ultra-normative attitude that is discernible at first glance. Following her husband Vegard's death in 1221, Inga spent long periods at her son's court and often accompanied the royal household when Håkon went on expeditions. In 1225–1226, during his campaign against the Ribbungs in Østlandet, both Inga and Håkon's wife Margrete accompanied the army:

Þá er Hákon konungr kom norðr til Túnsberg kómu þá til hans stórskip þau er hann hafði af gengit. Var þar á dróttning ok konungsmóðir.

When King Håkon came north to Tønsberg, he found his large warships where he had left them. The queen and the king's mother were there.

Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar, ch. 140 En Hallvarðr bratti ok nökkurir aðrir sveitarhöfðingjar váru eftir at gæta skipanna, ok lögðu þeir öllum skipunum út í Elgjarnes. Þær váru á konungsskipi, dróttning ok konungsmóðir.

<sup>38</sup> Jansson, Erikskrönikan, 19.

<sup>39</sup> This approach would also explain the heroic depiction of Knud Porse, whom Ingebjørg married in 1327, in Erikskrönikan. The poem mentions that Knud's arrival in Nyköping turned the tide of the battle, and his martial prowess is highlighted in the text: Herra Knut Porsse kom tha thär, / the wisto ey at han war swa när. / Han stridde ther med rät mandom, / the matto heller hawa warit i Rom /summi men swa langan tiid (Sir Knut Porse then came there; / they did not know he was so near. / In valiant combat there he was seen; / some men would rather in Rome have been / during the time that it extended) (Erikskrönikan, lines 4160–4164). From 1322 onward, Knud was opposed by the Swedish royal council, and by 1329 he was regarded as an enemy of the realm. Karlsson, "Knut Porse," 425–426.

But Hallvard bratti and some other chieftains remained to guard the ships, and they laid out all their ships by Ellnes. The queen and the king's mother were on board the king's ship. Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar, ch. 142

Hákon konungr fór til Túnsbergs ok gaf þá heimleyfi Dagfinn bónda ok Gauti á Meli ok öðrum mönnum norðan ór landi, en hann bjósk austr til Elfar. Dróttning ok konungsmóðir fóru upp á bergit, ok var Gunnbjörn þar forsjámaðr meðan konungr var austr.

King Håkon left Tønsberg, and he gave leave to Dagfinn bóndi and Gaut of Mel and other men from the north, but he traveled eastward to the Göta river. The queen and the king's mother took residence at the rock,⁴⁰ and Gunnbjørn was castellan while the king was in the east. Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar, ch. 148.

Inga's continued presence in the royal household might hint at her importance in circles of power, at least as an informal counselor to her son. The influence and prestige that her name carried can be further discerned in another chapter of the saga. Following a council in Bergen in 1222/1223, Håkon sailed southward in anticipation of a campaign against Värmland. The description of the journey mentions the steersmen of his warship:

Konungr tók Gullbringuna … ok stýrði Björn móðurbróðir hans ok Óláfr Inguson.

The king took Gullbring … and it was steered by Bjørn, his mother's brother, and Olav Ingasson.

#### Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar, ch. 103

It is meaningful that both steersmen were related to Inga: they were her brother and Olav, her son from her marriage to Vegard. More importantly, her son was widely known as Inguson – son of Inga –, thus using a matronymic rather than a patronymic. Matronymics were uncommon in Scandinavia and were only used when the mother's status was much higher than the father's; Svend II Estridsen, for instance, used a matronymic because his mother descended from Svend I, while his father was merely a magnate.⁴¹ The use of a matronymic in Olav's case, therefore, heavily implies that Inga's own social – and perhaps political – status was more considerable than her late husband's was, even though Vegard was an aristocrat and a sysselmann in Hålogaland. As Inga's ancestry is largely omitted from the saga, it must have been her own status that contributed to this decision, which gives the impression that being recognized as the son of Inga of Varteig

<sup>40</sup> The Rock of Tønsberg, a fortress that overlooked the town. It was strongly fortified and turned into a royal residence during Håkon IV Håkonsson's reign. Bagge, From Viking Stronghold, 174. 41 E. g. Sueno Estrithe filius (Sven, son of Estrid); Karsten Friis-Jensen, ed., and Peter Fisher, trans., Saxo Grammaticus. Gesta Danorum: The History of the Danes, Volume I (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2015), X.21.1.

must have been politically or socially advantageous. Apart from the instances recounted above, however, there are no clear indications of Inga exhibiting any active political agency. Nevertheless, an account of her death is given its own chapter in the saga:

Frú Inga, móðir Hákonar konungs, var með honum … Hon hafði sjúkleika mikinn, ok tók sóttarfar hennar mjök at þyngjask, ok andaðisk hon fyrir jólaföstu um vetrinn.

Lady Inga, the mother of King Håkon, was with him … She was very sick, and her illness became worse, and she died that winter before the Christmas fast [advent].

Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar, ch. 195

#### Concluding Remarks

When the narrative descriptions pertaining to Inga and Ingebjørg are considered from a broader perspective, both by incorporating new perspectives and by taking non-narrative primary sources into consideration, multiple meaningful elements can be discerned. Firstly, a few common traits can be observed by looking at the confluence of the elements of gender and protest in the two case studies. Both Inga and Ingebjørg were able to exert a degree of political agency in a male-dominated sphere by acting on behalf of their sons. In both cases, acting within the bounds of normative, gendered expectations – in these circumstances, motherhood – created avenues to exercise political power. A similar tendency can be discerned in Heebøll-Holm's study of Ingeborg of Denmark, whereby self-depictions of devout wifehood and martyrdom allowed the Danish aristocrat to actively influence the struggle between the Papacy and the French king, as well as to advance her own cause. The usage of gendered dissent as a self-serving act is also clear in Ingebjørg's case since her later position as a territorial princess and de facto regent was intrinsically tied to her status as Magnus Eriksson's mother. The same cannot be said of Inga, whose 'real' political importance and power after Håkon IV Håkonsson's election are difficult to discern without additional administrative or narrative documents. Her continued social status as a member of the high aristocracy, however, can be glimpsed in her son Olav's use of a matronymic. As such, the extremely normative behavior presented in the narrative corpus does not necessarily indicate a lack of agency. Instead of 'breaking' into a political arena that was reserved for men, aristocratic women were sometimes able to use the roles available to them as an avenue to mediate in politics, either as mothers willing to defend their – and their sons' – honor, or as caring wives and concerned mothers who interceded on their husbands' and sons' behalf.

Secondly, the portrayals of ultra-normative behavior discussed above are, in all likelihood, inaccurate depictions of these women's activities and agency. In the narrative corpus, both Inga and Ingebjørg are ascribed extremely normative and almost formulaic roles, but additional evidence suggests that this might not have been the case. This does not mean that they did not exert agency through gendered expectations, as mentioned above, but rather that their visibility in the source material is limited. The intention behind the creation of these narratives, therefore, should be reconsidered. There are two likely – and mutually exclusive – alternatives. It is possible that these portrayals of good Christian caregivers were active attempts to obscure the visibility of powerful women. Conversely, and I would argue more plausibly, these formulaic depictions were designed to honor these women's actions by portraying them as ideal paragons of motherhood and Christianity. As the political arena was a space reserved for men, celebrating women for irrupting into it might have been counter-productive for memorializing purposes.⁴²

This chapter has examined the forms of gendered dissent available to aristocratic women as an avenue to exert active agency in the political arena while adhering to existing normative behavior. By looking at the case studies of Inga of Varteig and Ingebjørg Håkonsdatter, the usage of motherhood in particular as a political tool can be discerned. In addition, the treatment of both women in the narrative corpus highlights that these descriptions are at the very least partially inaccurate and that a critical reappraisal of these sources using new approaches might lead to new understandings of female aristocratic agency in medieval Scandinavia.

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<sup>42</sup> This is clearly the case with Matilda of Canossa: Bonizo, bishop of Sutri in the late 11th century, wrote two books that referred to Matilda. The first, Liber ad amicum, was written while his relationship to the margravine was positive and compared her to biblical figures. The second, Liber de vita christiana, highlights the harm that comes to the world when women rule. Elke Goez, "Mit den Mitteln einer Frau? Zur Bedeutung der Fürstinnen in der späten Salierzeit," Vorträge und Forschungen 81 (2015): 335.

Bradbury, Jim. The Capetians: Kings of France, 987–1328. London: Hambledon Continuum, 2007. Brégaint, David. Vox Regis. Royal Communication in High Medieval Norway. Leiden: Brill, 2016.


Elortza Larrea, Beñat. "Kinsmen, Friends or Mercenaries? Problematising the Existence of International Forces in Scandinavia between the Twelfth and the Fourteenth Centuries", Scandia Journal of Medieval Norse Studies 4 (2021): 230–261.

Etting, Vivian, Queen Margrete I (1353–1412) and the Founding of the Nordic Union. Leiden: Brill, 2004.


Heebøll-Holm, Thomas. "The Material Conditions of Queen Ingeborg's Confinement in France, 1193– 1213". Unpublished manuscript, July 3 2019.

Holberg, Eirin and Merete Røskaft. Håløygriket. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget, 2015.

Jansson, Sven-Bertil. Erikskrönikan. Stockholm: Prisma, 2003.

Karlsson, K. H. "Knut Porse." In Nordisk Familjebok. Fjortonde Bandet, Kikarsikte-Kroman, edited by Theodor Westrin, 425–426. Stockholm: Nordisk familjeboks förlags aktiebolag, 1911.


Rousseau, Constance M. "Neither Bewitched nor Beguiled: Philip Augustus's Alleged Impotence and Innocent III's Response." Speculum 89, no. 2 (2014): 410–436.

Steenstrup, Johannes CHR. "Ingeborg av Frankrig." In Dansk Biografisk Leksikon, VIII. Bind, Holst – Juul, edited by C. F. Bricka, 279–281. Copenhagen: Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag, 1894.


#### Mariela Fargas Peñarrocha

# 5 Secrecy, Seduction and Protest among Women: Litigation over a Marriage in 17th-Century Barcelona

#### Approach and Context: Silent Protest

This chapter recounts a brief tale of a form of women's advocacy within the framework of the family and patriarchal culture and relations that characterized the 17th century. This involved secret romantic experiences that surpassed the merely affective domain to reach the realm of protest, albeit without any noise. This form of feminine protest furtively strove to challenge the prevailing power and monopoly in relation to deciding who governed the family and the manipulation of a young woman's destiny by this family, which bore the obligation of preserving the social and moral order of the social class to which it belonged. Many authors have discussed this topic in relation to the early modern period in Europe, examining the power of families and the control of their children's marriages as a means of maintaining their status.¹ This gave rise to the importance of forms of opposing these impositions, not only in terms of conflicts, which were evidently constant, as is now being shown by a very fruitful line of research focusing on women's fight for justice, but also through less strident, secretly held, everyday attitudes. While not completely ignored, this latter aspect has been studied very little.

Among other reasons, this is because, logically, these covert practices left very few traces and written sources. One exception, however, is provided by letters and correspondence, where such forms of opposition can be detected. One can also discover slightly more about these secret practices as a form of opposition by reading the investigations conducted and evidence gathered by courts when women – and families – were involved in legal proceedings. Specifically, the source on which this paper is based forms part of a lawsuit, consisting of the records of the pleadings of the parties in dispute. These records give us an insight into events, experiences, reactions, thoughts, and decisions and enable us to deduce conversations that were held in secret at some point in time. Secrets and silences are tactics and devices

Note: This paper was written in the framework of a public research project (PID2019–103970GB-I00), financed by the Gobierno de España.

<sup>1</sup> James Casey, Historia de la Familia (Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 1990), 107–171.

Open Access. © 2023 the author(s), published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111102757-005

that the microhistorical approach used here can bring to light. Therefore, the approach developed here is based on the concept of women's silent protest.² This was a resourceful strategy, in view of the few options available to them in difficult contexts,³ for women advocating their freedom or desires, their capacity to make certain crucial decisions independently, and breaking free from the chains of dependence and subordination that they were accustomed to, subjected to and educated in. On the scale between defiance, by means of loud, attention-grabbing protest, and submissive acceptance of all the limitations imposed on them, there was a small invisible middle ground available to women in the form of secrecy.⁴ This space granted them authority that was unknown to others, an acknowledgment of their authority for themselves.⁵ In an absolutely patriarchal culture and society, women knew that this small space was practically the only place in which they could elude obedience or censorship, metaphorically speaking, or where they could develop their own selves beyond the reach of the rules imposed on them.⁶

<sup>2</sup> Interesting works to consult in this regard, among others, include: Arlette Farge and Michel Foucault, Le désordre des familles (Paris: Gallimard, 1972); James Casey, "La conflictividad en el seno de la familia," Estudis: Revista de historia moderna 22 (1996): 9–26; Julie Hardwick, Family Business: Litigation and the Political Economics of Daily Life in Early Modern France (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009); Francisco J. Alfaro Pérez, ed., Familias rotas: Conflictos familiares en la España de fines del Antiguo Régimen (Zaragoza: Universidad de Zaragoza, 2014); Francisco García González, "Crisis familiares y curso de vida en la España moderna," Studia Histórica 38, no. 2 (2016): 201– 236; Tomás Mantecón, "Las mujeres ante los tribunales castellanos: Acción de justicia y usos de la penalidad en el Antiguo Régimen," Chronica Nova 37 (2011): 99–123; María Luisa Candau, Entre procesos y pleitos: Hombres y mujeres ante la justicia en la Edad Moderna (Arzobispado de Sevilla, siglos XVII y XVIII) (Sevilla: Universidad de Sevilla, 2020); Teresa Phipps and Deborah Youngs, eds., Litigating Women: Gender and Justicie in Europe, c.1300–c.1800 (London/New York: Routledge, 2022); Margarita Torremocha, ed., Violencia familiar y doméstica ante los tribunales (siglos XVI-XIX): Entre padres, hijos y hermanos nadie meta las manos (Madrid: Sílex, 2021).

<sup>3</sup> See, among others, John Snyder, Dissimulation and the Culture of Secrecy in Early Modern Europe (Berkeley/Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 2009); John Martin, "Inventing Sincerity, Refashioning Prudence: The Discovery of the Individual in Renaissance Europe," The American Historical Review 102, no. 5 (1997): 1309–1342.

<sup>4</sup> Teresa Vinyoles, "Cartas de mujeres en el paso de la Edad Media al Renacimiento," in Breve historia feminista de la literatura española, ed. Iris M. Zavala (Barcelona: Antropos, 2000), 51–61; David Navarro Bonilla, "Sentir por escrito hacia 1650: cartas, billetes y lugares de memoria," in Accidentes del alma: las emociones en la Edad Moderna, eds. María Tausiet and James Amelang (Madrid: Abada, 2009), 229–254.

<sup>5</sup> Paul Griffiths, "Secrecy and Authority in Late Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century London," The Historical Journal 40 (1997): 925–951.

<sup>6</sup> María Luisa Candau, ed., Las mujeres y el honor en la Europa moderna (Huelva: Universidad de Huelva, 2014).

With the dawn of the early modern period, the evolution of family structures also made it easier to partake in secret practices. At least in urban settings, families gradually reduced in size, breaking away from the influence of the old branches of ancestors who had traditionally made joint agreements and exercised certain forms of control. Their disputes and decisions were increasingly becoming domestic matters far beyond the judgment of the community or neighborhood. The domestic nuclear family gradually replaced the old open lineage system. Within the confines of the home, we see the emergence of privacy.⁷ Since the Renaissance, the select strongholds of erudite culture had also started to place value on the deployment of the self, with individual retreat and meditation gradually becoming challenges in the new reformational experiences of religiosity.⁸ From the 16th century onward, moralists and theologians wrote books on marriage and family duties, classifying secrecy as a prudent virtue that must prevail in all the actions of a Christian family opposed to scandal and setting a bad example. In the Catholic realm, confessors made sure not to overlook this issue: in Spain, in his book Práctica del confesionario (Confessional Practice) from the end of the 17th century, Jaime de Corella said that "the natural law of maintaining secrecy outweighs positive law."⁹ At the start of the previous century, the widely-read theologian Fray Luis de León, author of La perfecta casada (The Perfect Wife), affirmed that wives "were made for the shadows and secrecy of their households."¹⁰ Women were attributed with the capacity for secrecy, which, on the whole, was beneficial in terms of their piety and their relationship with God.¹¹ It was recommended that they prayed in private, almost in secret, far from the hustle and bustle of the household. They were well-versed in modesty, a close ally of secrecy. The development of female domesticity as a model for life, restricting public life for women and confining them to the home, which was more prevalent among the elite, certainly fostered such practices.¹²

Among the upper classes, secrecy was well catered for with respect to romantic passions by the old rituals of courtly love that evolved all the way up to the most

<sup>7</sup> Phillippe Ariès, El niño y la vida familiar en el antiguo régimen (Madrid: Taurus, 1988).

<sup>8</sup> Natalie Zemon Davis, "Fame and Secrecy: Leon Modena's Life as an Early Modern Autobiography," History and Theory 27, no. 4 (1988): 103–118; Arlette Farge, "Familias: El honor y el secreto," in Historia de la vida privada, eds. Philippe Ariès and Georges Duby (Madrid: Taurus, 1988), 581–617. 9 Jaime de Corella, Práctica del confesionario y explicación de las sesenta y cinco proposiciones condenadas (Zaragoza, 1688), 9, 320.

<sup>10</sup> Fray Luis de León, La perfecta casada (Madrid, 1786), 214.

<sup>11</sup> Mariela Fargas Peñarrocha, "Secretos y mujeres: Del género y los riesgos del conflicto en la familia moderna," Arenal: Revista de historia de las mujeres 28, no. 2 (2021): 361–384.

<sup>12</sup> Gloria Franco Rubio, El ámbito doméstico en el Antiguo Régimen: De puertas adentro (Madrid: Editorial Síntesis, 2018).

sophisticated dealings of the Baroque period. It should also be noted that, in the 16th and 17th centuries, many marital celebrations were still conducted in secret, far from the prying eyes of the couple's parents, which was seen as a veritable scourge and a great cause for concern by families and authorities, despite such celebrations being strictly banned by the Council of Trent.¹³ As the sociologist Georg Simmel put it, secrecy is always at the very heart of everyday life, revealing the dynamics of dichotomy, creating hierarchies between those who share the secret and those excluded from knowing it.¹⁴ Therefore, secrecy is also an invisible place to protest or an unseen channel through which to plot a protest, which is why it is the focus of this chapter.

# The Power of the Family and the Countervailing Power of Secrecy

The story that follows is the tale of a young woman in Barcelona called Narcisa, who strived to possess some of the authority held by the older women in her family, the guardians with whom she lived after being orphaned. These women, her grandmother and aunt, the latter of whom was a widow who oversaw all the matters of the household, were used to making the decisions and giving orders. Most significantly, they operated without being limited or bothered by any man or, indeed, anybody else. They lived alone. Many wealthy women at the time took full advantage of their solitude to exercise a certain authority, which they had learned over the course of their lives from observing their fathers, brothers and husbands. These women were at a stage of their lives in which they governed their households and their relatives within them. They also undoubtedly enjoyed certain class privileges. They lived in large mansions in the city, with incomes and servants, having been the daughters or wives of landowners. In their widowhood, these women retrieved the dowries granted to them when they married, as stipu-

<sup>13</sup> María Luisa Candau, "El matrimonio clandestino en el siglo xvii: Entre el amor, las conveniencias y el discurso tridentino," Estudios de Historia de España 8 (2006): 189–200.

<sup>14</sup> Luise White, "Telling More: Lies, Secrets, and History," History and Theory 39, no. 4 (2000): 11– 22. José María Jiménez Cano, "Atributos semióticos del poder: el silencio y el secreto," Tonos Digital. Revista de Estudios Filológicos, 14 (2007), https://www.um.es/tonosdigital/znum14/secciones/es tudios-14-Sliencio-Secretos-poder.htm; Sergio Labourdette, "Secreto y poder en la vida social," Revista Orientación y Sociedad 5 (2005), https://revistas.unlp.edu.ar/OrientacionYSociedad/article/view/ 8693; Alejandro Castillejo, "Las texturas del silencio: violencia, memoria y los límites del quehacer antropológico," Empiria. Revista de Metodología de Ciencias Sociales 9 (2005): 39–59.

lated under Catalan law and in a large proportion of common law.¹⁵ Moreover, they usually administered their late husbands' estate, at least until their children came of age, if they had any offspring. As widows and usufructuaries of their late husbands' wealth, they enjoyed a time of relative strength, and everybody acknowledged and respected their activity. Naturally, under the auspices of this power, they exercised indisputable authority over younger women in the same household, including sisters, daughters, servants, and, in Narcisa's case, nieces. They fully embraced this opportunity, operating within the patriarchal framework in which they had been schooled, proudly taking the helm of their family hierarchy. However, they were limited by their fathers' or husbands' wills and had to fulfill their last wishes. As such, the women's freedom was constrained, as it was with respect to marriage, a key issue for the reproduction of the social class and which under no circumstances would be left to the whims and sentimental vagaries of the young members of the household.

Therefore, when the young Narcisa showed an interest in a suitor who apparently did not meet the family's expectations, she was subjected to close scrutiny and harassment from her aunt. Furthermore, rather than accepting or rejecting Narcisa's suitor based simply on social convictions, the events described in the documentation related to the legal proceedings examined here show that the aunt's anxiety and her need to suppress Narcisa's will, first and foremost, led her to intervene and cause the sudden end of the relationship.

Narcisa Fons was married by proxy to Joseph Pastor, a doctor of law and an upright citizen of Barcelona, at the end of the 17th century. However, the marriage was not consummated,¹⁶ lasted a very short time, and was annulled by the ecclesiastical court soon after the wedding.¹⁷ The suitor's position was never a signifi-

<sup>15</sup> Josep Serrano, "La família en la historiografia jurídica dels territoris hispànics pirenaics," Revista de Dret Històric Català 4 (2004): 91–121. For a broader European perspective, see Lloyd Bonfield, "Avances en la legislación familiar europea," in Historia de la Familia Europea, vol. 1: La vida familiar a principios de la era moderna, 1500–1789, eds. David Kertzer and Marcio Barbagli (Barcelona: Paidós, 2002), 153–205.

<sup>16</sup> Joaquín Sedano, "Las incertidumbres históricas sobre la potestad pontificia de disolver un matrimonio rato y no consumado: Una clave interpretativa de la formación del vínculo matrimonial," Ius canonicum 56, no. 111 (2016): 229–269.

<sup>17</sup> Biblioteca del fondo antiguo de la Universidad de Barcelona, Alegaciones jurídicas, Addicion al resumen substancial del pleyto matrimonial pendiente en la curia ecclesiastica de Barcelona entre Narcisa Pastor y Fons y el doctor Ioseph Pastor y Mora, ciudadano honrado de Barcelona [1673 o post.], 07 XVII-2532–21; Resumen substancial del pleyto matrimonial pendiente en la curia ecclesiastica de Barcelona entre Narcisa Pastor y Fons y el doctor Ioseph Pastor y Mora, ciudadano honrrado de Barcelona y iustificacion de la instancia de dicho doctor Pasto Fons, Narcisa; Pastor y Mora, 1673 o post. 07 DG-XVII-2532–20. The following quotes and transcripts are extracted from these sources.

cant impediment. Both families had a good status among the city's elite. This argument was never put forward nor mentioned. On the contrary, the crux of the issue was the objection to a young woman deciding her own future and breaking the bonds of obedience to her elders.

Narcisa gradually realized the control that her grandmother Ana María Montfar and, in particular, her aunt Narcisa Fons exercised over her life. The only person she was close to and trusted was her sister, who, at the time of the events in question, was already married and living away from the family home, but they still saw each other often. Therefore, her sister witnessed the initial high hopes that Narcisa placed in Joseph. The beginnings of the romantic relationship seemed to bode well: "Doctor Joseph Pastor started courting Narcisa on the first day of Lent in the year 1671." Moreover, "it appears that he was to Narcisa's liking, and she seems to have reciprocated his feelings," and they began "sending each other several messages and exchanging courtesies." She even "once sent Doctor Pastor some perfumes and a carnation." ¹⁸ The lovers' accomplices included not only their own servants but also their friends' staff. One woman named Mariana, who worked for the parish priest in the district where Narcisa lived, occasionally brought her a bunch of flowers from Joseph. Such gestures and exchanges of gifts were very important in terms of romantic conquest. These gestures affirmed the gentleman's intentions or indicated the woman's consent thereto, while the gifts also formed part of the courting ritual, crucial within a context in which there were few opportunities to interact outside of the confines of the household, at least for distinguished women. As Joseph would later declare in the lawsuit, Narcisa's behavior led him to believe that he could make any decision about their relationship because she liked or even loved him, and he had no reason to suspect that she would turn down a proposal of marriage.

The documentation leaves no doubt about Narcisa's aunt's efforts to subjugate her niece. One of the pages of the pleadings describes "how constrained she was by her aunt and how carefully she supervised her." ¹⁹ Of course, neither the aunt nor the grandmother seemed willing to let Narcisa marry. Perhaps she was still too young, or, more probably, they were keen to negotiate the best possible outcome for their own interests. It seems likely that both the aunt and the grandmother would have started conversations with some other family more to their liking, with a view to the young woman's betrothal.

However, Narcisa's behavior clashed with these expectations. Although the source material does not reveal how she met Joseph, whether it was at church,

<sup>18</sup> Resumen substancial del pleyto matrimonial, 6.

<sup>19</sup> Ibid., 6.

on a stroll, on a visit, or through an intermediary, it is clear that Narcisa had taken the reins of her own feelings and wanted to decide her own destiny. According to a witness, there came a point when "Narcisa had made Ana María Montfar, her grandmother, say twice to Narcisa Fons, her aunt, that it was her desire to marry Doctor Joseph Pastor." ²⁰ This statement shows that she considered that her will should prevail over everybody else's interests. This demonstrated free behavior and a desire for self-governance and self-affirmation. It was also a protest against her aunt's constant interference and reflected the need to build a barrier to prevent these oppressive practices and surveillance. The steps that she was taking in her romantic relationship suggest that Narcisa was gradually realizing the path she would have to take in order to curb her family's behavior.

Basically, Narcisa practiced secrecy, which, just like affection, was her power. Secrecy enabled her to escape from the siege in which she found herself. Living her romance in secret gave her the strength to take the initiative in the relationship. Nobody watched or judged her, so she dared to become the seductress rather than the seduced. On one occasion, when she received flowers from Joseph,

she put the roses on her bosom and left the house. She was seen in the parish church of Sant Just, where Doctor Joseph Pastor was worshipping, and in response to his courtship, Narcisa touched her breasts, where she wore the roses, with her fan while looking at Doctor Pastor, thereby letting him know that the flowers were those he had sent her and expressing her great pleasure at his proposal, which had delighted her.²¹

This was not the only time that the young woman would operate in such a way. She used her servants to take messages to her beloved, whom she asked again and again for flowers to decorate her bosom and wear in front of him, even in public, keeping her intentions secret yet hiding from nobody. Unless one of the servants betrayed her, which she could not imagine given the loyalty required of such employees, only the lovers knew the meaning of her gestures, and this was her strength. Narcisa went to great lengths in her gestures to her beloved, even when he fell seriously ill: "Narcisa was very attentive toward him, sending him several messages that expressed her great concern and sorrow about his ailment." ²² She also went to great efforts in her games; secrecy inspired her to seduce without censorship, to speed up the progress of their relationship, and to deceive her custodians. When she heard that her lover was in a neighborhood of the city or at a certain church, she moved heaven and earth to force her aunt to go out with her

<sup>20</sup> Ibid., 7.

<sup>21</sup> Ibid.

<sup>22</sup> Ibid., 7–8.

for a stroll, as it was seen as improper to walk unaccompanied, in the hope of seeing and greeting him. However, after doing so various times, her aunt eventually worked out what was happening. Making no effort to hide her displeasure, she forbade Narcisa from responding to Joseph's courtesies. Her vigilant aunt's suspicions steadily grew, and she wasted no time in reacting. As increasingly restrictive rules were imposed on her, Narcisa felt suffocated and, according to one witness, "she wept a great deal."²³ However, she was not intimidated and strove to ensure that her suitor understood the reasons for her change of attitude: "she sent word to Doctor Pastor that she was very troubled by her aunt's command and, if she failed to return his courtesy, it was only to be duly obedient to her aunt, against her own will." ²⁴ For strong-minded women, it was one thing to obey out of obligation but quite another to obey without argument or protest, even if this protest was only expressed internally, within themselves, for which thinking of new strategies was enough.

Meanwhile, now aware of the reason for this change, Joseph began to think that if "Narcisa wanted to marry him and the only thing that could stop her was her great fear of her aunt," ²⁵ it was time to change the situation. The only possible solution that, moreover, was also perfectly legal and "commonplace among the most honorable citizen" was sequestration, the Church-sanctioned removal of the woman from her home and family. He even thought that Narcisa would like being secluded. As he notes in his declarations, "it was sure to appeal greatly to Narcisa …, it was not frightening in any way." He was a cautious man.²⁶ As a lawyer, he knew the law and would never have risked his beloved's reputation.

Sequestration consisted of a petition to the ecclesiastical court, as all matrimonial matters fell within the jurisdiction of the Church.²⁷ The aim of secluding the woman was to clarify her true desire to marry, removing her from the pressure or influence of her family by placing her in another house or a convent. Women were sequestered because the ecclesiastical culture embraced the stereotype of female

<sup>23</sup> Ibid., 8.

<sup>24</sup> Ibid., 8–9.

<sup>25</sup> Ibid., 10.

<sup>26</sup> Ibid., 11.

<sup>27</sup> Marie Costa, "Conflictos matrimoniales y divorcio en Cataluña: 1775–1833" (PhD Thesis, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, 2007); Francisco José Lorenzo Pinar, "Conflictividad social en torno a la formación del matrimonio (Zamora y Toro en el siglo XVI)," Studia Histórica 13 (1995): 131–154; Daniel Baldellou, "Transgresión y legalidad en el cortejo del siglo XVIII: el secuestro de mujeres en la diócesis de Zaragoza," Studia Histórica 38, no. 1 (2016): 155–192.

weakness,²⁸ believing that only women were capable of letting themselves be influenced. As far as the Church was concerned, sequestration was an extremely useful tool designed to ensure the validity of a marriage, the legitimacy of which was underpinned by the free will of the prospective spouses.²⁹ In the Catholic realm, the importance of freedom had been enshrined in the rules of the Council of Trent. Nevertheless, among families with significant social power and economic interests, parents still intervened in their children's marital plans to a considerable extent. The upper classes never accepted that a matter as crucial as the marriage of their children should be determined freely, and paternal consent prevailed for centuries, endorsed by the commandments of divine law, which ultimately advocated honoring one's parents.³⁰ With this conviction, Joseph spoke to the Bishop of Barcelona, who recommended that he contact one of his general curates. However, the curate, Doctor Vila, told him that "performing the sequestration that he requested would be very problematic because Narcisa would lose all her wealth, to which he responded that both Narcisa and Doctor Pastor were already aware of the consequences as far as her interests were concerned and, nonetheless, they both still wanted to marry." ³¹ This was an extremely valuable and secret piece of information, and Vila demanded that it be kept from Narcisa's aunt, who would thwart everything if she knew. At last, Joseph discovered the reason why the aunt was so reluctant to allow this relationship.

However, he continued in his endeavor, confident of Narcisa's feelings, and went to another curate, Doctor Amigant, who was less fearful than the first. He eventually signed the authorization for the sequestration and immediately sent his court officials and a royal aide to the house of Narcisa's aunt. This retinue arrived on the morning of 8 May 1671. A few months had passed since the couple had started their courtship. It had all happened very quickly. Therefore, the unexpected visit was a huge surprise, and "Mrs. Fons was greatly upset, angrily arguing that her niece had not given her word to marry Doctor Pastor and she should not be-

<sup>28</sup> Margarita Torremocha, "La fragilidad femenina y el arbitrio judicial (s. XVIII): Entre la caridad y la equidad en los tribunales," Tiempos moderno 36 (2018), http://www.tiemposmodernos.org/tm3/ index.php/tm/article/view/4205.

<sup>29</sup> Charlotte Christensen-Nugues, "Parental Authority and Freedom of Choice: The Debate on Clandestinity and Parental Consent at the Council of Trent," Sixteenth Century Journal 45, no. 1 (2014): 51–72; Jesús M. Usunáriz, "El matrimonio como ejercicio de libertad en la España del siglo de oro," in El matrimonio en Europa y el mundo hispánico, eds. Ignacio Arellano and Jesús M. Usunáriz (Madrid: Visor, 2005), 169–175.

<sup>30</sup> Tomás Mantecón Movellan, "Las mujeres ante los tribunales castellanos: Acción de justicia y usos de la penalidad en el Antiguo Régimen," Chronica Nova 37 (2011): 99–123.

<sup>31</sup> Resumen substancial del pleyto matrimonial, 12.

come his wife and that there was no reason to sequester her." ³² After calming her, the curate responded that "if your niece does not wish to marry Doctor Pastor, nobody will force her to do so, but the duty of the sequestration to ascertain her will must be conducted by the Church." ³³

Feeling assured that Narcisa would act in accordance with her family's will and would not dare to disobey them, the aunt allowed the curate to enter her quarters to see her niece and interrogate her. According to the declarations filed in the lawsuit, at no point did Narcisa "give any indication that she resented being sequestered, nor did she appear displeased by the measure…. Quite the contrary, it seemed clear that she was happy to be sequestered and, if she displayed any surprise at all, it was to conceal from her aunt her great desire to marry Doctor Pastor." ³⁴ Judging from these statements, Narcisa once again opted for deception and secrecy to disguise her true intentions but then carried on regardless.

Narcisa realized that the only way she could get out of the house was by being sequestered. She agreed to it because she believed that it would give her the chance to see and talk to her suitor more often and freely, thereby enabling them to prepare the wedding as soon as possible. But she did not want to admit this in front of her family, especially not to her aunt, so she opted to keep quiet. However, the documentation from the legal proceedings reveals opposing testimonies that state that Narcisa locked herself in her bedroom, afraid and ashamed by the whole spectacle. This declaration goes against the image of Narcisa having a seductive attitude from the start. However, the affiants do seem to agree that some violence occurred that morning in the Fons household, with one stating that "standing by the door, the aunt pushed Narcisa and forced her into her quarters" in order to prevent the aide from taking her away and "very angrily, raising her voice, she stopped her." Moreover, the aunt relentlessly threatened Narcisa, saying that "if she married Doctor Pastor, she would never see her again nor enter that house, and she would be left with nothing."³⁵

This was violence by women in charge against women who obeyed because the former assumed an ascribed role in the patriarchal system. Narcisa's aunt was the head of the household, at the top of the hierarchy, acting in just the same way as her husband and father had previously done. It was merely a continuation of patriarchal power. Moreover, it should not be forgotten that, with respect to certain delicate matters, she was constrained by the last wishes of an ancestor who had already made decisions regarding her niece. As such, she was obliged to

35 Ibid., 25.

<sup>32</sup> Ibid.

<sup>33</sup> Ibid., 13.

<sup>34</sup> Ibid., 15.

comply with somebody else's commands and obey to a certain extent. She was compelled to do so by her personal conscience but also, and more importantly, for the sake of the family's honor, standing and reputation.

Once this moment of tension had passed, the royal aide fulfilled his remit and searched the house for Narcisa, who had secluded herself in a room far from the confrontation. However, judging from her reaction, she knew that this was for the sake of appearances, as when the aide found her, "she was not at all afraid, she did not weep or show any sign of emotion." Furthermore, "without any struggle, she came downstairs voluntarily … despite the opposing party claiming that she was very upset … and that the general curate violently forced her downstairs as she clasped tightly to a doorway, crying and shouting."³⁶ When the validity of the marriage was eventually questioned, Joseph always believed and asserted that "if Narcisa did anything to oppose the measure, it was feigned and designed to conceal her true intentions from her aunt."³⁷ He had good reason to think that way. Narcisa always used secrecy, dissimulation, and deceit right up to the very end because she chose to engage in silent protest.

Narcisa played this dual role because she really did not have many alternatives. Like all the women of her time and social class, she was taught not to contradict the teachings or the will of her guardians or elders. Obedience was one of the great virtues of women and a key pillar of the patriarchy. In contrast, daughters from lower-class families, who lived in more humble households that their parents both left to earn a living, came and went almost as they wished without supervision, making them far harder to subjugate. However, a young woman from a respectful family could not allow herself to show such defiance. Narcisa was well aware of this and so chose to pretend in order not to cause offense but, at the same time, to be able to do as she wished or go wherever her heart took her. Up to that point, she had displayed a strong, certain attitude. Her conviction only seems to have wavered when she bade farewell to her sister and "showed some emotion at leaving her sister, whose hands she held."³⁸ She needed to feel supported and understood.

37 Ibid., 27.

<sup>36</sup> Ibid., 12.

<sup>38</sup> Ibid., 16.

#### Sequestered but Free

Institutionalized sequestration was perfectly designed not to cause distress or upset. Therefore, the curate invited Narcisa's aunt to accompany the entourage and her niece to the house in which she would spend her seclusion. She would be staying with one of the city's most honorable and distinguished households, the home of the noblewoman María de Tamarit. When the destination for Narcisa's seclusion was announced to everyone who had gathered to witness the sequestration, including her aunt's friends, relatives and neighbors, they all understood that the location was beyond reproach. This gives us a glimpse of the faint line that barely separated the private and public spheres of life at the time; indeed, several curious people came to the house simply to observe a matter of sequestration for marriage. Narcisa felt emotional. Was she sure that this was the only way that she would be able to be with her beloved? Canonical doctrine stipulated that "sequestration is performed in order to give the secluded person greater freedom to decide about the prospect of their marriage,"³⁹ as the canonist Juan Gutiérrez was cited as saying in the pleadings. All in all, it is hard to understand from a modern perspective how a woman could feel free in an environment that considered her too fragile to make a mature, adult decision. Nevertheless, after being sequestered, and despite the continued pressures to which she was subjected, Narcisa began to enjoy a freedom that she had never known before, thanks to being far from home. However, both her aunt and her stepfather went to the house to persuade María de Tamarit to convince Narcisa against marrying Joseph. Unfortunately for Narcisa, the lady of the house was a friend of her aunt and "would tell her everything that Narcisa did and said."⁴⁰ However, Narcisa had her own strategy, the success of which depended on her silence.⁴¹ Not even here would she respond to the curate's interrogations. As a result, the curate decided to continue the sequestration elsewhere, so Narcisa was taken to the house of Alemanda de Junyent, another noblewoman. This time, her aunt did not accompany her because, fortunately for Narcisa, the lady of the house was not a friend of hers.

This new stage of the proceedings turned out to be a happy time as far as Narcisa's intentions were concerned because, as Alemanda insisted on several occasions, "if she wanted to marry, she should do so and, if not, she should not and

<sup>39</sup> Ibid., 30.

<sup>40</sup> Ibid., 28.

<sup>41</sup> Eva Mendieta, "Del silencio al alboroto: El control del lenguaje de la mujer en la edad moderna," Memoria y civilización 18 (2015): 127–162.

should do whatever she wants."⁴² The two women got along very well, as Narcisa also did with Alemanda's daughters, to the extent that, as Narcisa longed to see her lover, they advised her to write a letter: "I have come to the house of Lady Alemanda, where I have heard that you have been listless. I want you to know how much I love you and long to see you … If it is not problematic for you, I would like you to come and stand in the street and we will go out on the balcony."⁴³ This was undoubtedly an invitation to a tryst. She had never been ashamed to take the initiative in matters of the heart, and her approach was a world away from the shy, coy style that she had surely been raised to adopt in her dealings with men. In fact, she went even further in the letter, asking Joseph to give her a ring as a sign of their commitment. He acquiesced to this request, and Narcisa wasted no time in wearing it in front of everybody. She knew that symbols were granted to betrothed women, and she demanded them even before they were due.

This was not her only letter. In one of the others that she wrote to her lover, she pleaded with him to "take pity on me for the distress I am under. Please do everything you can so that we may marry as soon as possible."⁴⁴ Being at the house suited Narcisa very well, but it was a means to an end, and she was in a great hurry. It is no surprise that she signed her last letter to him as "Narcisa Fons, your wife."⁴⁵ She gave herself this title in anticipation of the authority that she was longing to assume as the lady of a new household, free from her aunt's control.

There is another extremely interesting detail with respect to these two letters. The first was not written in her handwriting. Narcisa asked the Junyent sisters to write it for her, arguing that she was not good at the art of writing: "She asked them to write it as she was slow at writing and would take a long time."⁴⁶ However, she wrote the second letter herself. What had changed? Absolutely nothing except how close they had become to each other in the household. The time that they had spent together had not been in vain and, in view of the esteem that the Junyent sisters felt for her, they deemed her worthy of their trust. Narcisa liked to keep her things hidden. Even those who had always lived with her probably did not know her very well. She did not let anybody know her very well. That was her weapon. That afternoon, Joseph came to the house and went up to the courtyard, where he saw Narcisa through some railings:


<sup>42</sup> Resumen substancial del pleyto matrimonial, 29.

They spoke for a while, and she reached through to hold Doctor Pastor's hand. They both pledged their desire to wed each other at the earliest opportunity. To mark this betrothal, the Doctor placed two rings on her fingers, one with diamonds and the other with emeralds, which she happily accepted. Being alone at the railings and treating each other as man and wife, they reciprocally made use of the prerogatives to which this marital status would entitle them, as far as the railings would allow, progressing from the hands up to the mouth.⁴⁷

As the other women were at home, Narcisa opened the door so that they would no longer be separated by the railings. She invited him into the living room, where "she sat on the Doctor's lap." Although the text states that "it was only to be expected that the Junyent household would allow such displays of familiarity,"⁴⁸ it is still surprising that she did not ask the permission of the lady of the house. This was an age in which the rules for visiting were extremely strict. However, this is yet another indication of her will to make her own decisions and how well she managed to take advantage of her Church-sanctioned seclusion to achieve her own ends. Her enthusiasm was so strong that Narcisa wanted to get married that very evening but, after discussing it with Joseph, they decided to do it the following day. She asked her beloved to "make her a woolen dress adorned with golden or silver lacework and a black velvet gaberdine with silver buttons."⁴⁹

Witnessing their love, the lady of the house conspired with Narcisa and told her that the fastest way to marry was to grant a trusted acquaintance the power to act on her behalf, thereby enabling her to marry by proxy. This is precisely what she did on 28 March 1672, granting power of attorney to Doctor Isidoro Pi in the presence of a notary. ⁵⁰ She was afraid that her aunt, whom she rightly suspected was keeping a close eye on her, would once again demand that the curate move her to a third location. Narcisa had planned that, when this happened, she would insist that they "take me to the house of my husband, Doctor Pastor." ⁵¹

Narcisa felt free during this period at the home of the Junyent family. Her sequestration was a pleasant experience. She did as she wished and made her own decisions. The women of the household stood by her side, talking to her at lunchtime and before retiring for the evening. In the analyzed texts, there are small traces of these moments: "with attentive insistence, they persuaded her that she should marry Doctor Pastor, showing her fine gowns and dresses and saying that, if it was not to her liking, they would make her a better one…. They also ad-


vised her not to upset her aunt, who had raised her." ⁵² The ladies had also searched for a notary to grant a power of attorney. Their support of Narcisa was unwavering to such an extent that it would later be claimed by the opposing party in the legal proceedings that they had coerced Narcisa's will. Worst of all, and most displeasingly to her aunt, they discovered that the Junyent family was related to Doctor Pastor in the fourth degree of kinship. Moreover, Joseph's father, a judge of the royal court of Barcelona, had ruled in favor of Francisco de Junyent in some important legal proceedings. There were some well-founded suspicions that different interests were at play in the matter of the marriage.

Having been warned about this situation by the aunt, the curate decided that the time had come to explore Narcisa's wishes in depth, so he went to the Junyent household. The young woman was very clear about what she wanted and put in writing her firm desire to marry Joseph, which caused some surprise among the people present: "The general curate Pons saw Narcisa write with such good handwriting that they were all astonished because her relatives had told them and publicly announced that she did not know how to write." ⁵³ Secrecy had created a gulf that separated and protected her from her family, enabling her to make her own decisions about what to do rather than what her aunt, grandmother or stepfather thought she should do. This was a form of objection and silent protest against the commands of others and the restriction of the small degree of freedom enjoyed by women.

The following day, 29 March 1672, the marriage by proxy was held in the church of Sant Just in Barcelona, one of the biggest parishes in the upper-class area of the city. As required by law, there were witnesses at the ceremony, which was officiated by Narcisa's parish priest.⁵⁴ Canon law recognized the validity of marriage by proxy as a rite, especially after having confirmed the young woman's will to marry three times. However, the banns of marriage had not been published. This unfulfilled formality was one of the reasons put forward in the subsequent application for annulment. This particular point was a weak argument, however, because while the doctrine of the Council of Trent stipulated that such marriages must before performed before a priest and a witness, the other conditions it stipulated were not essential in nature.⁵⁵ As far as the family was concerned though, the fact that the banns had not been published made the marriage a clandestine affair and, as such, unlawful.

<sup>52</sup> Ibid., 31.

<sup>53</sup> Ibid., 36.

<sup>54</sup> Ibid., 41–56.

<sup>55</sup> Adhémar Esmein, Le mariage en droit canonique (Paris: Larose et Forcel, 1891).

However, the very night before the wedding, Narcisa was taken in extremis to the Enseñanza convent, run by the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception. This was instigated by her aunt. Two of Narcisa's stepsisters were nuns at the convent, and her aunt believed that they would skilfully convince her that her insistence on marrying Doctor Pastor was a grave mistake. In cases of problematic sequestrations subject to a great deal of contention, it was common to try various households or locations for the married woman's seclusion. Narcisa did not like the idea at all, thinking that she would be trapped there. "She spent all her time crying. She was agitated and aggrieved, not wanting to alight from the carriage. Under absolutely no circumstances did she want to become a nun." ⁵⁶ Moreover, the eminent legal scholar Gutiérrez had advised "not leaving or sequestering women in a convent of nuns due to the many religious convictions with which such matters tend to be encumbered."⁵⁷ As it turned out, something sinister did indeed happen at the convent.

That evening, Sister Teresa Ballester, Sister Mariana Fortuny and Sister Eulalia Argila succeeded in getting Narcisa to declare that "if she could be sure that her aunts would take her away from there, she would not marry Joseph."⁵⁸ According to the nuns, Narcisa revoked the power of attorney at that point. The following day, when Joseph went to the convent to collect the woman he believed to be his wife, the curate was interrogating her one last time at the bequest of the nuns. Narcisa was exhausted. Her small degree of freedom had suffered so many attacks that, driven by her state of distress, uncertainty and lack of recognition, she eventually requested the dissolution of the marriage, asking to be released from wedlock on the basis that it had not been consummated and she had not given her consent. ⁵⁹ The legal proceedings were initiated in September 1672.

It is not known how the story ended. While there is no record of the ruling, it is not hard to hypothesize how the proceedings concluded. However, in light of the suddenness of the beginning of the end of the tale, there are several questions that need to be answered. Did Narcisa no longer know what she wanted by that point? Or had she done all of this on a whim, perhaps merely to have a taste of more freedom? Did the nuns really manage to change her perception of things so dramatically?

<sup>56</sup> Resumen substantial del pleyto matrimonial, 38.

<sup>57</sup> Ibid., 30.

<sup>58</sup> Ibid., 44; Adición al resumen, 2.

<sup>59</sup> Adición al resumen, 4–6.

### Conclusions: A Silent Protest and an Assertion of Herself

Narcisa surrendered. The events overwhelmed her. The analyzed text reveals that on the afternoon when her beloved was marrying her by proxy, she was in the convent, "so utterly drained that they had to put her to bed and, beset by angst, she started crying. When they asked what was happening, she told them that she would not survive the night."⁶⁰ Like no woman of that period, she had not been taught to follow the path toward her freedom, certainly a vague concept at the time. But regardless of how appealing it was to strive toward her desires and dreams, the short endeavor she had made had become precarious, unable to withstand the strong headwinds and such great opposition. Perhaps Narcisa was not sure. Very few young women would have been in such a hostile context, almost constantly surrounded by an ecclesiastical entourage that had not settled for her first or second declaration but rather seemed determined to please the family and get Narcisa to recant her initial affirmations. So, Joseph had to call off the armed guard that had accompanied him to the convent from the church in which he believed he had married Narcisa. They would soon see each other in court.

While disappointing modern readers who want to see the triumph of a woman's will over patriarchal expediency, this story is nonetheless a tale of protest, a form of advocacy. Incorporating many facets at the same time, it is also a story of an internal battle. As a protest, it shows the scope and power of secretive, silent strategies. As an account of internal conflict, it reveals the difficulties and contradictions faced by the will of a woman within a space of subordination and lacking the resources to argue her case. For Narcisa, love, with all its ritual, even including the sequestration, was a small taste of freedom; she was the main driver of the relationship, taking control of it, searching for her beloved and encouraging him, demanding gifts and signs of commitment from him, arranging trysts to see each other and even insisting on marriage without any delay. She was assuming a different role to the one assigned to women of her class at that time. Moreover, Narcisa never wanted to communicate with or confide in her family, preferring to keep her secrets and conceal her intentions. These hidden places, unseen by others, were the pillars of her freedom. Secrecy was her form of protest, and she used it in her romance. For the same reason, Narcisa was not used to sharing important decisions with her family. Her secrets were her decisions and her decisions were her secrets. Outside of this secret place, she endured and clashed with her family's authority. Announcing Joseph's intentions, being sequestered and publicizing her emotions ultimately deprived her of these small invisible weapons. She did not fail; she was simply left defenseless. Narcisa was a woman who needed to flee from her family, to run far away. Her experience also swung between her desire for freedom and her adherence to due obedience. Years earlier, when clandestine marriages were still not rigorously pursued, she may have been able to partake in this custom. However, hers was an age in which the routes permitted by the patriarchy were the only option, with hardly any alternative available. As well as her feelings of defenselessness, tasting and relishing a small degree of freedom gave rise to a new sentiment that, almost without her realizing, would accompany her on the road ahead: doubt. This doubt stopped her in her tracks because it triggered an internal conflict.

Narcisa's story is interesting because, as a whole, it clearly defines a gender experience based on assigned roles and unspoken consent, practices that, in her case, she wanted to destroy through silent protest in a quest for freedom and autonomy. Secrecy and silence were not spontaneous for Narcisa. Nor was it spontaneous to pretend that she did not know how to write. Both were her choices to make her life something different as a protest; therefore, Narcisa was aware of the limits put on her sex, aware of her subordination. However, over the course of this process, faced with this dilemma and lacking the education and driving force required, Narcisa had to embrace her doubtful self, which, paradoxically, in the long run, is the side of her character that could forge change. In her case, doubt triumphed. Nevertheless, if her small secret protest at least led her to doubt, then her experience should be acknowledged because it gently helped to strip away the notion of immutability among the lives and subjective experiences of the patriarchal family.

#### Works Cited


White, Luise. "Telling More: Lies, Secrets, and History." History and Theory 39, no. 4 (2000): 11–22.

Zemon Davis, Natalie. "Fame and Secrecy: Leon Modena's Life as an Early Modern Autobiography." History and Theory 27, no. 4 (1988): 103–118.

Frank Jacob

# 6 Emma Goldman, Gender Related Protest, and Anarchist Radicalism as a Crime

#### Introduction

In an interview for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Sunday Magazine in 1897, the Russian-born American anarchist Emma Goldman was asked, "What does anarchy hold out to me—a woman?" Her answer was relatively short but precise: "More to woman than to anyone else—everything which she has not—freedom and equality."¹ Goldman, who was also referred to as the "priestess of anarchy"² in the same article, was a radical anarchist, a fact that obviously aroused the imagination of the public, especially since she was unexpectedly woman-like: "She is in every sense a womanly looking woman, with masculine mind and courage."³ In the late 19th century, the fact that a woman like her could actually be a political activist, even a radical anarchist, was obviously something that contested the existent gender norms of the United States, and Goldman having been imprisoned due to her political activism before turned her into a well-known 'celebrity' in the US context as well. For some, she was a "real champion of freedom"⁴ who demanded more rights and more equality for women. Her statements about women's suppression within the patriarchic society and particularly by the yoke of marriage,⁵ on the other hand, turned Goldman into a feared radical in the public mind. The anarchist argued that the modern woman "is the slave of her husband and her children. She should take her part in the business world the same as the man; she should be his equal before the world, as she is in the reality. She is ca-

<sup>1</sup> Emma Goldman, "What Is There in Anarchy for Woman?," in St. Louis Post-Dispatch Sunday Magazine, October 14, 1897, 9, in: Candace Falk et al., eds. Emma Goldman: A Documentary History of the American Years, vol 1: Made for America, 1890–1901 (Urbana/Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2008), 289.

<sup>2</sup> Ibid.

<sup>3</sup> Ibid., 292.

<sup>4</sup> Emma Goldman, "An Anarchist Looks at Life," Text of a speech by Emma Goldman, held at Foyle's twenty-ninth literary luncheon (London, UK), March 1, 1933, Emma Goldman Papers, International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam (henceforth EGP-IISH), No. 191, 3.

<sup>5</sup> Frank Jacob, "Marriage as Exploitation: Emma Goldman and the Anarchist Concept of Female Liberation," in Marriage Discourses: Historical and Literary Perspectives on Gender Inequality and Patriarchic Exploitation, eds. Jowan A. Mohammed and Frank Jacob (Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2021), 133–158.

Open Access. © 2023 the author(s), published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111102757-006

pable as he, but when she labors she gets less wages. Why? Because she wears skirts instead of trousers."⁶ Goldman pointed the finger at gendered inequalities that still exist in the United States today, a fact that made her thoughts even more dangerous for the mainstream newspaper reader of her time, expressly making an accusation against the suppression of women by men, i. e., by a patriarchic society: "The woman, instead of being the household queen, told about in story books, is the servant, the mistress, and the slave of both husband and children. She loses her own individuality entirely, even her name she is not allowed to keep."⁷

For many Americans of her time, Goldman⁸ had an "aura of menace around [her],"⁹ and she was often considered to be the "personification of anarchism in America."¹⁰ The anarchist is also often considered by modern-day historians, feminists, and feminist historians alike to have been a proto-feminist or an anarchafeminist in particular.¹¹ Nevertheless, Goldman had many facets and different political identities that should be taken into consideration: she was a free speech advocate,¹² a revolutionary intellectual,¹³ an anti-imperialist,¹⁴ a fierce anti-bolshevik

<sup>6</sup> Goldman, "What Is There in Anarchy for Woman?," 291.

<sup>7</sup> Ibid.

<sup>8</sup> The main biographical works about Goldman are Joseph Ishill, Emma Goldman: A Challenging Rebel (Berkeley Heights, N.J.: Oriole Press, 1957); Alice Wexler, Emma Goldman: An Intimate Life (New York: Pantheon, 1984); Kathy E. Ferguson, Emma Goldman: Political Thinking in the Streets (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011); Vivian Gornick, Emma Goldman: Revolution as a Way of Life (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2011); Paul and Karen Avrich, Sasha and Emma: The Anarchist Odyssey of Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014); Frank Jacob, Emma Goldman: Ein Leben für die Freiheit (Leipzig: Hentrich & Hentrich, 2021); Frank Jacob, Emma Goldman: Identitäten einer Anarchistin (Leipzig: Hentrich & Hentrich, 2022).

<sup>9</sup> Kathy E. Ferguson, "Discourses of Danger: Locating Emma Goldman," Political Theory 36, no. 5 (2008): 743.

<sup>10</sup> Donna M. Kowal, "Anarcha-Feminism," in The Palgrave Handbook of Anarchism, eds. Carl Levy and Matthew S. Adams (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), 274.

<sup>11</sup> For works with such a perspective on Goldman, see Wexler, Emma Goldman; Candace Falk, Love, Anarchy and Emma Goldman (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1990 [1984]); Lori Jo Marso, "A Feminist Search for Love: Emma Goldman on the Politics of Marriage, Love, Sexuality and the Feminine," Feminist Theory 4, no. 3 (2003): 305–320; Kathy E. Ferguson, "Gender and Genre in Emma Goldman," Signs 36, no. 3 (2011): 733–757; Donna M. Kowal, Tongue of Fire: Emma Goldman, Public Womanhood, and the Sex Question (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2016).

<sup>12</sup> Bill Lynskey, "'I Shall Speak in Philadelphia': Emma Goldman and the Free Speech League," The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 133, no. 2 (2009): 167–202.

<sup>13</sup> Frank Jacob, "An Anarchist Revolution? Emma Goldman as an Intellectual Revolutionary," Journal for the Study of Radicalism 15, no. 2 (2021): 29–48.

activist,¹⁵ an anti-fascist,¹⁶ and many things more.¹⁷ Wherever she spotted inequality and hierarchical exploitation, Goldman would immediately start a campaign and advocate for anarchist democracy and individual rights, in particular for women. Wherever she spotted hope for a revolution on behalf of a better society, she was, sometimes too enthusiastically and even before knowing the details, fully engaged.¹⁸ Her antagonism toward the state turned her into a personal enemy of the young J. Edgar Hoover¹⁹ and eventually into an exile when she was expelled from the United States in 1919.²⁰ For a whole generation, the name Goldman probably conjured up the image of the "world's most dangerous woman,"²¹ which, in a way, caused an imagined connection of her political radicalism with her gender identity as a woman, two aspects that made her a particularly "dangerous individual"²² for the mainstream American public on the one hand and an interesting figure on the other.²³ Always contesting the state and often considered its adversary,

<sup>14</sup> Frank Jacob, "Anarchistische Imperialismuskritik und staatliche Repression: Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman und die Kritik an der politischen Ökonomie des Ersten Weltkrieges in den USA, 1917–1919," PROKLA 201 (2020): 681–695.

<sup>15</sup> For a detailed analysis of Goldman's attitude toward the Russian Revolution and bolshevism, see Frank Jacob, Emma Goldman and the Russian Revolution: From Admiration to Frustration (Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2020). For a shorter introduction, see Frank Jacob, "From Aspiration to Frustration: Emma Goldman's Perception of the Russian Revolution," American Communist History 17, no. 2 (2018): 185–199.

<sup>16</sup> Frank Jacob, "Emma Goldmans Blick auf Bolschewismus, Faschismus und Nationalsozialismus: Eine anarchistische Perspektive auf den Totalitarismus der 1920er- und 1930er-Jahre," Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft 68, no. 10 (2020): 833–847.

<sup>17</sup> For instance, Goldman can also be considered a "capitalist publicist." See Frank Jacob, "An Anarchist Has to Live off Something: Emma Goldman as a Capitalist Publicist," Anarchist Studies 30, no. 2 (2022): 8–30.

<sup>18</sup> An example of this would be her involvement in the Spanish Civil War. See David Porter, Vision on Fire: Emma Goldman on the Spanish Revolution (New Paltz, NY: Commonground Press, 1983). 19 J. Edgar Hoover, "Memorandum for Mr. Creighton," U.S. Department of Justice (August 23, 1919), 2, cited in Ferguson, "Discourses of Danger," 735.

<sup>20</sup> Frank Jacob, "The Russian Revolution, the American Red Scare, and the Forced Exile of Transnational Anarchists: Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman and their Soviet Experience," Yearbook of Transnational History 4 (2021): 113–134. Only three women were expelled in 1919. See Freiheit: Berliner Organ der Unabhängigen Sozialdemokratie Deutschlands, December 23, 1919: 1.

<sup>21</sup> Theresa and Albert Moritz, The World's Most Dangerous Woman (Vancouver: Subway Books, 2001).

<sup>22</sup> Ferguson, "Discourses of Danger," 736.

<sup>23</sup> See, for example, the front page of The San Francisco Call, September 11, 1901; "Woman Well Called Queen of Anarchists," The Chanute Times, June 19, 1908: 2; "'Poverty and Prostitution Stalk Hand in Hand,' says Emma Goldman," The Day Book, July 17, 1914, noon edition: 22. In one German newspaper, Goldman was named the "Luise Michel of New York's autonomy group" and "mistress of the assassin Berkman." Hannoverscher Kurier, January 21, 1893: 3.

especially when Goldman was connected with the assassination of US President William McKinley in 1901,²⁴ the female anarchist was known for connecting political and social protest with questions about gender and sex.²⁵ Like many other anarchists at the end of the 19th century, Goldman was "[l]iving and thinking beyond convention, [and she and other anarchists] offered a unique viewpoint on their times and experienced tensions that illuminated American society. Uncomfortable with the present, they remained torn between the simpler past and the possible future."²⁶

The first part of the present chapter intends to show the extent to which Goldman's protest against existent gender norms, in a way, gendered her crimes, as she was perceived as a dangerous female anarchist as a consequence of her demands with regard to women's emancipation and sexual liberation. The second part will show how far the media that reported about Goldman and her gendered forms of protest also created an image of a "femme fatale," especially in relation to the news coverage of Alexander Berkman's assassination attempt on Henry Clay Frick in 1892 and the assassination of McKinley by the young anarchist Leon Czolgosz in 1901. The chapter will consequently show how Emma Goldman's image as a "dangerous woman" in the US context was related to her demands and her perception by the mass media of her time. Her protest was naturally gendered due to these aspects and offers an example of how women who demanded social change were branded as dangerous and seductive troublemakers within the US context of the long 19th century.

# Gendered Crimes and the Protest of a Female Anarchist

Regardless of the anti-hierarchical core values of the anarchist movement that also seemed to be particularly promising for women, soon after joining it and her first

<sup>24</sup> Her arrest in relation to the assassination drew international attention. For Norway, for example, see Bergens tidene, September 10, 1901: 2; Trondheims Folkeblad, September 12, 1901: 2. In Germany, the Berliner Börsen-Zeitung called Goldman the "spritual originator" (geistige Urheberin) of the assassination. Berliner Börsen-Zeitung, October 8, 1901: 4.

<sup>25</sup> Loretta Kensinger, "Radical Lessons: Thoughts on Emma Goldman, Chaos, Grief, and Political Violence Post–9/11/01," Feminist Teacher 20, no. 1 (2009): 53; Blaine McKinley, "'The Quagmires of Necessity': American Anarchists and Dilemmas of Vocation," American Quarterly 34, no. 5 (1982), 503; Alix Kates Shulman, "Introduction," in Red Emma Speaks: Selected Writings and Speeches by Emma Goldman (New York: Vintage Books, 1972), 11–12.

<sup>26</sup> McKinley, "'The Quagmires of Necessity'," 503–504.

political activities, Goldman would found out that "[e]ven radicals do not differ from the Christians; they do not wish their wives to become radical; even they deem themselves necessary to her protection."²⁷ Nevertheless, Goldman envisioned a revolution that was supposed to change society, especially since it was based on women's political and sexual emancipation alike.²⁸ She also wanted to ensure women had full control over their lives and bodies, which is why she advocated on behalf of birth control, another gendered crime that brought her in conflict with the law and the US state.²⁹ Goldman knew from experience that women were often at a disadvantage due to giving birth to numerous children, and "having worked as a nurse-midwife for poor immigrant women in the 1890s, Goldman saw firsthand the painful consequences that arose when women lacked the ability to care for their reproductive health."³⁰ To her, birth control naturally seemed to be more than a health-related factor for women; it was a path to empowerment as well. Consequently, Goldman was willing to take up the fight against the authorities and the patriarchic system and used all means available to her to publicize her views.

In 1905 she founded Mother Earth, which was published, from 1913 as a bulletin, until April 1918. Although the journal could not attract a large number of readers or, probably more importantly, subscribers, Goldman, writing with Alexander Berkman, considered its positive results to be more important:

Mother EARTH is such a success. Without a party to back her, with little or no support from her own ranks, and consistently refusing to be gagged by a profitable advertising department, she has bravely weathered the strain of five years, stormy enough to have broken many a strong spirit. She has created an atmosphere for herself which few Anarchist publications in America have been able to equal. She has gathered around her a coterie of men and women who are among the best in the country, and, finally, she has acted as a leaven of thought in quarters least expected by those who are ready with advice, yet unable to help.³¹

<sup>27</sup> Emma Goldman, "The New Woman," Free Society, February 13, 1898: 2, in Emma Goldman: A Documentary History of the American Years, vol. 1: Made for America, 1890–1901, eds. Candace Falk et al (Urbana/Chicago: Illinois University Press, 2008), 322. See also Lucy Nicholas, "Gender and Sexuality," in The Palgrave Handbook of Anarchism, eds. Carl Levy and Matthew S. Adams (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), 605.

<sup>28</sup> Clare Hemmings, "Sexual Freedom and the Promise of Revolution Emma Goldman's Passion," Feminist Review 106 (2014): 56.

<sup>29</sup> "Emma Goldman out of Prison: Will Continue Birth Control Speeches," Daily Capital Journal, May 6, 1916: 14.

<sup>30</sup> Kowal, "Anarcha-Feminism," 274–275.

<sup>31</sup> Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, "Our Sixth Birthday," Mother Earth 6, no. 1 (1911), accessed February 26, 2020. http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist\_Archives/goldman/ME/mev6n1. html.

Goldman and Berkman, in their review of the journal's initial years, also emphasized why Mother Earth had initially been brought to life:

As to the original raison d'etre of MOTHER EARTH, it was, first of all, to create a medium for the free expres[si]on of our ideas, a medium bold, defiant, and unafraid. That she has proved to the fullest, for neither friend nor foe has been able to gag her.

Secondly, MOTHER EARTH was to serve asagathering point, as it were, for those, who, struggling to free themselves from the absurdities of the Old, had not yet reached firm footing[.] Suspended between heaven and hell, they have found in MOTHER EARTH the anchor of life.

Thirdly, to infuse new blood into Anarchism, which—in America—had then been running at low ebb for quite some time.³²

Next to her endeavors as a publicist, Goldman was a political activist who held speeches and appeared at public demonstrations, such that, to quote Kathy E. Ferguson, "her strategic parrhesia combined frontal assault with carefully calculated rhetorical arts and tactical silences."³³

She considered two aspects to be essential for the liberation of women: an end to marriage as a hierarchical institution and sexual freedom. These two demands, in a way, gendered her image as an anarchist radical, as she was not demanding the end of any hierarchical form of rule but the liberation of women as a precondition for a better society. From this perspective, however, Goldman realized the existence ofatragedy that limited such demands: "Liberty and equality for woman! What hopes and aspirations these words awakened when they were first uttered by some of the noblest and bravest souls of those days."³⁴ For Goldman, "[e]mancipation should make it possible for woman to be human in the truest sense[, e]verything within her that craves assertion and activity should reach expression; all artificial barriers should be broken, and the road towards greater freedom cleared of every trace of centuries of submission and slavery," but it seemed that these demands would remain unanswered by society. Instead of reaching these goals, "the results so far achieved have isolated woman and have robbed her of the fountain springs of that happiness which is so essential to her."³⁵ Due to her observations and personal perception of the previous attempts

<sup>32</sup> Ibid.

<sup>33</sup> Ferguson, "Discourses of Danger," 738. The term parrhesia is a reference to Foucault, who described it as "a verbal activity in which a speaker expresses his personal relationship to truth, and risks his life because he recognizes truth-telling as a duty to improve or help other people (as well as himself )." Michel Foucault, Fearless Speech, ed. Joseph Pearson (Los Angeles: Semiotext(e), 2001), 19.

<sup>34</sup> Emma Goldman, "Tragedy of Women's Emancipation," Mother Earth 1, no. 1 (1906): 9–17. 35 Ibid.

to achieve emancipation, Goldman was rather disillusioned and considered the emancipation achieved thus far a tragedy, which naturally brought her into conflict with those who represented this previous process and considered themselves leading forces of female emancipation within US society, e. g., leading members of the suffragist movement.³⁶ In contrast to the latter, Goldman argued that "the emancipation of woman, as interpreted and practically applied today, has failed to reach that great end. Now, woman is confronted with the necessity of emancipating herself from emancipation, if she really desires to be free. This may sound paradoxical, but is, nevertheless, only too true."³⁷ For the female anarchist, emancipation did not go far enough:

The narrowness of the existing conception of woman's independence and emancipation; the dread of love for a man who is not her social equal; the fear that love will rob her of her freedom and independence, the horror that love or the joy of motherhood will only hinder her in the full exercise of her profession—all these together make of the emancipated modern woman a compulsory vestal, before whom life, with its great clarifying sorrows and its deep, entrancing joys, rolls on without touching or gripping her soul.³⁸

In 1925, she wrote a letter to Alexander Berkman about this situation, which, even two decades on, did not seem to have improved much:

The tragedy of all of us modern women … is a fact that we are removed only by a very short period from our traditions, the traditions of being loved, cared for, protected, secured, and above all, the time when women could look forward to an old age of children, a home and someone to brighten their lives. … The modern woman cannot be the wife and mother in the old sense, and the new medium has not yet been devised, I mean the way of being wife, mother, friend and yet retain one's complete freedom. Will it ever?³⁹

In contrast to more conservative female protest, Goldman was naturally perceived as radical, in particular because she contested existent gender norms and the traditional role of women as wives and mothers. Marriage was especially criticized as a form of patriarchic control and an element of social hierarchization by the female anarchist. She called out "the twin fantasies of protection and social mobility

<sup>36</sup> Emma Goldman, "The Tragedy of the Modern Woman," n.d., EGP-IISH No. 266, 1. Goldman argued that "woman in politics is by no means better than man and her right of suffrage has helped her as little as it did most men to overcome outworn political, social, or moral values." Ibid. 37 Goldman, "Tragedy of Women's Emancipation."

<sup>38</sup> Ibid.

<sup>39</sup> Letter to Alexander Berkman, September 4, 1925, in Nowhere at Home: Letters from Exile of Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, eds. Richard Drinnon and Anna Maria Drinnon (New York: Schocker, 1975), 130–133, cited in Ferguson, "Gender and Genre," 736.

through marriage"⁴⁰ and demanded to change the way girls were informed about it and "trained" to become supportive wives for exploitative and abusive men.

In an article published in 1897, Goldman argued that "[f ]rom its very birth, up to our present day, men and women groan under the iron yoke of our marriage institution, and there seems to be no relief, no way out of it."⁴¹ From her point of view, "marriage relations, are the foundation of private property, ergo, the foundation of our cruel and inhuman system" that "always gives the man the right and power over his wife, not only over her body, but also over her actions, her wishes; in fact, over her whole life."⁴² As long as marriage existed, women could hardly achieve freedom, and it was the existence of marriage that not only made the inequality between the two sexes possible but further inscribed this inequality into the society of the future. Boys' and girls' different upbringings and the values that are taught to them, as well as the expectations the two sexes are supposed to live up to, prevent true equality, as

the boy is taught to be intelligent, bright, clever, strong, athletic, independent and selfreliant; to develop his natural faculties, to follow his passions and desires. The girl has been taught to dress, to stand before the looking glass and admire herself, to control her emotions, her passions, her wishes, to hide her mental defects and to combine what little intelligence and ability she has on one point, and that is, the quickest and best way to angle a husband, to get profitably married.⁴³

Young women of the working class were particularly exploited by marriage, which was chosen to achieve social and financial security rather than for love. In contrast to men, women are eventually trapped in their relationships because "[b] oth, the man and the girl, marry for the same purpose, with the only exception that the man is not expected to give up his individuality, his name, his independence, whereas the girl has to sell herself, body and soul, for the pleasure of being someone's wife; hence they do not stand on equal terms, and where there is no equality there can be no harmony."⁴⁴

Women, as Goldman would argue in 1906, gave away their freedom too easily "because of the chains of moral and social prejudice that cramp and bind her na-

<sup>40</sup> Clare Hemmings, "In the Mood for Revolution: Emma Goldman's Passion," New Literary History 43, no. 3 (2012): 527–545.

<sup>41</sup> Emma Goldman, "Marriage," Firebrand, July 18, 1897, 2, in Emma Goldman: A Documentary History of the American Years, vol. 1: Made for America, 1890–1901, ed. Candace Falk (Urbana/Chicago, IL: Illinois University Press, 2008), 269–273, here 269.

<sup>42</sup> Ibid.

<sup>43</sup> Ibid., 270.

<sup>44</sup> Ibid., 271.

ture."⁴⁵ It was the conservative Church and the state, holding up a patriarchic regime, that Goldman challenged by her demands to end marriage as a hierarchic tool of control and to liberate, even sexually, the modern woman. Naturally, the conservative authorities represented by the government and the Church considered such a woman dangerous, to say the least. However, the anarchist made enemies not only of these forces but also of the bourgeois parts of the women's movement, who were, in a way, indirectly accused of misunderstanding emancipation as such: "[M]any advanced women … never truly understood the meaning of emancipation. They thought that all that was needed was independence from external tyrannies; the internal tyrants, far more harmful to life and growth, such as ethical and social conventions, were left to take care of themselves; and they have taken care of themselves."⁴⁶ In contrast to the existent gender roles and limiting norms that kept women from growing as individuals and achieving emancipation in all areas of life, Goldman "envisioned anarchist love as creating bonds between free individuals that would enhance rather than confine each person. Similarly, she envisioned an anarchist society as a voluntary community of free, self-directing individuals, where individual growth and empowerment are nurtured through collective life."⁴⁷

To achieve such a utopian ideal, women had to overcome their fear of disappointment and their belief that men were superior, especially since "woman's political equality with man has contributed precious little to her inner emancipation."⁴⁸ According to Goldman, educated women in particular "are neither met with the same confidence as their male colleagues, nor receive equal remuneration."⁴⁹ This was also made possible by the acceptance of such inequalities, but the anarchist herself had experienced that the workers' movement was often not interested in providing equal labor rights to women, who were also considered competition for the working men.⁵⁰ Goldman demanded an end to the sacrifices women were willing to accept to "perform" according to gender roles that had been imposed upon them by a conservative society whose male rulers were unwilling to accept independent and self-supporting women.⁵¹ In contrast to representatives of other organizations that demanded women's rights, Goldman considered

<sup>45</sup> Goldman, "Tragedy of Women's Emancipation."

<sup>46</sup> Ibid. Similar criticism can be found in Goldman, "The Tragedy of the Modern Woman," 1. 47 Ferguson, "Gender and Genre," 751.

<sup>48</sup> Goldman, "The Tragedy of the Modern Woman," 8 1/2 .

<sup>49</sup> Ibid., 12.

<sup>50</sup> For a more detailed analysis, see Sonya O. Rose, "Gender and Labor History: The Nineteenth-Century Legacy," International Review of Social History 38, 1 (1993): 145–162.

<sup>51</sup> Goldman, "The Tragedy of the Modern Woman," 16.

only her vision to be radical enough to actually achieve a change because "[e]very movement that aims at the destruction of existing institutions and the replacement thereof with something more advanced, more perfect had followers who in theory stand for the most radical ideas, but who, nevertheless, in their every-day practice, are like the average philistine, feigning respectability and clamoring for the good opinion of their opponents. The suffragist and feminist movements made no exception."⁵²

Due to the supposedly existent radicalism of the demands for female liberation, those who demanded a drastic change of the existent gender norms and roles through different forms of protest were labeled as immoral elements of society: "Every member of the woman's rights movement was pictured … in her absolute disregard of morality. Nothing was sacred to her. She had no respect for the ideal relation between man and woman. In short, emancipation stood only for a reckless life of lust and sin; regardless of society, religion, and morality."⁵³ Without the "courage to be inwardly free,"⁵⁴ the modern woman would be able neither to counter such accusations nor to challenge the existent repressive elements of patriarchic rule. For Goldman, it was foolish to support men, especially since they would often exploit women's naive dreams about love and romantic marriage to drag them into a relationship based on dependency and exploitation. Freedom for women could only be achieved through protest and eventuallyabreak with the existent order that, according to Goldman, suppressed women and men alike in many ways.⁵⁵

The liberation the anarchist demanded was based on a female choice to do what women themselves considered best. In addition to lectures about birth control rights, the end of marriage, and female self-control, Goldman often spoke about sexual freedom. This was another aspect that would be used by the authorities to frame the anarchist as a "dangerous woman," especially since the things Goldman spoke about would rile the public, who considered such speeches or lectures a form of nuisance and a threat to a supposedly pious society. Goldman, who claimed to be an expert on sex-related issues as she had "been familiar with … work on sex psychology for a number of years,"⁵⁶ insisted in her works related to the sexual liberation of women that the latter's "experiences and sexual free-

<sup>52</sup> Ibid., 181/2 .

<sup>53</sup> Ibid., 19.

<sup>54</sup> Ibid., 29.

<sup>55</sup> Ibid., 41.

<sup>56</sup> Emma Goldman, "A Refutation Addressed to Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld," Berlin 1923, EGP-IISH No. 208, 1. One of the specialists Goldman actually knew personally was Magnus Hirschfeld. See Magnus Hirschfeld to Emma Goldman, Paris, November 24, 1933, EGP-IISH, No. 98.

dom must be incorporated into the heart of any sustainable revolution."⁵⁷ A revolution, Goldman hoped, would eventually abolish existent inequalities and offer women complete access to choices that could be taken freely and individually without any interference from society or men. Sex was consequently understood as something highly political by Goldman, and the possibility to freely express one's sexuality without any form of limitation was the element that would prove if a real liberation of the individual took place or not. According to Clare Hemmings, Goldman's "embrace of sexual freedom as both means and (one) end of her anarchist Utopia interrupts the temporal features that govern this relationship of sexuality and capitalism, suggesting alternate ways of understanding and writing that history."⁵⁸

For many prudish and self-assuredly pious elements of US society, however, her claims represented everything that was considered evil. Her approach to anarchism, which was based on an emotional interpretation, had already caused problems with other anarchists, who demanded that Goldman better "behave" so as not to damage or misrepresent the cause of the anarchist movement,⁵⁹ so one can only imagine how her demands and arguments were perceived by the more conservative members of society. Everything that was considered "traditional" and "valuable" according to conservative-patriarchic standards was being openly attacked by a female anarchist whose status as a well-known radical offered her a way to communicate her ideas to larger audiences when she traveled throughout the country to inform women about everything that was supposedly wrong with society in its current state. Only a change to the existent roles for women and the establishment of gender equality would guarantee a better future, but this, according to Goldman, also demanded the sexual liberation of the modern woman and the female body.

As sex "is woven into every fabric of human life and lays its finger on every custom," it was reasonable from the anarchist's perspective to say that "in the free sane acceptation of the human body, in all its faculties, lies the master-key to the art of the future."⁶⁰ Regardless of the necessity to know about sex, knowledge about this important element of human life was restricted for women, as the common social evaluation seemed to agree upon the assumption that "[s]ex is disgraceful for nice girls."⁶¹ Goldman's demands were consequently too radical for many when she asked for the following: "Let us get rid of the mock modesty so prevalent

<sup>57</sup> Hemmings, "Sexual Freedom," 44.

<sup>58</sup> Ibid., 45.

<sup>59</sup> Emma Goldman, Living My Life (New York: Knopf, 1931), ch. 5 Accessed December 17, 2018. https://www.theanarchistlibrary.org/library/emma-goldman-living-my-life.

<sup>60</sup> Emma Goldman, "The Element of Sex in Life," n.d., EGP-IISH No. 213, 7 and 12.

<sup>61</sup> Ibid., 21.

on the surface of polite society, let us liberate sex from falsehood and degradation."⁶² It is therefore hardly surprising that Goldman's protest and demands were particularly perceived as a form of gendered radicalism, and even some anarchists were repelled by such far-reaching calls for social change. The authorities had considered Goldman to be a dangerous individual before she began lecturing about gender-related problems and inequalities within US society, but the latter aspects of her activism intensified her perception as a "dangerous woman." The fact that she was supposedly involved in acts of anarchist violence eventually turned her into some kind of "femme fatale" who would seduce men to commit violent acts on behalf of anarchist ideas. The following part of this chapter will take two such events into closer consideration and show how the press turned Goldman into a public outlaw and probably the most dangerous woman in the United States.

#### Goldman's Perception as a "Femme Fatale"

A woman who demanded more equality, free love and a liberated sexuality, the end of marriage, and the right to birth control for women naturally appeared dangerous not only to conservative circles of the late 19th century but to a majority of the country. Goldman was far ahead of her time, and many of the debates she initiated and stimulated have still not been concluded today; women are still fighting for rights (or fighting for them again) that the anarchist demanded over a century ago. However, Goldman, who was perceived within the public sphere as a "radical woman," would, due to some kind of press craze in relation to two famous incidents in US history, ultimately be turned into a "femme fatale," the "queen" of American anarchism.⁶³

In 1892, Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman decided to assassinate Henry Clay Frick⁶⁴ because he was responsible for the use of violence against workers during the Homestead Steel Strike⁶⁵ in Pennsylvania. Private security guards, the

<sup>62</sup> Ibid., 50.

<sup>63</sup> The Evening World (New York City), October 16, 1893, 1. See also Shari Rabin, "'The Advent of a Western Jewess': Rachel Frank and Jewish Female Celebrity in 1890s America," in "Gender and Jewish Identity," special issue, Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women's Studies & Gender Issues 22 (2011): 121; Andrea Rich and Arthur L. Smith, Rhetoric of Revolution (Durham, NC: Moore, 1979), 60. 64 On Frick, see Kenneth Warren, Triumphant Capitalism: Henry Clay Frick and the Industrial Transformation of America (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1996); Quentin R. Skrabec, Henry Clay Frick: The Life of the Perfect Capitalist (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2010).

<sup>65</sup> Paul Krause, The Battle for Homestead, 1890–1892: Politics, Culture, and Steel (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1992).

so-called Pinkerton Boys, were sent to the Homestead Works of the Carnegie Steel Company and killed several workers during the incident.⁶⁶ Since Frick had become a famous figure representing the suppression of workers' rights, Berkman attempted to assassinate Frick on 23 July, while Goldman would use the attention this action was supposed to generate to explain why Berkman had used violence to respond to the exploitation of the workers. The anarchists' strategy was consequently based on shared work and responsibilities. While Berkman would go to prison for 14 years, Goldman's task was to coordinate the propaganda, and she gave interviews related to the assassination attempt in which she defended her friend's actions. For instance, she stated that it was Berkman's "belief that if the capitalists used Winchester rifles and bayonets on workingmen they should be answered with dynamite."⁶⁷ While Goldman was not directly involved in the assassination attempt, she became more well-known throughout the country due to her relationship with Berkman and respective reports about the events, which claimed, for example, that the "Goldman woman" was "worse than Berkman."⁶⁸ Some newspaper reports went further and explained how Goldman had seduced her fellow anarchist to make him take action. The New York Tribune reported the following on 25 July:

To Berkman's intimacy with Emma Goldman could be ascribed his fearful Anarchy; for she is probably the most bitter and best known woman Anarchist in New York: She is a strongminded woman, and would naturally exercise a great influence over a weak man like Berkman. … Many persons who are familiar with the Anarchists of this city remember having seen Emma Goldman and Berkman together frequently. Socialists were seen yesterday who did not hesitate to hold this young woman responsible for Berkman's murderous attack on Mr. Frick.⁶⁹

Other newspaper reports presented Goldman as the "most vicious anarchist in New York"⁷⁰ and further analyzed her relationship with Berkman, although many of these newspaper articles mainly provided a collection of hearsay and speculation about the private lives of the two anarchists.⁷¹ Goldman was also presented as some kind of "anarchist mastermind," a central figure who controlled

<sup>66</sup> Alexander Berkman, Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist (New York: Mother Earth, 1912).

<sup>67</sup> "Goldman's Cry Against Society," Pittsburgh Post, November 27, 1896, in Emma Goldman: A Documentary History of the American Years, vol. 1: Made for America, 1890–1901, ed. Candace Falk et al (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2008), 249.

<sup>68</sup> Pittsburg Dispatch, July 28, 1892: 1.

<sup>69</sup> New-York Tribune, July 25, 1892: 1.

<sup>70</sup> Pittsburg Dispatch, July 29, 1892: 1.

<sup>71</sup> Morning Journal and Courier (New Haven, CT), July 27, 1892: 4.

the men within the anarchist movement and decided who was considered to be a "good anarchist." An article in the Portland Daily Press from 1 August 1892 states in this regard:

Emma Goldman and Johann Most [another famous German-American anarchist active in New York City, F.J.], owing to the fact that they have not been arrested, have regained some of the bravado, and the Goldman woman especially, who has become known as "Queen of the Reds," now makes no effort to hide either herself or her endorsement of Berkman as a "brave man" and a "good Anarchist." The Queen has not yet given her definition of a bad Anarchist, but she says Johann Most is one, because he has never done anything. Berkman, her example of a good Anarchist, has done something.⁷²

Even more attention was paid to Goldman's influence after President McKinley was assassinated by Leon Czolgosz in early September 1901.⁷³ Since the latter had mentioned Goldman as an intellectual source of inspiration for his actions, the famous female anarchist was arrested as well, but she was not actually directly involved in the assassination at all. Nevertheless, newspapers worldwide reported on the incident and the fear the female anarchist had caused among the US police and governmental authorities.⁷⁴ For the press, Goldman was responsible for the death of the president, and the San Francisco Call referred to her as the "Chief in [a] Foul Conspiracy" on 11 September 1901.⁷⁵ It only took a short while before papers provided proof of the involvement of the "high priestess of anarchy," who had been arrested in Chicago, in the assassination. Around a week later, the Honolulu Republican reported that the "President was the victim of an anarchist plot."⁷⁶ While many papers reproduced the apparently central role of Goldman within a larger anarchist conspiracy to kill the president, descriptions of her usually included prejudices and stereotypes about the well-known radical woman. An article from 25 October 1901 in the Camden Chronicle (Tennessee) describes Goldman in detail and shall therefore be quoted here at some length:

<sup>72</sup> The Portland Daily Press, August 1, 1892: 1. Such a categorization would also be related to the idea of the "propaganda of the deed." On concepts and key texts related to it, see Mitchell Abidor ed. Death to Bourgeois Society: The Propagandists of the Deed (Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2015).

<sup>73</sup> Sidney Fine, "Anarchism and the Assassination of McKinley," The American Historical Review 60, no. 4 (1955): 777–799; Scott Miller, The President and the Assassin (New York: Random House, 2011).

<sup>74</sup> In Germany, Kurt Eisner reported about the events in the Sonntagsplauderei, Unterhaltungsblatt des Vorwärts, No. 33, February 16, 1902: 130–131, in Federal Archives of Germany (Bundesarchiv) Berlin (BARch Ber), Kurt Eisner Papers, NY 4060/34, 221–222.

<sup>75</sup> The San Francisco Call, September 11, 1901: 1.

<sup>76</sup> The Honolulu Republican, September 19, 1901: 1.

Emma Goldman is thirty-three years old, short, pudgy of figure, hard featured and frowsy in appearance. Her hair is light brown and her eyes bluish gray. Her chin shows determination. She is a remarkably fluent talker, and never fails to excite her Anarchist hearers to a high pitch. She speaks Russian, German, English and French and writes Spanish and Italian. She was born in Russia and educated in Germany. She was married when she was seventeen, and according to report has had several husbands since. When she is in New York the Goldman woman makes her home on the East Side. She spends much of her time in back rooms of saloons where Anarchists gather.Acrowd of admirers constantly surrounds her. She hates women, and her life has been passed mostly among men. Her features are almost masculine. She formerly worked in a sweat-shop and is said to have been a trained nurse.⁷⁷

Such articles further reproduced and intensified Goldman's image as a "dangerous woman" who mainly lived a life that did not suit a woman while surrounded by male anarchists who listened to her ideas. This image fit the narrative of the seducing "femme fatale" or "evil witch" who controlled men and made them act according to her wishes. The image of Goldman was consequently extremely gendered, and the fact that a woman protested against the patriarchy perfectly fit the narrative that was established and spread within the mass printings of the late 19th century, in particular in relation to the reports about Berkman's attempted assassination of Henry Clay Frick in 1892 and the violent death of President McKinley in 1901.

#### Conclusion

Although Emma Goldman "wanted a world without jealousy, insecurity, or possessiveness,"⁷⁸ she was unable to achieve these goals. In the US context, she was perceived as a "dangerous woman" who controlled even more "dangerous foreign men" who would act according to her wishes. The leading anarchist of the country, according to the press reports in the 1890s and early 1900s, was a woman. Her protest was consequently gendered in different ways. Of course, Goldman's demands for gender equality, sexual liberation, and an end to marriage as an exploitative instrument to further secure the role and influence of the patriarchy was a form of gendered protest, but during the press campaigns against her person after the (attempted) assassinations by Alexander Berkman and Leon Czolgosz, the whole anarchist movement was gendered. Anarchist radicalism was turned into a gendered crime because although it could not be proven that Goldman

<sup>77</sup> The Camden Chronicle, October 25, 1901: 6.

<sup>78</sup> Ferguson, "Gender and Genre," 751.

was involved, it was her "seductive spell," a negatively gendered perception, that was supposedly responsible for the tragedy of a US president's violent death.

Considering this, one could argue here that gender-related reform demands discredited Goldman as a "dangerous woman" whose ideas had to be kept in check, while the violent acts described here and by the contemporary press added a gender component to the perception of anarchism as a radical crime, orchestrated within a national syndicate that was led and directed by Emma Goldman, the "high priestess" of American anarchism.

#### Works Cited

#### Archival Sources

Federal Archives of Germany, Berlin Kurt Eisner Papers International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam Emma Goldman Papers

#### Newspapers

Bergens tidene Berliner Börsen-Zeitung Daily Capital Journal Freiheit: Berliner Organ der Unabhängigen Sozialdemokratie Deutschlands Hannoverscher Kurier Morning Journal and Courier Pittsburg Dispatch New-York Tribune The Camden Chronicle The Chanute Times The Day Book The Evening World (New York City) The Honolulu Republican The Portland Daily Press The San Francisco Call Trondheims Folkeblad

#### Published Sources and Secondary Works

Abidor, Mitchell ed. Death to Bourgeois Society: The Propagandists of the Deed. Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2015.

Avrich, Paul and Karen. Sasha and Emma: The Anarchist Odyssey of Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014.

Berkman, Alexander. Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist. New York: Mother Earth, 1912.

Drinnon, Richard and Anna Maria, eds. Nowhere at Home: Letters from Exile of Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. New York: Schocker, 1975.

Falk, Candace et al., eds. Emma Goldman: A Documentary History of the American Years, vol 1: Made for America, 1890–1901. Urbana/Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2008.

Falk, Candace. Love, Anarchy and Emma Goldman. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1990 [1984].

Ferguson, Kathy E. "Discourses of Danger: Locating Emma Goldman." Political Theory 36, no. 5 (2008): 735–761.

Ferguson, Kathy E. Emma Goldman: Political Thinking in the Streets. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011.

Ferguson, Kathy E. "Gender and Genre in Emma Goldman." Signs 36, no. 3 (2011): 733–757.

Fine, Sidney. "Anarchism and the Assassination of McKinley." The American Historical Review 60, no. 4 (1955): 777–799.

Foucault, Michel. Fearless Speech, ed. Joseph Pearson. Los Angeles: Semiotext(e), 2001.

Goldman, Emma. Living My Life. New York: Knopf, 1931. Accessed December 17, 2018. https://www. theanarchistlibrary.org/library/emma-goldman-living-my-life.

Goldman, Emma. "Tragedy of Women's Emancipation." Mother Earth 1, no. 1 (1906): 9–17. Accessed October 17, 2019. http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist\_Archives/goldman/ME/mev1n1.html#tra.

Goldman, Emma and Alexander Berkman. "Our Sixth Birthday." Mother Earth 6, no. 1 (1911). Accessed February 26, 2020. http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist\_Archives/goldman/ME/ mev6n1.html.

Gornick, Vivian. Emma Goldman: Revolution as a Way of Life. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2011.

Hemmings, Clare. "In the Mood for Revolution: Emma Goldman's Passion." New Literary History 43, no. 3 (2012): 527–545.

Hemmings, Clare. "Sexual Freedom and the Promise of Revolution Emma Goldman's Passion." Feminist Review 106 (2014): 43–59.

Ishill, Joseph. Emma Goldman: A Challenging Rebel. Berkeley Heights, N.J.: Oriole Press, 1957.

Jacob, Frank. "An Anarchist Has to Live off Something: Emma Goldman as a Capitalist Publicist." Anarchist Studies 30, no. 2 (2022): 8–30.

Jacob, Frank. "An Anarchist Revolution? Emma Goldman as an Intellectual Revolutionary." Journal for the Study of Radicalism 15, no. 2 (2021): 29–48.

Jacob, Frank. "Anarchistische Imperialismuskritik und staatliche Repression: Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman und die Kritik an der politischen Ökonomie des Ersten Weltkrieges in den USA, 1917–1919." PROKLA 201 (2020): 681–695.

Jacob, Frank. Emma Goldman and the Russian Revolution: From Admiration to Frustration. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2020.

Jacob, Frank. Emma Goldman: Ein Leben für die Freiheit. Leipzig: Hentrich & Hentrich, 2021.

Jacob, Frank. Emma Goldman: Identitäten einer Anarchistin. Leipzig: Hentrich & Hentrich, 2022.


Jowan A. Mohammed

# 7 Female Education as a Form of Protest: How 19th-Century Women Were Trained to Resist in New York City

#### Introduction

In the early 20th century, organizations were not just something to secure a community within urban and often anonymous spaces but were also a measure in which people could find strength in numbers through organizational ties – and educational means. Organized communities became branches of an existent society and played an important role in the educational progress of women, who often self-organized (in, e. g., non-profit clubs and other political/social groups) and used this power to make their voices heard. In turn, the education (and work) received within specific progress-oriented organizations often provided its members with knowledge and resulted in activism and protest. This was particularly evident during the First World War, which resulted in the build-up of rage among different interest groups, resulting in large formations against the war, expressed through political organizations and worker's unions. In the case of New York City, the strength of the protest was based on its diversity, but this diversity was perhaps also the result of the shared experience of neglect that many immigrant groups came to feel during the tug-of-war between being considered aliens in the city and, at the same time, being forced into rapid integration to serve American interests in the war.¹ The war also turned the urban space into a hotbed of radical ideas and into a public sphere where women could express more than simply their antiwar protest. Scholars described these protests as a "visionary movement"² of the 20th-century female protest for change in New York City.³ It was a movement

<sup>1</sup> For a broader analysis of these protest formations in New York City during the First World War, see Ross J. Wilson, New York and The First World War: Shaping an American City (New York: Routledge, 2020).

<sup>2</sup> Jennifer Guglielmo, Living the Revolution: Italian Women's Resisters and Radicalism in New York City, 1880–1945 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2010), 13.

<sup>3</sup> When considering the fundamentals of protest, it is important to understand that movements, even if often referred to as "revolutionary" in popular texts, did not follow the definition of the word "revolutionary." The term "revolution" means a process that intends to destroy existing society and replace it with something supplementary, while "protest" is the desire for change within the existing social order.

Open Access. © 2023 the author(s), published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111102757-007

led by those on the margins: the underprivileged. This chapter will therefore reflect on the role of education within social organizations and its part in female protest formation during the First World War and take a close look at the transported ideas that would stimulate women's demands for a better future during the war years.

#### Urban Space, Unions, and Female Protest

Simultaneous with its educational and organizational opportunities, the urban space was a bohemian intellectual epicenter that allowed different radical protesters – artists, politicians, anarchists, suffragists, housewives, teachers, and other "dangerous characters" alike – to come together in a public sphere to exchange ideas and chase political liberation and personal self-actualization.⁴ According to Habermas, this public (protest) space can be described

[a]s a sphere between civil society and the state, in which critical public discussion of matters of general interest was institutionally guaranteed, the liberal public sphere took shape in the specific historical circumstances of a developing market economy. In its clash with the arcane and bureaucratic practices of the absolutist state, the emergent bourgeoisie gradually replaced a public sphere in which the ruler's power was merely represented before the people with a sphere in which state authority was publicly monitored through informed and critical discourse by the people.⁵

As such, it is through the informed and critical discourse of the people that we can trace mobilizations that eventually blossom beyond informal social critique discourse. The city was "the private realm of the authentic 'public sphere'"⁶ as it was a public sphere constituted by private people who eventually mobilized, organized, and protested. The urban space became not only an economic hub but also, and at the same time, a political and social sphere. The public realm of the

<sup>4</sup> Emphasis in the original. Habermas narrows his focus to "the liberal model of the bourgeois public sphere," differentiating it from "the plebian public sphere" associated with the French Revolution, "the Chartist movement and especially in the anarchist traditions of the workers' movement on the continent," even if in various ways this sphere "remains oriented toward the intentions of the bourgeois public sphere," addressing itself in many regards to the latter, in effect wishing to enter into its debates and to capitalize upon its potential for securing genuine political advance. Jürgen Habermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, trans. Thomas Burger and Frederick Lawrence (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1989), xviii.

<sup>5</sup> Ibid., 3.

<sup>6</sup> Ibid., 5.

city therefore became not only that acclaimed center of "men and material"⁷ during the war but a hub of opportunity for women as well. The First World War triggered an almost artificial overlap within the urban public space, where women found an opportunity to organize protests and, by doing so, organize themselves, especially within intellectual and bohemian circles as radical individuals, but also in an organizational form through newly established social and educational links.

The idea that art could be of great social gain was not an unknown one; New York City was, and still is, a bohemian intellectual hub. Art, however, can be political, and as such, bohemian artists turned their passionate ideas into pieces on resistance, whether this was through their actions, writings, or demonstrations, as evidenced through the lectures given by women of color, books published by landscape writers, and anarchists editing journals, just to mention a few examples.⁸ Organizations and clubs played a fundamental role in what came to constitute bonds and unity among protesting women as well as strength regarding female demands for change. Prior to the more professionally organized unions, whose history reaches as far back as the early 1800s, the few who were organized joined guilds⁹ for their crafts in order to restrict competition among tradesmen and enforce work standards. However, these attempts to organize more properly never stayed "alive" for very long as they were often impulse mobilizations or reactions to employers' attempts to cut wages or reduce job skills.¹⁰ They were therefore naturally not revolutionary, i. e., meant to change society as a whole, but usually protests that were formed and intensified by an immediate and somehow urgent wish to better the participants' own situation through better working conditions, higher wages, etc. The early unions could not withstand attacks from employers, who maintained that they were "illegal conspiracies to raise wages above the rate accepted by individual workers."¹¹ As such, it is interesting to observe the development of the history of unions and organizations (such as clubs and parties) in order to understand how this eventually laid the foundation for the schooling of organized women in their means to protest. Through education, the unions began to offer frames for female revolutionary conscience and protest in the future: "A frame [in this regard] is a way in which experience is organized conceptually."¹² The norms that relate toaparticular event can also vary depending on the environment in

<sup>7</sup> Wilson, New York, 198–199.

<sup>8</sup> Robert Cozzolino, Anne Classen Knutson, and David M. Lubin, World War I and American Art (Princeton, NJ: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2016).

<sup>9</sup> Gary Chaison, Unions in America (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2006), 1–2.

<sup>10</sup> Ibid.

<sup>11</sup> Ibid., 2.

<sup>12</sup> William Little, Introduction to Sociology (Victoria, BC: BCcampus, 2014), 739.

which the event takes place. An example of this is how one behaves with a cup of coffee in a public setting (e. g., a café) versus how one would behave at home. This causes some issues regarding protest formation as well:

[S]ocial movements must actively engage in realigning collective social frames so that the movements' interests, ideas, values, and goals become congruent with those of potential members. The movements' goals have to make sense to people to draw new recruits into their organizations.¹³

It is on this basis that, during the First World War, New York City, and the new social structures that were in place, provided temporally tied anti-war organizations in which women could come together and engage in various forms of protest because their new goals made sense in the time and space. Furthermore, it also made sense for women to join unions as it would help them with their rights as workers, in addition to giving them the benefit of education, which in turn would influence their future (female) protest goals.¹⁴

The education provided by the unions and parties equipped women with the skills to organize large gatherings, such as political protests, and more hands-on measures, such as food drives, luncheons, raffles, and workshops,¹⁵ as well as the experience necessary to organize fundraising events, settlement houses for the less fortunate (e. g., immigrants), etc.¹⁶ The skills to mobilize on a larger scale were previously provided within union environments, but the war stimulated an expansion that increased protest opportunities for women, who would soon even see a chance to gain politically from the changed circumstances: "War has never been men's work." The reason for this was that "women protest,"¹⁷ and such protests led to discussions of women's rights during times of war. This often became a repeating tendency that can be described as the recovery or transformation of feminists' consciousness,¹⁸ which can be argued to have resulted in organizational activism.¹⁹ In turn, individual rights became a national discourse

<sup>13</sup> Ibid., 739–740.

<sup>14</sup> Fannia M. Cohn, "The Educational Work of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union," Report submitted to the conference of the Workers' Education Bureau of America, New York, April 2, 1921, International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam (henceforth IISG), Bro Am 1900/180. 15 See Margaret Dreier Robinson Correspondence, Series 3, Reel 24 in the Women's Trade Union League of New York Records (WAG.112), Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive. 16 Greenwich House Records (TAM.139), Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive. 17 Elisabeth B. Armstrong and Vijay Prashad, "Solidarity: War Rites and Women's Rights," CR: The New Centennial Review 5, no. 1 (2005): 213.

<sup>18</sup> Pearl Green, "The Feminist Consciousness," The Sociological Quarterly 20, no. 3 (1979): 360. 19 Armstrong and Prashad, "Solidarity," 215.

because of the times in which they were debated. Without political rights, all other reforms would be meaningless; thus, the idea of a "recovered feminist consciousness"²⁰ becomes the foundation of a political awakening, which Karl Marx, as a consequence of changed living circumstances, considered essential for the awakening of a revolutionary subject or a potential for protest.²¹ Women, in a way, needed to have access to specific spaces to access answerable institutions and to demand reform in public. The state could promise equal education and equal wages, but if women had no political rights, how would they make sure these reforms were enacted and maintained?²² Thus, their own organizations – and then protests – was how education inevitably became intertwined with reforms, ensuring that marginalized groups were made aware of the true disadvantage they were experiencing.²³

According to the sociologists David Snow and Robert Benford, there are three types of framing for furthering the goals of social movements.²⁴ The first type lies in what is called "diagnostic framing,"²⁵ in which the problem is presented in a clear and consistent way, thus being easily understood. The benefit of this theoretical approach is that it leaves little space for interpretation and relies on a strong certainty that what "they" do is wrong while "we" have a solution. When diagnostic framing goes a step beyond this assumption and has a plan for enacting the solution, it becomes "prognostic framing."²⁶ In the case of gendered protest in relation to the First World War, the question of prognostic framing is perhaps a matter of source interpretation: did women simply engage in an attempt to create a movement, or was it first a matter of offering a solution because not every

<sup>20</sup> Green, "The Feminist Consciousness," 359–370.

<sup>21</sup> Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Werke, vol. 3 (Berlin: Dietz, 1958), 38; Green, "The Feminist Consciousness," 359–361.

<sup>22</sup> Armstrong and Prashad, "Solidarity," 235.

<sup>23</sup> Dolores Greenberg. "Reconstructing Race and Protest: Environmental Justice in New York City," Environmental History 5, no. 2 (2000): 231.

<sup>24</sup> David Snow and Robert D. Benford, "Ideology, Frame Resonance, and Participant Mobilization," International Social Movement Research 1 (1988): 197–217. See also Little, Introduction to Sociology, 740.

<sup>25</sup> Little, Introduction to Sociology, 739–740. Little argues in this regard that "[m]otivational framing is the call to action: what should you do once you agree with the diagnostic frame and believe in the prognostic frame? These frames are action-oriented. In the aboriginal justice movement, a call to action might encourage you to join a blockade on contested aboriginal treaty land or contact your local MP to express your viewpoint that aboriginal treaty rights be honored. With so many similar diagnostic frames, some groups find it best to join together to maximize their impact. When social movements link their goals to the goals of other social movements and merge into a single group, a frame alignment process occurs."

<sup>26</sup> Ibid.

woman in a movement (pacifist, anarchist, socialist, suffragist, etc.) would have the same common goal? Thus, the prognostic framing of the social movement was perhaps not the right approach. What best fit the movement was dependent on both solutions and heart, and this is what is called "motivational framing."²⁷

# The First World War as an Opportunity for Female Protest Formation

Social protest movements brought opportunities for women in multiple ways, as Holly J. McCammon, Karen E. Campbell, Ellen M. Granberg, and Christine Mowery emphasize.²⁸ The First World War's revolutionary unionism is described as "a labor movement that is essentially protest,"²⁹ in which the unions provided insurance for both the employee and the employer. American scholar Hoyt N. Wheeler describes the mobilization of unions as "militant radical unionism"³⁰ and argues that they stimulated the formation of a militant movement for radical protest against the nature or roles of existing political and economic institutions. The unions were key in mobilization to achieving drastic change in society while also achieving better general work and living conditions. To accomplish these changes, measures such as social protest, political actions, and general strikes were necessary, which means that it was important to keep organizational capacity united and channeled in a highly concentrated way. Wheeler claims that the philosophical principle of these united and organized militant radical behaviors has its fundamental base in anarchism or Marxism. However, in some cases, there is no philosophical organization, just rebellion, and not only does this apply to reactions related to the First World War, it can exist wherever workers rise in protest to oppressive conditions.³¹

The war experience led to unions gaining immense power and new questions about the imbalance between male and female labor, in addition to employment necessities caused by the government's pursuit of the uninterrupted production "of man and material" ostensibly to sustain the people but also, essentially, to sus-

<sup>27</sup> Ibid., 740.

<sup>28</sup> Holly J. McCammon, Karen E. Campbell, Ellen M. Granberg, and Christine Mowery, "How Movements Win: Gendered Opportunity Structures and U.S. Women's Suffrage Movements, 1866 to 1919," American Sociological Review 66, no. 1 (2001): 49.

<sup>29</sup> Ibid., 49. See also Hoyt N. Wheeler, The Future of the American Labor Movement (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 20.

<sup>30</sup> Wheeler, The Future of the American Labor Movement, 20.

<sup>31</sup> Ibid.

tain the war.³² When the war steered US society toward favoring strikes rather than collective bargaining in cases of dismal conditions, this was an important turn. The idea that nationwide general strikes would lead to the downfall of capitalism and thereby to the end of the current war helped to organize all workers regardless of trade or industry.³³ The First World War created a shared identity, a shared public space, and supposedly a window of opportunity for different interest groups, one of which was women. The idea of identity and belonging, however, is something that relates not only to the practical aspects of workers in New York City during the war but also to the general human need for belonging. In Signs of Identity: The Anatomy of Belonging, Martin Ehala discusses the idea and foundation of the anatomy of the human need for belonging and how it directly relates to identity (and the idea of collective pride).³⁴ Group affiliations affect human behavior in a way due to which they stimulate self-esteem and the consciousness of belonging to a group, which we can relate to ideas of collective thought of the American idea of unity in the war period, whether it be radical pacifism or patriotic pro-war ideas. From a social identity perspective, norms map the contour of group and social identities; moreover, within the groups, there is also a substantial agreement about the norms and the influence they play.³⁵ The general agreement about a certain aspect within a particular society at a given moment in time must consequently be considered the foundation of our understanding of the impact of clubs, unions, political parties, and other organizations that played essential roles in female mobilization for/against the US war effort.³⁶

Organizations inherently seek to expand their core beliefs to gain a wider, more universal appeal, and in order to do so, they often mobilize their ideas by popularizing them for the larger masses. In turn, this broadening leads to transformation/change (which is also often the goal), according to William Little,³⁷ leading to a revision of the existent status. Movements also risk the possibility of losing their relevance once their goals have been achieved; thus, if the movement's wish is to remain active, it must change itself with the transformation it partook

<sup>32</sup> Chaison, Unions in America, 10. During the war, union memberships increased from 3.5 million to 4.1 million, and this number exceeded 5 million in 1920.

<sup>33</sup> Wheeler, The Future of the American Labor Movement, 20.

<sup>34</sup> Martin Ehala, Signs of Identity: The Anatomy of Belonging (New York: Routledge, 2018), 1–3. 35 Peter James Burke, Contemporary Social Psychological Theories (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2006), 122–125.

<sup>36</sup> For further reading on metatheoretical foundations and social identity approaches in relation to war, see ibid., 112–114.

<sup>37</sup> Little, Introduction to Sociology, 739–741.

in creating.³⁸ An example of an organization that remained relevant despite achieving overall transformation was the women's suffrage movement, which, after gaining women the right to vote, turned its attention to equal rights and began to campaign for the election of women as political representatives, thereby expanding its goals/protest movement.

To fully comprehend the motives behind social movements and protests, one has to trace the roots of their driving force – injustice – as understood in its specific space-time context, which in the present case is New York City during the First World War. In Epistemic Injustice: Power & the Ethics of Knowing, Miranda Fricker presents two different types of epistemic injustice, both driven by prejudice.³⁹ Fricker's ideas are helpful in the way they shed light on social power and trace different forms of epistemic injustice and their place in the broad pattern of social injustice.

Regarding women in the United States and in New York City in particular, social injustice and especially gender-related injustices were nothing new, but the war gave women an opportunity to link their own reasons to protest with a larger protest movement and thereby allowed them to become part of a larger stream of resistance against the existent order. Collective behavior and social movements are just two of the forces that drive social change, which aims at the transformation of society through such internal driving forces as well as external factors like environmental shifts or technological innovations. Essentially, any disruptive shift in the status quo, be it intentional or random, human-caused or natural, can lead to social change.⁴⁰

#### Unionized Female Protest and Education

Unions, political parties, and other organized groups in which women in the urban space mobilized for a common goal during the First World War included the Socialist Labor Party, the anarchists and their No-Conscription League, the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the suffrage movement, and various worker's unions. These are just a few key organizations that women could have knit ties

<sup>38</sup> Ibid., 740.

<sup>39</sup> Miranda Fricker, Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010); James M. Jasper, "The Emotions of Protest: Affective and Reactive Emotions in and around Social Movements," Sociological Forum 13, no. 3 (1998): 397–424.

<sup>40</sup> Little, Introduction to Sociology, 742.

with before and during the war.⁴¹ It is important to note that the First World War was a total war, which is a historical event that infiltrates or impacts all aspects of society – it is not just a matter related to faraway battlefields but a matter of social impact. Not only do impacts on society at a time of distress affect us in a major way, they also bring about change in general.

Women, due to their gender, were just as underprivileged as those at a disadvantage based on financial poverty, working in the factories to make the bare minimum for survival. Although there is an image of upper-class (and middle-class) women leading the march for change, as they had the social and financial security to see self-actualization through demanding equality, the protest movement taking place in New York City was one that had its heart in the diasporic working class. Thus, how did it come about that these impoverished, semiliterate, often immigrant women got the means and methods to protest and dedicate their lives to radical political movements to create social, political, and economic change?⁴² First, it must be mentioned that being well-informed was the epiphany of high fashion of the time:

Education is now fashion for women. We feel that a debutant is at a disadvantage if she does not speak several modern languages in the most solid branches of study. And after she left school, when you might think she is dividing her time between balls at night and sleep in the morning, she still manages to take all kinds of learned courses. Even the mothers and grandmothers of this generation give much of their time to attending lectures.⁴³

Amongst the key elements in the success of female protest was that the urban space provided an essential boost for female education, not just in the traditional sense, but also through organizational affiliations that the city allowed. Education was provided not only through conventional channels but also, for example, through religious institutions or union-related facilities. An advertisement for Catholic Education for Women at the College of St. Elizabeth through "The Sisters of Charity," to name one example of the former, could be widely found in newspapers during this period. It described education as "thorough training beginning with secondary school and continuing through college to the degree of A, B or B, S… Special courses in music, education, household arts and a thorough secreta-

<sup>41</sup> Another example is the New York City Women's Peace Party. For a detailed analysis of this organization, see Erika Kuhlman, "'Women's Ways in War': The Feminist Pacifism of the New York City Woman's Peace Party," Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 18, no. 1 (1997): 80–100. 42 Ibid.

<sup>43</sup> "Why Shouldn't Women Vote? Asks Mrs. Whitehouse," The Sun, March 29, 1914, 4.

rial course…"⁴⁴ This advertisement was not unique as it was accompanied by an entire Sunday spread addressing schools for girls under the headline "Preparatory Schools, Colleges and Academies,"⁴⁵ which included the likes of Bradford Academy for Young Women.⁴⁶

Thus, one can see that conventional schooling for women was available far and wide, but what about schooling for those who took unconventional routes for education (i. e., who were educated through channels other than regular schools)? Journalists naturally often emphasized the meaning of female education, and newspaper articles about teaching, lecturing, and/or recommending courses of action for women were popular and widely available (not only for socialist women but for all women, including Republicans, conservatives, etc.).⁴⁷

Nevertheless, not every educated woman was a natural protester, and not all forms of female protest during the war were alike. Women were not entirely proor anti-war, but they all opposed it in some way, while even the pacifists comprehended that it would take greater action to achieve peace. The concept of "radical pacifism"⁴⁸ has come to describe a strong wish for opposition in women because of war. Among the women who took the time to participate, organize, demonstrate, and, most importantly, inspire and pull others into participation were the radical pacifist Jessie Wallace Hughan (1875–1955),⁴⁹ the anarchist Emma Goldman (1869– 1914), the Socialist Party icon Kate Richards O'Hare (1876–1948),⁵⁰ and the suffrage leader Carrie Chapman Catt (1859–1947), who led strikes for women's suffrage and described the war as "the last war in the civilized world" in September 1914, but

<sup>44</sup> "The College of St. Elizabeth Catholic Education for Women Convent Station N.J.," The Sun, June 15, 1915, 7.

<sup>45</sup> "Preparatory Schools, Colleges and Ccademies" The Sun, June 15, 1915, 7.

<sup>46</sup> Ibid.

<sup>47</sup> "Women Get a Glimpse of Practical Politics at Republican: Meeting Helen Varick Boswell Gives Lesson to County Leaders and Shows How New Voters Are Going to Help the G. O. P.," The New York Tribune, January 18, 1918, 9. Women naturally also had to be taken into consideration as readers, which was why educational progress was not only supposed to better the social standing of the female audience but also turn them into reliable customers for the newspapers and journals that advocated for women's education.

<sup>48</sup> Scott H. Bennett, The War Resistance League and Gandhian Nonviolence in America, 1915–1963 (New York: Syracuse University Press, 2010), 8.

<sup>49</sup> Kuhlman, "Women's Ways in War," 81–82.

<sup>50</sup> Notably, O'Hare received a five-year prison sentence for givingaspeech denouncing the war in 1917. The imprisonment was even more important in this case because O'Hare came to be cell neighbors with Goldman, resulting in an unlikely friendship and mutual respect because of their anti-war activism. Goldman described O'Hare as "one of America's very great women" in a 1919 speech and described her as "comrade." Alexander Berkman papers 67, box 1, folder 4, Tamiment Library Anarchist Collection.

also (optimistically) as something that drew women of all nations together in their shared suffering.⁵¹ Alongside Catt was her longtime companion, the community organizer Mary Garrett Hay (1857–1928),⁵² and the political activist Alice Dunbar Nelson (1875–1935).⁵³ These are just a few of the notable women who avidly participated in protests, gaining vast education in organizational means, which they then provided as resources for those without a university degree.

Education was essential for the organizational forces behind the protests. The city provided practical opportunities for such work, like social and political networks, educational means, etc., and also seems to have made a behavioral change at large possible. This behavioral change was that which urban sociology refers to as "city behavior," linking it directly to human behavior and population.

[C]ities can be microcosms of universal human behaviour, while in others they provide a unique environment that yields their own brand of human behaviour. There is no strict dividing line between rural and urban; rather, there is a continuum where one bleeds into the other. However, once a geographically concentrated population has reached approximately 100,000 people, it typically behaves like a city regardless of what its designation might be.⁵⁴

It is therefore appropriate to claim that in the case of New York City, the urban space provided or turned into a place of enlightenment for its newly arriving (female) population. As early as 1909, the director of Greenwich House – a settlement house in one of the city's largest Italian immigrant communities – voicedasentiment that was common for reformers of that generation in New York:

It is the duty of American women, to stretch out their hands to these Italian sisters and welcome them to their coming independence by pressing to them larger ideals of life than those to which they have been accustomed: ideals of common interest, of public welfare, of social responsibility.⁵⁵

On the one hand, this can be viewed positively in terms of immigrant women being taken under the wing of more established citizens, but on the other, it reflects something of a savior complex demonstrated by middle-class and elite white women. Historian Louise Newman categorized these women's behavior as

<sup>51</sup> Carrie Chapman Catt papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, box 1.

<sup>52</sup> Mary Garrett Hay scrapbook, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library. 53 Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson, The Works of Alice Dunbar-Nelson, vol. 2 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988); Alice Dunbar-Nelson Collection 1895–1942, MSS0113, University of Delaware.

<sup>54</sup> Little, Introduction to Sociology, 695–696.

<sup>55</sup> Guglielmo, Living the Revolution, 80.

a need to free themselves from the category of "the protected" to become protectors themselves, and this was among the efficient ways in which white, middleclass women began to assume political power early on.⁵⁶

Education could also be achieved through the circulation of information, which was a fundamental route to creating awareness in women. It was essential for all groups. For example, the Women's Peace Party (WPP) published Four Lights, their New York branch's radical newsletter. Similarly, Emma Goldman stood behind Mother Earth, the monthly anarchist journal devoted to "social science and literature," and its successor Road to Freedom, which provided critical debates about gender norms and women's role in society.⁵⁷ A prime example of why organizing in different ways was fundamental was the female struggle for voting rights, which has been described as one of the greatest "social struggles"⁵⁸ in American history. Elenore Flexner and Ellen Fitzpatrick say that it is "difficult to imagine now a time when women were largely removed by custom, practice, and law from the formal political rights and responsibilities that support the sustains the nation's young democracy."⁵⁹ What the long-term denial of women's basic citizenship rights ultimately meant was intransigence in organizational means, denying women a possibility to actually achieve change: "As suffragists understood so well, voting rights symbolized more than the opportunity to cast a ballot for a favored candidate."⁶⁰ The vote invoked a wider universe that defined an individual not as a man or woman but as a citizen, carving out vital roles for each member of society in the responsibility each held for the future of the country. Basic rights, such as those to vote, to organize, and to hold public office, were complexly intertwined, and their importance can be explained through them providing the single greatest source of entry into public life. Being able to take up space in public life was a way in which women could participate in the propagation of ideas outside of the home and futures charted by those who participated rather than those who only observed. Women being active members of clubs, unions, and other organizations was important for precisely this reason.

The messages of female organizations were clearly expressed in the headlines of the war years, such as in that of the New-York Tribune: "Nation-Wide Move to

<sup>56</sup> Louise Michele Newman, White Women's Right: The Racial Origins of Feminism in the United States (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 86.

<sup>57</sup> Emma Goldman, "Mother Earth," in Mother Earth: Monthly Magazine Devoted to Social Science and Literature (USA: Library of Alexandria, 2020), 1–4.

<sup>58</sup> Elenore Flexner and Ellen Fitzpatrick, Century of Struggle: Women's Rights Movements in the United States (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1996), ix-xxiv. 59 Ibid., ix.

<sup>60</sup> Ibid.

Organize Women for War Is Begun."⁶¹ The "suffragist mass meeting" described fostered organizational efforts that eventually gave rise to the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA). This protest organization, in contrast to more radical parts of the anti-war movement, expressed that its members would rather avoid international bloodshed but were prepared to serve their country if it came to it, as they saw it as their obligation as citizens. What can be gathered from this willingness to contribute is women's personal interests: they wanted the right to vote, and the diplomatic decision to help their country if needed meant that they were using their strength to get allies for the right to vote:

With no intention of laying aside our constructive, forward work to secure the vote for the womanhood of this country as the right protective of all rights, we offer our services to our country in the event they should be needed, and in so far as we are authorized, we pledge the loyal services of our more than two millions of members [sic].⁶²

Most notable among the association's different speakers was Carrie Chapman Catt, the NWSA's president, who announced that they would establish a bureau in order to "work out" plans for employing women in the positions left vacant by men in the event that they went to war.⁶³ Other notable women who were part of this discreet development of alliances were Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, the honorary president, and Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton from Ohio. True to their word, women contributed through their organizational means and continued to do so even after the war; for example, committee meetings were used to organize fundraisings for a Paris war memorial.⁶⁴ There were also non-exclusively female organizations that played key roles in terms of providing support, such as the Socialist Party, which was also important for the change in women's social status in America as it supported female agency during the war and had close ties with numerous labor unions.⁶⁵

<sup>61</sup> "Nation-Wide Move to Organize Women for War Is Begun," New-York Tribune, February 26, 1917, 4.

<sup>62</sup> Ibid.

<sup>63</sup> Ibid. See also Carrie Chapman Catt papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division, New York Public Library.

<sup>64</sup> "For Paris War Memorial," The Evening World, December 9, 1919, 14.

<sup>65</sup> Mari Jo Buhle, Women and American Socialism, 1870–1920 (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1981); Paul Buhler and Dan Georgakas, eds., The Immigrant Left in the United States (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1996); Julian F. Jaffe, Crusade Against Radicalism: New York During the Red Scare, 1914–1924 (Port Washington, NY: Kennikat Press, 1972); Kathleen Kennedy, Disloyal Mothers and Scurrilous Citizens: Women and Subversion During World War I (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1999); John Laslett, Labor and the Left: A Study of Socialist and

The party also stood for the ideal of opposing militarism, supporting national women's interests countrywide, and one could observe the extension of the working class, not only consisting of men but to include working women as well. In terms of education, the party was ambitious in terms of economic and political rights but also sought the extension of educational measures, improved occupational health at work, and the freedom of speech, press, and assemblage. It also fought for a minimum wage, state insurance for all industrial workers, and mothers' pensions.⁶⁶

Another fundamental labor organization that shaped the American working woman's position and education was the International Ladies Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU),⁶⁷ which considered worker's education to be an essential precondition of social development and therefore tried to provide women with special opportunities in this regard.⁶⁸ The ILGWU was founded on 3 June 1900 in New York City and was largely dominated by needle workers, who were traditionally female and of immigrant background (they were primarily Jewish and Italian immigrants who had recently arrived from Eastern Europe and Italy, respectively). Many of them were socialists and had been active trade unionists before coming to America and, in some instances, had become members of the ILGWU's predecessor unions upon arrival.⁶⁹

The organization developed several elements of "social unionism" and extended beyond being just a worker's union. Many local unions also organized education departments that offered a variety of courses to members, ranging from English language and labor history to visual and performing arts.⁷⁰ This shows that such organizations were there not only to protect rights but also to educate women, who thereby gained education through their organizational ties, and this organiza-

Radical Influences in the American Labor Movement, 1881–1924 (New York: Basic Books, 1980); Kristen R. Rhodsee and Julia Mead, "What Has Socialism Ever Done For Women?" Catalyst 2, no. 2 (2018): 101–133; Sally M. Miller, ed., Flawed Liberation: Socialism and Feminism (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1981).

<sup>66</sup> "A Bonus for Every Woman who Stops Work to Have a Baby," The Evening World, January 22, 1919, 11.

<sup>67</sup> Gus Tyler, Look for the Union Label: A History of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1995); Robert Parment, The Master of Seventh Avenue: David Dubinsky and the American Labor Movement (New York: New York University Press, 2005); Roger D. Waldinger, Through the Eye of the Needle: Immigrants and Enterprise in New York's Garment Trades (New York: New York University Press, 1986).

<sup>68</sup> ILGWU, New York Cloak Joint Board Records, Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library, Collection No. 5780/020.

<sup>69</sup> Ibid., ILGWU Records, 1884–2006.

<sup>70</sup> Ibid.

tional education helped them to become active protesters, such as against the First World War.⁷¹ The ILGWU's members strongly advocated for the schooling of women. "Our Educational Work – A Survey," a pamphlet prepared by the union, argues that the ILGWU had contributed to education since 1916 through "the Unity Center," "the Worker's University," and "the Extension Division" and that their educational activities were continuing to grow. The ILGWU promoted itself as being a strong believer in the importance of educating workers, and female workers in particular, as it saw education as a precondition for future protests or the formation of "a movement" per se.⁷² The ILGWU stated that "education for workers within the Trade Union Movement should be financed, controlled and managed by workers themselves through their properly constituted organizations."⁷³ It was also firm about the idea of promoting democracy through education, greatly benefitting women on their road toward emancipation and greater ownership of their citizenship and rights. It strongly advocated the system of education it developed and took measures to avoid the education committee "becoming too centralized and out of touch with the needs of local unions."⁷⁴

The ILGWU formally contested the existing order and brought forward protests that had been "brewing" for decades prior. As the rich became richer and moved their industrial production to urban spaces such as New York City and the search for fashion became an unquenchable thirst, the number of needleworkers grew as well. The need to live in urban luxury and display it continued endlessly, and thus the number of garment-working immigrant women – notably the Jewish population – grew as well.⁷⁵ Beyond education and workers' rights, organizations such as the ILGWU had other important measures to improve quality of life such as its health program, in which it is stated that

the growing concern of the Federal and State Governments with health legislation designed to improve medical care has stimulated interest in existing schemes providing medical care at low cost. The present report describes the functioning of a trade-union plan coveringalarge group of industrial workers, which provides medical care for its members who would themselves be unable to pay for such services.⁷⁶

75 Tyler Look for the Union Label, 3–11.

76 Leo Price, "Health Program of International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union," Monthly Labor Review 49, no. 4 (1939): 811–829.

<sup>71</sup> Cohn, "The Educational Work."

<sup>72</sup> Cohn, "The Educational Work."

<sup>73</sup> Ibid.

<sup>74</sup> Ibid.

It is stated in the report that the health plan developed slowly and successfully over the 25 years after its establishment.⁷⁷ The ILGWU eventually became one of the largest unions in the US and could demonstrate a long timeline of an organization that put the interests of female workers at the center of its priorities.

Perhaps the greatest value workers' unions such as the ILGWU gave women beyond their worker rights was the capacities and competencies for protest it taught them through education, thus teaching them how to become further politically active and organized/mobilized. This is the essence of what these organizations taught women: it was not just how to be one thing or the other (Goldman's anarchism, the ILGWU's union rights, the Socialist Party's social critique, etc.), it also taught them how to grow independently as women.

A downside to female organizational labor and education that has been discussed in the literature and historical analysis regards women in higher educated positions, such as physicians.⁷⁸ Organizational goals, rhetoric, visual symbols, and leadership style attempted to reconcile the objectivity, expertise, and efficient organization of the modem professional ideal with the nurturance and personal heroism of the traditional woman physician. As history will suggest, the adaptation to professional modernism cost many women physicians more than they knew. During the war, many American women physicians made interwoven claims for full citizenship and professional equality as they sought commissions in the military medical corps and other avenues of wartime medical service. Many medical women developed an ideology of full female citizenship, which included the traditional citizen's obligation of military service. As war placed the medical profession on the public stage, this resulted in claims for "equal status."⁷⁹ Female physicians made their wartime claims for equal opportunity in the context of a broader history of struggle for access to educational, professional, and organizational opportunities in the field of medicine, as well as the struggle for women's rights. However, this was not easily achieved because, despite their readiness, they did not receive acceptance.⁸⁰ What can be understood from the eagerness of professional women was that the campaign to permit women physicians to do war service represented a claim by many women physicians for full civic and professional partic-

<sup>77</sup> Ibid., 812.

<sup>78</sup> Ellen S. More, "'A Certain Restless Ambition': Women Physicians and World War I," American Quarterly 41, no. 4 (1989): 636–660; Kimberly Jensen, "Uncle Sam's Loyal Nieces: American Medical Women, Citizenship, and War Service in World War I," Bulletin of the History of Medicine 67, no. 4 (1993): 670–690.

<sup>79</sup> Jensen, "Uncle Sam's Loyal Nieces," 670–671.

<sup>80</sup> Ibid., 673–674.

ipation. Almost one-third of medical women registered for war service.⁸¹ The transition to the culture of modem professionalism was as difficult for female doctors as it was for all women, despite their high level of education and above-average professionalism in relation to the norm of the time.⁸²

Among other organizations that were fundamental to educating marginalized groups through the demand for equality was the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which was established in New York City in May 1909.⁸³ The NAACP is not only the oldest but also the most influential civil rights organization in the United States, with a paritcular focus on the rights of women of color. The demands of the organization were of the lavish kind, rather just simple pleas for the "strict and impartial" enforcement of the Constitution, which had been amended after the Civil War to abolish slavery and outlaw racial discrimination.⁸⁴ Women were excluded from mainstream unions on the basis of their color, and thus the need for their own organization was nothing short of essential.⁸⁵ Just as women were going through a long process to claim their citizenship,⁸⁶ the NAACP operated as a pressure group to protect and advance the citizenship of the African American population.⁸⁷ Similar to the struggles of women in general to prove their capability to do the same physical labor and intellectual thinking as men, the members of the NAACP in many ways had to "prove" that they were able to adopt the dominant cultural values of middle-class respectability and morality.⁸⁸ What this essentially entailed was a broad assimilation initiative by the NAACP, where they wished for African Americans to appear middle class in order to be more easily accepted as equals. This was particularly due to the segregated cities of the post-First World War period when a new class structure emerged based on social dicta such as education and conventional behavior rather

<sup>81</sup> Ibid., 690.

<sup>82</sup> More, "A Certain Restless Ambition," 636.

<sup>83</sup> Merline Pitre, In Struggle Against Jim Crow: Lulu B. White and the NAACP, 1900–1957 (College Station, TX: Texas A&M Press: 1999).

<sup>84</sup> Warren D. St. James, Triumphs of a Pressure Group, 1909–1980 (Smithtown, NY: Exposition Press, 1980), vii-viii.

<sup>85</sup> Ibid., viii.

<sup>86</sup> Jowan A. Mohammed, Mary Hunter Austin: A Female Author's Protest Against the First World War in the United States (Wilmington, DE: Vernon Press, 2021), 55–79.

<sup>87</sup> Kevern Verney and Lee Sartain, eds., Long Is the Way and Hard: One Hundred Years of the NAACP (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2009), xv, 16.

<sup>88</sup> Ibid., 22–23.

than occupation and income.⁸⁹ The NAACP therefore wished for the black community to work in order for African Americans to "pass" as such (i. e., socially conventional). Black women's roles in the organization were vital but also traditional, as they often took responsibility for tasks such as proselytizing and fundraising.⁹⁰ Nevertheless, its educational efforts were important to women who had been organized and actively protesting within and on behalf of other associations, parties, or unions.

#### Conclusion

This chapter has looked at protest as a means for education and educational means as a form of protest formation. Educating women not only taught them how to achieve social advancement but also provided them with knowledge about how to protest. Naturally, the particular historical time and space have always played a role in people's motivation and means, but when pressure arises, some rise to the occasion, and this was the case with women at the turn of the century – a time when women's rights, workers' rights, raging war times, and metropolitan optimism all came to intertwine. The First World War channeled a myriad field of protesters whose aims were as different as their political and social backgrounds and their individual experiences. Nevertheless, many of these women had been educated by their respective organizations, especially in the urban and metropolitan areas due to immigration and the cosmopolitan environment of New York City. Triggered into action by the experience of the First World War, these educated women took up their own torch of protest and joined others to throw it into a fire that would pave the way toward more political and social rights for them in the future. While they were seemingly initially united by shared goals, it is not surprising that the shared trigger stimulated an overlap of actions and the formation of ties between different protest groups, which were particularly stimulated and enabled within the metropolitan environment of larger cities like New York. Those who want to better understand the protest formation during the war years, therefore, must consider the war as a trigger that activated already existent female potential for protest that then catalyzed a shared direction, thereby granting it more visibility, more attention, and naturally more power. For women's pro-

<sup>89</sup> Ibid., 23. For further reading on the black middle-class and the rise of what sociologist E. Franklin Frazier called the "Black Bourgeoisie," see E. Franklin Frazier, Black Bourgeoisie: The Rise of a New Middle Class in the United States (New York: Collier, 1962).

<sup>90</sup> Kim Marie Vaz, ed., Black Women in America (London: Sage, 1994), 59; Greenberg, "Reconstructing Race and Protest."

test, the First World War consequently presented a window of opportunity that allowed them, although only for a limited time, to contest the existent order and to shake the pillars upon which the American political and social order was based.

#### Works Cited

#### Archival Sources

International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam Bro Am 1900/180 Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University

Library Collection No: 5780/020 Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, New York Carrie Chapman Catt Papers Mary Garrett Hay Scrapbook Tamiment Library and Robert Wagner Labor Archives, New York University Alexander Berkman Papers University of Delaware Library Alice Dunbar-Nelson Collection 1895–1942

#### Newspapers

The Sun The New York Tribune The Evening World

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Armstrong, Elisabeth B., and Vijay Prashad. "Solidarity: War Rites and Women's Rights." CR: The New Centennial Review 5, no. 1 (2005): 213–253.


Chaison, Gary. Unions in America. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2006.


Ehala, Martin. Signs of Identity: The Anatomy of Belonging. New York: Routledge, 2018.


McCammon, Holly J., Karen E. Campbell, Ellen M. Granberg, and Christine Mowery. "How Movements Win: Gendered Opportunity Structures and U.S. Women's Suffrage Movements, 1866 to 1919." American Sociological Review 66, no. 1 (2001): 49–70.

Miller, Sally M., ed. Flawed Liberation: Socialism and Feminism. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1981.


#### Steinar Aas

# 8 Male Radicalism in the Wake of Revolution and Antimilitarism: A Norwegian Case Study

At the beginning of the 20th century, the mining company "A/S Sulitjelma gruber" in Nordland was about to become the second largest industrial company in Norway. As many as 1,700–2,000 workers were involved in and around the mining industry connected with the export of sulfur and copper from the border areas between Norway and Sweden. The workforce was predominantly male and originated mainly from the surrounding region of Salten, although the mobile workforce also brought waves of workers from other parts of Scandinavia, such as Sweden and Finland. The male workers of the mining community became the epicenter of protest and revolutionary radicalism on a national level and were later stimulated by the events in Russia during the First World War. This was to be part of the political culture at the beginning of the 19th century and onward.

The following contribution aims to give an insight into the workers' radicalization process and to show how the male part of the labor movement in the northern periphery radicalized the whole workers' movement in Norway. It is therefore an attempt to show how a particularly gendered (i. e., male) protest was created by the specific spatiality of a mining town in northern Scandinavia. The destruction of trade and export relations during the First World War challenged employment in the mining industry. This might have stimulated the political radicalization of a predominantly male clientele. Another form of protest by the male workers was the struggle against conscription. This protest mobilized the male working class against the establishment, whose representatives were forced to use drastic

Open Access. © 2023 the author(s), published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111102757-008

means in fighting the protest of the socialist radicals in the shadow of the First World War and the outbreak of the Russian Revolution. The particularly gendered protest by men triggered a strict response from the establishment in order to prevent the expansion of internal turmoil and the spread of dangerous revolutionary thoughts and behavior.

#### Sulitjelma: A Stronghold for Radicalism

Sulitjelma was a "company town" established in the remote border areas between Sweden and Norway.¹ The Swedish company "Skånska Superfosfat och Svavelsyrefabrikaktiebolag," based in Helsingborg, ran the mines in an area that, due to its harsh climate and hostile environment as well as the local working and living conditions, was characterized as the "Hell of Lapland."² The company had been running the mines since 1889, gradually expanding its activities until the First World War, when restrictions on the export of war-related goods like sulfur were put into effect. As a consequence of the war and the recession in the 1920s, the workforce never recovered in the interwar period, although the mines still employed between 500 and 1,000 workers.³

The Swedish company running the mines opposed the demands of the trade unions and labor movement regarding the right to organize by controlling all traffic in and out of the remote area of the mines. They monitored the boats going in and out of the area, as well as the railway operating to and from the mining society. In addition, they ran the local grocery store, the distribution of housing for the permanent staff, and the barracks housing the casual workers. To control undesirable political activities, employers among the staff spied on workers from different mines in Sulitjelma. Visiting representatives thus had to be smuggled in and arrange secret assemblies in order to organize the workers, and if the workers were caught in the act, they were fired.⁴

In 1907, the company changed its hostile policy toward the trade unions and the labor movement, and the first trade unions came into existence. The reason for this change was a protest initiated by the miners against their so-called

<sup>1</sup> Bjørg Evjen, Arbeiderkvinner i Sulis: Arbeid og livsvilkår i det tidlige og det etablerte industrisamfunnet, ca. 1900 og ca. 1930 (Tromsø: UiT, 1987), 20; John Douglas Porteous, "The Nature of the Company Town," Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 51 (1970): 127–144. 2 Evjen, 144.

<sup>3</sup> Ibid., 5.

<sup>4</sup> Ibid., 144–145.

"slave label," indicating that the workers were only numbers and not humans.⁵ On 13 January 1907, around 1,000 workers gathered on the ice on Lake Langvannet (alongside the village of Sulitjelma) to found the first miners' union. The company could not interfere with the gathering because they did not own the ice on which the assembly took place.⁶ Later that year, the first May Day gathering took place. By the end of the year, a new worker-based co-operative had been founded, and by 1913, it had the most members of any such organization in Norway.⁷

The establishment of such organizations got the ball rolling. By the end of 1907, there were 13 new miners' clubs operating in the mining society, all connected to the barracks and houses around the different mines in Sulitjelma.⁸ With the miners' active agitation and mobilization, the stage was set for a more solid labor movement in the wider Salten region. By 1915, three of the neighboring municipalities were run by mayors from the Labor Party, which was also the biggest party in all four municipalities.⁹ By 1910, they had also established a Labor Party paper, the Nordlands Social-Demokrat, contributing to the public debate in the region by representing radical opposition to the hegemonic political papers of the liberal democrats and the conservatives.¹⁰

In a classic article from 1927, republished in the 1970s, the labor historian Edvard Bull claimed to have found the reason for the radicalization of the Norwegian Labor Party, which became a member of the Communist International in 1921 as the only Labor Party in the Nordic countries.¹¹ In Bull's theory, the working class in Norway was rapidly replanted from the primary sector into the new mining industry or the construction sector in the late 19th century. This uprooted them from the traditional economy of fish farming in what Bull characterized as "the

8 Jensen, "Fagbevegelsens fremvekst i Salten," 141.

<sup>5</sup> Nils Henrik Fuglestad, "Omkring arbeiderbevegelsens framvekst i Nord-Norge," Tidsskrift for arbeiderbevegelsens historie 1 (1984): 43–44.

<sup>6</sup> Ida Merethe Jensen, "Fagbevegelsens fremvekst i Salten frem til 1940," in "Andre tider i Norge nu": 100 års historie sett fra Folkets Hus Bodø 1920–2020, ed. Steinar Aas (Stamsund: Orkana Akademisk, 2020), 140.

<sup>7</sup> Christoffer Røhne, Et gruvefolk i samvirke, Sulitjelma Samvirkelag gjennom 50 år (Sulitjelma: n.p. [1958]), 11–12; Steinar Aas, "Andre tider i Norge nu," in "Andre tider i Norge nu": 100 års historie sett fra Folkets Hus Bodø 1920–2020, ed. Steinar Aas (Stamsund: Orkana Akademisk, 2020), 22.

<sup>9</sup> Steinar Aas, "Johan Medby – Frå 'Sulitjelma-affæren' til Lillestrøm," Arbeiderhistorie 36, no. 1 (2022): 59.

<sup>10</sup> Svein Lundestad, "En arbeideravis utfordrer borgerlig dominans," in "Start Pressen!" Avisene i Bodø gjennom 150 år, eds. Wilhelm Karlsen and Svein Lundestad (Trondheim: Akademika, 2012), 46–48.

<sup>11</sup> Edvard Bull, "Arbeiderbevægelsens stilling i de tre nordiske land 1914–1920," Tidsskrift for arbeiderbevegelsens historie 1, no. 1 (1976): 3–28.

liberating phase of capitalism." This newfound freedom from old social and kinship restraints made them more susceptible to new radical ideas.¹² Sulitjelma seems to be a good example of this change, where some of the sons of the fish farmers of the traditional peasant household, self-sufficient economy turned into the new proletariat.

#### Young Men as Local Radicals

The idea of Sulitjelma as a stronghold for radical ideas and political protest was evidenced by the manifestations on the ice at the lake in 1907. Later, Sulitjelma was seen as one of the core areas for the growth of the labor movement in northern Norway.¹³ Even on a national scale, its mining community was of great importance. Within the labor movement, one of the radical representatives of the national organization – Martin Tranmæl – used Sulitjelma as a power base for his position as an oppositionist in the Labor Party. Tranmæl was the editor of the socialist paper Ny Tid in Trondheim, some 600 kilometers south of Sulitjelma. He was greatly impressed by the environment in Sulitjelma, where trade unions could have 500 members, and could get as many as 200 new subscriptions to Ny Tid. Tranmæl used the political and organizational potential of Sulitjelma to build a power base within the labor movement. This left-wing line prevailed at the LO Congress (the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions) in 1920. Tranmæl used this power base to become the mighty Party Secretary of the Labor Party in 1918 and would also become the editor of the party's newspaper in Oslo – Social-Demokraten – from 1923 to 1949.¹⁴

The idea of Fagopposisjonen av 1911 (The Trade Union Opposition of 1911) was Tranmæl's project, promoted by his paper and supported by the newly established socialist paper in Sulitjelma as well.¹⁵ The Trade Union Opposition of 1911 was an organization within the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions, which tried to get the former to take a more proactive approach toward the employees' organizations through the six main means of struggle available to them: 1) strikes, 2) sympathy strikes, 3) boycotts, 4) obstructions, 5) sabotage, and 6) cooperatives.¹⁶

<sup>12</sup> Edvard Bull, "Fra bøndenes og husmennenes samfunn til den organiserte kapitalisme," in Makt og motiv. Et festskrift til Jens Arup Seip, eds. Ottar Dahl et al (Oslo: Publisher, 1975), 228–229.

<sup>13</sup> See, for example, the evaluation in Nordlands Framtid, May 20, 1949, 1.

<sup>14</sup> Aksel Zachariassen, Martin Tranmæl (Oslo: Tiden, 1979 [1939]); Aas, "Johan Medby," 52. 15 Ibid.

<sup>16</sup> Jorunn Bjørgum, "Fagopposisjonen av 1911," Tidsskrift for Arbeiderbevegelsens historie 1 (1976): 64.

Tranmæl visited Sulitjelma on several occasions, some of which were published by socialist papers all over the country. The stories mainly reported the shortcomings of the company town and told workers to mobilize in order to change society. Tranmæl discovered Sulitjelma early on, and he often went there as an agitator in the barracks to talk to the workers at political meetings and for membership recruitment, drawing further subscriptions to Ny Tid. In addition, he formed trade unions.¹⁷

The Swedish historian Björn Horgby used the terms "egensinne" (obstinacy) and "skötsamhet" (neatness) in his study of the labor movement in Norrköping, Sweden. Inspired by the German historian Alf Lüdtke, who promoted the term "Eigen-Sinn" in his study of the working class and the workers' "social practice" at the beginning of 20th-century Germany, Horgby focused on how the workers tried to create their own living space to avoid the control of the class society.¹⁸ They wanted to get along on their own terms, protesting against the order of the company.¹⁹

Lüdtke advocated for anthropologically inspired theories to explain historical phenomena, not unlike what the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu did when he formulated concepts or theories related to human action. It is about understanding the unity between "man and his situation, his 'being in the world'."²⁰ Could one find explanations of people's political choices by studying their background, what cultural capital they possessed, and what social fields they operated within? Can such an approach perhaps provide new insights? In Norrköping, Horgby found a working culture characterized by two approaches and lifestyles. One was marked by "neatness" (skötsamhet), while the other was dominated by the "rowdy and unruly," the "obstinate."²¹ Although Horgby had a more comprehensive aim in his analysis of Norrköping, the workers' actions in Sulitjelma can be seen in such a light. Here, the working collective could see a newfound sense of self vis-à-vis the established authorities through grassroots mobilization where they challenged power. Now they had come so far in their organization that they could demonstrate their capacity for both individual and collective actions. The rumor about

<sup>17</sup> Zachariassen, Martin Tranmæl, 75–76.

<sup>18</sup> Geoff Eley, "Labor History, Social History, 'Alltagsgeschichte': Experience, Culture, and the Politics of the Everyday – A New Direction for German Social History?" The Journal of Modern History 61, no. 2 (1989): 297–343.

<sup>19</sup> Björn Horgby, Egensinne og skötsamhet: Arbetarkulturen i Norrköping 1850–1940 (Stockholm: Carlssons bokförlag, 1993), 16, 36–37.

<sup>20</sup> Pierre Bourdieu, Distinksjoner: En sosiologisk kritikk av dømmekraften (Oslo: Pax Forlag, 1995), 31–37; Dag Østerberg, "Innledning," in ibid., 25–27.

<sup>21</sup> Björn Horgby, Egensinne og skötsamhet, 16, 36–37.

Suitjelma as a hotbed for radical ideas was to be stretched to its limits in the years to come, and it culminated with what later was called the "Sulitjelma Affair" in April 1918.

#### "His" or "Her" Story?

Due to the fact that most miners were men, it is no surprise to observe a male-dominated focus in the way the history of the labor movement in the region has traditionally been presented. Most publications about the miners and their struggle for political and social rights have been written by men, preferably with a background in or preferences for the labor movement.²² Trade unions, the class struggle, male newspaper editors, and male political activists have been studied indepth, while female voices have only been heard sporadically.²³ However, there are exceptions. By the end of the 1980s, as part of the growing focus on women's history, some new voices were to be heard, including those of young female history students, with a theoretical approach inclined toward "her story" instead of "his story."²⁴

One of north Norway's pioneers in social history, the late Bjørg Evjen, originated from Sulitjelma. Her Master's thesis, "Arbeiderkvinner i Sulis: Arbeid og livsvilkår i det tidlige og det etablerte industrisamfunnet, ca. 1900 og ca. 1930," was about the lives of "worker's women" and the female experience of a mining society between 1900 and 1930. Evjen's main focus group comprised what she characterized as "working-class women": the small group of female workers discarding sulfur at the production line, the domestic workers and housewives, and the cooks preparing food for the casual workers. She concluded that this female social group had to find its place in the housing policy of the class society, as well as when it came to

<sup>22</sup> Kåre Odlaug, Norsk Arbeidsmandsforbund gjennom 60 år, vols. I–II (Oslo: Tiden norsk forlag, 1954); Øyvind Bjørnson, Arbeiderbevegelsens historie i Norge, vol. 2: På klassekampens grunn (1900–1920) (Oslo: Tiden Norsk forlag, 1990), 558, 560–565, 567, 569; Odd-Bjørn Fure, "Mellom reformisme og bolsjevisme: Norsk arbeiderbevegelse 1918–1920" (PhD diss., Universitetet i Bergen, 1983), 234, 548–550.

<sup>23</sup> Gro Hagemann, "Historien om den mannlige arbeiderklassen: Usynliggjøring og kjønnsblindhet i arbeiderbevegelsens historie," in Arbeiderhistorie 1988, 124–151.

<sup>24</sup> Ida Blom and Sølvi Sogner, eds., Med kjønnsperspektiv på norsk historie: Fra vikingtid til 2000– årsskiftet (Oslo: Cappelen akademisk forlag, 1999), 11; Ottar Dahl, "'Kvinnehistorie': Kategorihistorie eller samfunnshistorie?," Historisk Tidsskrift 3 (1985); Ida Blom, "Kvinnehistorie – ledd i historieforskningen og ledd i kvinneforskningen," Historisk Tidsskrift 4 (1985); Gro Hagemann, "Teknologi, industrialisering og kjønnsdeling av arbeidet. Enkelte trekk fra klesproduksjonens historie," Tidsskrift for arbeiderbevegelsens historie 2 (1985).

the company's control of access to the company town. In addition, educational options for women were restricted to specific social groups, as was access to specific workplaces. Middle- and upper-class women could work at the telegraph or telephone station, while working-class women could choose to be maids, hostesses, postwomen, hairdressers, or shopkeepers.²⁵ However, working-class housewives were dependent on the daily regulator of the rhythm of their husband's shift work.²⁶ Working-class women's access to associations was also partly regulated by class. Socialist organizations were more politically oriented, while middleand upper-class women dominated and led broader women's groups. Consequently, working-class women only became ordinary members or even servants in these associations and thus were often reduced to passive members. As a result, they were absent voices within these broader organizations.²⁷

One of Evjen's most important discoveries was that working-class women were rather politically passive despite their awareness of living in a divided and suppressed class society. There were a few reasons for that. One was an acceptance of the situation. Another was the expectations of women: they were not meant to man the barricades. The third reason, according to Evjen, was that the political sphere was so dominantly male that working-class women naturally considered it male.²⁸

Another female historian from Sulitjelma, Wenche Spjelkavik, studied the social conditions in the mining society from its start in the 1880s. Spjelkavik found some significant characteristics in the recruitment of workers at the turn of the century, namely that workers recruited in the vicinity of the mines were younger than those arriving from southern Norway or Sweden, initially working in the specialist operations of the mine.²⁹ While just under 13% of the miners and carriers in the mines in 1891 were from north Norway, their numbers grew to 56.2% in 1900. The majority of these workers were unmarried, and only 19% of them had a family living in the company town.³⁰ These male workers, flocking to the mines in Sulitjelma, became some of the initiators of radical protests at the beginning of the 20th century. One could consequently claim that the surrounding areas of self-employed fish farmers were the hard core of the new working class and that this uprooting

<sup>25</sup> Evjen, Arbeiderkvinner i Sulis, 166–167.

<sup>26</sup> Ibid., 167.

<sup>27</sup> Ibid.

<sup>28</sup> Ibid., 168.

<sup>29</sup> Wenche Spjelkavik, "Alla som icke arbeta böra svälta": Arbeidere og ledelse ved Sulitjelma Aktiebolag 1890–1907 (Bergen: UiB, 1997), 19–20. 30 Ibid., 70–71.

process, previously presented by Edvard Bull, was demonstrated in Sulitjelma in 1918.

#### The Sulitjelma Affair

The Sulitjelma Affair, or the "Medby Case," as it is also called, is much discussed in the history of the Norwegian labor movement.³¹ Within the wave of antimilitarism at the national level, it was Sulitjelma where the battle was to take place that spring.³² Many young men declined to enlist for their conscription. Neutral Norway was on the periphery of the Great War that raged on the European continent until a great social upheaval, a revolution, took place in neighboring Russia. Thereafter, Norway was affected by the war and the subsequent crisis by the strict rationing of foodstuffs as well as production cuts in the mining industry. During the crisis, military exercises drew young men away from the farms securing the food supply, and Norwegian authorities feared that the Russian Revolution would spread to Norway, so protests were put down with harsh measures.

This was the context of the protest in 1918. In Nordland, the radical left established workers' and soldiers' councils, directly inspired by the February Revolution in Russia in 1917. By the spring of 1918, such councils were in place in Narvik, Mo i Rana, Fauske, and Saltdal.³³ The workers in Sulitjelma would establish its own councils in April 1918, according to the socialist paper Social-Demokraten.³⁴ In an article in Arbeidsmanden, the magazine for members of the Norwegian Workers' Union, published on the 30th anniversary of the actions of 1918, Johan Medby explained what had triggered the protests in 1917–18. The spread of antimilitarist attitudes by Norway's Social Democratic Youth Association laid the foundations for the protest. Agitating for "the broken rifle" spread through different forums, and the youth association's revolutionary program called for "the fight against mil-

<sup>31</sup> Nils Ivar Agøy, Militæretaten og "den indre fiende" frå 1905 til 1940. Hemmelige sikkerhetsstyrker i Norge sett i et skandinavisk perspektiv (Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1997), 121, 125, 136–137; Bjørnson, Arbeiderbevegelsens, vol. 2, 562–564; Fure, "Mellom reformisme og bolsjevisme," 234, 548–550.

<sup>32</sup> Johan Medby, "Klassekamp og rallarliv. Spredte trekk av grube- og anleggsfolkets saga i Norge. III. 'Grubebyene': – Et helstøpt folkeferd – Renhårighet: Sulitjelma-anekdoter," Arbeidsmanden 11 (1935).

<sup>33</sup> Gaute Rønnebu, "Fram i indre styrke: Arbeiderbevegelsen i Bodø og Salten før 1940," in "Andre tider i Norge nu": 100 års historie sett fra Folkets Hus Bodø 1920–2020, ed. Steinar Aas (Stamsund: Orkana Akademisk, 2020), 99.

<sup>34</sup> Social-Demokraten, April 13, 1918.

itarism" in order to remove the cause of war, "capitalism," by means of a "conscription strike" and a "military strike."³⁵

Several young men took part in an antimilitarist demonstration before traveling to the regiment's base for military service in Medby's municipal center of Rognan in Saltdal on 12 May 1917, where the local blacksmith Lars Næss (born 1889) held an appeal. He came from the neighboring municipality of Beiarn and represented the new northern Norwegian labor proletariat, the pioneering navvy workers. He had been a blacksmith in Sulitjelma and the mines in Birtavarre in Troms before arriving in Rognan in 1916, where he ran a forge. He was part of the "radical left wing" of the local labor movement, holding important positions in post-war Norway as the leader of the local branch of the Norwegian Communist Party (NKP) after its split with the Labor Party in 1923.³⁶

In 1917–18, Næss was the local correspondent of the socialist paper Nordland's Social Democrat, and he both covered the meeting with the conscription protesters and held an appeal at the meeting before the conscripts were to take the local streamliner to Drevjamoen in Vefsn in order to discharge their conscription. Næss spoke about the "stormy day" and encouraged the young men to act based on what "served the country and the people best." Militarism was "the country's cancer." To stay home and help on the fish farm with the spring work was far better than using the time on a military exercise. Næss also addressed the wasted use of money through military grants. It was of greater national benefit that "the people followed the government's call to … cultivate and till the land" than to learn how to destroy the earth by joining the military.³⁷

That spring, rumors went around claiming that there would be some form of confrontation. Some of the radicals appealed to the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions to convene an extraordinary congress to address "war activism and the military madness."³⁸ However, the young men went to the military camps, which was also in line with the position the NKP later adopted at Lenin's encouragement. The idea was that all proletarians benefited from being able to handle weapons.³⁹ Medby's plan was to organize resistance at the military camp in a collective action among the recruits and for his company to run "illegal" operations.

<sup>35</sup> Reinert Torgeirson and Arvid G. Hansen, Haandbok i studie- og lagsarbeidet (Oslo: Norges Socialdemokratiske Ungdomsforbunds Forlag, 1918), 68–69.

<sup>36</sup> Arbeidsmanden 7/8 (1959); Friheten, September 28, 1928.

<sup>37</sup> Nordlands Social-Demokrat, May 23, 1917.

<sup>38</sup> Nordlands Social-Demokrat, May 16, 1917.

<sup>39</sup> Johan Medby, "Da gruvefolket i Sulitjelma 'gjorde revolusjon': Minner fra de dramatiske hendingene i Nord-Norge 1917–18," Arbeidsmanden 2/3 (1948).

Medby later reported the "victorious actions" as follows:

Several hundred men gathered for a demonstration under revolutionary slogans and began to march away from the parade ground in the army camp. The mood was buoyed by a willingness to take action, but the boys were simply too exhausted to manage the march down to the steamship docks. We had not gone many hundreds of meters before the lines began to waver. The officers' exhortations probably also did their job. The first attempt at action ended in a veritable retreat.⁴⁰

The resistance front failed, but Medby continued to hold soldiers' meetings to maintain antimilitarist attitudes among his fellow soldiers. He realized that "military strikes" were futile, so the plans changed in favor of "strong antimilitary demonstrations" instead. In addition, handwritten circulars were spread through the army camp. 19 July 1917 was to be the great demonstration day, and on a bright, warm evening, the demonstrating soldiers carrying a rifle with bayonets marched out onto the parade ground in front of the astonished and horrified regimental commander.⁴¹ Passionate cheers could be heard among the soldiers, as well as the Internationale and other revolutionary songs. They shouted, "Down with militarism" and "Long live the revolution," but the recruits calmed down soon afterwards.

Medby was then brought in for questioning by the company commander and sent to Bodø district prison after 20 days in military custody.⁴² A court-martial punished the 41 most enthusiastic strikers, with Medby and Martin Kr. Lorntsen from Meløy identified as the leaders. Among other charges, the two were sentenced for having agitated to get the soldiers to leave their service between 17 May and 3 June. The two received the most severe sentence of five months in prison. The sentencing otherwise varied between 120 days (two defendants), 60 days (four defendants), and 21–30 days of imprisonment (33 defendants).⁴³ Medby waited at home for his prison sentence to be effectuated during the fall and winter of 1917–18. During this time, he asked an engineer in Sulitjelma for work. After his military service in the summer of 1917, Medby had made a living as a traveling construction worker and miner in different industrial projects in Norway. The engineer could thus expect him to be a skilled and experienced worker. Medby was given work in the mining company, and the engineer welcomed him at the Hanken mine in Sulitjelma. This was where Nergaard, Bodø's police chief, came to find him in April 1918.⁴⁴

44 Medby, "Klassekamp og rallarliv."

<sup>40</sup> Ibid.

<sup>41</sup> Ibid.

<sup>42</sup> John Strøm, "Sulitjelmaaffæren 1918," Fauskeboka: Årbok for Fauske (1986): 70–80.

<sup>43</sup> Helgelands Blad, August 16, 1917; Ranens Folkeblad, August 23, 1917.

Also in 1918, Medby published his antimilitarist manifesto. He was "an incarnation of hatred against the social system, which with the state in its left hand and militarism in its right" created the "crowds of ragged and starving hollow-eyed toddlers" of the big cities and industrial cities. What was the point of the military, he asked. It was just something that "destroys the lives of millions of happy young people out on the battlefields." War and militarism had made him hate a system that "trampled millions of life hopes and ideals" and drove humanity into poverty and misery in the most abominable way.⁴⁵

# The Miners' Protest Against the Detention of Johan Medby

The conflict between protesting workers and the establishment escalated and got out of control in Sulitjelma at one o'clock on 5 April 1918. Bodø's police chief Nergaard came at the head of a handful of officers on the morning train to the mining community to pick up Medby. Everything went smoothly as Nergaard, his men, and the arrestee made their way from the mine to the railway station at Sandnes. However, the return took place while most of the workers were coming off the morning shift. The menace of a confrontation was imminent. Bearing the assembly two months before in mind, one could expect protests among the miners, and their decision not to let the police arrest Medby was an indication of a coming demonstration. "His punishment was in such glaring disproportion to what Medby was accused of and sentenced for," the assembly claimed. Medby took part in the assembly by making an appeal to the 500 mostly male miners.⁴⁶

With 2,000–3,000 inhabitants and fundamental solidarity with the new radical currents from the labor movement spreading to the surrounding communities, the police force could expect hostile attitudes in the whole region. Many in the area were in contact with Sulitjelma through working there or having daughters, sons, and husbands in its mining community, as shown by Spjelkavik in her studies of the recent recruitment drive at the mines.

Medby's peaceful arrest in Hanken turned into a situation of tension as workers gathered along the road toward the station. Many only went to watch, but others were there in order to obstruct the police's work as a passive bystander, the

<sup>45</sup> Nordlands Social-Demokrat, May 29, 1918.

<sup>46</sup> Helgelands Blad, October 22, 1918.

foreman Einar Eriksen, testified later.⁴⁷ He was among the more disciplined workers. He explained that he knew that words were spreading between the workers about an attempt to stop the arrest. At three o'clock, he saw people gathering along the road. New groups from the mining communities on the opposite side of the lake – Jakobsbakken and Fagerli – had arrived as well. At half past four, he went to the co-operative, but it was closed. At the school, he met a "cluster of people" and saw the crowd from Jakobsbakken gather on the other side of Langvannet before they crossed the ice, cheering. The people on the Sulitjelma side responded with "hoorays," and those from Jakobsbakken hurried to join the other crowd.⁴⁸

The situation subsequently became confused, albeit threatening. The growing crowd now headed along the road at the school, and someone gave orders to continue so that the groups could encircle the police and Medby. Then the crowd from Jakobsbakken commanded the police and arrestee to stop. Someone among the protesters ordered that they were not allowed to pass, according to Eriksen; he did not remember who, but it was probably someone from Jakobsbakken.⁴⁹

While the crowd stood there, a young man came running and shouted that they should arm themselves with stones. The suggestion was followed, and the group stopped at the school. Then one or perhaps two sticks were raised into the air, which was interpreted as a signal by the group from Jakobsbakken. At the school, a shout that they should call the police was then heard. There, the two groups came together. Eriksen could not see the police at first, but then he saw several policemen falling backward into a fence at the top of the road. He also described how the police were bombarded with stones while running up the hill and hit by the crowd of miners.⁵⁰ Eriksen saw that the police chief tried to address the crowd but could not hear what he said due to all the "screaming and shouting." While this was going on, the crowd stood "very close to the policemen" and remained "close together with clenched fists."⁵¹

One of the first defendants in the Court of Examination and Summary Jurisdiction following the incident in Sulitjelma was a young miner called Reidar Karlsen, a teacher's son from the neighboring municipality of Beiarn. With two years' experience in the mining community and being a member of Brandfaklen (a social


<sup>47</sup> The State Archives of Trondheim (Statsarkivet i Trondheim – henceforth SAT): Bodø politikammer (A-1950, 1/05/L0008: Anmeldelser Salten 40 (Sulitjelmaopptøyene) 127/51), Minutes from the Court of Examination and Summary Jurisdiction, Furulund, May 11, 1918, Einar Eriksen, 22. 48 Ibid.

democratic youth organization), he represented the new organization of young, male, radicalized miners who were the frontrunners of the radical movement in the mining municipality. Consequently, he was among the first to be arrested and prosecuted. His mission seems to have been the disarmament of a local police officer during the incident, and Karlsen was among the most active individuals during the "liberation" of Medby.

Einar Moen, who was from the same locality as Karlsen, was also summoned as a witness.⁵² He had been standing beside Karlsen when someone in the crowd ordered people to disarm the police. Then, two men in workwear, according to Moen, ran toward an armed policeman and took his revolver. Moen had been less than a meter from police chief Nergaard, and Karlsen had been even closer. Several others then encircled the chief of police, and one of them fished the revolver out of his pocket, making the situation even tenser. Moen claimed that someone threatened to "shoot the police" before Karlsen saved the situation by jumping forward and seizing the revolver from the protester's hand. Acting quickly, he got hold of the revolver and fired a shot into the air.⁵³ At this point, the police chief realized that the only option was to withdraw. Medby had disappeared without a trace. All that was left for the police was to leave unscathed. Eriksen explained that it was unclear whether the workers would give way for the police, but the police finally managed to get away and back to Bodø.⁵⁴ Some workers disliked the development and resisted it by throwing stones at the police.

The incident was later depicted in caricatures in Hvepsen and Tidens Tegn.⁵⁵ The title of the caricature in Tidens Tegn, a conservative Oslo paper, was "the Bolsheviks sing."⁵⁶ Another conservative newspaper in Bodø, Nordlandsposten, believed that the rebels in Sulitjelma had been affected by the "contagion from the east," implying that they wanted the revolution to start in Norway, too.⁵⁷

<sup>52</sup> SAT: A-1950, 1/05/L0008, Minutes from the Court of Examination and Summary Jurisdiction, Furulund, May 11, 1918, Einar Moen, 30.

<sup>53</sup> Ibid., 30–31.

<sup>54</sup> SAT: A-1950, 1/05/L0008, Minutes from the Court of Examination and Summary Jurisdiction, Furulund, May 11, 1918, Einar Eriksen, 24.

<sup>55</sup> Hvepsen, no. 15, 1918; Tidens Tegn, April 11, 1918.

<sup>56</sup> Tidens Tegn, April 11, 1918.

<sup>57</sup> Nordlandsposten, April 18, 1918.

#### Retaliation and Fresh Arrests

Two days after the unsuccessful attempt to arrest Medby, the Ministry of Justice took a hard line. The riots had threatened the authority of the state. Consequently, a military expedition of 341 specially selected men from His Majesty the King's Guards and the officer candidate schools in Trondheim and Harstad went to Sulitjelma to calm the situation. The troops were reinforced by ten police officers under police inspector Anton Eriksen from the Ministry of Justice.⁵⁸ The state railways were put under military administration, and conscripted railway workers were ordered to transport the military expedition from Oslo to Trondheim. By ordering conscripted railway workers to participate in the military expedition, the railwaymen avoided the wrath of their trade unions.⁵⁹ In a pro memorium, the commanding general wrote: "The persons who, in some cases, voluntarily wanted to undertake this duty could have been exposed to far greater inconveniences – especially afterward – if they had been ordered to carry out the same service." The military order and the fact that the railway workers were uniformed military also meant protection and anonymity, the commanding general stated. The senior military leadership in Norway also planned that "reliable subordinate railway personnel," a total of 16 people, would be selected from among employers of the central parts of Oslo. Personnel from other districts were probably not considered as reliable for the mission.⁶⁰

In his PhD thesis, Odd Bjørn Fure concluded that the labor movement was provoked by the fact that ordinary Norwegian youth were not seen to be qualified to participate in the mission.⁶¹ Olaf Scheflo, editor of the Labor Party paper Social-Demokraten in Oslo, interpreted this as evidence of the ruling elites losing faith in the idea of a national conscript army built from ordinary people. They ultimately relied on a "more homogeneous class army," a "rather small in number but all the more homogeneous and combat-capable army" which could "fight against unarmed workers" with "grenades, machine guns, cannons," he concluded.⁶²

The conservative paper Nordlandsposten in Bodø denied the fact that the expedition was military. It was entirely "civilian." However, there is no doubt

<sup>58</sup> Bjørnson, Arbeiderbevegelsens, vol. 2, 560–565.

<sup>59</sup> The National Archives of Norway (Riksarkivet – henceforth RA): Forsvaret, Generalstaben I (RAFA-3020, Y002–L0057), "P.M. vedrørende opsætning av ekstratog Kria – Trondhjem 12/4 og avgivelse av jernbanepersonel," 3.

<sup>60</sup> Ibid.

<sup>61</sup> Social-Demokraten, April 17, 1918.

<sup>62</sup> Fure, "Mellom reformisme og bolsjevisme," 410.

about its nature; in the archives of the commanding general, the relevant folder comprises papers from an expedition labeled "Mil[itær] expedition til Sulitjelma 1918" (Military expedition to Sulitjelma 1918).⁶³ The military character of the expedition also meant that censorship was exercised to prevent socialist newspapers from covering the expedition. On 12 April, the local socialist paper in Bodø had to remove one of its articles before being allowed to go to print "in accordance with orders from the police."⁶⁴

When the "class army" arrived in Sulitjelma, the secret operation was coordinated by the commanding general in the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Justice in collaboration with the county governor of Nordland. However, the man in charge was police inspector Anton Eriksen, who was appointed preliminary police chief of Bodø during the expedition. Eriksen was a consultant in the Ministry of Justice and had previously been appointed national passport manager in the Central Passport Office, introducing compulsory passports for foreign nationals in 1917. Consequently, one of his main tasks was to arrest and deport foreigners from Sulitjelma, particularly Finnish radicals. The Ministry of Justice and the General Staff thus used Sulitjelma as a stepping stone for political surveillance.⁶⁵

On 24 April, the Ministry of Justice considered the mission accomplished. The leading activists from 5 April had been arrested, and 21 men were transported to Bodø district prison. In addition, at least ten Finnish citizens and several other foreign workers were deported. Medby, on the other hand, had vanished into thin air. Under cover of night, he had skied 30 km across the mountains from Jakobsbakken, together with a central member from the trade union in Jakobsbakken, Karl Bottenvann, to the neighboring municipality of Saltdal. Nevertheless, the police later arrested Medby there without much drama. Even so, his escape over the mountains to Saltdal had been planned down to the smallest detail and in complete secrecy. The miners knew there were police spies in Sulitjelma, in particular among the officials of the mining company.⁶⁶ The incident did not go unnoticed, and in the subsequent court case in Bodø in October 1918, 13 workers were charged for their "participation in the liberation of Johan Medby." In addition, they were charged with "violence against the police" and/or their participation in the

<sup>63</sup> Nordlandsposten, April 16, 1918.

<sup>64</sup> Nordlands Social-Demokrat, April 12, 1918.

<sup>65</sup> Dagens Nyt, September 8, 1917. Selliaas writes that the political police was established from 1914 with "Fremmedkontoret" as a central institution in the later development of a security police. Arnt-Erik Selliaas, "Politisk politi i Norge 1914–1937," Tidsskrift for arbeiderbevegelsens historie 7, no. 2 (1982).

<sup>66</sup> Karl Bottenvann "På flukt fra det norske militærvesen," Nordland Arbeiderblad, November 29, 1935, 1.

crowd, hindering the work of the police.⁶⁷ Twelve of the accused were sentenced to between 30 and 60 days in prison.⁶⁸

The trial was covered by the local socialist papers and took place in October 1918, just before the parliamentary elections, in which the local editor of Nordlands Social-Demokrat was to run as a candidate for the Labor Party. Because of this, there seems to have been an eagerness among the prosecuting authorities to set an example regarding the suppression of the radical press. The editor of the workers' newspaper in Bodø, Edvard Jørstad, had verbally supported Medby, and during the court case, the governing authorities and the bourgeois party labeled him and two other left-aligned press editors, Peder Kaasmoli of Nordlys and Martin Tranmæl of Ny Tid, as criminals.⁶⁹ Jørstad was sentenced to 24 days in jail, which he served during the electoral campaign in the fall. Freedom of the press was limited, particularly for the socialist press, which was applauded by both the conservative and the liberal press. They supported the use of the penal code to suppress the socialists. Jørstad was released from prison just in time for the parliamentary elections in November but was heavily criticized by the non-socialist press. The election supposedly offered a choice between "revolution" with the help of the "brutal use of power" by socialists and steady progress with the aim of the "best possible social order," represented by the hegemonic non-socialist parties. Other non-socialist papers constantly reminded their readers that Jørstad was a "Bolshevik of the purest water" who was using his paper to spread ideas of the Russian Bolsheviks and blamed him for "acts of murder" and the "dechristianization" of Norway.⁷⁰

The Sulitjelma Affair was one of the first acid tests of political surveillance in Norway and used new tools, such as the censorship of telephones, the post, telegrams, and the press. In addition, spies were used to obtain information from the mining community. The prosecution's interest in three activists from Branfaklen and Lyn (social democratic youth groups) may indicate that a certain level of political surveillance was already in place. The police were particularly interested in the circles around the Social Democrat Youth Association. The police also cooperated with the mining company, which used some of its trusted functionaries, such as Eivind Sandnes, as auxiliary police officers in Sulitjelma.⁷¹ During the incident on 5 April, some of the workers neutralized Sandnes during the arrest by

<sup>67</sup> Helgelands Blad, October 24, 1918.

<sup>68</sup> Aas, "Johan Medby," 53.

<sup>69</sup> Nordlandsposten, November 9, 1918.

<sup>70</sup> Ibid.

<sup>71</sup> SAT: A-1950, 1/05/L0008, Minutes from the Court of Examination and Summary Jurisdiction, Furulund, May 11, 1918, Vognild og Lind Larsen, 9–11.

keeping him away from the detainee. This indicates that the workers knew about his role as both a company officer and a police officer. Sandnes's wife, Kristianne, later explained that her husband had been pushed back against the garden fence by the workers and held there. She ran into the garden to help him but was pulled aside by a man who grabbed her by the arm and said she had no business being there.⁷² The man was later identified as Bernhard Nymo. When the military expedition arrived in Sulitjelma on 15 April, Sandnes was involved in the first arrests as part of the law enforcement team.⁷³

#### Soldiers' and Workers' Councils

The bonds between soldiers and workers were profound during the military strikes. Young male agitators were traveling around agitating for antimilitarism and against conscription, and it was the same men working in the mines who had to do compulsory military service. This protest was naturally a male one since it was, first and foremost, young men who would suffer from conscription. Moreover, it was connected with Tranmæl's Fagoppositionen (est. 1911, a trade union opposition), as well as the Social Democrat Youth Organization, and the message was well-received by the radical miners.

The events of the spring of 1918 took place in a very particular context. The world was on fire. The war raged. In 1918, the collapse of the Russian state had led to civil war in neighboring Finland between "red" socialist-oriented and "white" bourgeois forces. At the same time, the revolution in Russia had spread like wildfire to a number of other European countries, where the new radical ideas seemed to gain ground.

The sentencing of Medby provoked strong reactions in the labor movement, which only cemented its sense of feebleness and suppression. However, the February Revolution in Russia in February 1917 and the Bolshevik Revolution that October inspired the labor movement and frightened the non-socialist forces. The political surveillance of socialists increased.⁷⁴ When His Majesty the King's Guards headed toward Trondheim, confrontations were expected along the railway line on which the troops were being transported and at the docks, where they were to be loaded onto the waiting ship. The army took severe precautionary measures,

<sup>72</sup> SAT: A-1950, 1/05/L0008, Minutes from the Court of Examination and Summary Jurisdiction, Furulund, May 11, 1918, Kristianne Sandnes, 20.

<sup>73</sup> Dagbladet, April 23, 1918.

<sup>74</sup> Per Ole Johansen, "Da Generalstaben var overvåkingspoliti," Tidsskrift for arbeiderbevegelsens historie 7, no. 2 (1982): 14; Selliaas, "Politisk politi i Norge 1914–1937," 62.

fearing sabotage at three railway bridges into Trondheim. "Bridge guards" were posted in five places between Støren and Trondheim to keep the bridges under supervision: Selsbakk, Okstadøy, Rosten, Gulfos, and Støren.⁷⁵ When the battalion was on its way toward Sulitjelma, a trustee from the trade union in Sulitjelma predicted that this "Sinclair journey" would end in a "bloodbath," referring to the legendary "Skottetoget," where 300 Scottish mercenaries under George Sinclair were exterminated by a local Norwegian force at Kringen in Sel in Gudbrandsdalen in 1612.⁷⁶

Antimilitarism was part of this radicalism, and although it was not always exclusively male, it was particularly expressed by young men in northern Norway. A witness of the actions of May 1918 later explained that Medby and another conscientious objector, the well-known syndicalist Ewald Brændheim, had given speeches at a meeting in Ny-Sulitjelma earlier in 1918. The latter, a well-known agitator from Rjukan and an ally of Tranmæl, came from the Norwegian Union of General Workers (Norsk Arbeidsmandsforbund). Brændheim criticized the "centralist form of organization" and supported more direct, local action, free from the control of the party leadership or the centralized leadership of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions in Oslo.⁷⁷

It was during this meeting that the workers decided not to allow Medby's extradition.⁷⁸ One of the trade unionists, Reidar Karlsen, claimed that ten out of eleven clubs under the Norwegian Union of General Workers in Sulitjelma decided to stop the police. Another worker, Bernhard Nymo, verified that the front runners were three active social democratic youth groups, which the prosecution linked with criminal acts undermining the state.⁷⁹ Two of these groups were "Lyn" (Lightning) and "Sulitjelma Ungdomslag" (Sulitjelma Youth Association), while the third, "Brandfaklen" (The Torch), attracted the most interest from the prosecution. The association's name suggested fire and lodges, testifying why the political surveillance considered this group the most influential in Sulitjelma.⁸⁰

<sup>75</sup> RAFA-3020, Y002–L0057, "Brovagter mellem Støren og Trondhjem."

<sup>76</sup> Magnus A. Mardal, Erik Opsahl, and Per Erik Olsen, "Skottetoget," Store norske leksikon, https:// snl.no/Skottetoget (accessed 23 October 2022); Ørnulf Hodne, For konge og fedreland (Oslo: Cappelen Damm, 2006); Social-Demokraten, April 13, 1918.

<sup>77</sup> Helge Dahl, Rjukan, vol. 1: Fram til 1920 (Tinn: Tinn kommune, 1983), 306. Brændheim was a well-known figure in the Norwegian Syndicalist Federation in the 1920s, mentioned, for example, in Alarm, January 21, 1921.

<sup>78</sup> SAT: A-1950, 1/05/L0008, Testimonies from the court trials in Bodø, May 6, 1918, Reidar Karlsen, 4. 79 Ibid.

<sup>80</sup> SAT: A-1950, 1/05/L0008, Testimonies from the court trials in Bodø, May 6, 1918, Bernhard Nymo, 6–7.

According to Nymo, the assembly united to fight the injustice of the prosecutors because Medby had been "judged too harshly."⁸¹ They planned to negotiate with the prosecution in order to reduce Medby's sentence.⁸² The young male activists had great faith in their means of power and the ways they could influence the juridical system. Nymo signed the letter, which was handed over to the police chief in Bodø on 31 January 1918. The message from the workers was that the police had to count on the fact that the trade unions in Sulitjelma would prevent Medby's extradition. The letter was most likely composed by Martin Meisfjord, and he and Nymo were later mentioned in Norsk Kommunistblad (Norwegian Communist Paper) as the two "organizational leaders" and central figures in Sulitjelma on the 20th anniversary of the Trade Union in 1927.⁸³

The letter from Nymo and Meisfjord was read out at the general meeting on 3 February, and those present were asked to say whether they disagreed with it, which no one did. The letter won "general approval"; however, this was without any voting.⁸⁴ This meeting shows that the workers in Sulitjelma neither waited for national directives before they acted nor thought that they had to follow the directions of institutions like the military, the courts, or the police, the institutions with a monopoly of power. In line with their reckless belief in their newfound power, it seemed that the male workers and their organizations envisioned that decisions made in court could be negotiated and even amended. When he explained himself in court later, Nymo explained that the idea had been to "negotiate" and to "get the sentence lifted or reduced." In any case, the young male workers of Sulitjelma held power in their own hands and could influence important decisions through direct action.⁸⁵

The contact with the Tranmæl fraction in Trondheim was cut off by the mail, telephone, and press censorship introduced during the military action due to the desire of the governing authorities to prevent contact and coordinated counter-actions between different parts of the labor movement.⁸⁶ This indicates that the group in Sulitjelma was probably rather autonomous.

<sup>81</sup> Ibid.

<sup>82</sup> Ibid.

<sup>83</sup> Norsk Kommunistblad, February 28, 1927.

<sup>84</sup> SAT: A-1950, 1/05/L0008, Testimonies from the court trials in Bodø, May 6, 1918, Bernhard Nymo, 7–8.

<sup>85</sup> Helgelands Blad, October 26, 1918.

<sup>86</sup> Nordlands Social-Demokrat, April 15, 1918.

#### Concluding Remarks

The Sulitjelma Affair of 1918 is not only an interesting case study to examine the impact of the Russian Revolution on Norway's workers' movement but was also an uprising among radical miners in the northern Norwegian periphery that shows that anti-war protests during the First World War could also be predominantly male, depending on the spatial context of the protest formation. The leaders of the rebels – Johan Medby, Bernhard Nymo, Martin Meisfjord, and Reidar Karlsen – were all from Nordland and were part of the uprooted, new proletariat that filled the mines in the region from around 1900. The exponated position of men was consequently related to regional conditions, the fact that Norwegian workers in the mining industry had only recently been organized on the local and national level, and the fact that the war had not transformed male workers' lives due to forcing their participation in it.

Due to rapid industrialization, the agitation of the labor movement, and the strength of the new organizational apparatus, the miners developed a newfound political consciousness that turned them into a force that had to be recognized by the trade unions and the workers' movement. The latter, in the Norwegian context of the First World War, remained a "man's world." Nevertheless, the radical elements were marked by obstinance toward the establishment and a certain immortality and stubbornness toward the institutions of power like the police, the military, and the legal system. This radical political group was dominated by young male workers, and the way they protested was characterized by a strong degree of get-tough policy and bullheadedness – a quest for direct action.

On the other hand, their radicalism, Marxist approach, and inspiration of syndicalism with a strong sense for direct action and trade unionism scared the ruling political powers, not only on the local and regional level, but also nationally. Based on an observation of the acts of the Sulitjelma miners, there seems to have been a general menace of a coming revolution in Norway. The growth of the labor movement – with its associated organizations, political parties, trade unions, socialist papers and traveling agitators – seems to have been considered a great threat to Norwegian society, leading to the use of strong and forceful means of power by the establishment and its representing organs to fight off the menace.

Norwegian society seems to have been susceptible to new radical trends, and the way the protest was met led to the feeling of powerlessness among the protesters. However, the pioneers of the protest in the Sulitjelma Affair were in fact the rebels who later left the Labor Party in 1923. Nymo, Medby, and Meisfjord all joined the Norwegian Communist Party, together with people like Lars Næss and Karl Bottenvann. The action and the following counter-reaction seem to have strengthened their sense of resistance and radicalism, which would remain predominantly male arenas in the Norwegian context for quite some time.

#### Works Cited

#### Archival sources

The Norwegian National Archives Forsvaret, Generalstaben I (RAFA-3020, Y002–L0057) The State Archives in Trondheim Bodø politikammer, A-1950, 1/05/L0008

#### Newspapers

Alarm Arbeidsmanden Dagbladet Dagens Nyt Friheten Helgelands Blad Nordlands Framtid Nordlands Social-Demokrat Nordlandsposten Norsk Kommunistblad Ranens Folkeblad Social-Demokraten Tidens Tegn

#### Secondary Works


Odlaug, Kåre. Norsk Arbeidsmandsforbund gjennom 60 år. 2 vols. Oslo: Tiden norsk forlag, 1954.


Strøm, John. "Sulitjelmaaffæren 1918." Fauskeboka: Årbok for Fauske (1986): 37–93.

Torgeirson, Reinert, and Arvid G. Hansen. Haandbok i studie- og lagsarbeidet. Oslo: Norges Socialdemokratiske Ungdomsforbunds Forlag, 1918.

Zachariassen, Aksel. Martin Tranmæl. Oslo: Tiden, 1979 [1939].

Florian Wenninger

# 9 On the Role and Patterns of Female (Protest) Action in the February Uprising of 1934

When you believe In parks and elections and meetings and not in death, Not in Caesar, It is hard to realize that the day may come When you send your wife and children down to the cellar To be out of the way of shells, and mount the known Countable stairs to the familiar room, The unfamiliar pistol cold in your fist And your mouth dry with despair.¹

In 1936, two years after the February Uprising in Austria, US Pulitzer Prize winner Stephen Vincent Benét published his "Ode to the Austrian Socialists." Benét came from a family of officers in Pennsylvania, but after graduating from a military academy, he turned to literature. He had not been an eyewitness to the February Uprising and apparently knew Austria only from hearsay.² Without a doubt, however, he sympathized with the distant rebellion. In a certain sense, Benét's poem was thus representative of an important strand of the February Uprising in cultural memory: both, literary processing and historical research, were shaped by left-wing and left-liberal men who had not themselves been there but were empathetic toward the uprising. As authors as well as researchers, they projected their ideas of warlike confrontations onto the events.³ Women did not play an active role in these imaginations; wounded and killed women often only appeared as victims of a particularly detestable crime of the victorious Austrofascist regime. In keeping with this tradition, both the historiography of the 1970s⁴ and the author

<sup>1</sup> Stephen Vincent Benét, Burning City: New Poems (New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1936), 19.

<sup>2</sup> This is suggested by his biographer: Charles A. Fenton, Stephen Vincent Benét: The Life and Times of an American Man of Letters 1898–1943 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1958), 290–292. 3 That geographical distance was helpful but not the sole prerequisite for a masculinization of reception is shown by the example of the British journalist and later SOE agent George Eric Rowe Gedye, who had experienced the fighting in Vienna at close quarters. George E. R. Gedye, Die Bastionen fielen: Wie der Faschismus Wien und Prag überrannte (Vienna: Danubia, 1947).

<sup>4</sup> Gerhard Botz, Gewalt in der Politik: Attentate, Zusammenstöße, Putschversuche, Unruhen in Österreich 1918–1934 (Munich: Wilhelm Fink, 1976), 254.

Open Access. © 2023 the author(s), published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111102757-009

of the most recent monograph on the subject⁵ note that there is no evidence of any significant participation by women in the events.⁶ Neither pursues the question any further. In contrast to this "androcentrism in historiography,"⁷ the present chapter attempts to shed light on different forms of women's involvement in the violent confrontations of February 1934. In addition to several interviews with contemporary witnesses, media reports, court records, and Vienna Federal Police Directorate files form the source basis for the following critical analysis.

#### The 1934 February Uprising

Hardly any domestic political landscape in interwar Europe was as strongly militarized as that of Austria. Here, not only was a tightly centralized, hierarchical, and disciplined workers' movement confronted with an ideologically and regionally highly fragmented bourgeois bloc, but everyday political life from the late 1920s onward was characterized by a permanent threat of violence, by a latent civil war between left-wing and right-wing paramilitaries. Social polarization became more and more acute under the impact of the world economic crisis at the beginning of the 1930s, accompanied by the collapse of the largest Austrian bank, the Creditanstalt, in 1931. From the summer of 1932 onward, the bourgeois government endeavored to resolve the ongoing social struggles by a harsh austerity policy in favor of the country's financial and industrial groups while high import tariffs protected the domestic agricultural sector against foreign competition at the expense

<sup>5</sup> Kurt Bauer, Der Februaraufstand 1934: Fakten und Mythen (Vienna: Publisher, 2019), 76.

<sup>6</sup> There is, therefore, all the more reason to pay attention to the few existing works that have addressed the role of women with different emphases: Veronika Helfert, "Geschlecht. Writing. Politics: Frauentagebücher im Februar 1934" (Diploma Thesis, University of Vienna, 2010); Maria Mauder, "Frauen im Februar 1934" (Diploma Thesis, University of Vienna, 1989); Martin F. Polaschek, "Die verschwundenen Frauen des 12. Februar 1934: Eine Spurensuche in der Steiermark," in Aufstand, Putsch und Diktatur: Das Jahr 1934 in der Steiermark, eds. Heimo Halbrainer and Martin F. Polaschek (Graz: Steiermärkisches Landesarchiv, 2007), 25–29; Gabriele Russ, "'Wo du bist, will auch ich sein': Von der Notwendigkeit einer Gender-gerechten relecture des Februar 1934," in Aufstand, Putsch und Diktatur: Das Jahr 1934 in der Steiermark, eds. Heimo Halbrainer and Martin F. Polaschek (Graz: Steiermärkisches Landesarchiv, 2007), 31–45; Veronika Duma and Hanna Lichtenberger, "Geschlechterverhältnisse im Widerstand: Revolutionäre Sozialistinnen im Februar 1934." in "Abgesang der Demokratie: Der 12. Februar 1934 und der Weg in den Faschismus," ed. Michaela Maier, special issue, Dokumentationen 1–4 (2013): 55–82.

<sup>7</sup> Gabriella Hauch, "Vom Androzentrismus in der Geschichtsschreibung. Geschlecht und Politik im autoritären christlichen Ständestaat/'Austrofaschismus' (1933/34–1938)" in Das Dollfuß/Schuschnigg-Regime 1933–1938: Vermessung eines Forschungsfeldes, eds. Florian Wenninger and Lucile Dreidemy (Vienna: Böhlau, 2013), 351–379.

of consumers. Since such a course would most likely have led to a defeat in the subsequent parliamentary elections, the government sought to suspend parliament and establish a presidential regime on the model of the German presidential regimes. This was followed by a coup d'état in installments, which systematically reduced the room for maneuver for the social democrats and trade unions. The government pursued a strategy of systematic attrition of the labor movement rather than provoking a civil war through a frontal military attack. It was largely successful. Within a year, the labor movement had eroded. Finally, in February 1934, a small part of the formerly huge party rose up, mainly activists from the social democratic youth organizations and the party militia, the Republican Protection League (Republikanischer Schutzbund). In the three days of fighting, primarily confined to the federal capital Vienna and industrial areas of eastern Austria, an estimated 20,000 people took part on the insurgents' side, against whom the government probably deployed about 50,000 military, police, and right-wing paramilitary men.⁸ After 1945, 12 February 1934, the day on which the clashes began, became a key political place of remembrance of the Second Austrian Republic and a highly politicized field of research.

# Women and Organized Violence in the First Austrian Republic before 1934

As in the Habsburg Empire, after the proclamation of the First Austrian Republic in 1918, women had no possibility of belonging to the executive or the armed forces.⁹ The only theoretically conceivable possibility for women on the side of the government troops to act during the February Uprising was as part of the poorly developed medical service.¹⁰ As far as non-governmental military formations were concerned, there was a wild hodgepodge of militias on the political right,

<sup>8</sup> These figures vary. The account widely circulated in the literature, according to which the rightwing paramilitaries alone mobilized almost 50,000 men, is based on a contemporary report by the German Intelligence Service and is likely rather overestimated. See C. Earl Edmondson, The Heimwehr and Austrian Politics 1918–1936 (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1978), 220; John T. Lauridsen, Nazism and the Radical Right in Austria 1918–1934 (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum, 2007), 267.

<sup>9</sup> This did not change for a long time after 1945. Women were finally allowed to join the gendarmerie for the first time in 1984, the police in 1990, and the armed forces in military service only in 1998. Öffentliche Sicherheit 11, no. 12 (2011): 6–9. See also Der Soldat 22 (2011), 3.

<sup>10</sup> Harald Harbich, "50 Jahre Sanitätswesen im Bundesheer der Zweiten Republik," Österreichische Militärische Zeitschrift 43 (2005), http://www.bundesheer.at/omz/ausgaben/artikel.php?id=331.

many of which existed for only a short time, merged with each other, changed their names, or disintegrated altogether.¹¹ According to what we know at present, women could not belong to any military organization within the more relevant right-wing associations: the Front Fighter Association (Frontkämpfervereinigung), the Ostmarkian Storm Crowds (Ostmärkische Sturmscharen), the Farmers' Defense (Bauernwehren), the Freedom League (Freiheitsbund), or – above all – the largest association, the Home Guards (Heimwehren). The National Socialist formations, the SA and the SS, did not take part in the February Uprising but kept quiet at the behest of their leadership; therefore, they will not be discussed here.¹²

In addition to their military, the Heimwehren had a considerable civilian apparatus. Within this, several regional associations founded local "women's aid groups." These sought to increase the reputation of the Home Guard among the population through charitable activities, to attract future military recruits through youth work, and to promote the troops' morale through social events. The existence of these women's aid groups was a thorn in the eye of traditional conservatives, especially in agrarian milieus. In Upper Austria, for example, there were "fierce protests […] by the farmers' union" against the founding of a separate women's organization within the Heimwehren.¹³ Regardless of such quarrels, the inclusion of women in their organizations seems to have been a promising approach for right-wing militias. In Styria, where efforts in this direction were most advanced, there were 114 women's Heimwehr organizations in 1932. Significantly, however, a nationwide umbrella organization was not founded – the female contribution to such a masculine organization was obviously not intended to go beyond local sup-

<sup>11</sup> A police report lists 26 bourgeois military associations still extant in the 1930s: Österreichisches Staatsarchiv [hereinafter: ÖStA], Allgemeines Verwaltungsarchiv, Bundeskanzleramt, Inneres, Berichte der Sicherheitsdirektionen, 1935–1938, Karton 43, Folio 669, cited in Hanno Scheuch, "Wehrformation: Bauernwehr" (Diploma thesis, University of Vienna, 1983), 56. At the beginning of the 1920s, before the multitude of local formations began to be combined in organizational terms, there were certainly many more. For an overview of the current state of research on the history of military associations, see Florian Wenninger, "Dimensionen organisierter Gewalt. Zum militärhistorischen Forschungsstand über die österreichische Zwischenkriegszeit," in Das Dollfuß/ Schuschnigg-Regime 1933–1938. Vermessung eines Forschungsfeldes, eds. Florian Wenninger and Lucile Dreidemy (Vienna: Böhlau 2013), 493–576.

<sup>12</sup> Ingeborg Messerer, "Die Frontkämpfervereinigung Deutsch-Österreichs. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Wehrverbände in der Republik Österreich" (PhD diss., University of Vienna, 1963); Walter Reich, Die Ostmärkischen Sturmscharen. Für Gott und Ständestaat (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2000); Scheuch, "Wehrformation"; Walter Baumgartner, "Der österreichische Freiheitsbund. Wehrverband der Christlichen Arbeiterbewegung 1927–1936" (Diploma thesis, University of Vienna, 1985); Walter Wiltschegg, Die Heimwehr. Eine unwiderstehliche Volksbewegung? (Vienna: Geschichte und Politik, 1985).

<sup>13</sup> Kammerstätter Collection, 1827.

port services.¹⁴ The few influential women within the Heimwehren owed their influence not to their involvement in the civil apparatus but to their social position. Notably, the mother of the later Heimwehr leader, Princess Fanny Starhemberg, played an essential role in building up the association in Upper Austria by mediating between the paramilitaries and functionaries of bourgeois parties.¹⁵

On the political left, apart from the dominant social-democratic military formation, the Republikanische Schutzbund (usually only called Schutzbund), which at its peak had three to four times the personnel of the regular state military,¹⁶ there was only a largely insignificant communist formation, which first appeared as the Red Front Fighters' League (Roter Frontkämpferbund) and later as the Austrian Workers' Army (Österreichische Arbeiterwehr).¹⁷ At least a few women belonged to this organization,¹⁸ but it is unclear whether and to what extent the latter ever took action.

The Schutzbund, founded in 1923, was essentially based on three earlier forms of organization: the stewards' committees of the workers' councils, the stewards' groups of the Social Democratic Party (SDAPÖ), and local workers' and factory militias.¹⁹ So far, there is no evidence that women belonged to any of these military predecessors. However, the Schutzbund was initially subordinate to the executives of the workers' councils (like the stewards' committees before), and women were represented in these councils at least in isolated cases.²⁰ With the self-dissolution of the workers' councils in 1924, the SDAPÖ directly took over the leadership of the

<sup>14</sup> Wiltschegg, Heimwehr, 283.

<sup>15</sup> Franz Abel, Heimatschutz in Österreich, Vienna: Amt des Bundesführers, Propagandastelle, Vienna 1935, 136.

<sup>16</sup> Finbarr McLoughlin, "Der Republikanische Schutzbund und Gewalttätige Politische Auseinandersetzungen in Österreich 1923–1934" (Phil. diss., University of Vienna, 1990), 456.

<sup>17</sup> Winfried R. Garscha and Hans Hautmann, Februar 1934 in Österreich (Berlin: Dietz, 1984), 20, 80.

<sup>18</sup> Peter März, "'Eine Hand, ein Arm oder das Augenlicht ist schnell eingebüsst.' Revolutionäre Arbeiterwehr und KPÖ in Oberösterreich 1928 bis 1933," in Oberösterreich 1918–1938, ed. Oberösterreichisches Landesarchiv (Linz: Oberösterreichisches Landesarchiv, 2014), 148.

<sup>19</sup> On the early phase of social democratic military formations, see Karl Haas, "Studien zur Wehrpolitik der österreichischen Sozialdemokratie 1918–1926" (PhD diss., University of Vienna, 1967), 168–202; Veronika Helfert, Frauen, wacht auf! Eine Frauen- und Geschlechtergeschichte von Revolution und Rätebewegung in Österreich, 1916–1924 (Göttingen: V&R unipress, 2020).

<sup>20</sup> Hans Hautmann, Geschichte der Rätebewegung in Österreich 1918–1924 (Vienna: Europa, 1987), 670. The number of women in positions of responsibility admittedly bore no relation to the number of voters. At the last workers' council elections in Vienna in the summer of 1922, women comprised one-fifth of the voters, but among the nine Viennese delegates to the Reich Executive Committee, there was only one woman, Emmy Freundlich. The workers' councils of the other provinces sent only men to the 23-member body. Ibid., 661, 667.

Schutzbund. Initially, this leadership was organized regionally, i. e., local Schutzbund units were subordinate to the respective district executives of the party, in which women were also represented.²¹ Until the Schutzbund was incorporated into the umbrella organization of workers' sports organizations, the Workers' Federation for Sport and Physical Culture (Arbeiterbund für Sport und Körperkultur, ASKÖ) in 1926, it is therefore theoretically possible to recognize at least a modest indirect participation of women at various levels of leadership in the Schutzbund. However, at no time did a woman belong to its federal leadership.²² Until 1926, the association had been open to all "German-Austrian citizens over the age of 18 standing on the basis of the republican state order,"²³ and women belonged to it at least as paramedics,²⁴ but from then on, the statutes explicitly reserved "exercising membership" for men.²⁵ For several reasons, however, this was not tantamount to a complete masculinization of the organization.

Firstly, in 1926, a civilian organization was founded, which, in future, complemented the military arm of the Schutzbund and accepted members of both sexes. Within barely two years, this civilian organization had almost 100,000 members, considerably more than its military counterpart.²⁶ In addition, a support fund was established in the same year, allowing wounded Schutzbund-men or, in the case of death, their relatives to be supported.²⁷ Through membership of the civil organization and contributions to the support fund, women became, in a sense, supporting members of the party militia. Secondly, the prescribed male exclusivity did not apply to one department within the military arm of the Schutzbund: the intelligence department, whose female members spied on the Home Guard, the

<sup>21</sup> Haas, "Wehrpolitik," 203–219.

<sup>22</sup> Arbeiterzeitung, September 14, 1923, 4; Der Schutzbund, December 1925, 7; Der Schutzbund, June 1927, 88.

<sup>23</sup> Handbook for Schutzbund functionaries, quoted in Barry McLoughlin, "Die Organisation des Wiener Neustädter Schutzbundes," Zeitgeschichte 11, no. 5 (1983/84): 136.

<sup>24</sup> See the activity report of the Schutzbund to the regional party conference of the SDAPÖ Upper Austria for the period July 1, 1923–June 30, 1924, in which the successful training of 86 male and 42 female paramedics was reported. Kammerstätter Collection, 1767–1768.

<sup>25</sup> Finbarr McLoughlin, "Der Republikanische Schutzbund und gewalttätige politische Auseinandersetzungen in Österreich 1923–1934" (PhD diss., University of Vienna, 1990), 25.

<sup>26</sup> Ibid., 26. See also the advertising leaflet of the Hernalser Schutzbund, facsimile in Christine Vlcek, "Der Republikanische Schutzbund in Österreich. Geschichte, Aufbau und Organisation" (PhD diss., University of Vienna, 1971), 554, which explicitly invites "female comrades" to join. 27 Der Schutzbund, January 1925, 12 ff. According to the statutes of the support fund, surviving dependants included not only children and spouses but also life partners. Ibid., 13.

army, and the police²⁸ and acted as couriers.²⁹ Thirdly, the Schutzbund leadership regarded the immediate environment of its organizational affiliations or subgroups, namely the Sports Organization and the Socialist Workers' Youth, and especially the women organized therein, as operational reserves to fall back on in an emergency.³⁰

# The Role of Women in the Strategic Thinking of the Left

On another, decisive level, however, the inclusion of women ended in 1926/27: on that of planning. Until then, the Schutzbund's planning had been based on the assumption that, in an emergency, it would have to be able to put down a coup by right-wing paramilitaries, either with the support of the state's apparatus of force or – should the latter behave neutrally – on its own. In this case, the opponent was a militia that had neither the capacity nor the logistics to wage a protracted civil war and that would have to be defeated in a few battles, most likely in and around Vienna. The more likely it became, however, that people would have the military and police against them, the more important the context of the confrontation became: the behavior of the civilian population in the fighting as well as the support of the Schutzbund through a general strike. The sooner the government succeeded in breaking the population's will to resist, the greater the mobilization problems would be, and the less support the Schutzbund would receive; in short, the faster the party militia's will to fight would erode. From the point of view of the social democrats, "the civilian population" was not an amorphous mass, especially in Vienna. In Vienna in the 1920s, the social democrats had organized almost

<sup>28</sup> For example, the telephone official Aloisia Bernaschek, the Schutzbund-Commander Ludwig Bernaschek's first wife and Richard Bernaschek's sister-in-law, was dismissed in 1929 for transmitting official secrets to the Schutzbund. See the official chronology of the province of Upper Austria, November 10, 1929. Land Oberösterreich, "1929," Land Oberösterreich, https://www.land-ober oesterreich.gv.at/13793.htm (accessed October 3, 2022). On the activity of women for the intelligence service, see the reports of Jenny Strasser and Anny Kohn-Feuermann in Der Februar 1934 in Wien. Erzählte Geschichte (Vienna: Autorenkollektiv, 1984) 9–10, 12.

<sup>29</sup> Report by Anny Kohn-Feuermann, Ibid.

<sup>30</sup> Thus, the Arbeiterzeitung said: "Make sure that our boys are educated to become republicans who would rather fall fighting than bend the neck of a prince! […] the most important thing: every apprentice, every apprentice girl into our youth organisation! Make sure that when the hour of danger comes, we will be ready for it!" Arbeiterzeitung, 28 April 1925, 2. On the role and importance of the youth order groups founded in the Sozialistische Arbeiter Jugend (SAJ) at the instigation of the Schutzbund and consisting exclusively of men, see Vlcek, "Schutzbund," 389–394.

a quarter of the resident population into the party, with the party base's most active parts consisting primarily of boys and women. So when the need arose, social democrats not only had to enlist women as part of the civilian population to support its cause, but the organizational vehicle for achieving this goal also depended quite substantially on women.³¹ The fact that the Schutzbund's leadership circle was well aware of this can be seen in the early phase of Schutzbund publicity, for example, when authors described the military importance of women in the Paris Commune of 1871.³²

From 1926 on, however, the Schutzbund's strategic and tactical publications consistently omitted such considerations. This was all the more remarkable because, in the following years, a certain scenario for an emergency became increasingly clear: one would no longer be dealing with somewhat equal right-wing paramilitaries but with technically, organizationally, and logistically superior regular troops in urban centers. In view of this, part of the Schutzbund leadership around Theodor Körner, the former general of the imperial army and later the federal president, considered only the deployment of largely independent micro-groups of fighters to be somewhat promising. Only in this way would the enemy not be able to concentrate its forces to destroy larger Schutzbund detachments. At the same time, an urban guerrilla tactic of a thousand pinpricks, meaning many sudden fire attacks with immediate subsequent retreats, would allow the government troops to inflict a large number of small defeats, thus undermining their morale.³³ In order to be capable of such an approach, Körner reasoned, the Schutzbund had to bring to bear the only factors that spoke in its favor: a high degree of readiness and flexibility and, above all, the support of the working class. In fact, of course, the latter meant, toalarge extent, the support of women. According to Körner, the left could only hope for victory if, in the event of fighting, "[w]omen pour boiling water from the windows onto the troops and children tear up tram tracks […]. Only when all the forces slumbering in the working class are released and the reactionary military actions are confronted with something quite different, startling, not quite understandable, can the working class […] hope for a victory."³⁴

Nevertheless, Körner, who had been commander of the Austrian Isonzo Army during WWI and was certainly the most capable military expert in the Social Dem-

<sup>31</sup> On the social structure of social democracy, see Kurt L. Shell, Jenseits der Klassen? Österreichs Sozialdemokratie seit 1934 (Vienna: Europa, 1969).

<sup>32</sup> Der Schutzbund, December 1924, 11.

<sup>33</sup> See the series "Auf Vorposten" written by Theodor Körner in Der Schutzbund. In this case, Der Schutzbund, July 1928, 106–109.

<sup>34</sup> Cited in Ilona Duczynska, Der demokratische Bolschewik. Zur Theorie und Praxis der Gewalt (Munich: List, 1975), 162 ff.

ocratic Party, did not elaborate on this idea. Even if he had, however, it would probably not have mattered for the further course of events. For the majority within both the Schutzbund and the party leadership, the "militaristic" course was set after a police massacre in July 1927.³⁵ This followed less a practical-military than a political consideration: the Schutzbund was to function primarily as a threat to the outside world, to instill courage and confidence in its camp, and, last but not least, to open up a field of activity for militant sections of its following in order to prevent them from turning away from the workers' movement. To put it bluntly, the Schutzbund had to appear powerful in order to fulfill these tasks, while actual military efficiency was only of secondary importance, if at all. A military showdown was to be avoided at all costs in the knowledge of its inferiority. Hence, activities concentrated mainly on drills, impressive marches, and large-scale maneuvers along the lines of regular armies.³⁶ The recognizable effort to be perceived as a "real" military by friend and foe alike also had direct consequences at the gender level. Wherever units appeared from that time on, they consisted exclusively of men.

#### The Militancy of Young Women

After the Schutzbund's integration into the Social Democratic Sports Organization (ASKÖ) in 1926, the importance of military gymnastics increased strongly. This form of pre-military training had a long tradition, especially in the German nationalist gymnastics clubs. In addition to fitness training, it consisted of drills, martial arts, cross-country exercises, morse code, close combat training, and throwing dummy hand grenades.³⁷ Earlier appeals to introduce military gymnastics in workers' sports³⁸ had met with resistance. The militaristic activities of the bourgeois gymnasts appeared to some workers' gymnastics clubs to be "not only not worthy of imitation, but even abhorrent."³⁹ When military gymnastics was introduced, it

<sup>35</sup> On the disputes, see Körner's former collaborator, Ilona Duczynska, in ibid., 123–129.

<sup>36</sup> Otto Naderer, Der bewaffnete Aufstand. Der Republikanische Schutzbund der österreichischen Sozialdemokratie und die militärischen Vorbereitungen auf den Bürgerkrieg (1923–1934) (Graz: Ares, 2004), 210–220.

<sup>37</sup> See, for example, the guide published by the German Gymnastics Federation (Deutscher Turnerbund): Karl Holtei, Wehrturnen (Vienna: Deutscher Turnerbund, 1924), and the paper published by the Workers' Gymnasts a year later: Ernst Czerny, Das Wehrturnen (Vienna: Gutenberg, 1925). 38 Der Schutzbund, May 1925, 8

<sup>39</sup> McLoughlin, "Schutzbund," 36.

was formally limited to the men's sections of the workers' gymnastics clubs,⁴⁰ but there is evidence that individual women also took part in it, including training in the use of firearms.⁴¹

In 1930, pre-military education was extended from sports to youth organizations, and unlike their adult comrades, girls were decidedly involved in the military sports youth set-up within the Socialist Workers' Youth.⁴² These were divided into preparatory groups of 14- to 18-year-olds, combat units called active sections, to which male members over 18 belonged, and, at least on paper, girls' sports teams.⁴³

In general, there is much to be said for the assumption that between the beginning of the phase of latent civil war in 1927 and the clashes in February 1934, women were actively involved in politically motivated acts of violence to a small extent at best.⁴⁴ One specific exception was the street battles in Vienna on 15–16 July 1927, in which four women were killed in addition to 81 male demonstrators (and four policemen). In addition, 12 of the 236 arrested were women.⁴⁵ The proportion of women among both those killed and those arrested was thus less than five percent. Otherwise, women like the young teacher Thea Koch, who was killed as a social democratic participant in a meeting on 16 December 1931 when the gendarmerie shot into the crowd in Voitsberg, Styria,⁴⁶ remained rare exceptions among the dead and injured caused by political violence. This may have been to dismiss the participants in violent demonstrations as an incendiary mob, as in the case of the July demonstrations of 1927, when female demonstrators were dis-

<sup>40</sup> See the corresponding guidelines, reproduced in Vlcek, "Schutzbund," 411–412.

<sup>41</sup> Berger et al., "Der verschwiegene Widerstand. Frauen im Kampf," Aufrisse 5, no.1 (1984): 31. The plausibility of this statement is supported by the fact that there was a shooting range of the Arbeiter Jagd- und Schützenverein in Brunn am Gebirge, which the Schutzbund also used. McLoughlin, Wiener Neustadt, 146. However, military gymnasts were hardly instructed in the use of machine guns there, as Haider suggests, if only because machine guns were by no means plentiful, and separate machine gun platoons were formed and trained for their operation within the Schutzbund. 42 Philipp Charwath, "Politisierung und Radikalisierung bei österreichischen Jugendgruppen in der Zwischenkriegszeit, dargestellt am Beispiel der Pfadfinder und der Sozialistischen Arbeiterjugend" (Diploma thesis, University of Vienna 1999), 131 ff.

<sup>43</sup> Wolfgang Neugebauer, Bauvolk der kommenden Welt. Geschichte der sozialistischen Jugendbewegung in Österreich (Vienna: Europa, 1975), 206 ff.

<sup>44</sup> In the quantitative study that Gerhard Botz carried out on militant activists who were involved in clashes in one form or another, there was only one woman among 305 men. See Gerhard Botz, Gewalt in der Politik. Attentate, Zusammenstöße, Putschversuche, Unruhen in Österreich 1918–1938 (Munich: Lang, 1983), 325.

<sup>45</sup> Ibid., 156.

<sup>46</sup> Arbeiterzeitung, December 17 and 18, 1931, 1.

missed as "furies" and "hyenas,"⁴⁷ or to deny the military efforts of the social democrats their seriousness and moral integrity. The German nationalist (and later National Socialist) Deutschösterreichische Tageszeitung, for example, had already disparaged the Schutzbund in 1926 because women participated in one of its large marches. Summarizing the event, it wrote that the march was "a long column of senselessly herded together people … a senseless confusion in the flags and insignia … all inserted into the international mass, which was characterized by the abominable red flags; … a colorful hodgepodge of men, women and children in different garb, … of all kinds of races, nations, professions and attitudes, uniform only in that they were all metropolitan people".

It is difficult to reconstruct if the exclusion of social democratic women from the Schutzbund's military activities corresponded to their own wishes. Maria Emhart, who later became a member of parliament, shows that the attitudes of female functionaries toward the possible membership of women in the Republikanische Schutzbund could be contradictory. Emhart recorded in her memoirs that "we as the Social Democratic Party were against women belonging to a military formation."⁴⁸ At the same time, however, she reported on weapons transports she had carried out for the Schutzbund between Vienna and St. Pölten and noted, "I myself was of course never a member of the Schutzbund, but I was very proud to be the liaison member for the Schutzbund."⁴⁹ The following passage from a letter by Körner to his colleagues in the Schutzbund leadership, to whom he wrote in February 1932, provides a vivid indication that there was apparently quite a widespread desire among women to play an active role: "Thursday, the 11th of this month, I have to go to Graz again to a 'women's meeting' which I could not avoid. The women want to hear what heroic deeds they can perform in the event of a coup d'état."⁵⁰

However, Körner's comment immediately following the above remark adds a significant caveat: "I will give them tasks as I deem fit, of course considering any joining of the two sexes in the Schutzbund in normal activity to be absolutely wrong."⁵¹ The tasks that Körner "considered appropriate" have not been recorded. There is, however, evidence that women were involved in the logistics of the Schutzbund in many ways before the February Uprising, in the manufacture of

<sup>47</sup> Cited in Botz, Gewalt, 156.

<sup>48</sup> Unpublished memoirs of Maria Emhart, DÖW Sign. 14694, 4.

<sup>49</sup> Ibid.

<sup>50</sup> Körner's entire letter can be found in the appendix to Vlcek's dissertation: Vlcek, "Schutzbund," 548–553, here 553.

<sup>51</sup> Ibid.

uniforms,⁵² and in the production of weapons. After the Schutzbund's weapons stockpile steadily dwindled as a result of police raids, the importance of self-produced makeshift weapons increased more and more. Gerti Maier, who lived in Ried, a small Upper Austrian town, later recounted the production of improvised hand grenades:

We made the lubricating vases in our flat, which consisted of pieces of an iron pipe about 20 cm long that we got from the locksmith Hofmann. We filled the pieces of pipe with a mixture of dynamite and other ingredients that I no longer know, first we finely crushed these chunks of explosive on a wooden board and then pressed the mixture into the piece of pipe. […] My daughter Gudrun, Gudi, was 1 ½ years old at the time, for safety reasons we gave her to the neighbors.⁵³

The greater the pressure on the Schutzbund from the authorities, the more urgent the question of suitable hiding places for weapons became. In the face of permanent raids and confiscations, it was no longer possible to continue to maintain large weapons depots in party headquarters and trade union halls. There was a need to decentralize the weapons stockpiles. Women played an important role in setting up new, smaller weapons caches.⁵⁴ In Vienna, women janitors in communal housing were of particular importance. On the one hand, their involvement could hardly be avoided because it was impossible to set up weapons caches on site without their knowledge, especially since they usually had to be concealed by structural measures such as false ceilings and walls. On the other hand, janitors knew the inhabitants of "their" building, who stood where politically, who was trustworthy, and whom to watch out for. Finally, and no less importantly, the majority of janitors were party members who owed their jobs to the movement because they had been reliable activists before. Most janitors therefore had a dual relationship of obligation to the party and represented it locally; at the same time, they were often authority figures within the buildings and had large social networks within the neighborhood.

However, even outside Vienna, where there were no loyal janitors, women such as Paula Flach in the Holzleithen coal district kept weapons.⁵⁵ In general,

<sup>52</sup> For example, Mathilde Wiener, who owned a shop at Reinprechtsdorferstraße 57 in Vienna, was an important supplier to the Vienna Schutzbund and provided it with uniform items, caps, and body belts. Der Schutzbund, February 1928, 31.

<sup>53</sup> Kammerstätter Collection, 1057.

<sup>54</sup> See also the case of Hella Postranecky in Duma and Lichtenberger, "Geschlechterverhältnisse," 76.

<sup>55</sup> Interview of Peter Kammerstätter with Wenzl Oktabez, 1974, Kammerstätter Collection, 1505– 1506.

given the mostly cramped living conditions, it was hardly possible for Schutzbund members to keep their weapons at home without at least letting their partners in on it. The Heimwehren were also aware of this fact, as the daughter of a barrier guard in Upper Austria remembered later:

There was a knock at our door. My mother opened the door and a man from the Heimwehr held a pistol to her chest and said that he had found out that we had a rifle in the house. […] My father really did have a rifle there […] My mother didn't give it away [… and] said, "I have nothing but the little children, you can shoot me if you like." I immediately started crying, and he said, "We'll search everything, and if we find the rifle, you're done anyway."⁵⁶

The increasing infiltration of the Schutzbund by police informers also spoke in favor of relying more on female partners and relatives to hide weapons. Maria Mair, the daughter of the Schutzbund commander of Eberschwang, Josef Skrabal, who was killed in February 1934 during the fighting in the Hausruck, reported: "My father always needed me to hide weapons. I was only 13 years old at the time, but my father was afraid that he couldn't rely on the others like that, so Mum and I hid weapons in the forest with Dad. We pulled the weapons up the tree. And we also hid the weapons in boxes in the forest."⁵⁷

#### February 1934

There is not enough space to go into detail here on the causes and course of the fighting throughout Austria in February 1934. Essentially, the conditions for even a potentially successful military resistance by the social democrats had not existed for some time. Hopeless military inferiority was compounded by demoralization that had gripped a large part of the social democratic base and, with it, the Schutzbund. For observers such as Theodor Körner and Karl Kautsky, this was the main reason why fighting was to be avoided at all costs: "Everyone in the population had been beaten down and beaten up as a result of the constant retreat from the police at the demonstrations, to which, in the end, only the confidants [lower functionary-level party members] had come. […]Iadvise, indeed, I implore […] that

<sup>56</sup> Interview with Katharina Mair, née Kurz, Kammerstätter Collection, 1066.

<sup>57</sup> Interview of Peter Kammerstätter with Maria Mair, née Skrabal, transcript in the Kammerstätter Collection, 1492.

under no circumstances should a clash occur. […] Any attempt on our part to use violence has not the slightest chance and is suicide."⁵⁸

The party leadership tried to follow this advice and avoid an armed confrontation with the Dolluß government, which was becoming increasingly aggressive. The decisive factor in the February Uprising was the independence of parts of the social democratic base, which was not prepared to capitulate without a fight. Those parts of the Schutzbund which entered the fight did not follow any overriding military concept and acted without central combat leadership after onlyafew hours.⁵⁹ Due to the obvious hopelessness of the fight, only half of the Schutzbund members at most followed the calls to assemble at the rally points. The rest, like the majority of organized labor, remained in agony.⁶⁰ The militants acted largely defensively: they barricaded themselves in their homes (in Vienna, mostly in community buildings) and factories and made few offensive moves, such as attacks on strategically important positions and critical infrastructure. The general strike called after the fighting broke out was not followed by core groups like the railway workers from the beginning and quickly collapsed. The insurgents therefore neither had the element of surprise in their favor nor could they paralyze the enemy's supplies. Moreover, as a result of a wave of arrests shortly before, the Schutzbund was deprived of much of its top and middle leadership.

The government's actions were as systematic and harsh as the insurgents were uncoordinated and desperate. The army, police, and home guard quickly cut off the insurgents' lines of communication. After the individual insurgent groups had been successfully isolated, they were suppressed one after the other with massive technical and personnel superiority. In the process, the government troops used artillery against residential buildings at short range, even in densely built-up working-class neighborhoods, and opened fire on crowds in the streets without warning.

This strategy succeeded. The resistance collapsed after a few days. Apart from individual skirmishes, calm had returned by 17 February. Contemporary information from the federal government suggests the result of the fighting on the side of the insurgents comprised 196 civilian casualties, including 21 women and two children. Among the 319 officially reported wounded were 79 women and 12 children.⁶¹ More recent research considers these figures to be significantly underesti-

61 Garscha and Hautmann, Februar, 146.

<sup>58</sup> Theodor Körner, Remarks on the brochure "Alexander Eifler – Ein Soldat der Freiheit" by Julius Deutsch, Vienna 1949, unpubl. manuscript reproduced in facsimile in the Kammerstätter Collection, 1955–1968, 1963 f.

<sup>59</sup> A summary of the events can be found in McLoughlin, "Schutzbund," 407–454.

<sup>60</sup> Thus Botz, citing official estimates. Botz, Gewalt, 252.

mated and assumes up to 250 civilians were killed and a considerably higher number were wounded.⁶²

#### Spectrum and Significance of Female Action

In the historical tradition, the activities of women during battles, if they were mentioned at all, were reduced to feeding the men, as was the case not only in Vienna but also in Steyr⁶³ and Bruck an der Mur.⁶⁴ As has been correctly noted in recent literature, the contribution of women would have been quite substantial if it had been "only" limited to providing men in the field with food in the context of a conflict lasting several days.⁶⁵ The idea that women were automatically "less active" or even "victims of the fighting as bystanders"⁶⁶ because they rarely used direct violence themselves is therefore inaccurate because it expresses a truncated understanding of collective violence.

Collective violence is a process based on the division of labor, in which only a minority directly attempts to injure or kill opponents or damage their infrastructure. The majority is busy with the necessary logistics. Military organization theory therefore makes a distinction between operational and basic organization. The task of operational organization is the practical use of force, while that of basic organization consists of all operational planning and the necessary logistics. The proportions between the two parts of a whole are described in technical jargon as the tooth-to-tail ratio.⁶⁷ As a rule of thumb, the more modern and efficient an army is, the smaller operational organization is in relation to basic organization.

In the Schutzbund, basic and operational organization were part of the military or technical arm, i. e., the part of the league that was "exercising" the statutes. Although there may have been isolated exceptions in the preliminary structure, women could not formally belong to this "exercising" arm. In fact, however,

<sup>62</sup> Winfried R. Garscha. "Der Streit um die Opfer des Februar 1934," Mitteilungen der Alfred Klahr Gesellschaft, 21 no. 1 (2014): 1–5.

<sup>63</sup> Brigitte Kepplinger, "Linz und Steyr: Die Zentren der Kämpfe," in Februar 1934 in Oberösterreich: "Es wird nicht mehr verhandelt…," eds. Brigitte Kepplinger and Josef Weidenholzer (Weitra: Bibliothek der Provinz, 2009), 193 ff.

<sup>64</sup> Russ, "Relecture," 33.

<sup>65</sup> Duma and Lichtenberger, "Geschlechterverhältnisse," esp. 81–82.

<sup>66</sup> Botz, Gewalt, 254

<sup>67</sup> See Tamara L. Campbell and Carlos H. Velasco, "An Analysis of the Tail to Tooth Ratio as a Measure of Operational Readiness and Military Expenditure Efficiency" (MA thesis, Naval Postgraduate School, 2002).

women had been involved in the basic organization of the Schutzbund for years and continued to be so during the fighting. Individual women, such as Charlotte Hirsch, a member of the Upper Austrian Schutzbund leadership, tried to keep the organizational structures alive during combat. She passed on orders, coordinated the issue of weapons, and tried to gather information. Because of this, she was put on trial together with other Schutzbund leaders after the suppression of the revolt and charged with aiding and abetting high treason as well as violating the Explosives Act.⁶⁸

The same applied to Rosa Jochmann. The factory worker belonged to the party executive and, after the outbreak of the fighting, was recruited for the hastily established Central Combat Command because she could take shorthand. She later gave a vivid account of her impression after being taken to the headquarters of the Central Combat Command in a large municipal building in the south of Vienna:

Otto Bauer [the party leader] was completely destroyed. […] I said: "Comrade Bauer, don't we have any leaflets? Here come the cyclists, the motorcyclists, they all want some instruction." He was completely destroyed, he just kept saying: "What blood and sacrifices this will cost." I said, "Comrade Bauer, you can't ask that question now, you can't talk about it now, because now the die is cast, now there will be fighting. And if fighting takes place, of course it will cost blood." […] I wasn't afraid at all there. It seemed so natural for me to do it. And every time I left him, I was so depressed, because I wanted to see someone there who was full of energy and strength, but he wasn't that. […] I can't tell you how I felt in that situation when I knew that the Schutzbund guys were fighting.⁶⁹

In the cases of Charlotte Hirsch and Rosa Jochmann, there is no question that they were involved in the basic organization, but it could still be argued that the scepter of action ultimately lay with men and that the two women acted as their co-workers. Apart from the fact that almost all men were part of chains of command and therefore no one would deny them active involvement, women's forms of participation were much more comprehensive.

The more clearly the Dollfuß government had set the course for the establishment of a dictatorship in 1933, the greater the despair and helplessness had become in the Social Democratic Party's leadership circle around Otto Bauer.⁷⁰ This disorientation at the head of the organization was matched by widespread

<sup>68</sup> Oberösterreichisches Landesarchiv, Linz Provincial Court, Vr 3185/34, Indictment against Ferdinand Hüttner and comrades. Hirsch's acquittal was probably due in part to the behavior of her codefendants, who covered up for her.

<sup>69</sup> Ibid., 24–25.

<sup>70</sup> Karl Haas, "Das Ende des Austromarxismus. Sozialdemokratische Politik 1933/34," in Die Bewegung. Hundert Jahre Sozialdemokratie in Österreich, eds. Erich Fröschl et al (Vienna: Passagen, 1990), 421–442, esp. 434–436.

agony at its base. It is interesting to note, however, that not only was the party itself in deep crisis, but in several cases, the male dominance⁷¹ within the organization was also tottering. For example, at the beginning of 1934, the Upper Austrian Police reported to the Ministry of the Interior in Vienna that in the tradition-steeped Social Democratic Party of the industrial town of Steyr, of all places, a woman had taken over the coordination of the military resistance – and the men, apparently, had followed her:

On 5 January 1934, a secret meeting led by the Social Democrat Erna Schwitzer (a general's daughter) took place in Steyr […]. In this meeting, the Prostas' affairs were discussed, and the assembly points of the same were determined for the case of emergency. On 6 January 1934, according to the results [sic!] of this meeting, a practice drill is to be carried out with the Prostas, and, on the basis of the experience gained, the instructions to the leaders are to be finally determined.⁷²

It is not known whether Erna Schwitzer remained an exception or whether similar events took place elsewhere. It is also unclear what role Schwitzer played a few weeks later during the fighting. However, it is quite plausible that the general insecurity within the Schutzbund caused the influence of women to increase, at the latest when mobilization took place and gender norms and possible restrictions decreased with regard to political protest and its military expression.

#### The Psychological Significance of Women

Unlike its opponents, the Schutzbund could not use coercive means to mobilize its members. Soldiers, policemen, and gendarmes risked not only their personal freedom but also their economic existence if they refused to participate in operations. The opposite was true for Schutzbund members. Like soldiers on the government side, they ran the risk of being injured or killed in an armed conflict, but they were also threatened with judicial and economic repression: imprisonment, dismissal, cancellation of allowances, or loss of municipal housing, to name only the most common possibilities. This was made much more difficult by the obvious hopeless-

<sup>71</sup> Gabriella Hauch, "Genossinnen … (lebhafte Heiterkeit). Zur Situation sozialdemokratischer Frauen in der sozialdemokratischen Männerwelt vor 1914," in Die Bewegung. Hundert Jahre Sozialdemokratie in Österreich, eds. Erich Fröschl et al (Vienna: Passagen, 1990), 137–146.

<sup>72</sup> Confidential communication of the Upper Austrian Security Director Hammerstein of 8 January 1934, ÖSTA, AdR, BKA Inneres, Berichte. Facsimiles are part of the Kammerstätter collection, 1809–1810. Prostas is an abbreviation for the Proletarian Storm Detachments, an elite formation within the Schutzbund.

ness of the undertaking: "I remember that my brother, who also took part in the defense of the Goethehof [a huge community house in Vienna], told me: 'It's clear, the whole operation there is now for nothing, except for the fact that they can't say we surrendered, dishonorably surrendered. But nothing will come of it.'"

The responses of their female comrades, mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters vividly illustrate how much the reaction of the social environment was crucial for Schutzbund members at the decisive moment when mobilization started. For example, two brothers, both military sportsmen, were surprised by the start of the fighting in the street. Instead of going to their assembly point, they ran home; after all, as one of them later recounted, they "didn't really know [what do do]."⁷³ Their father had died years before, and their mother, Mathilde Hübsch, an ardent social democrat, had raised her eight sons alone at great sacrifice. When the two brothers returned home, their mother had already hurried to the nearby party headquarters to meet with other women. Beforehand, however, she had placed a wrapped snack on the kitchen table for each of her sons. For Wilhelm, this gesture was clear. The snack was a request. The mother had made a decision on behalf of the family: "Then we knew we had to go."⁷⁴ Another Schutzbündler still remembered the significance of a gesture made by his 12-year-old daughter four decades later: "I was at home for a short time in the evening, and my daughter gave me her mittens [and said]: 'Daddy, it's cold outside.'"⁷⁵

The efforts of Maria Emhart to get the St. Pölten Schutzbund to go into action are an outstanding example of the role of women in the activation phase on 12 February. Unlike the two Schutzbund commanders Ferdinand Strasser and Adolf Reitmaier, who could not be found, and the Viennese emissary Franz Rauscher, who sat in Emhart's flat after his arrival and wept with despair,⁷⁶ Emhart kept her nerve. She convened a meeting of the remaining Schutzbund functionaries, whom she then delegated to Rauscher because she considered her influence to be too small.⁷⁷ At this meeting, it was decided to occupy St. Pölten and to interrupt the railway line to Vienna by blasting.⁷⁸ The highest-ranking officer among those present, however, refused to take action without orders from his absent superiors and threatened Emhart: "Everything was pressing for the issue of weapons, but

77 Emhart, Memoirs, 5.

<sup>73</sup> Ibid.

<sup>74</sup> Ibid.

<sup>75</sup> Interview with Gustl Moser, Kammerstätter Collection, 1145.

<sup>76</sup> Hergangsbericht der Niederösterreichischen Sicherheitsdirektion an die Staatsanwaltschaft St. Pölten, bes. Aussage Emhart, in: 8 Vr 426/34, DÖW Sign. 19254.

<sup>78</sup> Hergangsbericht der Niederösterreichischen Sicherheitsdirektion an die Staatsanwaltschaft St. Pölten, in: 8 Vr 426/34, DÖW Sign. 19254.

Comrade Bartinek […] took me aside and asked me if I would take responsibility. […] Even before the fighting began, Commander Bartinek said to me, 'If it goes wrong, I'll shoot you first, then myself.'"⁷⁹

In at least one case in Vienna, women attempted to demoralize members of the opposing side at the beginning of the fighting: "Near Burgersteingasse, at about 6 o'clock in the evening [of 12 February], the soldiers marched out of the barracks. The officers in front, the soldiers behind, as if they were going to a parade, but without song and sound. […] Hundreds of people stood there in front of the exit, mostly women. Calm, silence."⁸⁰

In order to be able to resist in the densely populated area, it was of considerable importance that the government troops were not supplied with information by the civilian population and that no panic broke out among civilians. Such a panic could easily spread to the insurgents and provoke chaos. The government was also aware of this and deliberately tried to frighten civilians. As the summary of the fighting issued by the Ministry of Defense says:

Artillery has a special significance in the management of unrest. Its activity is based primarily on a lasting moral influence […]. The gunfire, which can be heard from afar, has a highly intimidating effect on the still undecided, hostile parts of the population. The bang of the bullets, the clattering of broken windows, the noisy falling of wall components and roof tiles, and the cracking and splintering of wooden parts have a frightening effect, especially at night.⁸¹

Alois Zehetner, a works councilor and defense gymnast from Steyr, later described the effect of the shelling of a workers' settlement:

The women were forced to take shelter in the cellars of the houses in the front line… The shells followed every two to three minutes, and the hits were often quite horrific. … We were forced to take our comrades, sometimes completely disfigured by blood and dirt, into the cellars to bandage them up and keep them there. Of course, the sight of them was horrible for the women and children present, and their mood became increasingly angry. … [In the] cellar rooms [the] air became more and more unbearable due to the exhalations of the many people and the smell of blood. The groans and sighs of the seriously injured mixed with the weeping of the women and children… And the howling of the howitzer shells and the crashing of the ekrasite grenades rang out overhead.⁸²

<sup>79</sup> Emhart, Memoirs, 6 f.

<sup>80</sup> Report of Alois Peter, cited in Etzersdorfer and Schafranek, Februar, 74.

<sup>81</sup> Bundesministerium für Landesverteidigung, Erfahrungen anläßlich der Assistenzleistungen zur Unterdrückung der Aufstände im Jahre 1934 (Vienna: NN, 1935), 9 f.

<sup>82</sup> Excerpt from the pamphlet "Der Kampf um die Stadt Steyr," written by Alois Zehetner in Moscow in 1935. A copy is contained in the Kammerstätter Collection, 1195–1196.

However, other male participants of the fighting remembered the same situation, especially the role of women, differently: "The women helped us … all along the line by bringing their husbands food, laundry, clothes, and shoes; in this way, they supported our struggle. During the shelling … by the military, they took the children from the endangered flats and placed them in safe dwellings."⁸³ Another reported: "Women and children were affected by the struggle, and yet they supported the Schutzbündler. The population was aware of the situation, and yet they supported us."⁸⁴

# The Importance of Women for Insurgent Logistics

Supplying the men fighting with food is documented for all major battlefields. Some of this was probably done spontaneously, as by miners' wives in the Holzleithen coalfield: "Then my mum carried tea etc. [to the positions] for the Schutzbund guys […]. My dad's sister came and made tea – everything we had at that time was already minimal because we had been unemployed for so long. But everything was mustered to keep the Schutzbund men warm."⁸⁵ In other cases, however, these activities were undertaken on a scale that required the cooperation of up to a hundred women.⁸⁶ Without appropriate planning and advance arrangements, this would hardly have been possible.

The provisioning of the Schutzbund men was by no means an activity that took place in the safe rear areas of the fighting but often risked the lives of the women running through open terrain:

Mrs. Hochmeister made the pots of tea…. As a railway worker's wife, she had money, because we were all unemployed…. She gave me pots of tea and sugar and bread and milk, and I carried it all … to the tram depot. There were only fields to the right, and there was shooting. I'm a coward, and of course I was afraid, partly because my husband was up there. Nevertheless, I went.⁸⁷

However, women's logistical services were not limited to feeding men; they were also active in several other areas of basic organization during the clashes.

<sup>83</sup> Interview with Gustl Moser, Kammerstätter Collection, 1144–1145.

<sup>84</sup> Interview with Karl Hübsch, Kammerstätter Collection, 1157.

<sup>85</sup> Report of Maria Mair, Kammerstätter Collection, 1494.

<sup>86</sup> Paula Wallisch's statement in Russ, "relecture," 33.

<sup>87</sup> Ibid., 119.

First of all, there were the weapons stashes, which women often knew about and therefore often had a practical say in whether the weapons were actually handed out. At the beginning of the fighting in Linz, for example, Julia Schlagin distributed weapons that were stored in her house.⁸⁸ In Steyr, a certain Mrs. Pirmann was observed "getting ammunition" for the Schutzbund member Franz Kaar.⁸⁹ And in Vienna-Simmering, in addition to three men who had shot, two women were reported to have assisted them: "I also observed Mrs. Kral calling her son and giving him a steel helmet and ammunition. Furthermore, I observed Mrs. Hruby slipping her brother small packets, which the latter pocketed. Since he always reached into his pocket while shooting, it can only have been ammunition."⁹⁰

When the police started an inspection, they quickly came across two other women in the community building in question: the local janitor Therese Weninger and her daughter of the same name. They were a social democratic family with Schutzbund contacts.⁹¹ On the occasion of the street fighting in the immediate vicinity of her building, Therese Weninger, Jr. had asked a male youth to join in the fighting and offered him a rifle for this purpose: "Beforehand, young Weninger, the daughter of our janitor, who came to the house gate, had offered me a rifle – she had a rifle and [said] I should take it."⁹² Therese Weninger, Jr. did not deny this incident to the police, who arrested her after the fights⁹³ and thereupon recommended her to be court-martialed.⁹⁴

Weapons had to be hidden not only before but also after fights. Once again, women were often involved:

The Heimwehr surrounded our community building and searched it […]. Then I did something unsavory, but that saved the revolver. My brother wanted to put it in the oven first. "Are you stupid? The stove is the first thing you look in!" […] I don't know where it came

<sup>88</sup> Linz Regional Court, Vr 366/34, list of accused, facsimile in the Kammerstätter Collection, 522. See also Wilhelm Pointer, Erinnerungen aus der Arbeiterbewegung und meiner Parteizugehörigkeit (KPÖ), Linz 1958, Kammerstätter Collection, 504–505. Schlagin justified himself in writing to the executive, see Oberösterreichisches Landesarchiv, Landesgericht Linz, Vr. 3339, Jungmayer u. Gen.

<sup>89</sup> Report of Franz Voit at the Steyr Federal Police Commissariat of 14 February 1934, Kammerstätter Collection, 1232.

<sup>90</sup> ÖStA, AdR, BPD, February files, Standrechtsfälle, Lederberger Rudolf, Einvernahme Johanna Wagner.

<sup>91</sup> ÖStA, AdR, BPD, February files, Standrechtsfälle, Lederberger, Rudolf, Einvernahme Therese Wenninger Sen.

<sup>92</sup> ÖStA, AdR, BPD, February files, Standrechtsfälle, Lederberger, Rudolf, Einvernahme Johann Basche.

<sup>93</sup> ÖStA, AdR, BPD, February files, Standrechtsfälle, Lederberger, Rudolf, Einvernahme Therese Wenninger Jun.

<sup>94</sup> ÖStA, CoR, BPD, February files, Standrechtsfälle, Wenninger, Therese Jun.

from, but I was perfectly clear that this was out of the question. But we had a bench where the dirty laundry was inside. In the old days, you didn't just throw away the sanitary napkins, they were washed. I picked out my and my sister's sanitary towels and put them on top of the dirty laundry and underneath […] the revolver. The home guards opened the lid of the chest and dropped it again straight away. […] I always had an instinct for such things. The revolver was nothing anyway, the barrel was so wobbly, but, well, you take what you get. Maybe it would have been good for keeping someone in check.⁹⁵

In many cases, weapons had to be taken to more distant collection points as soon as they were taken out of hiding, and in some cases, they had to be made ready for use. In the Viennese working-class district of Favoriten, women workers at the Ankerbrot factory went on strike and strapped on machine gun ammunition that could have been used later.⁹⁶ Their example was followed by residents of nearby Quellenbau.⁹⁷ In St. Pölten, women took advantage of the fact that they were viewed less suspiciously than men by the executive on the streets and carried hand grenades:

Many came, and there were also women. During the process, we learned that there were hundreds of egg hand grenades in the attic of the quartering house. So three groups of young people with bicycles and backpacks immediately went to the nearby coal mine to the works council, which always supplied explosives. At the quartering house, the women (two names I still remember, Hertinger and Frau Kapeller, but there were more women) filled the grenades and the hand grenades and took them in prams to the meeting point in the floodplains.⁹⁸

The executive quickly controlled important traffic routes and road junctions. At first, they mainly cut off communication between the individual Schutzbund groups because their messengers could no longer get through. Those who manned the posts at the roadblocks viewed women as less suspicious, so they repeatedly took over courier services and reconnaissance missions.⁹⁹ However, the Schutzbund's intelligence service, which was responsible for some of these tasks and to which several women belonged, failed completely.¹⁰⁰ Even as couriers, women acted more or less on their own or in coordination with their male comradesin-arms on the respective battlefields.

This was also the case with the last essential part of the basic organization in which women were involved: caring for the wounded. Women rescued and cared

<sup>95</sup> Jenny Strasser, in Etzersdorfer and Schafranek, Februar, 11.

<sup>96</sup> McLoughlin, "Schutzbund," 441.

<sup>97</sup> Etzersdorfer and Schafranek, Februar, 40.

<sup>98</sup> Emhart, Memoirs, 5 f.

<sup>99</sup> Berger et al., Widerstand, 30; Etzersdorfer and Schafranek, Februar, 9.

<sup>100</sup> Thus the concurring report by Anny Kohn-Feuermann and Jenny Strasser. Ibid, 10, 13.

for wounded Schutzbund men not only in Vienna¹⁰¹ but also in Upper Austria: "When I was a child, I was deeply struck by the way Zeilinger was shot because he screamed and wailed for three hours. … And then my mother said, 'You, quickly, sheets, we have to bandage him.' … We children were afraid of how he screamed."¹⁰²

#### Women on the Front Line

In a desperate effort to organize protests and active resistance, a resident of a communal building in Vienna-Floridsdorf initiated the construction of makeshift posts together with some neighbors:

"I had no idea how to build a barricade. […] In the courtyard, there was a playground, and from there, we took the benches and the rubbish bins and dragged them out. […] They said that the Home Guard was coming from Wagramerstraße. To protect us and the men and the house, we – ten women and one man – built the barricade."¹⁰³

In the Upper Austrian coalfield, women and men also prepared for battle together and dug foxholes together.¹⁰⁴

Up to this point, it has been clear that women made an effort and took considerable risks to support the struggle. So, to what extent did they then also participate directly in the conflicts? Did they themselves use violence? The best-known example in this regard is the Viennese worker Anni Haider:

[M]y first husband comes and says: "Mother, you have to go, you're a woman, they won't dare do anything to you […] we have nothing left [in terms of ammunition], we have to leave here." One and a half machine gun belts were still there. I stayed with the only machine gun […]. With one and a half belts, I covered the retreat of the Schutzbund unit […]. Karli, my boy, was eight years old at the time. He brought me the water [to cool the barrel of the machine gun] and poured it in, you know, and I shot. […] When the belts were off […] we took the breechblocks out of the rifles that were lying around, because with the rifle being in a worker's hand, no worker is shot anymore, you know. […] Then we threw the guns into the Danube, where they are probably still lying today.¹⁰⁵

<sup>101</sup> Ibid., 27

<sup>102</sup> Report Maria Mair, Kammerstätter Collection, 1065.

<sup>103</sup> Report Anna Wundsam, in Etzersdorfer and Schafranek, Februar, 118.

<sup>104</sup> Report Josef Redlinger, Kammerstätter Collection, 1512 f.

<sup>105</sup> Berger et al., Widerstand, 31.

The accuracy of this account has been doubted several times in the past; in fact, individual details that Haider recalled fifty years later do not correspond to the reconstructable course of the fighting.¹⁰⁶ Nevertheless, Emhart does not seem to have been "the only woman who was prepared to take up arms to defend the Republic on 12 February," as her friend Rosa Jochmann claimed.¹⁰⁷

The Neue Freie Presse reported on the course of the "purge" in Vienna-Meidling as follows: "Only the Bebelhof complex resisted. Women also took part in the fighting here, where the Schutzbund members fought with machine guns and hand grenades."¹⁰⁸ The Schutzbund commander Julius Deutsch, who fled to Czechoslovakia on the first night after the fighting started, wrote about the Fuchsenfeldhof, not far from the Bebelhof, in his detailed and, apart from the pathos, astonishingly accurate outline of the fighting: "The military and police met fierce resistance from the Schutzbund men when they entered the building. They defended themselves heroically, with the energetic support of the building's inhabitants. Here, the people themselves were fighting, standing like a living wall around their core, the Schutzbund, and offering determined resistance with all the means at their disposal."¹⁰⁹ The involvement of residents of the Fuchsenfeldhof was unacceptable to the executive. After the capture of the farm, they recommended that 23 people be tried before summary courts for "participation in sedition," including three women: Marie Rauch, Emma Leidenfrost, and Rosa Kölbl.¹¹⁰ In the cases of Leidenfrost and Kölbl, it was explicitly stated that they were armed at the time of their capture.¹¹¹ The government press also reported on the fighting in Favoriten, stating that after the surrender of the Quellenhof, it had been established "that women and children on the side of the Schutzbund also took part in the fight and shot at the executive from windows and behind doors."¹¹²

Police investigations to find rebels began even while the armed clashes were still ongoing on. In Vienna, criminal investigators systematically searched hospitals, among other places, for injured people whose wounds indicated their participation in the fighting. They came across 83 wounded women, 22 of whom they con-

112 Linzer Volksblatt, 14 February 1934, 1.

<sup>106</sup> McLoughlin, "Schutzbund," 447; report by Valentin Strecha, in Etzersdorfer and Schafranek, Februar, 28.

<sup>107</sup> Rosa Jochmann's letter to "Comrade Scheuch" of May 24, 1981, quoted in Duma and Lichtenberger, Geschlechterverhältnisse, 71.

<sup>108</sup> Neue Freie Presse, 15 February 1934, 1.

<sup>109</sup> Julius Deutsch, Der Bürgerkrieg in Österreich. Eine Darstellung von Mitkämpfern und Augenzeugen (Karlsbad: Graphia, 1934), 32.

<sup>110</sup> See the corresponding files in ÖStA, CoR, BPD, February files, Standrechtsfälle.

<sup>111</sup> ÖStA, AdR, BPD, Februarakten, Standrechtsfälle, Akten Rauch, Marie und Leidenfrost, Emma.

sidered to be supporters of the insurgents. For example, 48-year-old Franziska Grössing had been in the crowd when a police car opened fire on a street in Vienna,¹¹³ while Emma Ernst, almost the same age, was wounded in the wrist by a revolver shot. She had been shot when police tried to storm her flat, which contained Ernst, her son, and seven other men, some of whom were armed. During the ensuing shootout, one detective inspector was killed and another injured.¹¹⁴

There are also indications that several other women found by the police in hospitals had been actively involved in the fighting. Three of them were janitors, two of whom, 43-year-old Juliane Sedlacek and 44-year-old Rudolfine Ziering, had not sought cover inside at the time of the fights for "their" buildings but had stayed outside.¹¹⁵ The 43-year-old Anna Blöch had also not gone into the cellar during the fighting for the Karl-Marx-Hof, one of the largest community houses in Vienna, despite artillery fire. She was injured by shell splinters and falling masonry while she was in her neighbor's flat. Since this flat was in the line of fire, it is unlikely that Blöch had gone to pay her neighbor a courtesy call.¹¹⁶

Last but not least, the executive's behavior in Vienna-Ottakring in particular suggests that the officers there regarded women and men alike as opponents after the fighting and treated them accordingly.¹¹⁷ For example, two female social democrats suffered nervous breakdowns or "states of agitation." However, this was not at a time when cannons and machine guns were firing on their apartment building but after they had been "interrogated" or "perlustrated" at the Ottakring police station by a notorious thug, the later Gestapo commissioner and commander of an SS killing squad, Josef Auinger.¹¹⁸

Female insurgents were not a phenomenon limited to the struggles in Vienna. For example, Maria Töpfl, from Laakirchen in Upper Austria, was reported to the court "for armed participation in the riot."¹¹⁹ When the butcher's widow Thusnelda Hauka passed by a house in Linz on the afternoon of 12 February, she heard "[s]

<sup>113</sup> ÖStA, CoR, BPD, February files, Wounded civilians, file Grössing, Franziska.

<sup>114</sup> ÖStA, AdR, BPD, February files, Wounded civilians, file Ernst, Emma.

<sup>115</sup> ÖStA, AdR, BPD, Februarakten, Verwundete Zivilpersonen, Akten Ziering, Rudolfine und Sedlacek, Juliane. The third caretaker, Rosa Domian, claimed to have been shot in the leg when she was lying in bed at home. ÖStA, AdR, BPD, Februarakten, Verwundete Zivilpersonen, Akte Domian, Rosa.

<sup>116</sup> ÖStA, CoR, BPD, Februarakten, Wounded civilians, file Böch, Anna.

<sup>117</sup> However, the brutality of the officers against men was much more extensive, as evidenced by the numerous bayonet wounds on the necks, backs, and buttocks of male prisoners.

<sup>118</sup> ÖStA, AdR, BPD, Februarakten, Verwundete Zivilpersonen, Akten Hadinger, Anna und Stanzl, Mathilde.

<sup>119</sup> Excerpt from the chronicle of the Laakirchen army post command in the Kammerstätter Collection, 843.

everal shots were fired in quick succession from the attic of the aforementioned house […]. At this time, there were several younger boys in the street, one of whom shouted: 'Zilli is shooting!' […] Hauke then looked up at the attic window of the aforementioned house and noticed smoke rising from Hüttmayr's window."¹²⁰ The 64-year-old Zäzilie Hüttmayr, who was described by her landlady Anna Rothmeyer as "a radical social democrat who could easily be expected to act in this way,"¹²¹ vehemently denied the accusations, although other witnesses also claimed to have heard shots. However, because the statements were contradictory, the case against Hüttmayr was eventually dropped due to a lack of evidence.

#### After the Battles: Concluding Remarks

After the fighting, 140 insurgents were tried by summary courts, and nine were executed. More than 10,000 people were arrested. Although the police recommended that several women be tried in martial courts, they were consistently tried in regular courts, apparently because the government feared for its reputation if it executed women.¹²² However, neither the state nor the right-wing paramilitaries forgot women's involvement in the clashes, as Maria Emhart found out when she was released from prison after 17 weeks on sick leave:

On Sunday night, she was attacked by the newly created 'local police.' A gang of 30 local militia boys gathered in front of her house, banged on the front door with the butts of their rifles, and finally gained entry to the room where the woman was lying ill in bed. There, the leader of the boys shouted: "The patriotic population will not tolerate such elements being at liberty in St. Pölten." Mrs. Emhart and her husband fought back as best they could. Meanwhile, the patriotic boys shouted from below: "What's going on? Why do you have your weapons? Drag them down, the red whore!" But since the man firmly declared that as long as he lived he would not allow the sick woman to be kidnapped, the gang finally left, with the leader declaring that […] Emhart would be given until Monday to leave St. Pölten […].¹²³

The many ways in which women helped each other and fugitive Schutzbund men after the fighting deserve their own study and will only be mentioned here for the sake of completeness. Their methods ranged from providing emotional support to

<sup>120</sup> Upper Austrian Provincial Archives, Linz Provincial Court, Vr 3250/34, Zäzilie Hüttmayr. 121 Ibid.

<sup>122</sup> Among the more prominent internees were Maria Emhart, Gabriele Proft, Hella Postranecky, Helene Popper, and Maria Feilenreiter. See Arbeiterzeitung, June 24, 1934, 7.

<sup>123</sup> Arbeiterzeitung, July 1, 1934, 7. Emhart confirms this episode in her memoirs: Emhart, Erinnerungen, 41.

hiding fugitives¹²⁴ and from giving legal advice for the upcoming trials¹²⁵ to the collection and distribution of relief supplies.¹²⁶

Based on what has been said so far, the role of women in the February Uprising can be condensed into seven theses:


<sup>124</sup> Report of August Moser, Kammerstätter Collection, 1152.

<sup>125</sup> Report of Maria Mair, Kammerstätter Collection, 1496.

<sup>126</sup> See the descriptions by Agnes Primocic in Berger et al., "Der verschwiegene Widerstand," 31; see also Maria Mair, Kammerstätter Collection, 1499.

tance. The fact that the Schutzbund leadership ignored this precept is a strong indication that the Social Democratic Party's leadership had never seriously intended to call upon the Schutzbund since the end of the 1920s.

7) The absence of women in historiography is mainly the result of an (almost entirely male) historiography entrenched in an outdated notion of collective violence. However, this tradition's masculinization is the consequence of a denunciatory discourse strategy on the part of the victorious side. This, in fact, anticipated the topos of the "Flintenweib" (gunwoman) that National Socialist propaganda would use ten years later to disparage women in the ranks of the Red Army and the partisans.¹²⁷

#### Works Cited

#### Archival Sources

Dokumentationsarchiv des Österreichischen Widerstandes Estate Maria Emhart. Linzer Stadtarchiv Kammerstätter Collection Oberösterreichisches Landesarchiv Files of the regional courts Linz and Steyr Österreichisches Staatsarchiv Archiv der Republik, Bundespolizeidirektion Wien, February Files (Cases of martial law, Wounded Civilians)

#### Newspapers and Magazines

Öffentliche Sicherheit Der Soldat Arbeiterzeitung Linzer Volksblatt Neue Freie Presse Der Schutzbund

<sup>127</sup> Bernhard Strebel, "Feindbild Flintenweib: Female Prisoners of War of the Red Army in Ravensbrück Concentration Camp," in Einvernehmliche Zusammenarbeit? Wehrmacht, Gestapo, SS und sowjetische Kriegsgefangene, ed. Johannes Ibel (Berlin, 2008), 159–180. Insa Eschebach also points to the traditional lines of the enemy image of the "Flintenweib": see Insa Eschebach, "Geschlechterdramaturgien im juristischen Diskurs ostdeutscher Gerichte," in "Bestien" und "Befehlsempfänger". Frauen und Männer in NS-Prozessen nach 1945, eds. Ulrike Weckel and Edgar Wolfrum (Göttingen, 2003), 110 f. For a concrete example, see Emhart, Erinnerungen, 8, 13.

#### Published Sources and Secondary Works

Abel, Franz. Heimatschutz in Österreich. Vienna: Amt des Bundesführers, 1935. Bauer, Kurt. Der Februaraufstand 1934: Fakten und Mythen. Vienna: Böhlau, 2019. Baumgartner, Walter. "Der österreichische Freiheitsbund. Wehrverband der Christlichen

Arbeiterbewegung 1927–1936." Diploma thesis, University of Vienna, 1985.

Benét, Stephen Vincent. Burning City: New Poems. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1936

Berger, Karin, Elisabeth Holzinger, Lotte Podgornik, and Lisbeth N. Trallori. "Der verschwiegene Widerstand. Frauen im Kampf." Aufrisse, 5, no. 1 (1984), 30–32

Botz, Gerhard. Gewalt in der Politik: Attentate, Zusammenstöße, Putschversuche, Unruhen in Österreich 1918–1934. Munich: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 1976.

Bundesministerium für Landesverteidigung. Erfahrungen anläßlich der Assistenzleistungen zur Unterdrückung der Aufstände im Jahre 1934, Vienna: NN, 1935.

Campbell, Tamara L., and Carlos H. Velasco. "An Analysis of the Tail to Tooth Ratio as a Measure of Operational Readiness and Military Expenditure Efficiency." MA thesis, Naval Postgraduate School, 2002.

Charwath, Philipp. "Politisierung und Radikalisierung bei österreichischen Jugendgruppen in der Zwischenkriegszeit, dargestellt am Beispiel der Pfadfinder und der Sozialistischen

Arbeiterjugend." Diploma thesis, University of Vienna, 1999.

Czerny, Ernst. Das Wehrturnen. Vienna: Gutenberg, 1925.

Deutsch, Julius. Alexander Eifler – Ein Soldat der Freiheit. Vienna: Volksbuchhandlung, 1947.

Deutsch, Julius. Der Bürgerkrieg in Österreich. Eine Darstellung von Mitkämpfern und Augenzeugen. Karlsbad: Graphia, 1934.

Duczynska, Ilona. Der demokratische Bolschewik. Zur Theorie und Praxis der Gewalt. Munich: List, 1975.

Duma, Veronika and Hanna Lichtenberger. "Geschlechterverhältnisse im Widerstand: Revolutionäre Sozialistinnen im Februar 1934." In "Abgesang der Demokratie. Der 12. Februar 1934 und der Weg in den Faschismus," edited by Michaela Maier, special issue, Dokumentationen 1–4 (2013): 55–82.

Edmondson, C. Earl. The Heimwehr and Austrian Politics 1918–1936. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1978

Eschebach, Insa. "Geschlechterdramaturgien im juristischen Diskurs ostdeutscher Gerichte." In "Bestien und "Befehlsempfänger." Frauen und Männer in NS-Prozessen nach 1945, edited by Ulrike Weckel and Edgar Wolfrum, Göttingen 2003, 95–116.

Etzersdorfer, Irene, and Hans Schafranek. Der Februar 1934 in Wien. Erzählte Geschichte. Vienna: Autorenkollektiv, 1984.

Fenton, Charles A. Stephen Vincent Benét: The Life and Times of an American Man of Letters 1898–1943. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1958.


Gedye, George E. R. Die Bastionen fielen: Wie der Faschismus Wien und Prag überrannte. Vienna: Danubia, 1947.

Haas, Karl. "Das Ende des Austromarxismus. Sozialdemokratische Politik 1933/34." In Die Bewegung. Hundert Jahre Sozialdemokratie in Österreich, edited by Erich Fröschl and Maria Mesner and Helge Zoitl, 421–442. Vienna: Passagen, 1990.

Haas, Karl. "Studien zur Wehrpolitik der österreichischen Sozialdemokratie 1918–1926." PhD Thesis, University of Vienna, 1967.


Scheuch, Hanno. "Wehrformation: Bauernwehr." Diploma thesis, University of Vienna, 1983. Shell, Kurt L. Jenseits der Klassen? Österreichs Sozialdemokratie seit 1934. Vienna: Europa, 1969. Strebel, Bernhard. "Feindbild Flintenweib: Female Prisoners of War of the Red Army in Ravensbrück

Concentration Camp." In "Einvernehmliche Zusammenarbeit"? Wehrmacht, Gestapo, SS und sowjetische Kriegsgefangene, 159–180, edited by Johannes Ibel. Berlin, 2008.


Wiltschegg, Walter. Die Heimwehr. Eine unwiderstehliche Volksbewegung? Vienna: Geschichte und Politik, 1985.

#### Martin Göllnitz

# 10 The Cultivation of Militant Masculinity: Gender-Specific Dimensions of Violence and the National Socialist Stormtroopers

On their way to power, the National Socialists (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, NSDAP) promised to save the supposedly faltering masculinity and to draw clear boundaries between the sexes again.¹ Especially in their early programmatic statements, NSDAP politicians linked the fields of "politics" and "gender identity" conspicuously closely: Germany was to rise again from the "male association of the trenches."² The guarantors of a masculine gender identity and politics of action were above all the exclusion of women from political life and an unconditional willingness to use violence.³ It was the rapid social change, the rejection of traditional gender roles, the economic crises of the Weimar years, and the experiences of violence during the First World War and the early post-war years that made such brute rescue fantasies popular in the 1920s. These rescue fantasies fostered the rise of extreme political ideologies, first and foremost National Socialism.

<sup>1</sup> George L. Mosse, Das Bild des Mannes: Zur Konstruktion der modernen Männlichkeit (Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer Verlag, 1997), 92, 133, 203.

<sup>2</sup> Ute Planert, "Reaktionäre Modernisten: Zum Verhältnis von Antisemitismus und Antifeminismus in der völkischen Bewegung," Jahrbuch für Antisemitismusforschung 11 (2002): 40–41. For the relevance of identity politics and the construction of masculinity within (para‐)military units, see Thomas Kühne, "'…aus diesem Krieg werden nicht nur harte Männer heimkehren': Kriegskameradschaft und Männlichkeit im 20. Jahrhundert," in Männergeschichte – Geschlechtergeschichte: Männlichkeit im Wandel der Moderne, ed. Thomas Kühne (Frankfurt am Main: Campus-Verlag, 1996), 174–192; Ruth Seifert, "Identität, Militär und Geschlecht: Zur identitätspolitischen Bedeutung einer kulturellen Konstruktion," in Heimat – Front: Militär und Geschlechterverhältnisse im Zeitalter der Weltkriege, eds. Karen Hagemann and Stefanie Schüler-Springorum (Frankfurt am Main: Campus Verlag, 2002), 53–66.

<sup>3</sup> Daniel Siemens, "Erobern statt Verführen: Die Kategorie Geschlecht in der Politik der Straße der Weimarer Republik," in Geschlechter(un)ordnung und Politik in der Weimarer Republik, eds. Gabriele Metzler and Dirk Schumann (Bonn: Verlag J.H.W. Dietz Nachf., 2016), 262–264; Christina Benninghaus, "Das Geschlecht der Generation: Zum Zusammenhang von Generationalität und Männlichkeit um 1930," in Generationen: Zur Relevanz eines wissenschaftlichen Grundbegriffs, eds. Ulrike Jureit and Michael Wildt (Hamburg: Hamburger Edition, 2005), 127–158.

Open Access. © 2023 the author(s), published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111102757-010

Especially at the beginning of the 1930s, the radical-militant re-masculinization of political space, symbolized by the political soldier, became highly relevant.⁴

Violence played a key role in the National Socialist conquest of power; it suppressed, instilled fear, impressed where Adolf Hitler's charm did not, and staged the lived Volksgemeinschaft.⁵ It was the Sturmabteilung (SA), a violent men's association, that tried out on a small scale what became a major political project of the Nazi regime after 1933: the destruction of bourgeois society and the establishment of a new, racist order. In the SA, the ambivalence of order on the one hand and destruction on the other, typical of national socialism, thus became particularly apparent.⁶

Like hardly any other organization of the interwar period, the SA knew how to instrumentalize the habitual dispositions of the younger generations. With its generation-adapted forms of action, its juvenile slogans, and its dynamic movement character, the National Socialist party army created a militant platform that was particularly attractive to young men, whose political consciousness was only just forming at that time.⁷ It was above all the milieu of a homosocial male society characterized by comradeship, marches, and beatings, fostered by the fear of social decline, that exerted a strong attraction on former soldiers, the unemployed, and disillusioned young men. Many hoped for solidarity and cohesion from the SA in addition to comradeship. The heroic and soldierly male image celebrated in the SA detachments, symbolically constituted by uniforms, marches, military appearance, and a combative habitus, as well as the common anti-bourgeois, anti-Semitic, and anti-communist image of the enemy, had an unmistakable inward identity-

<sup>4</sup> Kirsten Heinsohn, Konservative Parteien in Deutschland 1912–1933: Demokratisierung und Partizipation in geschlechterhistorischer Perspektive (Düsseldorf: Droste Verlag, 2010), 255.

<sup>5</sup> Dirk Schumann, "Gewalt als Methode der nationalsozialistischen Machteroberung," in Das Jahr 1933: Die nationalsozialistische Machteroberung und die deutsche Gesellschaft, ed. Andreas Wirsching (Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2009), 135; Daniel Siemens, "Politische Gewalt als emotionale Befriedigung: Richard F. Behrendts vergessener Geniestreich aus dem Jahr 1932," Zeithistorische Forschungen/Studies in Contemporary History 13 (2016): 176. In the following, the term "violence" is primarily understood as physical violence (violentia), although violence in the sense of power (potestas) always resonates and played an equally important role in the National Socialists' seizure of power.

<sup>6</sup> Sven Reichardt, "Vergemeinschaftung durch Gewalt: Das Beispiel des SA-'Mördersturmes 33' in Berlin-Charlottenburg zwischen 1928 und 1932," in Entgrenzte Gewalt: Täterinnen und Täter im Nationalsozialismus, ed. Herbert Diercks (Bremen: Edition Temmen, 2002), 20.

<sup>7</sup> Ibid., 27; Martin Göllnitz and Matteo Millan, "Editorial/Editoriale: Studentische Gewalt/Violenza studentesca (1914–1945)," Storia e regione 28, no. 1 (2019): 6–10.

forming character.⁸ In short, these disillusioned men found their new center of life in the SA, which elevated the men's association to a quasi-substitute for the family and cultivated a lifestyle and political style that habitually expressed itself through militant, raw masculinity, thus forcing and consolidating violence in the streets.⁹

At the same time, however, the SA is also associated with the fame of a homosexual clique tolerated by SA Chief of Staff Ernst Röhm, whose homosexual tendencies were widely known through several press campaigns and police investigations, and which allegedly operated behind the scenes of National Socialist state power, secretly directing or even threatening it.¹⁰ Ultimately, the Röhm-Putsch of 30 June 1934 clearly shows how closely the fields of politics and masculinity were linked in National Socialism.¹¹ This escalation of state violence was embedded in a public debate about sexuality and morality, through which it was hoped to legitimize this crossing of boundaries. With the disempowerment of the SA and the murder of Röhm, Adolf Hitler presented himself "as a man of violent deeds" who had no qualms about mercilessly and brutally draining the "moral swamp," which, of course, primarily meant homosexuals in his own organization.

<sup>8</sup> Thomas Balistier, Gewalt und Ordnung: Kalkül und Faszination der SA (Münster: Verlag Westfälisches Dampfboot, 1989); Yves Müller and Reiner Zilkenat, eds. Bürgerkriegsarmee: Forschungen zur nationalsozialistischen Sturmabteilung (SA) (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2013).

<sup>9</sup> Schumann, "Gewalt," 138; Sven Reichardt, Faschistische Kampfbünde: Gewalt und Gemeinschaft im italienischen Squadrismus und in der deutschen SA (Cologne: Böhlau Verlag, 2009), 416–432, 460–476; Peter Longerich, Geschichte der SA (Munich: Verlag C. H. Beck, 2003), 126–130; Richard Bessel, Political Violence and the Rise of Nazism: The Storm Troopers in Eastern Germany 1925– 1934 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1984), 49–53.

<sup>10</sup> Martin Göllnitz, "Homophobie und Revolutionsangst: Die politische Dramaturgie des 30. Juni 1934," in Die große Furcht: Revolution in Kiel – Revolutionsangst in der Geschichte, eds. Oliver Auge and Knut-Hinrik Kollex (Kiel: Wachholtz Verlag, 2021), 209–234; Susanne zur Nieden, "Der homosexuelle Staatsfeind – zur Geschichte einer Idee," in Ideen als gesellschaftliche Gestaltungskraft im Europa der Neuzeit: Beiträge für eine erneuerte Geistesgeschichte, eds. Lutz Raphael and Heinz-Elmar Tenorth (Munich: R. Oldenbourg Verlag, 2006), 395–427.

<sup>11</sup> Susanne zur Nieden and Sven Reichardt, "Skandale als Instrument des Machtkampfes in der NS-Führung: Zur Funktionalisierung der Homosexualität von Ernst Röhm," in Skandal und Diktatur: Formen öffentlicher Empörung im NS-Staat und in der DDR, ed. Martin Sabrow (Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2004), 57. The following quotations can also be found there. See also Alexander Zinn, "SA, Homosexualität und Faschismus: Zur Genese des Stereotyps vom schwulen Nazi," in Bürgerkriegsarmee: Forschungen zur nationalsozialistischen Sturmabteilung (SA), eds. Yves Müller and Reiner Zilkenat (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2013), 401; Anette Dietrich and Ljiljana Heise, "Perspektiven einer kritischen Männlichkeitenforschung zum Nationalsozialismus: Eine theoretische und pädagogische Annäherung," in Männlichkeitskonstruktionen im Nationalsozialismus: Formen, Funktionen und Wirkungsmacht von Geschlechterkonstruktionen im Nationalsozialismus und ihre Reflexion in der pädagogischen Praxis, eds. Anette Dietrich and Ljiljana Heise (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2013), 18–20.

In accordance with recent masculinity research, this contribution will first critically examine the hypermasculine violence of the SA and then ask about demarcations to the female gender. In other words, can the distinctive notions of masculinity – and the habitual dispositions associated with them – within the SA be understood as a form of protest against the politics of the Weimar Republic, which the National Socialists considered "unmanly" and thus "quasi-feminine"?

# Re-Masculinization and Political Arena of the Street

The Weimar Republic's understanding of politics was summed up by a boxing magazine as early as 1923 with the catchy formula, apparently congenially translated by Eric Jensen, "You can't defend yourself with thoughts, you have to grab the boxing glove."¹² In particular, members of the SA, who saw themselves during the 1920s as the last bulwark against decadence and democracy, massification, and women's emancipation, shared the assumption that politics was a "lively situation of struggle" regarded as a process of individual empowerment.¹³ It is therefore not surprising that within the SA, instead of clear value concepts or ideological congruencies, the focus was on positive references to male habitus, paramilitary activism, and collective violence. The ideal SA man was not an eloquent politician but the type of robust, rough, basically unpolished fighter who was sometimes inclined to alcohol and not always disciplined.¹⁴

Guiding the National Socialist construction of masculinity was the motif of self-empowerment. The physical as well as symbolic violence used by the SA in German cities was not only a core component of the aggressive politics of the Nazi movement; the use of violence also celebrated a heroic, soldierly, and adventurous image of men, constructed comradeship and cohesion, satisfied the desire for action, and, last but not least, helped to make people forget the manifold experiences of frustration in their private everyday lives. In addition, National Socialist street violence served to (re)establish – and thus inextricably linked – national male honor. Violence consequently became an end in itself and a political style

<sup>12</sup> Kurt Jackmush, cited in Erik N. Jensen, Body by Weimar: Athletes, Gender, and German Modernity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 63.

<sup>13</sup> Siemens, "Erobern," 261.

<sup>14</sup> Yves Müller, "'…wie ist's denn mit dir, Hans…?' Männlicher Habitus, Kameradschaft und Männerbund in der SA," in Bürgerkriegsarmee: Forschungen zur nationalsozialistischen Sturmabteilung (SA), eds. Yves Müller and Reiner Zilkenat (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2013), 360; Longerich, Geschichte, 141.

at the same time, and the SA detachments increasingly transformed into "violent communities" in which an attitude toward life that oscillated between excess and discipline prevailed.¹⁵ The core elements of the SA's presentation of power were the body, the uniform, and the column. Their more or less snappy appearance in formation had an attractive effect, especially on the male youth, but it did not depend on the geometrically flawless marching in rank and file, as contemporary photographs suggest. Instead, dynamism, movement, and progress characterized the style of the SA marches, which in many cases ended quickly and without transition into the chaos of the brawl. This interplay of the aesthetic demonstration of violence and real physical terror were two sides of the same coin.¹⁶ Leading politicians of the NSDAP repeatedly propagated that those who ruled the streets would sooner or later also come into possession of political power. Consequently, any form of public violence could be elevated to the rank of a political act and praised as a contribution to the downfall of the Weimar Republic.¹⁷

Functionally, the SA's violence served three purposes: first, to cripple the political opponent, i. e., to protest against the existent order; second, to create internal cohesion through the experience of struggle itself; and third, to publicly demonstrate strength and order. However, this was accompanied by another component: while democracy and rational discussion were considered feminine, unemotional, fiery and authoritarian leadership as well as violence had decidedly masculine connotations.¹⁸ Although this thought was politically widespread, the activism of the extreme right was quite explicitly directed against female claims to participation. The political battle for the streets waged by the SA must consequently also be understood as a battle of the sexes for dominance in the public sphere as well as for agency and, in many cases, was staged as such.¹⁹ Feminization was a thorn in

<sup>15</sup> For the concept of "communities of violence," see Sharon Bäcker-Wilke, Florian Grafl and Friedrich Lenger, "Gewaltgemeinschaften im städtischen Raum: Barcelona, Berlin und Wien in der Zwischenkriegszeit," in Gewaltgemeinschaften: Von der Spätantike bis ins 20. Jahrhundert, ed. Winfried Speitkamp (Göttingen: V & R Unipress, 2013), 317–341.

<sup>16</sup> Balistier, Gewalt, 91.

<sup>17</sup> Daniel Siemens, Sturmabteilung: Die Geschichte der SA (Munich: Siedler Verlag, 2019), 100.

<sup>18</sup> See Matthew Stibbe, "Anti-Feminism, Nationalism and the German Right, 1914–1920: A Reappraisal," German History 20, no. 2 (2002): 185–210; Matthew Stibbe, "In and Beyond the Racial State: Gender and National Socialism, 1933–1955," Politics, Religion & Ideology 13, no. 2 (2012): 159–178; Helmut Lethen, Verhaltenslehren der Kälte: Lebensversuche zwischen den Kriegen (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1994).

<sup>19</sup> Dirk Schumann, "Political Violence, Contested Public Space, and Reasserted Masculinity in Weimar Germany," in Weimar Publics/Weimar Subjects: Rethinking the Political Culture of Germany in the 1920s, eds. Kathleen Canning, Kerstin Brandt and Kristin McGuire (New York: Berghahn, 2010), 236–253; Benninghaus, "Geschlecht," 127–158.

the side of the National Socialists and had to be eliminated with a political culture of re-militarization and re-masculinization. In their understanding of politics, vitality was equated with struggle and glorified. The transfer of a large part of symbolic politics to the streets thus meantadevaluation of the places intended for the expression of conflict in a representative democracy but which had been declassified as female.²⁰ By propagating a political culture according to which politics was a lively situation of struggle that required concrete, even physical intervention from the individual and literally fist-bumping it on the streets of major German cities, National Socialism considerably narrowed the actual space for female opportunities for participation.²¹

#### The Exclusion of Femininity

The National Socialists' male binary worldview viewed both the attack on the Republic and the rehabilitation of the nation as purely a male affair, which is why the violence perpetrated by the SA had an unmistakably gendered dimension: Violence was almost exclusively perpetrated by men against men, whereas the proportion of women in the paramilitary party army during the Weimar Republic was hotly disputed. Although it was not until the end of the 1920s that the male character of the SA was officially established and women were denied admission, from the beginning it represented an organization led by men and intended for men.²² The female Nazi activists had only a limited scope of action at their disposal, for example with regard to the care of SA uniforms or the treatment of the wounded, but they remained largely excluded from the actual "battle experience." They could therefore not lay claim to equal treatment in this male-dominated community of violence. Even though there were obviously National Socialists with a thirst for action who exposed themselves to physical danger together with the SA thugs in the supposedly "male" political arena of the street and thus disregarded their subaltern role, the female share in the militant street politics of the Nazi movement was an exceptional phenomenon.²³

<sup>20</sup> Siemens, "Erobern," 276.

<sup>21</sup> Thomas Mergel, Parlamentarische Kultur in der Weimarer Republik: Politische Kommunikation, symbolische Politik und Öffentlichkeit im Reichstag (Düsseldorf: Droste Verlag, 2002), 411–472; Heinsohn, Konservative Parteien; Benjamin Ziemann, Contested Commemorations: Republican War Veterans and Weimar Political Culture (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013).

<sup>22</sup> Andrew Wackerfuss, Stormtrooper Families: Homosexuality and Community in the Early Nazi Movement (New York: Harrington Park Press, 2015), 190–191; Reichardt, Kampfbünde, 673–679. 23 Siemens, Sturmabteilung, 138–139.

This exclusion of femininity was also demonstrated visually, for example when the young party soldiers presented themselves publicly as protectors of the nation and incarnations of the Nazi vision. To avoid any appearance of intimacy or doubt about their loyalty, the wives and children of SA men were not allowed to join the marches.²⁴ There was no room for individual life stories and convictions under the brown shirt. In his interpretation of the fascist psyche, Klaus Theweleit stated in the 1970s that marching SA men were not, however, a "genderless" mass; rather, they embodied a new type of masculinity in this way.²⁵ Any absence of femininity in the SA's "body armor" virtually corresponded to violent male fantasies of domination, struggle, and pleasure derived from sexual aggression.

In its vehement, openly propagated rejection of the sexualized "masculine woman", the so-called "red gun woman", the NSDAP party army, on the other hand, was decidedly anti-feminist and misogynistic.²⁶ In the so-called "SA-non-fiction novel," a widespread genre of self-representation, women repeatedly appear as shameless, lustful, gauche, and fearful seducers; the fear of the sexualized woman, the "female hyena," stands out clearly in the National Socialist gender perspective.²⁷ And in fascist propaganda and memoralism, a special threat emanates from the "Moscow big-city whores" as a gender connotation of communist politics, even if in reality violent clashes between fascists and "gun-women" occurred only extremely rarely. In fascist circles, the de-sexualized "nurse," who stood by the SA man, "heroically stuffing the hero's uniform and staging his masculinity through her admiration," figured as the antithesis of the new political woman with a bob.²⁸ Internal SA training material from 1929 further suggests the efforts of the Supreme SA leadership to control all areas of the lives of ordinary SA men, including sexuality, and to shield them from female temptations: While German women and girls were to be respected and honored, the National Socialist had to distance himself from the sensual and stay away from those women who acted un-German.²⁹ To a certain extent, the SA saw itself as a form of party-based protest organization against the change in gender norms represented by the Weimar Republic.³⁰

<sup>24</sup> Ibid., 116; Reichardt, Kampfbünde, 677.

<sup>25</sup> Klaus Theweleit, Männerphantasien, 2 vols. (Frankfurt am Main: Verlag Roter Stern, 1977–1978). Sven Reichardt offers a critical examination of Theweleit's work: Sven Reichardt, "Klaus Theweleits 'Männerphantasien': Ein Erfolgsbuch der 1970er-Jahre," Zeithistorische Forschungen/Studies in Contemporary History 3 (2006): 401–421.

<sup>26</sup> Müller, "Habitus," 366; Reichardt, Kampfbünde, 684–688.

<sup>27</sup> For this and the following quotations, see Reichardt, Kampfbünde, 690.

<sup>28</sup> Ibid.

<sup>29</sup> Siemens, Sturmabteilung, 118–119.

<sup>30</sup> Martina Kessel, "Demokratie als Grenzverletzung: Geschlecht als symbolisches System in der Weimarer Republik," in Geschlechter(un)ordnung und Politik in der Weimarer Republik, eds. Gabri-

#### The Redesign of Male Identity

Historical studies have already shown many times that the majority of SA men did not always conform to the National Socialist ideal of the steely "German man." This becomes clear, for example, in the jargon of the urban SA thugs, which was often borrowed from the criminal milieu of the underworld. With their more or less creative nicknames – they were called "Mollenpampe," "Revolverschnauze," or "Gummibein" – or the meaningful epithets of SA detachments – "Mördersturm," "Räubersturm," or "Tanzgilde" – they expressed their need to belong to a conspiratorial community that was sealed off from the outside world.³¹ Other, more potent nicknames, such as "Klöten-Karl," alluded to the prevailing ideal of masculinity. And finally, masculinity in the SA meant above all male camaraderie. This also and above all reveals the fraternizing-brotherly trait of the National Socialist figuration of masculinity, which was characterized by the absence of traditional patriarchal images of masculinity.³² Many of the SA men were still too young to be fathers and thus to assume the role of man as father and head of household. Other images of masculinity – the careerist, the bon vivant, or the lover – were also not suitable as identity models, since they were not accorded any masculinity value by the young pugilists of the SA. In this crisis of classical images of masculinity, the new ideals of masculinity emerged from the aestheticization and glorification of violence, the community-building experiences in the fighting unit, and the fist in the face of the political opponent. But it was only through the drafting of a new – gender-coded – moral order that this male hierarchy was also legitimized. In this image of masculinity, "the most masculine of men, the most vital, energetic, and violent, … was accorded a prominent position, one that he 'earned'."³³ According to Sven Reichardt, this ultimately marked the fascist reevaluation of the order of values in civil society.

Particularly in large cities like Berlin, many of the SA detachments often operated in the style of criminal street gangs, terrifying entire neighborhoods with their violent methods and providing themselves with the basic necessities of life. Ernst Haffner's milieu novel Jugend auf der Landstraße Berlin, published in 1932 and inspired by the criminal youth groups Haffner encountered as a journal-

ele Metzler and Dirk Schumann (Bonn: Verlag J.H.W. Dietz Nachf., 2016), 236–253; Kathleen Canning, "The Order and Disorder of Gender in the History of the Weimar Republic," in Geschlechter(un)ordnung und Politik in der Weimarer Republik, eds. Gabriele Metzler and Dirk Schumann (Bonn: Verlag J.H.W. Dietz Nachf., 2016), 59–79.

<sup>31</sup> Müller, "Habitus," 364.

<sup>32</sup> Reichardt, Kampfbünde, 672–673, 696.

<sup>33</sup> Ibid., 673.

ist between Alexanderplatz and Schlesischer Bahnhof, traces the bleak living conditions and radical actions of such street gangs.³⁴ Their members often came from dysfunctional families and were unable to find work even as poorly paid day laborers, which is why they joined together to form so-called cliques, communities of solidarity based on fate. The hierarchically organized gangs, led by a "gang leader" at the top, also served as a substitute for families. Not only in organizational terms – hierarchically structured according to a strict leader principle and ideally subordinated to a charismatic as well as local SA leader – did the metropolitan SA detachments resemble street gangs: As small units with a high degree of independence, they met daily in their SA pubs or SA homes, where there was an opportunity for everyone to get to know their comrades personally.³⁵ Especially the pubs, where a rough tone and excessive alcohol consumption prevailed, functioned as meeting places and operations centers, whereby the SA fighting groups grew together into lively units.³⁶ Alcohol binges and noisy camaraderie reinforced the feeling of belonging to a conspiratorial group, they strengthened the emotional closeness to each other and were the appropriate occasion to drink up the necessary courage for the next assassination attempt or robbery. Here, in short, the members found their new center of life, which elevated the men's association to a quasi-family substitute, cultivating a "gang-like lifestyle" habitually expressed through militant, raw masculinity, thus forcing and consolidating violence on the streets.³⁷

#### The "Threatened" Men's Association

The concept of the male association was a supporting element of Nazi ideology and, as it were, an essential foundation of the male state as propagated by the National Socialists. In demarcation from the supposedly feminine form of state of the

<sup>34</sup> See Ernst Haffner, Jugend auf der Landstrasse Berlin (Berlin: Paul Cassirer Verlag, 1932). A contemporary "hymnal critique" provides Siegfried Kracauer, "Großstadtjugend ohne Arbeit: Zu den Büchern von Lamm und Haffner," in Siegfried Kracauer: Essays, Feuilletons, Rezensionen, vol. 5.4: 1932–1965, ed. Inka Mülder-Bach (Berlin: Suhrkamp Verlag, 2011), 240–243. A new edition of the novel was published in 2013 under a different title: Ernst Haffner, Blutsbrüder: Ein Berliner Cliquenroman (Berlin: Walde + Graf bei Metrolit, 2013).

<sup>35</sup> Reichardt, "Vergemeinschaftung," 23.

<sup>36</sup> Martin Göllnitz, "Entgrenzte Männerkameraderie, gewalttätige Volksgemeinschaft: Perspektiven auf die Neustadter SA," in Volksgemeinschaft in der Gauhauptstadt: Neustadt an der Weinstraße und der Nationalsozialismus, ed. Markus Raasch (Münster: Aschendorff Verlag, 2020), 117–118.

<sup>37</sup> Schumann, "Gewalt," 138; Reichardt, Kampfbünde, 416–432, 460–476; Longerich, Geschichte, 126– 130; Bessel, Violence, 49–53.

Republic, the SA therefore deliberately staged the image of a "counter-society," which was understood as a new draft of male identity, an energetic, always ready for action and violent men's association.³⁸ However, for the SA, the use of Hans Blüher's well-known – and at first glance obvious – "Männerbund theory" does not hold up empirically. Especially since older studies too often use terms like homoeroticism, homosexuality, "latent homosexuality," friendship, and homosociality synonymously. This gave rise to the abstruse notion that there was a causal connection between homosexual men joining the party army and a certain affinity for physicality in the SA. To this day, the meaning as well as the interpretation of male association, homosexuality, and National Socialism do not seem to have been conclusively clarified, as evidenced by a research dispute that flared up in the mid-2000s in the "Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft": The occasion for the dispute was the study "Hitlers Geheimnis" written by Lothar Machtan in 2001, in which he promotes the myth of the homoerotic male association of the National Socialists, with which anti-homosexual reservations and heterosexual exoneration strategies can be linked.³⁹ Machtan received support from Hans-Rudolf Wahl, in whose remarks the aberrant construct of the "gay Nazi" resonates and who rejects a conceptual separation of the aforementioned terms as an inadmissibly constructed dichotomy.⁴⁰ With his ludicrous claim that "homosexuality constituted one of its [the SA's, author's note] essential elements," he constructs a specious ubiquity of homosexuality in the Nazi movement and turns an individual aspect (the homosexuality of Ernst Röhm and some SA leaders) into a generic principle.⁴¹ Such a perspective, apparently based on homophobic prejudices, con-

<sup>38</sup> Müller, "Habitus," 366.

<sup>39</sup> The historian Lothar Machtan tries to construct evidence from the speculative slander of the exile press, weak contemporary references and questionable speculations that he has uncovered "Hitler's secret" and his "double life," which conceals the hypothesis that he was homosexually inclined, but concealed this by all conceivable means. Machtan's effort to reinterpret the power conflict of June 30, 1934 as a purely private action on Hitler's part also thrives solely on the fact that the widely accepted interpretation of the Röhm crisis is sovereignly pushed aside and its specifically political dimension is excluded. See Lothar Machtan, Hitlers Geheimnis: Das Doppelleben eines Diktators (Berlin: Alexander Fest Verlag, 2001). For a clear critique of the book, see Hans Mommsen, "Viel Lärm um nichts," DIE ZEIT, October 11, 2001, https://www.zeit.de/2001/42/Viel\_Laerm\_um\_ nichts? (accessed August 5, 2022).

<sup>40</sup> Hans-Rudolf Wahl, "Männerbünde, Homosexualitäten und politische Kultur im ersten Drittel des 20. Jahrhunderts: Überlegungen zur Historiografie der SA," Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft 52, no. 3 (2004): 224. The following quote can also be found there.

<sup>41</sup> Sven Reichardt and Andreas Pretzel rightly criticize such an approach: Sven Reichardt, "Homosexualität und SA-Führer: Plädoyer für eine Diskursgeschichte," Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft 52, no. 8 (2004): 737–740; Andreas Pretzel, "Homophobie und Männerbund. Plädoyer für einen Perspektivwechsel," Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft 53, no. 11 (2005): 1034–1044.

ceptual inaccuracies, and a lack of distance from historical sources, simply ignores homosexuality as a National Socialist cause of persecution.

In contrast, the consensus in research is that Blühers' concept of the homoerotic male association, although it took up some ideas and ideals of the National Socialist worldview and was viewed favorably by Röhm, was rejected by the majority of the Nazi movement – it contradicted too much the principles of hegemonic masculinity propagated by the National Socialist male association. Hegemonic masculinity in heteronormatively structured societies such as the Nazi system of rule is, according to Raewyn Connell, homosocial and homophobic in equal measure, since the imagined "homosexual" represents the antitype of hegemonic masculinity.⁴² Openly practiced homosexuality within the SA seems extremely unlikely for this reason alone, but does not rule out its occurrence.⁴³ Overall, however, Alfred Baeumler's concept of the male association may have been more in line with Nazi ideas, in which heterosexual self-insurance is elevated to the basic condition of a homosocial male association that is detached from any physical love or sexuality.⁴⁴

However, the question of what distinguished the SA as a male association and what role Ernst Röhm's homosexuality played in this is not only being discussed in recent research, rather it was already heating up the minds of the contemporary press. Asaresult of a professionally organized press campaign led by the Social Democrats, which in 1932 made public three authentic letters by Röhm in which the SA chief of staff comments on his homosexuality, the legend that National Socialism was a movement dominated by homosexuals gradually took shape and ultimately condensed into the stereotype of the "homosexual Nazi."⁴⁵ Within the exile press, suspicions even ran rampant about which prominent Nazis possessed similar inclinations, with Rudolf Hess ("Mrs. Hitler") and Reich Youth Leader Bal-

<sup>42</sup> Raewyn Connell, Der gemachte Mann. Konstruktion und Krise von Männlichkeiten (Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 2015), 223.

<sup>43</sup> Müller, "Habitus," 369. See there also on Blüher's concept of the "Männerbund" in relation to the SA.

<sup>44</sup> Alfred Baeumler, Männerbund und Wissenschaft (Berlin: Junker und Dünnhaupt, 1934). On this topic see also Bernd Widdig, "'Ein herber Kultus des Männlichen': Männerbünde um 1900," in Wann ist der Mann ein Mann? Zur Geschichte der Männlichkeit, eds. Walter Erhart and Britta Herrmann (Stuttgart: J.B. Metzler Verlag, 1997), 235–248.

<sup>45</sup> Nieden and Reichardt, "Skandale," 42; Alexander Zinn, Die soziale Konstruktion des homosexuellen Nationalsozialisten: Zu Genese und Etablierung eines Stereotyps (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1997), 55–76.

dur von Schirach enjoying particular popularity.⁴⁶ Hitler's alleged homosexuality was also repeatedly addressed. In the course of this, the first beginnings of a theory of fascism were established, which constructed a causal nexus of sexual predisposition and political orientation and endeavored to establish a diffuse connection between the dispositions to homosexuality, authoritarian structures, sadism and violence.⁴⁷ With the help of such legends, the homophobic content of National Socialism is simply de-thematized.

Nonetheless, the concern that there might be a shred of truth in the circulated image of the homosexual Nazi – as true as the fact that Röhm's homosexuality and National Socialist convictions were not mutually exclusive – was to haunt the rulers and their organs of repression throughout the Nazi regime's reign.⁴⁸ A "male state" like the Nazi regime, Heinrich Himmler said in a speech delivered in 1937, was always in danger of being destroyed by homosexuality. After all, the homosexual man was considered by many to be unmanly, effeminate and perverted – by no means a virile male hero.⁴⁹ Many leading National Socialists therefore never tired of emphasizing that homosexuality undermined the raison d'état, since it ran counter to population policy objectives and threatened the "male state" in "its

<sup>46</sup> Alexander Zinn, "Zur sozialen Konstruktion des homosexuellen Nationalsozialisten: Der 'Röhm-Putsch' und Homosexuellenverfolgungen 1934/35 im Spiegel der Exilpresse," Capri – Zeitschrift für schwule Geschichte 18 (1995): 24–25. The quotation can also be found there.

<sup>47</sup> Susanne zur Nieden, "Aufstieg und Fall des virilen Männerhelden: Der Skandal um Ernst Röhm und seine Ermordung," in Homosexualität und Staatsräson: Männlichkeit, Homophobie und Politik in Deutschland 1900–1945, ed. Susanne zur Nieden (Frankfurt am Main: Campus Verlag, 2005), 176; Zinn, Konstruktion, 44–47. Probably the most abstruse homophobic interpretative achievement in this context was presented in 1996 by Scott Lively and Kevin Abrams, who declare Röhm's SA to be a product of the homosexual movement. Scott Lively and Kevin Abrams, The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party (Keiser, OR: Founders Publishing Corporation, 1996). That the theses of the two authors are completely untenable can already be seen from the fact that the evangelical missionary Lively is the author of several anti-homosexual books and was involved in the preparation of a law to make homosexuality more punishable in Uganda, which would have resulted in the death penalty for homosexuality. See Jeffrey Gettleman, "Americans' Role Seen in Uganda Anti-Gay Push," New York Times, January 3, 2010, https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/04/world/africa/ 04uganda.html (accessed August 7, 2022); Zoe Alsop, "Uganda's Anti-Gay Bill: Inspired by the U.S.," TIME, December 10, 2009, http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1946645,00.html (accessed August 7, 2022).

<sup>48</sup> On this and the following, see Nieden, "Staatsfeind," 417–418; Nieden and Reichardt, "Skandale," 58.

<sup>49</sup> Göllnitz, "Homophobie," 232; Zinn, Konstruktion; Burkhard Jellonnek, Homosexuelle unter dem Hakenkreuz: Die Verfolgung von Homosexuellen im Dritten Reich (Paderborn: Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, 1990).

very foundations".⁵⁰ The Manichean-binary worldview of these men made a homosexual conspiracy appear to be a real danger to the Nazi state: for example, in the form of an attempted coup, carried out by "homosexual elements" within the SA. Werner Best, for example, remembered a speech by Himmler in which he had told the assembled SS leaders in 1934 that they had "narrowly escaped the danger of getting a state of Urningen."⁵¹

The myth of a homosexual conspiracy was suitable as the narrative core of the "Röhm Putsch" to oust the SA, if only because anti-homosexual reservations were widespread among the German population across all political camps. Thus, it can also be inferred from the mood reports of the Nazi secret services, which are only credible to a limited extent, that the legend of an imminent revolt of homosexual SA leaders, which had been knitted by the party leadership, met with a great response; at the same time, it fulfilled its purpose of "establishing a broad consensus on the assessment of the excess of violence."⁵² Moreover, the knowledge of homosexual men in the SA leadership gave it something like a kernel of truth. Obviously, months of habituation to violence as well as "disgust for the despotic SA" had already systematically undermined the German population's general sense of justice.⁵³ Instead of being shocked by the mass murder for reasons of state, it accepted the legend served up by the murderers; in some cases it even expressly welcomed the bloody crushing of the SA.

#### Violence and Gender

The unmistakably gendered dimension inherent in the SA's acts of violence has already been mentioned. In addition to the fact that violence was almost exclusively perpetrated by men against men, another factor is significant that also aimed at the re-masculinization of everything political and, above all, closely linked the fields of "violence" and "gender identity". With its actions, the SA aimed not only at controlling political space or publicly demonstrating strength and order. The militant terror of the party army was sometimes also about humiliating its victims and destroying them both physically and psychologically: humiliations, orgies

<sup>50</sup> Speech by Heinrich Himmler in 1937, quoted from Susanne zur Nieden, "Homophobie und Staatsräson," in Homosexualität und Staatsräson: Männlichkeit, Homophobie und Politik in Deutschland 1900–1945, ed. Susanne zur Nieden (Frankfurt am Main: Campus Verlag, 2005), 20. 51 Werner Best to Burkhard Jellonnek, June 28, 1984, quoted from Jellonnek, Homosexuelle, 98. "Urning" is an outdated term for a homosexual man, dating from the 19th century.

<sup>52</sup> Nieden, "Aufstieg," 187.

<sup>53</sup> Ian Kershaw, Hitler: 1889–1936 (Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 2002), 654.

of beatings, torture practices, and mock executions were the order of the day in the illegal SA prisons in 1933 and sometimes led to victims committing suicide out of shame while still in captivity or after their release.⁵⁴ The forms of humiliation and degradation were as varied as the perverted power fantasies of the torturers and ranged from cleaning the latrines with bare hands to considerable physical mutilation. In another case, a prisoner was even forced to drink the urine of several SA men and then lick the anus of one SA man.⁵⁵ By wielding physical and psychological power, the SA thugs reinforced their hypermasculine identity, which they had lost during years of economic hardship and social marginalization.⁵⁶

The purpose of the humiliation was obviously the de-masculinization of the victims, who were often demonstratively "feminized" and in part – not only symbolically – "emasculated." This can be seen, for example, in the brutal acts of violence that occurred during the so-called "Köpenicker Blutwoche" in Berlin in 1933. During their abuse, the SA thugs kicked several prisoners in the testicles and penis; in Gustav Brose's case, his genitals were smashed to such an extent that he was no longer able to have sexual intercourse.⁵⁷ After the war, a widow also testified before the Berlin Regional Court that her husband Paul von Essen had even been castrated by the SA in June 1933.⁵⁸ In contrast, such incidents in which the genitals of prisoners were "examined" and checked for circumcision must be considered acts of symbolic emasculation, in which clearly anti-Semitic intentions also played a

<sup>54</sup> For an example of this topic, see Julia Pietsch, "Stigmatisierung von Juden in frühen Konzentrationslagern: Die 'Judenkompanie' des Konzentrationslagers Oranienburg 1933/34," in Stigmatisierung – Marginalisierung – Verfolgung: Beiträge des 19. Workshops zur Geschichte und Gedächtnisgeschichte der nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager, eds. Marco Brenneisen, Christine Eckel, Laura Haendel and Julia Pietsch (Berlin: Metropol Verlag, 2015), 99–120; Sascha Münzel and Eckart Schörle, Erfurt Feldstraße: Ein frühes Lager im Nationalsozialismus (Erfurt: Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Thüringen, 2012); Peter Blachstein, "In uns lebt die Fahne der Freiheit," in Zeugnisse zum frühen Konzentrationslager Burg Hohnstein, eds. Norbert Haase and Mike Schmeitzner (Dresden: Stiftung Sächsische Gedenkstätten zur Erinnerung an die Opfer Politischer Gewaltherrschaft, 2005); Gebhard Aders, "Terror gegen Andersdenkende: Das SA-Lager am Hochkreuz in Köln-Porz," in Instrumentarium der Macht: Frühe Konzentrationslager 1933–1937, eds. Wolfgang Benz and Barbara Diestel (Berlin: Metropol Verlag, 2003), 179–188.

<sup>55</sup> Irene von Götz, "Die Errichtung der Konzentrationslager in Berlin 1933: Entfesselter SA-Terror in der Reichshauptstadt," in Die Linke im Visier: Zur Errichtung der Konzentrationslager 1933, eds. Nikolaus Wachsmann and Sybille Steinbacher (Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2014), 73.

<sup>56</sup> Siemens, Sturmabteilung, 188.

<sup>57</sup> Landesarchiv Berlin (henceforth LAB): C Rep. 300, Nr. 13, Bl. 396, Statement of G. Brose before the Berlin Regional Court, May 5, 1949.

<sup>58</sup> LAB: C Rep. 300, Nr. 13, Bl. 403, Statement of E. von Essen before the Berlin Regional Court, May 28, 1949.

role.⁵⁹ Most frequently, however, brutal and bloody beating rituals can be traced to the exposed buttocks, whereby these were carried out with the most diverse objects, which were apparently available at the time. According to Yves Müller, it was the vulnerability and intimacy of the naked buttocks that made the victims particularly painfully aware of their own defenselessness.⁶⁰

In rarer cases, the prisoners were also deliberately humiliated in front of their wives. They were then mostly exposed and humiliated and abused in the presence of their partners. By forcing them to be naked, the SA thugs took away their bodily integrity and robbed them of their "manly honor."⁶¹ Since the male victims had not been able to protect themselves from the torture and humiliation, it can be assumed that they felt these violent practices as a deep affront to their masculinity. This was especially the case when the SA torturers used swear words like "slut" to describe their victims of violence.⁶² Although feminization was not necessarily a result of demasculinization and objectification, they often formed the precondition for the feminization of victims.⁶³

What becomes clear here is the obviously misogynistic character of the SA violence, which could manifest itself against women in forced nudity, vulgar insults or touching, and openly sexual fisticuffs. This can be exemplified by the mistreatment of the Berlin Social Democrat Maria Jankowski, who had been abducted by SA men in March 1933. In her captivity, she was first forced to strip naked, then SA men laid her across a table, pressed her head down on the flag of the Weimar Republic, spread her legs, and beat her with a total of 60 blows.⁶⁴ Abused women like Maria Jankowski atoned on behalf of those "sexualized" women from whom the National Socialist man felt threatened and whose existence he understood as an unauthorized encroachment on the male sphere⁶⁵ – be it the "red gun woman" of the supposedly threatening Bolshevik revolution or the new political woman who penetrated the working world and society of the Weimar Republic.

<sup>59</sup> Yves Müller, "Männlichkeit und Gewalt in der SA am Beispiel der 'Köpenicker Blutwoche'," in SA-Terror als Herrschaftssicherung: 'Köpenicker Blutwoche' und öffentliche Gewalt im Nationalsozialismus, ed. Stefan Hördler (Berlin: Metropol Verlag, 2013), 136.

<sup>60</sup> Ibid.

<sup>61</sup> See the fundamental contribution by Jane Caplan, "Gender and the Concentration Camps," in Concentration Camps in Nazi Germany: The New Histories, eds. Jane Caplan and Nikolaus Wachsmann (London: Routledge, 2010), 86–95. The following part also refers to it.

<sup>62</sup> LAB, C Rep. 300, Nr. 13, Bl. 392, Statement of F. Jürgens before the Berlin Regional Court, May 25, 1949.

<sup>63</sup> Caplan, "Gender," 86–90; Müller, "Männlichkeit," 136.

<sup>64</sup> LAB, C Rep. 300, Nr. 70, Protocol on the mistreatment against Maria Jankowski, undated.

<sup>65</sup> Pierre Bourdieu, Die männliche Herrschaft (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 2005), 120.

#### Conclusion

As should have become clear, the SA closely linked the fields of "politics," "violence," and "gender identity" in its struggle for political culture and the streets of the Republic. This is evidenced not least by the gender-specific and sexual dimension of many of the SA's violent practices. However, this can by no means be explained by the personality deficits of individual SA sadists; the incidents are too numerous for that and, moreover, took place independently of each other over a longer period of time in different regions of Germany. Rather, violence was the core of the National Socialist conquest of power and was used by the majority of SA men on their own initiative, although the open use of violence took place in waves, i. e. after escalations such as the "Köpenicker Blutwoche" or the "Altonaer Blutsonntag" of 17 July 1932, the violence always subsided or was contained. The reasons for the potential for violence were extremely diverse and were fed by a tangle of motives consisting of fears of social decline, anti-Semitism, hatred of the left, and rejection of the bourgeoisie. The hegemonic masculinity culture of the Nazi movement, which made the cultivation of militant masculinity seem so attractive to many young members of the SA, proved to be an essential breeding ground. Once violence had been declared a principle, it increasingly became both a meaningful component of Nazi ideology andacrisis management strategy of hypermasculine SA masculinity.

By linking a heroic, soldierly image of men with the re-masculinization of everything political, the National Socialists declared war not only on the supposed threat of Bolshevik revolution or the so-called "November criminals" of the Republic, but also on gender equality and the increasing feminization of the political sphere. In view of the habitual and militant character of the SA, staged asare-masculinization of political space – in itselfaform of anti-gender-equality protest – and expressed or depicted as the political struggle for the streets of the Weimar Republic and therefore must be understood not least as a battle of the sexes for political dominance and agency in the public sphere.

#### Works Cited

#### Archival Sources

State Archive (Landesarchiv) Berlin C Rep. 300 Nr. 13 Nr. 70

#### Published Sources and Secondary Works


Baeumler, Alfred. Männerbund und Wissenschaft. Berlin: Junker und Dünnhaupt, 1934.

Balistier, Thomas. Gewalt und Ordnung: Kalkül und Faszination der SA. Münster: Verlag Westfälisches Dampfboot, 1989.


Blachstein, Peter. "In uns lebt die Fahne der Freiheit": Zeugnisse zum frühen Konzentrationslager Burg Hohnstein. Edited by Norbert Haase and Mike Schmeizner. Dresden: Stiftung Sächsische Gedenkstätten zur Erinnerung an die Opfer Politischer Gewaltherrschaft, 2005.

Bourdieu, Pierre. Die männliche Herrschaft. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 2005.


Geschlechterkonstruktionen im Nationalsozialismus und ihre Reflexion in der pädagogischen Praxis, edited by Anette Dietrich and Ljiljana Heise, 7–35. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2013.


#### Jana Günther 11 Feminist Protest as Body Politics

Protest and resistance were and still are gender-coded. Although a 'female' historiography of protest has certainly made it into the canon of history and the social sciences, certain exclusionary narratives along the binary gender logic have persisted to this day.¹ This is reflected in the reporting and particularization of 'female' protest² as well as in the marginalization of certain historical women's movements as a whole. Although feminist activism has recently become en vogue again and is finding its way into debates in the feuilleton, official party politics and everyday life practices, the authoritarian 'anti-feminism'³ backlash – especially in times of crisis – is all the fiercer. This is evident in the media and digital discourse when it comes to activists of the Fridays for Future protests as well as the #metoo movement.

Even though not every protest is feminist and the question arises whether the feminism or the feminist resistance exists at all, feminism has developed under this label into a trope that figuratively unites various protest goals. In the process, feminism has become a rediscovered figurehead for gender equality, sexual freedom and the right to self-determination, but also an enemy image à la 'genderism' and a – quite marketable – way of life and identification category of young successful Western women of the middle and upper classes.⁴

Current women's and gender movements as well as historical feminist protests are not only producers and bearers of social struggles in gendered power relations. They continuously reflect internal and external conflicts, political-ideological contradictions as well as the tension caused by the reproduction of social power rela-

Open Access. © 2023 the author(s), published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111102757-011

Note: All translations from German have been provided by the author, if not stated differently.

<sup>1</sup> This chapter summarizes some thoughts, which I have worked out in Jana Günther, Die politische Inszenierung der Suffragetten in Großbritannien (The Political Staging of the Suffragettes) (Freiburg im Breisgau: fwpf, 2007); Jana Günther, "Protest as Symbolic Politics," in Protest Cultures: A Companion, eds. Kathrin Fahlenbrach, Martin Klimke, and Joachim Scharloth (New York: Berghahn, 2016), 48–64; Jana Günther, "Body Politics Revisited. Feminismus und Widerstand," INDES Zeitschrift für Politik und Gesellschaft 4 (2017): 83–91.

<sup>2</sup> Irmi Wutscher, "Rebell\*innen verändern die Welt," FM4, aired March 8, 2021, https://fm4.orf.at/ stories/3012566/ (accessed September 27, 2022).

<sup>3</sup> Annette Henninger, "Antifeminismen: 'Krisen'-Diskurse mit gesellschaftsspaltendem Potenzial?," in Antifeminismen: Krisen-Diskurse mit gesellschaftsspaltendem Potential?, eds. Annette Henninger and Ursula Birsl (Bielefeld: transcript, 2020), 14–28.

<sup>4</sup> Mirja Stöcker, Das F-Wort: Feminismus ist sexy (Königstein im Taunus: Helmer, 2007), 9–14.

tions in the movement itself. Especially the collective identity of the social movements, which was or is based on gender identity, caused (and still causes) as a source of conflict. From an intersectional perspective, it can be analyzed that other categories of social inequality influence the movements in a conflictual way. This is expressed in the demands, the mobilization and also the forms of organization. I assume that conflicts and ruptures were and are essential markers of feminist movements and that it is part of the historical continuity of women's and gender movements to resolve these conflicts.⁵ This can manifest itself in irretrievable hostilities and exclusions, as can be seen, for example, in conflicts between bourgeois and socialist feminism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Asaresult, new organizations, protest media and new solidarizations with other social movements are formed. Other feminist movement currents radicalize or find other ways of interest articulation through new opportunity structures. To summarize: conflict, dispute and ruptures are an inherent part of our historical women's movements and also of new gender movements in which exclusions existed (and exist) along social relations of inequality and images of hegemonic gender conceptions. However, these conflicts also enabled the expansion of the protest spectrum, the founding of new organizations, solidarizations, and the commitment to new goals.⁶

So, what can be said about the potential for resistance and the mobilization capacity of women or for feminist ideas in general? How and why is protest specifically gendered? Which hegemonic narratives persist in public discourse and historiography? And which role do or could women or gender movements have today?

# Protest, Social Movements and Collective Identity: A Conceptual Approach

Protest action and different forms of protest are specific moments of social movements. They are part of the repertoire of social movements, like mobilization strategies, social movement organizations, campaigns, movement media, leading personalities, discourses, cultures of memory and goal setting, etc. Refusal and resistance can take place very individually, partly also hidden and or in the space of the private or be carried out as an act of individual civil disobedience.

<sup>5</sup> Jana Günther, Fragile Solidaritäten (Hamburg: Marta Press, 2017), 342–355.

<sup>6</sup> Jana Günther and Eva Hinterhuber, "Der Kampf um Macht: Historische Frauenbewegungen in Russland und Großbritannien im Vergleich," Femina Politica 26, no. 1 (2017): 25–26.

However, protests do not necessarily have to belong to or lead to social movements. There is no doubt that protests – most of which are loudly communicated in the media and in public – are part of social movements. Thus: on the one hand, spontaneous protests could herald social movements and on the other hand, they are deliberately initiated by movement actors. However, a protest action or an act of civil disobedience does not necessarily have to be related to a social movement. It can also be carried out by one person as a single act of protest. These acts of resistance can be part of a larger social context and later perhaps even be historically counted as component of the protest action of a social movement, but this is not necessarilyaprerequisite or even the incentive goal of the protest actor. To define protest broadly and, if necessary, to detach it from social movements as a construct, has the advantage of also bringing short-term individual protests or protests carried out by smaller groups into the historical field of vision and of not having to measure protest or acts of resistance in terms of sustained success. Protest in general can be firstly eruptive and non-strategic, like bread riots, revolts or regional wildcat strike actions, and secondly strategically initiated by an already organized and more or less defined group of collective activists. In other words, protests do not necessarily have to result in a politically motivated movement.

The term movement already indicates that there are no clear demarcations in the form of organizing as there are, for example, in the case of political parties or other collective organizations with political goals. Moreover, the term 'social' selfreferentially relates to all areas of social processes, namely collective and individual as well as private and public. Therefore, social movements are amorphous entities, which cannot be sharply delimited and classified.⁷ But in general, it can be defined that actors in social movements strive for social change. Their motivations are fed by dissatisfaction with the existing social and political conditions and by desires for new and better living conditions.⁸

This means, then, that in addition to collective protests, individual acts of protest and resistance, e. g. in the sense of refusing to pay taxes as active civil disobedience propagated by Henry David Thoreau, also fall into the general category of protest. What exactly does civil disobedience mean in this context? Civil disobedience thrives on the will of individuals to protest and could be embedded in a broader, easily mobilized protest context: Examples include the Montgomery bus boycott after the act of civil disobedience by the Black civil rights activist and leader of the youth section of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored

<sup>7</sup> Paul Byrne, Social Movements in Britain (London: Routledge, 1997), 10.

<sup>8</sup> Herbert Blumer, "Collective Behavior," in Principles of Sociology, eds. Alfred M. Lee and Herbert Blumer, 3rd ed. (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1969), 99.

People (NAACP) Rosa Parks⁹ in the year 1955 or the hunger strike strategy of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) after the imprisoned suffragette Marion Wallace-Dunlop¹⁰ in 1909 was successful with it. Civil disobedience is also 'staged' violence, a symbolic act to dramatize a social or political discourse.¹¹ As a form of protest, it is firmly rooted in the history of the rule of law and is mostly associated in the public consciousness with male protesters such as the aforementioned Thoreau, but also Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Civil disobedience is therefore an exceptional method based on civil courage: "Civil disobedience, like solidarity, is a response to problems and not aimed at mere self-expression."¹²

The person who resorts to the method of civil disobedience, as an active citizen or as an activist fighting for civil rights, specifically draws attention to an extraordinary injustice. Thoreau attributed a double function to this form of disobedience: if the act is committed individually, it has an appealing character to the fellow citizens; if the protest can be put on a broad basis, the pressure on the authorities is also increased.¹³ Defining characteristics of civil disobedience include the illegality of the respective action, i. e. the group or individual intentionally violates the legal norm of the state. Certain forms of protest, e. g. in the form of legal street demonstrations or rallies, are accordingly not necessarily to be equated with civil disobedience.

However, individual actions, such as the transgression of Black segregation regulations in the US South, could lead to symbolic crystallization points in social movements and result in broad collective campaigns. Hence the prerequisite for the collectivization and consolidation of protest action is not necessarily a state of relative deprivation of a particular oppressed group. Rather, the injustice must be recognized as such and defined as changeable. A 'culprit,' an enemy, must be identified and a possible solution strategy developed in order to mobilize

<sup>9</sup> Heinrich W. Grosse, "Die Macht der Armen," in Martin Luther King: Leben, Werk und Vermächtnis, eds. Michael Haspel and Britta Waldschmidt-Nelson (Weimar: Wartburg-Verlag, 2008), 16.

<sup>10</sup> Elizabeth Crawford, The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide, 1866–1928 (New York: Routledge, 2001), 179.

<sup>11</sup> Thomas Meyer, Die Inszenierung des Scheins: Voraussetzungen und Folgen symbolischer Politik; Essay-Montage (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1992), 101.

<sup>12</sup> Heinz Kleger, "Ziviler Ungehorsam, Zivilitätsdefizite und Zivilitätspotentiale – Oder: Was heißt 'Zivilgesellschaft'?" Neue soziale Bewegungen 1 (1994): 61.

<sup>13</sup> Thomas Laker, Ziviler Ungehorsam: Geschichte, Begriff, Rechtfertigung (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 1986), 23.

potential protesters.¹⁴ This consensus mobilization ultimately also makes it possible for protest to solidify into continuous action mobilization.¹⁵ The individual awareness of group belonging and the associated allocation of a status that is (or can be) linked to discrimination is an idea that was hinted at by Karl Marx: "In the struggle, of which we have noted only a few phases, this mass becomes united, and constitutes itself as a class for itself. The interests it defends become class interests."¹⁶

A collective awareness of discrimination and exclusion forms collective identities, which are an essential basis of social movements and thus continuous protest action. This processuality also means that collective identities as important mobilization factors are heterogeneous and indifferent and that historical narratives of 'the' first women's movement¹⁷ or the (mostly male-connotated) labor movement¹⁸ should be critically questioned. Collective identities of social movements are context-dependent and always 'in flux.'

So-called 'identity politics,' which are currently the subject of much discussion and criticism, are, accordingly, collective identities of social protest movements. Or, to explain it further, the social movements that rely on identity politics have in common that they collectively rebel against marginalization efforts and experiences of precarity that happen to them on the basis of othering and exclusion because of categories like race, class, and gender. Here it becomes clear that it is a matter of a 'place of identity' assigned by domination.¹⁹ Identity politics can be – but do not necessarily have to be – a fragment of collective identity in social movements. However, the concept of collective identity, which is explicitly used in social movement research and comes from sociological action and interaction theory, captures a larger dimension of protest action. If we understand collective identity asastarting point and in 'constant flux,' which has a constituting and transformative effect on social movements, then identity politics can be under-

<sup>14</sup> Dieter Rucht, "Politischer Protest in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland," in Politische Partizipation zwischen Konvention und Protest: Eine studienorientierte Einführung, ed. Beate Hoecker (Opladen: Verlag Barbara Budrich, 2006), 200.

<sup>15</sup> Bert Klandermans, "The Demand and Supply of Participation: Social Psychological Correlates of Participation in a Social Movement," in The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements, eds. David A. Snow et al. (Malden: Blackwell, 2007), 370.

<sup>16</sup> Karl Marx, The Poverty of Philosophy: Answer to the 'Philosophy of Poverty' by M. Proudhon (Moscow: Foreign Languages Publ. House, 1892), 195.

<sup>17</sup> Günther, Fragile Solidaritäten, 66.

<sup>18</sup> Stanley Aronowitz, The Politics of Identity: Class, Culture, Social Movements (New York: Routledge, 1992).

<sup>19</sup> Sabine Hark, "Identität ist Politik ist Identitätspolitik? Ein Zwischenruf," blog interdisziplinäre geschlechterforschung, accessed June 20, 2020, https://www.gender-blog.de/ueber-uns.

stood as a possible component of these. Identity politics are the initial spark for certain movements for which experiences of oppression and discrimination have a direct mobilizing effect, be it in the organization of protest structures or direct actions. However, they are not a necessary essence for the emergence or continuation of social movements. Examples such as the heterogeneous spectra of the student movement in 1968, the environmental movements of the 1970s and 1980s, the opposition movements in Eastern European states before 1989, or peace and human rights movements in general show that it is not always identitarian lines of difference (such as class, race, and gender) and the resulting experiences of discrimination that lead to protests and the emergence of social movements.

Women's and gender movements in particular comprise part of a specifically constituted common (yet constructed) experience of oppression. This can be expressed for the historical but also current gender movement. However, this should not obscure the fact that while identity politics have a constituting effect, the movements themselves were more heterogeneous, while the protest spectrum was – and still is – indifferent in itself.

#### Protest Action as Symbolic Politics

Symbolic and image politics as well as the so-called 'staging of political action' are conducted in research on social movements and protest from different theoretical perspectives but rarely from one of gender studies. For the analysis of women's and gender movements and their forms of protest, an additional perspective can be brought into play. This is because the reappraisal of these movements' history is subject to a particular and traditional understanding in women's and gender studies: they emphasize the entry of women from the private into the public (and thus political) sphere. Although it is demonstrable that, as already mentioned, protest action can take place individually and in the private space, the reference point of the bourgeois public sphere is politologically as well as historically more than relevant in relation to social movements. This narrative still carries weight today and is, at the same time, to be understood as a relevant 'symbolic staging category' for feminist activists. With 'full body effort' – and this is to be taken quite literally at this point – feminist actors stand up for emancipation and basic human rights.

The term 'symbolic politics' originally comes from a debate about the so-called placebo policies of state institutions. This perspective, which also exists in everyday life with equally negative connotations, assumes that media-mediated politics follows a mere logic of staging the theatricalization of politics, i. e., an illusion versus political reality.²⁰ The approach of "symbolic politics from above" deliberately relies on the separation of political reality, in the sense of factual political work that is rather difficult to convey, and the targeted 'showcasing' of political processes in the media, which serves a partly intentional simplification of the unavoidable complexity of political decision-making processes with the help of symbols, rituals, images, and common schemes.²¹ This concealment of 'real' political conditions and processes is a normalized practice additionally reinforced by the economic market character of the media. Murray Edelman states that public processes therefore always conform to a certain dramaturgy and schematization, while at the same time, the political decision-making processes that directly influence the living conditions of the members of society remain largely 'hidden.'²² As a "political placebo,"²³ it serves to reassure the general public and aims to shape public opinion and tries to set trends strategically. This "symbolic politics from above" is a politics of empty symbolism without any reference to reality; it is merely strategic action that provides no arguments and aims solely at public perception.²⁴ This kind of staging is necessary in order to make politically institutionalized processes somewhat comprehensible. However, this also bears the danger of concealment and intransparency, which could be deliberately exploited.

This kind of foreshortening and symbolic representation of political processes is also used by continuous social movements in their mobilization and protest actions. On the one hand, protest action can scandalize grievances and placebo politics in the institutionalized political system (for example, in the field of anti-discrimination) through "symbolic politics from below."²⁵ On the other hand, social movements as a point of reference for numerous protest groups, campaigns, and support organizations have the problem of public communication when it comes to presenting their complex goals and strategies.

This politological perspective on symbolic action in the political sphere can be extended to include a sociological component: protest as a struggle for symbolic power.²⁶ Following Marx, Pierre Bourdieu assumes that economic capital produces

23 Dörner, Politischer Mythos und Symbolische Politik, 53.

<sup>20</sup> Andreas Dörner, Politischer Mythos und Symbolische Politik: Sinnstiftung durch symbolische Formen am Beispiel des Hermannsmythos (Opladen: VS Verlag, 1995), 45.

<sup>21</sup> Meyer, Die Inszenierung des Scheins, 19–30.

<sup>22</sup> Murray Edelman, Politik als Ritual: Die symbolische Funktion staatlicher Institutionen und politischen Handelns (Frankfurt am Main/New York: Campus, 1990), xii.

<sup>24</sup> Meyer, Die Inszenierung des Scheins, 55–70.

<sup>25</sup> Ibid., 66.

<sup>26</sup> Pierre Bourdieu, Zur Soziologie der symbolischen Formen (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1974).

social classes. However, according to Bourdieu's critique of Marx, the restriction to the effects of economic capital alone loses sight of the dimensions of social distinction that go beyond this, which Bourdieu tries to correct with the concept of social and cultural capital. According to Bourdieu's further argumentation, social and cultural capital can be transformed into symbolic capital, which is then perceived as a legitimate structuring mechanism. For Bourdieu, it is precisely this symbolic power that structures social reality, i. e., individuals hold certain positions in social space on the basis of their economic but also social and cultural capital, which are symbolically fixed and therefore structure the social field. The decisive determination of the position takes place through the habitus as a "structured and structuring structure." The habitus thus constitutes social reality as well as social positions in the form of patterns of perception, functions as a social distinguishing feature (which expresses itself in certain lifestyles or behavioral patterns, for example), and controls the perception of belonging or demarcation. It also has the effect that the different positions of unequally distributed power may be accepted as a structured whole. The common patterns of perception produced in this way thereby establish dominance, but these are not of transcendental origin but result from political struggles for symbolic power.²⁷

There is also a connection between habitus and mobilization. Protest movements are habitually stabilized conflict systems with visually-expressive protest symbols,²⁸ which have a strategic effect both outward and inward into the movement. These, to some extent, highly symbolically conveying codes have a general consolidating function but are also of mediating importance in the struggle for hegemonic power vis-à-vis the 'dominant culture.' For the analysis of symbolic politics, this means that even the group that has the most symbolic capital and asserts itself with it ultimately also provides the dominant symbols as exclusive offers of interpretation. In this understanding, the battle rages for the legitimate 'labeling' power to create socially binding terms, definitions, and interpretations.²⁹ Strategic protest action thus forces precisely these struggles for interpretation and generates appealing strategies internally, for mobilization purposes and group consolidation, and externally, in order to communicate the goals to the public. Judith Butler has

<sup>27</sup> Gerhard Göhler, "Symbolische Politik – Symbolische Praxis: Zum Symbolverständnis in der deutschen Politikwissenschaft," in Was heißt Kulturgeschichte des Politischen? ed. Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2005), 64.

<sup>28</sup> Kathrin Fahlenbrach, Protest-Inszenierungen: Visuelle Kommunikation und kollektive Identitäten in Protestbewegungen (Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien, 2002), 85.

<sup>29</sup> Dörner, Politischer Mythos und symbolische Politik, 49.

extended her theoretical reflections about the performativity of gender to protest and calls these processes "performative politics."³⁰

Women's and gender movements are excellent examples of these processes. Firstly, the image of women and their fixed social roles, which is usually solidified by the state, offers interesting opportunity structures for women to stage protests in a special way. Secondly, the social and health policies established with the formation of modern states, which actually served as a cover for a rigid sexual policy to control the population, contributed to the female body being objectified and labeled as something that must be treated and policed by the state. The gendered body itself was thus brought into the light of protest.

#### Patriarchy and Body Politics

Protests and social movements are not domains unique to men, even if the image of protesting women in history is still limited to powerful stereotypes. Viewed over the centuries, however, one can certainly speak of a range of images of protesting women: "Above the chimerical figure of a mere appendage, there are images of productive beings and rebellious women, who have extensively wrangled and fought, defended their spheres of power and preserved their earthliness for a long time, but also of gentle rebels who knew how to steal new spaces of action for themselves with quiet cunning. In short, women increasingly appear as acting subjects, as hard-working, unruly, cunning creatures."³¹ 'Female' strategies of action do not necessarily receive specific attention in movement research, neither theoretically nor empirically, though special attention is given to their social movements and protests.

The history of the emergence of modern state contract theories in the 17th and 18th centuries, and with it the development of Western bourgeois social orders, is marked by a specific blank space: it has always constituted its political subjects, civil society, and public sphere through the opposition to female nature and privacy along patriarchal categories.³² The separation of the public, civil world and the private, marital, or family sphere was accordingly fundamental to the modern

<sup>30</sup> Judith Butler, Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015), 29.

<sup>31</sup> Bettina Heintz and Claudia Honegger, "Zum Strukturwandel weiblicher Widerstandsformen im 19. Jahrhundert," in Listen der Ohnmacht: Zur Sozialgeschichte weiblicher Widerstandsformen, eds. Claudia Honegger and Bettina Heintz (Frankfurt am Main: Europäische Verlagsanstalt, 1981), 7. 32 Carole Pateman, "Der Brüderliche Gesellschaftsvertrag," in Feministische Perspektiven der Politikwissenschaft, eds. Kathrin Braun et al. (Munich: Oldenbourg, 2000), 20.

state. The patriarchal rule of kings over subjects and fathers over sons was to be replaced by a fraternal social contract that freed freeborn males from their fetters³³ and enabled them to 'give birth' to a 'civil body politic' in an act of reason, in the words of Carole Pateman.³⁴

This one body constitutes, as John Locke emphasized, "one people, one body politic, under one supreme government."³⁵ This "Artificiall [!] Man"³⁶ or "corps artificial"³⁷ in its symbolism forms the basis of the very idea of a bourgeois social order. While this body politic dissolved the patriarchal-feudal order, paving the way for the free consenting (male) citizen, it reconstructed an unequally modern patriarchalism³⁸ at the expense of all women. The classical liberal idea of transforming individuals into legal subjects is reflected here. Women were excluded from this idea, as were very poor classes of the population. Furthermore, women were relegated to the family sphere and were to confine themselves to bed and hearth.³⁹ The power of the male head – father, brother, or even son – of the family over the female members of the household could be explained by the natural characteristics of the sexes, as Jean-Jacques Rousseau explains in his Émile: Women simply cannot act based on their own reason.⁴⁰ Rousseau's Sophie⁴¹ is therefore a creature of the home and the family, while Émile grows up to be a mature citoyen.⁴² The state was therefore created by men from the very beginning, as the Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf put it, but it had so many shortcomings that it was absolutely the task of women to intervene in the affairs of state and politics: "Oh, we women are not perfect beings! You men are no more perfect than we are. How can we achieve what is great and good if we do not help each other? We do

40 Rousseau, Du contrat social, 171.

42 Barbara Caine, English Feminism: 1780–1980 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), 17.

<sup>33</sup> Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Du contrat social, ou, Principes du droit politique (Amsterdam: Chez Marc-Michel Rey, 1762), 2.

<sup>34</sup> Pateman, Der brüderliche Gesellschaftsvertrag, 25.

<sup>35</sup> John Locke, The Second Treatise on Civil Government (Amherst, MA: Prometheus Books, 1986), 50.

<sup>36</sup> Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, or the Matter, Forme, and Power of a Common-Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill (London: Crooke, 1651), 2, 99, 108, 140.

<sup>37</sup> Rousseau, Du contrat social, 103.

<sup>38</sup> Pateman, Der brüderliche Gesellschaftsvertrag, 25.

<sup>39</sup> Eva Kreisky, "Der Stoff aus dem die Staaten sind: Zur männerbündischen Fundierung politischer Ordnung," in Das Geschlechterverhältnis als Gegenstand der Sozialwissenschaften, eds. Regina Becker-Schmidt (Frankfurt am Main: Campus, 1995), 85.

<sup>41</sup> Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Émile Et Sophie Ou Les Solitaires (Paris: Arvensa Editions, 2019).

not believe that the work can be accomplished all at once, but we believe that it would be folly to refuse our help."⁴³

Women's critiques were subsequently directed at the body politic(s) for which the exclusion of female subjects was constitutive. They demanded to become a legitimate part of the 'artificial body' or, better, part of the 'body politic.' This brief review of the history of political theory and the specific use of language shows that the state and statehood are in and of themselves symbolic imaginaries that are produced performatively.

#### A Legitimate Part of the History of the Revolt

The starting point of the political transformation described by women's movement activists of the first wave can be located in the epoch of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution.⁴⁴ Both had an impact on the overall historical development of Europe and the establishment of parliamentarism.

The upheavals and reconfiguration of France after the Revolution of 1789 shook the 'God-given' state system throughout Europe and eliminated the feudal social order of the Ancien Régime. Women were, of course, part of the rebellious masses who set this process in motion and drove the revolutionary overthrow: Sanscullottes, contemptuously also called Tricoteuses, joined forces on 5 October 1789 and marched to Versailles, followed that afternoon by the National Guard.⁴⁵ The Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen (1789) put the social contract idea into a form that placed women's rights at the center of the political negotiation of state and politics.⁴⁶ However, much of the promise of the French Revolution remained unfulfilled. Olympe de Gouges subsequently published her Déclaration des droits de la femme et de la citoyenne (1791), stormed the Assemblée nationale with petitions, and founded the first women's associations. She deserves credit, as the German socialist women's rights activist Lily Braun put it, for organ-

<sup>43</sup> Selma Lagerlöf, Heim und Staat (Düsseldorf: Frauenstimmrechtverband für Westdeutschland, 1913), 19.

<sup>44</sup> Lily Braun, Die Frauenfrage: Ihre Geschichtliche, Entwicklung und wirtschaftliche Seite (Leipzig: Verlag von S. Hirzel, 1901), 62.

<sup>45</sup> Dominique Godineau, "Töchter der Freiheit und revolutionäre Bürgerinnen," in Geschichte der Frauen. 19. Jahrhundert, eds. Geneviève Fraisse and Michelle Perrot (Frankfurt am Main: Campus, 2006), 26.

<sup>46</sup> Elisabeth G. Sledziewski, "Die Französische Revolution als Wendepunkt," in Geschichte der Frauen. 19. Jahrhundert, eds. Geneviève Fraisse and Michelle Perrot (Frankfurt am Main: Campus, 2006), 45.

izing the women's movement and making it a noteworthy factor in public life.⁴⁷ De Gouges paid for her commitment with her life, however, because the revolutionaries took Article X of her writing seriously – she argues here that if women are to ascend the scaffold, they must also be granted the right to ascend a rostrum – and sentenced her to death by guillotine.⁴⁸

The explicit exclusion of women from civic rights was criticized above all by Gottlieb von Hippel in the German-speaking world and Mary Wollstonecraft in the United Kingdom, who, along with De Gouges, became important inspirational figures of the later women's movements. Wollstonecraft's main focus was to free the Rousseau-like Sophie from the confines of the home and from her 'faults'⁴⁹ to grant her the same education and rights as Émile and thus make her a responsible citizen. On the one hand, her pugnacious refusal to compromise and her criticism of Rousseau were met with scorn – her contemporary Horace Walpole, for example, called her a hyena in petticoats. On the other hand, her writings became important sources of legitimacy for women's rights activists throughout Europe. Hippel proclaimed in the German-speaking world at almost the same time and in the same tone that the "longer one does not take the liberty of depriving women of their voice and seat in everything that concerns the dignity of the fatherland and the state so unjustly, the angrier this sex will run riot as soon as the bridles of coercion and slavery are broken."⁵⁰ However, it was precisely this hesitancy to deal with the women's question in the slowly emerging parliamentary institutions that represented the starting signal for women's movements, which were initially constituted on a national level and subsequently organized themselves on an international level.

The democratic upheavals and women's concrete exclusion also enabled them to become aware of their antagonistic situation, broaden their basis of argumentation, and demand civil rights: "As feminists mobilized to demand citizenship in the wake of democratic revolutions of the eighteenth century, they pointed to the political capacities of queens and of ordinary women such as Joan of Arc to legitimize their claims that political rights ought not to be denied them because

<sup>47</sup> Braun, Die Frauenfrage, 74.

<sup>48</sup> Olympe de Gouges, "Erklärung der Rechte der Frau," in Schriften, eds. Regula Wyss, Vera Mostowlansky, and Monika Dillier (Basel: Verlag Roter Stern, 1980), 42.

<sup>49</sup> Mary Wollstonecraft and Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects (Philadelphia: Printed for Mathew Carey, 1794), 326.

<sup>50</sup> Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel, Über die bürgerliche Verbesserung der Weiber (Berlin: Voß, 1792), 251.

of their sex."⁵¹ The idea of the responsible citizen, which went hand in hand with the demand for a comprehensive political transformation, was taken to its logical conclusion by the first feminist thinkers and extended as a demand for the inclusion of women. This became the intellectual basis for the demand for political rights. In this sense, entering the public sphere was an essential step toward women's emancipation.⁵²

#### Body Politics as Embodiment of Resistance

The French Revolution had shown women that they were "not children."⁵³ The militancy and contentiousness of the women revolutionaries was, therefore, a first prelude. Generations of women's movements followed, such as the suffragette movement in Great Britain, the radicals and nihilists in Russia, and the radical women's rights activists in the Wilhelmine Empire, who took the women's question out of the salons and onto the streets, and thus into the public sphere.

The Russian nihilists, for example, strove for total freedom in the anarchist sense.⁵⁴ They were concerned with sexual self-determination and equal educational opportunities for women and men. These goals were not only to be achieved politically but were also to be reflected in progressive ways of life. Among the Russian radicals who wanted to end tsarism through political murder were numerous prominent women. After the successful tyrannicide of Alexander II in 1881, the women's movement was largely pushed into illegality, but it re-emerged with the start of the Russian Revolution in 1905.⁵⁵

At about the same time, the militant suffragettes in Great Britain were making a name for themselves. Prominent leaders of this movement, such as Emmeline Pankhurst,⁵⁶ demonstrably identified with the aims of the French Revolution and borrowed movement insignia and symbols from the French revolutionary con-

<sup>51</sup> Joan W. Scott, "Introduction," in Feminism and History, ed. Joan W. Scott (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), 1.

<sup>52</sup> Günther, Fragile Solidaritäten, 132.

<sup>53</sup> Sledziewski, Die Französische Revolution als Wendepunkt, 48.

<sup>54</sup> Anna Köbberling, Zwischen Liquidation und Wiedergeburt: Frauenbewegung in Russland von 1917 bis heute (Frankfurt am Main: Campus, 1993), 14.

<sup>55</sup> Manfred Alexander and Günther Stökl, Russische Geschichte: Von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart (Stuttgart: Alfred Kröner Verlag, 2009), 596.

<sup>56</sup> Rebecca West, "A Reed of Steel: Essay on Mrs Pankhurst from the Post-Vicorians, 1933," in The Young Rebecca: Writings of Rebecca West, 1911–17, eds. Rebecca West and Jane Marcus (New York: Viking, 1982), 261.

text.⁵⁷ While the established women's suffrage movement relied on traditional methods such as petitions, lobbying, and carefully planned meetings, suffragette organizations such as the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) resorted to more public protest actions. These ranged from acts of civil disobedience such as taxpayer and census refusals, large-scale representative demonstrations, militant acts against the regulatory power, and, later, targeted destructive violence. The large-scale demonstrations' "spectacle du nombre"⁵⁸ intended to highlight the size and import of the cause and the women's movement as a whole. In the end, it was necessary to refute the opinion fomented in the press and by the Liberal government that by far the greater part of the female population did not want women's suffrage at all. Such deliberate appropriations of public space through street protest were deliberately intended, firstly, to lead women out of the non-political, private sphere intended for them and, secondly, to stage an 'artificial human being' opposed to the male state system, who was to lend emphasis to the unity of the political demand.

Nevertheless, it was not only the embodiment of a defensible suffragette army⁵⁹ that went into battle for women's suffrage under the motto "Deeds not Words" that was deliberately staged: women's own bodies became a form of political expression. The modern woman's new contentiousness and her risking of her rights, even her physical integrity – through confrontations with the police or hunger strikes after imprisonment – was a political statement both internally and externally. It encouraged feminist followers – at least in the early years – to undertake new deeds, and the constant public scandals were adapted to the evolving opportunity structures of a media economy newly constituted at the turn of the century. Suffragettes smashed windows and de-glassed entire shopping arcades. Particularly popular targets of the attacks were precisely those places with symbolic significance as places of political power and thus of the male public. The motto "Votes for Women" was etched with acid on golf courses, and grandstands were destroyed. The private homes of government politicians, museums, paintings, churches, and other prominent places such as pavilions – e. g., the Orchid House in Kew Gardens – or the display cases of the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London fell victim to the movement.

<sup>57</sup> Jana Günther, Die politische Inszenierung der Suffragetten in Großbritannien (Freiburg im Breisgau: fwpf, 2006), 84.

<sup>58</sup> Myriam Boussahba-Bravard, "Vision et visibilité: la rhétorique visuelle des suffragistes et des suffragettes britanniques de 1907à1914," Revue LISA / LISA e-journal 1, no. 1 (2003): 48.

<sup>59</sup> Sophia A. van Wingerden, The Women's Suffrage Movement in Britain, 1866–1928 (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1999), 81.

The tactics of civil disobedience and targeted resistance to a parliament that denied women any opportunity for co-determination formed an important crystallization point for other parts of the women's movement in Britain as well as overseas. In the Wilhelmine Empire, it was especially the radicals of the bourgeois women's movement wing who admired the suffragettes for their willingness to make sacrifices and for their pugnacity and tried to adopt at least some of the more moderate forms of protest – such as demonstrations – because "suffragettes do not only speak, they also act."⁶⁰ This means that women in social movements, and especially in the women's movement, engaged in 'symbolic politics from below' (albeit by force) to articulate very clearly their political concerns vis-à-vis the 'artificial man,' i. e., the state and those who could participate in it: We are here, and we demand basic civil rights. This politics of the street and this form of bodies in alliance⁶¹ are also key figures of performative protest in historical social movements.

# Body Politics as a Right to Self-determination for Women: The Personal becomes Political

Since 1968 – at the latest – and the revival of the women's movement after two world wars, old unraveled threads have been picked up again. As Gisela Bock reports, in the new feminist movements, "we became aware of our social powerlessness and joined forces to fight it; secondly, we recognized that we are different from the way society wants us to be, defined, dressed up, different from the image people have of us."⁶² Although the right to vote had been won, there was little sign of real gender equality in many respects. The post-war period was marked above all by rigid familism, which was expressed in Western Europe and the USA in marriage and divorce laws that were disadvantageous to women, bans and criminalization of abortion, etc., and forced family and social policies based on the idea of housewife marriage. The New Women's Movement in the Federal Republic of Germany, for example, was a consequence of the gender-blindness of the student movement and the quite intentional de-thematization of the exploi-

<sup>60</sup> Hedwig Weidemann, "Propaganda und Suffragettes," Centralblatt, June 16, 1910, 6, 42.

<sup>61</sup> Butler, Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly, 66.

<sup>62</sup> Gisela Bock, "Feministische Wissenschaftskritik," in Reader Feministische Politik & Wissenschaft: Positionen, Perspektiven, Anregungen aus Geschichte und Gegenwart, eds. Ingrid Kurz-Scherf (Königstein im Taunus: Helmer, 2006), 138.

tation of women in the field of reproductive labor⁶³: family work was still a woman's job, which enabled men to remain in their identities stabilized by patriarchy.⁶⁴ The transnational campaigns against the criminalization of abortion and the accompanying control of female sexuality were strong points of reference in all Western feminist movements. The gender policies of the Eastern bloc countries also served as frames of reference. The right to work and health as well as gender equality were secured here – at least in these areas – and implemented. In Western states (e. g., the US), childcare, women's medical care, abortion, and campaigns against violence against women were all on the agenda.⁶⁵

Body politics can also be understood as politics that put the exploitation of the female body, the demand for bodily integrity, and sexual freedom at the center of feminist resistance. These debates questioned what was taken for granted in society and looked for possible solutions to dissolve the gender-specific division of labor, valorize domestic work, and pay for it. The slogan "The personal is political" was intended to readjust and redraw the boundaries between the public and private spheres. The inspiration for this shift can be found in the notion of the political. This slogan also symbolizes that the political encompasses more than the 'artificial man' and the masses on the street. The core of the New Women's Movement in Europe and the Women's Liberation Movement in the English-speaking world was thus the vehement questioning of the boundaries between the political/public and private spheres. This also created the opportunity structures to subjectivize body politics – initially framed in terms of identity politics under the credo of a 'we women' – and to make them independent of an 'artificial man.' Belonging to this was – as for the entire '68 generation – a critical point of reflection for feminists against the backdrop of two world wars and National Socialism, who defined themselves as grassroots democratic and rejected proxy politics, especially leaders (in the movement). Instead, small, autonomously organized groups were founded.⁶⁶

The resistance of this protest milieu was not only expressed through demonstrative public protests but also openly in alternative new ways of living: in addi-

<sup>63</sup> Giselea Notz, "Die Letzte Schlacht gewinnen wir!," in "Die letzte Schlacht gewinnen wir!": 40 Jahre 1968 – Bilanz und Perspektiven, eds. Elmar Altvater et al. (Hamburg: VSA-Verlag, 2018), 39. 64 Helke Sander, "Rede vom 13.09.1068 (aktionsrat der frauen)," in Die Neue Frauenbewegung in Deutschland: Abschied vom kleinen Unterschied; eine Quellensammlung, ed. Ilse Lenz (Wiesbaden: VS Verlag, 2008), 60.

<sup>65</sup> Kathleen C. Berkeley, The Women's Liberation Movement in America (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999), 65.

<sup>66</sup> Ute Gerhard, Frauenbewegung und Feminismus: Eine Geschichte seit 1789 (Munich: Beck, 2009), 112.

tion to women's councils and women's groups, activists founded women's centers and autonomous women's spaces as well as children's shops that reflected the need for autonomy from the state and individual self-determination. Thus, women's groups were connoted as democratic forums, and autonomous self-organization was chosen as a strategy of demarcation against overly hierarchical and male-dominated state institutions.⁶⁷

#### Body Politics as a Right and Room for Maneuver in Public Protest Performance

Relations of domination and power have always formed unique tensions, which were also reflected in the women's movement. Women have been and still are affected by exploitation and exclusion in different ways. To name just a few historical examples, in the early Russian women's movement, there were irreconcilable conflicts between socialists and feminists; the women's movement in the German Empire split on the class question between the moderate, radical, and proletarian women's movements; and in Britain, there was a split over the means used between the militant and constitutional currents in the movement. The identity-political construction of 'we women' has always reached its limits, which became apparent not only during the New Women's Movement but again with renewed sharpness in the issues of racism, heteronormativity, and class status and were vehemently brought out in the feminist protest discourse by the objections of groups marginalized in the women's movement itself.⁶⁸

This contradictoriness was addressed not least by Judith Butler⁶⁹ in the late 1980s and resolved by the proposal not to assume that there is a 'unity' because of the label of 'women' but rather to accept certain forms of recognized faction formation and facilitate solidarity and alliance practices. Bodies and assembling bodies are not the bearers of very specific identities that can be collectivized into an 'artificial man,' be it a protest body such as that of the suffragettes or the 'artificial body' of the nation-state. Rather, through performative acts, the body itself becomes a sign to which very different values can be attributed. This opens up the

<sup>67</sup> Eva Hinterhuber and Gaby Wilde, "Cherchez La Citoyenne! Bürger- und Zivilgesellschaft aus Geschlechterpolitischer Perspektive," Femina Politica 16, no. 2 (2007): 10.

<sup>68</sup> Examples include the Boston Combahee River Collective and their manifesto "A Black Feminist Statement" (1974) and the objections of Black Liberation Movement activists like Angela Davis in Women, Culture and Politics (1984).

<sup>69</sup> Judith Butler, Das Unbehagen der Geschlechter (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1991).

scope for the interpretation of collective identities or identity politics. Understanding body politics as actual body politics – and not as a metaphor of a body to be constituted politically and thus as a state – and perceiving subjects not in their materiality but in their striving for freedom is a concern that can be seen in the (queer) feminist movements after the fall of the socialist Eastern bloc. Classical feminist concerns, such as the right to bodily integrity and against sexual exploitation – like FEMEN in Ukraine, #MeToo worldwide, and the anti-rape protests in India – coexist with protest groups like the punk rock band Pussy Riot and their "feminist anti-Putinism"⁷⁰ in Russia or the Women's Marches on the occasion of the anti-Trump protests in the USA, which generally attack state policies and draw attention to democratic deficits, heterosexism, and racism. At the same time, it is thanks to the diverse queer-feminist activism of recent times that feminist topics and goals have been opened up to general gender-political questions and intersectional mechanisms of inequality have been sensitized. However, body politics does not only refer to the political agenda of (queer) feminist protest; the body itself – as already described – advances to a symbolic means of displaying resistant action. In particular, the naked protests of FEMEN and the church occupations by Pussy Riot achieved special media attention through their actions and the consistent use of the body – similar to the suffragettes in the early 20th century. In addition, the 'spectacle du nombre' of the globally organized Women's Marches in 2017 brought aboutanew awareness of feminist resistance against existing power relations and political arbitrariness and showed that political action does not presuppose unity but that an open alliance can only be achieved through dialogue that accepts divergences and conflicts as part of the democratization process.⁷¹ Women's and gender movements in particular have also been making a name for themselves recently. The umbrella protests in Poland against the renewed criminalization of abortion, the protests of the 'Women in White' in Belarus against the authoritarian regime, and the renewed resistance of women against the war policy in Russia are new blueprints of female protest.

The solidarization of queer feminist protest with other precarious groups on the basis of intersectional sensitization should be brought more into focus as an important development – including for social movement research – and raises new politological and sociological questions. This particular tension of symbolic politics as body politics, on the one hand, is what makes feminist resistance so con-

<sup>70</sup> Eva Hinterhuber, "'Pussy Riot': feministischer Widerstand gegen das System Putin," Femina Politica 21, no. 2 (2012): 143.

<sup>71</sup> Butler, Das Unbehagen der Geschlechter, 35.

tradictory and, on the other, is precisely what brings about new forms of solidarization and collectivization.

#### Works Cited


Bock, Gisela. "Feministische Wissenschaftskritik." In Reader Feministische Politik & Wissenschaft: Positionen, Perspektiven, Anregungen aus Geschichte und Gegenwart, edited by Ingrid Kurz-Scherf, 138–141. Königstein im Taunus: Helmer, 2006.


Weidemann, Hedwig. "Propaganda und Suffragettes." Centralblatt, June 16, 1910, 6.


Heike Mißler

# 12 Antifeminism, Anti-genderism, and the (Religious) Right: A Case Study of Antiabortion Activism in Saarbrücken

# Introduction: Antiabortion Activism in Saarbrücken

The following chapter is based on the findings of a research and community project organized by the director of the pro familia counseling and medical center in Saarbrücken, Eva Szalontai, one of its board members, Veronika Kabis, and myself. Pro familia is "the leading non-governmental service and consumer organization for sexual and reproductive health and rights in Germany." Founded in 1952, it is a member of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and "is closely linked to international developments and activities in the field of sexual and reproductive health and rights."¹ Our project received funding from the "Demokratie Leben!" ("Live Democracy!") program in 2021 and 2022.² This program, run by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women, and Youth, "facilitates projects all over Germany which develop and trial new ideas and innovative approaches in promoting democracy, shaping diversity, and preventing extremism."³

The idea for our project was born in November 2020, when the annual "March for Life" took place in Saarbrücken. November is traditionally the month in which the Bundesverband Lebensrecht (the biggest pro-life⁴ organization in Germany) calls upon its many affiliated groups in Germany to organize local "Märsche für

<sup>1</sup> "The association," pro familia. Accessed November 7, 2021. https://www.profamilia.de/en/aboutpro-familia/the-association.

<sup>2</sup> At the time of writing, the project is in its second year and will conclude in December 2022. 3 "Programme," Bundeprogramm Demokratie Leben. Accessed November 7, 2021. https://www.de mokratie-leben.de/das-programm.

<sup>4</sup> A note on terminology: although "pro-life" ("Lebensschutz" and "Lebensrecht" in German) is commonly used to describe the position of antiabortion activists, it is a highly problematic term. The meaning of "pro-life" is selective at best in that it privileges the foetus's right to life over the mother's right to reproductive freedom, or, in the most radical cases, over the mother's right to life. Hence, it is a euphemism that does not adequately represent the complexities of the debate about abortion rights. In the following, I will use the term "antiabortion movement" because it more aptly represents the primary agenda of this movement.

Open Access. © 2023 the author(s), published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111102757-012

das Leben." The organizers of these marches usually make pro familia centers the targets of their demonstrations by marching past them or ending their march near or right in front of them to give speeches and/or to pray, since many of these protest marches are (co‐)organized by religious groups. This kind of protest action does not just seek to attract bystanders' attention but also aims to deter potential patients of the pro familia centers, as well as to intimidate pro familia's employees.

Debates about reproductive rights, as the current situations in the US or Poland show, are always highly emotionalized. Our project's key assumption is that this is because abortion is never just about abortion but also always about questions of identity and power, especially as far as gender ideals and roles are concerned. The philosopher Michael Tooley calls people's views on abortion a "package deal,"⁵ meaning most people who have an opinion on the topic of reproductive rights have this opinion because of their political and/or religious convictions. In other words, their position on abortion will already be embedded in wider ideological considerations. While antiabortion protests may be presented as a single-issue struggle, the formation of this movement is built on a much larger agenda, at the core of which are deeply conservative and regressive views of gender and its role as an organizing principle in our society. Hence, we made it our priority to unpack the underlying ideological framework of antiabortion activism. Specifically, we were interested in the local antiabortion protesters in Saarbrücken, a large part of whom belong to the Society of Saint Pius X (Fraternitas Sacerdotalis Sancti Pii X, FSSPX) and who have come together with other activists in the "Aktionskomitee Christen für das Leben" (Action committee Christians for Life).

Our project sought to identify antiabortion protesters in Saarbrücken, analyze their motivations, arguments, and rhetorical strategies, and trace their connections to other antiabortion groups and political groups on the right. This latter aim is based on our second key assumption: it is well-documented that there is considerable overlap between groups active in the antiabortion movement and political groups on the right and that right-wing movements often actively seek out religious environments and use pseudo-religious positions as a guise in order to appear more respectable.⁶ Many scholars have identified issues surrounding the nuclear, heteronormative family – or rather, the alleged need for its protection in general and, more specifically, the protection of what is often referred to as unborn life – as an area of mutual interest for both religious groups and the political right and

<sup>5</sup> Quoted in Kate Greasley and Christopher Kaczor, Abortion Rights: For and Against (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), 1.

<sup>6</sup> See, e. g., the publications by Strube and Bednarz in the bibliography of this chapter.

hence as a gateway for possible cooperation between them.⁷ This mutual interest is underscored and strengthened by a broader shared concern, namely the challenges to the patriarchal and heteronormative social order posed by the advancements of feminism and gender studies.

Of course, not everyone critical of abortion for religious or other reasons is automatically also a supporter of the various groupings on the political right – whether the populist right, the New Right, the extreme right, or even the extremist right.⁸ To quote Sonja Strube: "It is not one's Christian faith but rather how one chooses to live that faith that determines one's susceptibility to prejudice, or tolerance, as well as to right-wing ideologies and parties."⁹ Due to the vast spectrum of religious positions within Christianity, it is important to draw a line between those people who might oppose abortion due to religious reasons but do not wish to challenge the legal status quo and limit abortion access and those who do; or, in other words, between those who hold conservative but not right-wing positions and those whose religious fundamentalism leads them to become complicit in or even embrace right-wing ideologies in order to reach their aims.

The main goal of our project, besides identifying the local protesters, their arguments, and political connections, was to raise awareness of this topic among the

<sup>7</sup> See, e. g., the publications by Hark/Villa, Strube, Dietze and Roth, Sauer, and Bednarz in the bibliography of this chapter.

<sup>8</sup> My use of these terms is based on Sonja Strube's use of these terms and in line with German political terminology: The extremist right or right-wing extremism ("Rechtsextremismus") designates various groups of the far right (including Neo-Nazi groups, right-wing political parties, and related movements) that are classified as antidemocratic threats to the German constitution by the German domestic intelligence services. They categorize the following political parties as belonging to the extremist right: Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands (NPD, National-Democratic Party of Germany), DIE RECHTE (The Right), and Der III. Weg (The Third Way). I use the term extreme/far/radical right synonymously as umbrella terms for all those right-wing movements whose activities may not necessarily be classified as threats to the German constitution but whose political visions are close to the extremist right. The New Right – sometimes also called the intellectual right – is another umbrella term for right-wing formations in Europe that have emerged in France since the 1960s and in Germany since the 1980s and which primarily use intellectual and rhetorical strategies in order to appear harmless and connect with those voters who would traditionally vote for center or center-right parties. In contrast, the term "the populist right" defines the means of propagation rather than merely the political position. As Strube (2016) highlights, populist strategies are used to emotionalize and simplify political discourses and can be used by all political parties. However, in the German context, the term is mostly associated with the right-wing political party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD, Alternative for Germany).

<sup>9</sup> Sonja Angelika Strube, "Rechtskatholizismus und die Neuen Rechten," in Das Kreuz mit der Neuen Rechten? Rechtspopulistische Positionen auf dem Prüfstand, eds. Uwe Backes and Philipp W. Hildmann (Munich: Hans Seidel Stiftung, 2020), 15. In the following, all translations of German source texts are my own, unless indicated otherwise.

general public in Saarland and beyond, specifically amongst those people who might consider joining the antiabortion movement because of their religious beliefs but who do not necessarily know which political forces frequently hide behind it. Our growing concerns about pregnant people's right to choose and general access to reproductive healthcare have only been confirmed by recent events in world politics. While there are also encouraging signals, such as the recent legalization of abortion in Argentina (2020) and Colombia (2022), we wanted to make it our priority to expose the anti-democratic, right-wing, and fundamentalist undercurrents of much of what passes as religious antiabortion protest in Saarbrücken. In order to do so, we analyzed the rhetoric and common narratives used by the Society of St. Pius X and the Aktionskomitee für das Leben as displayed during their marches and on their websites or social media accounts and traced their connections to local politicians and other antiabortion organizations in Germany (and beyond). We chose to focus on rhetorical strategies because, as Natascha Strobl highlights, right-wing movements – and particularly the New Right – use language as a weapon to establish "a cultural hegemony" by repeating certain narratives over and over, not to convince people but to "destroy democratic discourses" and "establish a connection between conservative and fascist circles."¹⁰ As the examples of local antiabortion protests will show, the rhetorical strategies and narratives employed are easily recognizable as right-wing rhetoric, religious-fundamentalist rhetoric, or both: right-wing Catholic, the term Strube uses for "alliances between ultraconservative or fundamentalist Christian individuals and groups on the one hand and protagonists and media of the 'Intellectual New Right' … or even the 'Extreme Right' on the other."¹¹

The first half of this chapter will provide an overview of the ideological backgrounds of the Society of St. Pius X, since they play a leading role in antiabortion activism in Saarbrücken, before zooming in on the convergence of the political and the religious right in the discursive field of antifeminism and anti-genderism. The second half is concerned with the rhetorical strategies, images, and narratives used in antiabortion protests and will provide examples from our analysis. While our project's analysis is limited to the local antiabortion scene in Saarbrücken, many of our findings will be applicable in other geographical contexts.

<sup>10</sup> Natascha Strobl, Radikalisierter Konservatismus – eine Analyse (Berlin: Suhrkamp, 2021), 22–23. 11 Sonja Angelika Strube, "Right-Wing Catholicism? Activities and Motives of New Right Catholics in German-Speaking Countries," in Religion and Neo-Nationalism in Europe, eds. Florian Höhne and Thorsten Meireis (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2021), 131.

# Marching and Praying Against Reproductive Freedom: The Ideological Background of the Society of St. Pius X

The antiabortion protests staged in Saarbrücken are organized by the local priory of the Society of St. Pius X and other local agents who have come together in the socalled Aktionskomitee Christen für das Leben. The Society of St. Pius X is a fraternity of staunchly antimodernist Catholic priests and an example of one of the Christian groups which Strube identifies as right-wing Catholic.¹² It was founded in 1969 in Fribourg, Switzerland, by the French bishop Marcel Lefebvre as a reaction to the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965). According to their German website, they are active in over 60 countries worldwide and count 650 priests,¹³ 40 of whom are based in Germany,¹⁴ and in 2011, they had around 600,000 members.¹⁵ Its structure is hierarchical. Governed by the so-called "Superior General," elected only every 12 years, "[t]he Society is organized into districts, each of which is entrusted to a district superior who is appointed by the Superior General for 6 years."¹⁶ The local priestly communities are called priories and are led by priors. The FSSPX holds six seminaries worldwide and also runs schools (eight in Germany, two of which are in Saarbrücken), homes for the elderly, etc.¹⁷ The relationship between the Catholic Church and the Society of St. Pius X is complicated and cannot be summarized adequately within the scope of this chapter. Suffice to say, the FSSPX lost the Church's official support in the mid-1970s, and this religious schism, as well as attempts at reconciliation, have since been the subject of much controversy.¹⁸

<sup>12</sup> Ibid., 136.

<sup>13</sup> "Bewahrer unverfälschter katholischer Glaubenslehre," FSSPX. Accessed July 28, 2022. https:// fsspx.de/de/bewahrer-unverf%C3%A4lschter-katholischer-glaubenslehre.

<sup>14</sup> "Schweres wird am besten von vielen Schultern ans Ziel getragen," FSSPX. Accessed July 28, 2022. https://fsspx.de/de/schweres-wird-am-besten-von-vielen-schultern-ans-ziel-getragen.

<sup>15</sup> Juliane Wetzel, "Priesterbruderschaft St. Pius X," in Handbuch des Antisemitismus: Judenfeindschaft in Geschichte und Gegenwart, vol 5: Organisationen, Institutionen, Bewegungen, ed. Wolfgang Bentz (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2012), 500.

<sup>16</sup> "A Structured Work," FSSPX. Accessed July 28, 2022. https://fsspx.org/en/structured-work.

<sup>17</sup> "A Hierarchical Society," FSSPX. Accessed July 28, 2022. https://fsspx.org/en/hierarchical-society. 18 For a comprehensive overview of the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Society of St. Pius X, see Franz Xaver Bischof, "Widerstand und Verweigerung – die Priesterbruderschaft St. Pius X," Münchner Theologische Zeitung 60 (2009): 234–246, Christian Dahlke, Die Piusbruderschaft und das Zweite Vatikanische Konzil. Theologische Geschichte Beihefte 4 (Saarbrücken: Universaar, 2004); Peter Hünermann, Exkommunikation oder Kommunikation? Der Weg der Kirche nach

Since before its very beginnings, the Society of St. Pius X has held close connections to right-wing movements. Marcel Lefebvre was a student and mentee of Henri le Floch, who was rector of the French Seminary in Rome and a supporter of the right-wing Action Française, an "anti-liberal, royalist-nationalist, and antisemitic political movement, founded in 1899 in the context of the Dreyfus Affair," led by Charles Maurras.¹⁹ The movement was disbanded after the Second World War because it had supported Pétain's Vichy government.²⁰ Le Floch openly sympathized with Pétain when the latter was imprisoned.²¹ Similar to the Action Française, Lefebvre considered the French Revolution and its values of liberty, equality, and fraternity as the source of all evil in society and as the root cause of all Modernist tendencies within the French Catholic Church, which he strongly opposed.²² This rejection of any kind of liberal reforms – whether political or religious – is reflected in Lefebvre's attitude toward the Second Vatican Council, which, in 1974, he called "wholly poisoned … as a result of liberalism and Protestantism" and which he believed represented "a false doctrine."²³ Markus Vogt summarized the FSSPX's main positions as follows: "The Society of St Pius X rejects fundamental ethical-political premises of modern societies. Its leading representatives are willing to pledge the Oath against Modernism, they reject human rights, democracy, and freedom of religion, and they often show antisemitic attitudes."²⁴

Thomas Rigl classified the FSSPX as fundamentalist based on four criteria: first, a firm ideological dualism, meaning that one can only be with them or against them, which is frequently expressed using metaphors of war, conflict, and struggle; second, a stubborn dogmatism; third, harsh criticism of the modern world; and finally, a pronounced authoritarianism.²⁵ For Wilhelm Damberg, these characteristics reveal that the FSSPX's political ideal is not a democracy but a theocracy. According to the FSSPX's former second-in-command, Franz Schmidberger: "First, the Christian social order is based on natural law, which lives within each

dem II. Vatikanum und die Pius Brüder (Freiburg: Herder, 2009); Alois Schifferle, Die Pius-Bruderschaft. Informationen, Positionen, Perspektiven (Kevelaer: Butzon und Bercker, 2009).

<sup>19</sup> Bischof, "Widerstand," 234.

<sup>20</sup> Ibid., 236.

<sup>21</sup> Wilhelm Damberg, "Die Piusbruderschaft St. Pius X (FSSPX) und ihr politisch-geisteswissenschaftlicher Hintergrund," in Exkommunikation oder Kommunikation? Der Weg der Kirche nach dem II. Vatikanum und die Pius Brüder, ed. Peter Hünermann (Freiburg: Herder, 2009), 79. 22 Bischof, "Widerstand," 236.

<sup>23</sup> Cited in Damberg, "Die Piusbruderschaft," 88.

<sup>24</sup> Markus Vogt, "Einmischung. Programmatik und Empfindlichkeiten im Grenzbereich von Politik und Kirche," Münchner Theologische Zeitung 60 (2009): 284.

<sup>25</sup> Thomas Rigl, "Die Pius-Bruderschaft als fundamentalistische Bewegung," in Vatikan und Pius-Brüder. Anatomie einer Krise, ed. Wolfgang Beinert (Freiburg: Herder, 2009): 31–45.

human being and is objectively expressed in the Ten Commandments. Second, the power of the state does not stem from the people, from the base, but from God."²⁶ This belief in a natural law, a return to the Ten Commandments, and a state structured according to religious ideals betrays another characteristic of fundamentalism, namely the wish to return to a mythical past and community in which there is a neat, predefined social order and only one correct way of living. In short, and to paraphrase Martin Riesebrodt's definition of fundamentalism, this wish represents a longing to escape the complexities of the modern world, which is believed to be in a state of constant crisis.²⁷ Calling the Society of St. Pius X a traditionalist and antimodernist organization rather than a fundamentalist one thus fails to adequately express their deeply problematic attitudes toward history, democracy, and human rights.

The right-wing and antisemitic leanings of the Society of St. Pius X are welldocumented. To name just a few of its connections to the political right, it repeatedly showed support for Jean-Marie Le Pen's Front National (today called the Rassemblement National);²⁸ one of its lawyers, Maximilian Krah, is a member of the AfD;²⁹ and it had close ties to the Civitas Institute, a right-wing Catholic organization that published articles by FSPPX members and whose "spiritual counsel" was Franz Schmidberger.³⁰ The Civitas Institut disbanded in 2020 in order to join the efforts of the "Demo für alle," another right-wing organization mainly known for its homophobia as well as an anti-gender and antifeminist agenda.³¹ Damberg also states that the FSSPX holds "an informal alliance" with one of the most prominent journals of the New Right, the Junge Freiheit,³² and both Wetzel and Strube connect the FSSPX to the far-right website kreuz.net, which the German domestic intelligence services shut down because of its right-wing and antisemitic posts.³³ Kath.net and gloria.tv are two other right-wing Catholic websites that share the Society of St. Pius X's ideological backgrounds and contain posts by their sympathiz-

32 Damberg, "Die Piusbruderschaft," 104.

<sup>26</sup> Cited in Damberg, "Die Piusbruderschaft," 103.

<sup>27</sup> Ibid., 119.

<sup>28</sup> See Karin Priester, "Die Priesterbruderschaft, die Politik und der Papst," Neue Gesellschaft/ Frankfurter Hefte 3 (2009): 12–16; Wetzel, "Priesterbruderschaft St. Pius X."

<sup>29</sup> "Maximilian Krah," Diskursatlas Antifeminismus, last modified June 19, 2022. Accessed July 28, 2022. https://www.diskursatlas.de/index.php?title=Maximilian\_Krah.

<sup>30</sup> "Einladung zum X. Civitas Kongress," FSSPX, last modified April 24, 2017. Accessed July 28, 2022. https://fsspx.de/de/news-events/news/einladung-zum-x-civitas-kongress-27999; Damberg, "Die Piusbruderschaft," 103.

<sup>31</sup> "Civitas Institut," Diskursatlas Antifeminismus, last modified August 4, 2021. Accessed July 28, 2022. https://www.diskursatlas.de/index.php?title=Civitas-Institut.

<sup>33</sup> Wetzel, "Priesterbruderschaft St. Pius X," 500; Strube, "Right-Wing Catholicism?," 137.

ers (or even members).³⁴ The latter in particular is also used by antiabortion protesters in Saarbrücken. Perhaps the most blatant proof of the FSSPX's right-wing tendencies is its antisemitism, which became public knowledge (at the very latest) when one of its bishops, Richard Williamson (who has since been ousted from the Society), denied the existence of the Holocaust in a TV interview in 2008.³⁵ Another infamous example of its antisemitism is the organization of a funeral ceremony for SS commander and war criminal Erich Priebke in Italy in 2013.³⁶

The antifeminist and anti-gender positions of the Society of St. Pius X might not have been documented in as much detail as their right-wing and antisemitic stance, but there are numerous examples on their official website. In a sermon published in a newsletter that is available on the website of the German district, for instance, Schmidberger links pedophilia to the "homolobby" and its "affiliates," as he puts it.³⁷ The same newsletter features an article by Franz Kronbeck, entitled "The Fight Against Child Abuse and the Homo-Heresy," which posits that homosexuality and Christianity are incompatible, that homosexuality is against the natural order, and that there is a "homo mafia."³⁸ Another example is the announcement of the 2017 Civitas Congress, whose topic was the alleged threat posed by Marxism and its recent "replacements," to wit: "the ideologies of the Frankfurt School and its predecessors, and the attack on the fundamentals of our society, especially marriage and the family, by the implementation of the gender mainstreaming ideology and the destruction of personal and social identities."³⁹ A quick search for the term "gender," as used on the international English-language news website run by the Society reveals numerous hits, including items such as "Bishop Schneider Denounces the Totalitarianism of Gender Theory and Gay Pride," according to which, "For Bishop Schneider, the correct Catholic response is to 'unambiguously address this situation and protect the life of the Church from the infiltration of the poison of the ideology of homosexuality and gender and proclaim the truth of God's creation

<sup>34</sup> According to Sonja Strube, gloria.tv is run by the same two Roman Catholic priests who ran kreuz.net, the right-wing Catholic website which was shut down because of its antisemitic posts. See Strube, "Rechtskatholizismus," 19.

<sup>35</sup> Vogt, "Einmischung," 289.

<sup>36</sup> "Der 'Föhrer' und die Piusbrüder," Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, last modified April 1, 2016. Accessed July 28, 2022. https://www.bpb.de/shop/multimedia/dvd-cd/224333/der-foehrer-unddie-pius-brueder/.

<sup>37</sup> Franz Schmidberger, "Predigt von Pater Franz Schmidberger in Fulda anlässlich der Nationalwallfahrt am 1. September 2018." Rundbrief, an unsere Priesterfreunde im deutschen Sprachraum 52 (2018): 26–35.

<sup>38</sup> Franz Kronbeck, "Der Kampf gegen den Kindesmißbrauch und die Homo-Häresie," Rundbrief, an unsere Priesterfreunde im deutschen Sprachraum 52 (2018): 12–17.

<sup>39</sup> "Einladung zum X. Civitas Kongress."

and of His holy commandments'."⁴⁰ In the next sentence, he is praised for his courage: "May the courageous Kazakh prelate, who experienced anti-Christian persecution under the Soviet regime, be heard by all pastors of souls, even among the highest ranks in the Church!" Another news item demonstrates the Society's anti-trans\* attitude.⁴¹ Titled "Gender Ideology or Organized Crime," it decries hormone treatments for trans\* people and negates the existence of trans\* people's life experiences: "As George Orwell notes in his book 1984, all ideology has its 'newspeak.' Thus, to establish gender dictatorship, the term 'gender dysphoria' was created and now appears in medicine to describe the discomfort or distress of a patient who might feel there is [a] mismatch between their biological sex and identity."⁴² The article's concluding sentence offers a general condemnation of gender studies: "The gender ideology business thus reveals the hideous features of its true face: those of vice, crime, and the lure of gain."⁴³ Finally, with respect to reproductive rights, the FSSPX recently made the absurd claim that abortion was the leading cause of death worldwide in 2021⁴⁴ and warned against the "totalitarian" European Parliament because of its liberal position on reproductive rights and its criticism of the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade.⁴⁵

# Antifeminism and Anti-genderism: The Family and the Right

As the above examples show, protests by right-wing and fundamentalist movements are formed and often coalesce in opposition to liberal and progressive understandings of sexuality, gender identities, and gender roles. In these protests, antifeminist discourses, such as the rejection of reproductive freedom, are often

<sup>40</sup> "Bishop Schneider Denounces the Totalitarianism of Gender Theory and Gay Pride," FSSPX, last modified August 5, 2017. Accessed July 28, 2022. https://fsspx.news/en/news-events/news/bishopschneider-denounces-totalitarianism-gender-theory-and-gay-pride-39852.

<sup>41</sup> The use of the asterisk indicates that there is a spectrum of trans\* identities which are all included in this spelling of the term. It is used as an umbrella term to avoid further categorization. 42 "Gender Ideology or Organised Crime," FSSPX, last modified January 6, 2020. Accessed July 28, 2022. https://fsspx.news/en/news-events/news/gender-ideology-or-organized-crime-54044.

<sup>43</sup> Ibid. For more on the use of the terms "gender ideology" and "gender ideology business," see below.

<sup>44</sup> "Abtreibung häufigste Todesursache," FSSPX, last modified January 11, 2022. Accessed July 28, 2022. https://fsspx.news/de/news-events/news/abtreibung-2021-weltweit-die-h%C3%A4ufigste-tode sursache-70942

<sup>45</sup> "Auf woken Abwegen," FSSPX, last modified July 20, 2022. Accessed July 28, 2022. https://fsspx. de/de/news-events/news/auf-%E2%80%9Ewoken%E2%80%9C-abwegen-75118.

coupled with – or even indistinguishable from – anti-gender discourses. Traditionally, antifeminism aims at the negation of female liberation and endeavors to undo emancipatory progress. According to Charlotte Höcker, Gert Pickel, and Oliver Decker, the main aim of antifeminism is the obstruction of "the democratic process which strives for the dissolution of the traditional gender order as well as the liberation of women from relations of inequality and social injustice."⁴⁶ They argue that there has been a development within antifeminist movements in that earlier forms directed their attacks at the women's movement, whereas today's focus on the pluralization of sexual identities, genders, and family forms⁴⁷ and so further merge the categories of antifeminist and anti-gender. This shift in focus from issues of inequality to the obsession with a binary gender system follows a twisted logic, as Sabine Hark and Irene Villa explain: "The argument is not that women\* cannot have the same rights as men because they are different by nature, but that women\* and men\* have the same rights despite being different by nature."⁴⁸ It is thus not the idea of equal rights so much as the idea that men and women are not fundamentally different that feeds anti-gender discourses. That is why antifeminist and anti-gender rhetoric cling to biological differences as justifications for traditional gender roles – the less important the difference between the genders, the less certain are the privileges traditionally tied to the male sex and the social order as we know it.

In fact, I would argue, in line with many other scholars, that this blurring of categories and the imprecise use of terminology is a common strategy used by the opponents of sexual and reproductive freedom. The very term "gender," as the title of Eszter Kováts and Maari Põim's 2015 publication put it, acts as "symbolic glue" and allows a broad spectrum of people to unite behind their rejection of the concept, even if they may understand different things by it.⁴⁹ Scientific definitions of the term as well as the actual research objectives and findings of the academic discipline of gender studies play little to no role at all. As Gerhard Marschütz has

47 Höcker et al., "Antifeminismus," 254.

<sup>46</sup> Charlotte Höcker, Gert Pickel, and Oliver Decker, "Antifeminismus – das Geschlecht im Autoritarismus? Die Messung von Antifeminismus und Sexismus in Deutschland auf der Einstellungsebene," in Autoritäre Dynamiken Neue Radikalität – alte Ressentiments. Leipziger Autoritarismus Studie 2020, eds. Oliver Decker and Elmar Brähler (Gießen: Psychosozial Verlag, 2020), 276.

<sup>48</sup> Sabine Hark and Paula-Irene Villa, eds., Anti-Genderismus: Sexualität und Geschlecht als Schauplätze aktueller politischer Auseinandersetzungen (Bielefeld: Transkript, 2015), 26. The asterisks were used in the original to indicate that the terms "women" and "men" are not to be understood as mere biological categories but can include, e. g., transwomen and transmen.

<sup>49</sup> Eszter Kováts and Maari Põim, eds., Gender as Symbolic Glue: The Position and Role of Conservative and Far Right Parties in the Anti-Gender Mobilizations in Europe (Brussels: FEPS, 2015).

shown, the anti-gender arguments of the Catholic Church⁵⁰ are profoundly unacademic and misconstrue both the concept of gender and the main ideas of gender studies as put forward, for instance, by Judith Butler.⁵¹ Birgit Sauer concluded that "gender" has become an "empty signifier" in antifeminist circles onto which all sorts of threatening scenarios can be projected.⁵² Similarly, Strube uses the idea of a "rhetorical umbrella strategy" ("rhetorisches Containern") to describe the various meanings that the term is ascribed and the various associations it is supposed to evoke.⁵³ As Butler argues, this unacademic use of terminology, the misrepresentation of the discipline, and the multiple interpretations of its meanings are intentional: anti-genderism "does not strive for consistency, for its incoherence is part of its power."⁵⁴ The various terms used by antifeminist and anti-gender critics already betray the idea that there is no coherent argument since terms like "gender mainstreaming," "gender ideology," "gender ideology business," "genderism," "gender gaga," "gender lobby," and the German terms "Genderwahn" and "Genderwahnsinn" ("gender craze") are often used synonymously. As mentioned above, this strategy's strength is that various agents with different agendas can rally behind the idea of gender as a common enemy, but its weakness is that whatever is constructed as the enemy remains nothing more than a straw man that can be deconstructed just as easily.⁵⁵ To borrow an image from Arnd Bünker, accusations of "genderism," etc. are like "a ghost that children imagine in the dark in order to

<sup>50</sup> As publicly announced in, e. g., Congregation for Catholic Education, "Male and Female He Created Them": Towards a Path of Dialogue on the Question of Gender Theory in Education (Vatican City: Congregation for Catholic Education, 2019).

<sup>51</sup> Gerhard Marschütz, "Katholische Genderkritik im Gegenwind des kritischen Anspruchs menschenrechtlicher Diskurse," in Anti-Genderismus in Europa. Allianzen von Rechtspopulismus und religiösem Fundamentalismus: Mobilisierung – Vernetzung – Transformation, eds. Sonja A. Strube et al. (Bielefeld: Transcript, 2021), 245.

<sup>52</sup> Birgit Sauer, "Anti-feministische Mobilisierung in Europa. Kampf um eine neue politische Hegemonie?," Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft 13 (2019): 348.

<sup>53</sup> Sonja Angelika Strube, "Anti-Genderismus als rechtsintellektuelle Strategie und als Symptom-Konglomerat Gruppenbezogener Menschenfeindlichkeit," in Anti-Genderismus in Europa. Allianzen von Rechtspopulismus und religiösem Fundamentalismus: Mobilisierung – Vernetzung – Transformation, eds. Sonja A. Strube et al. (Bielefeld: transcript, 2021), 55.

<sup>54</sup> Judith Butler, "Why is the idea of gender provoking backlash the world over?," The Guardian, October 23, 2021. Accessed July 28, 2022. https://www.theguardian.com/usnews/commentisfree/2021/ oct/23/judith-butler-gender-ideology-backlash.

<sup>55</sup> Sonja Angelika Strube, "Worte sind nicht unschuldig. Warum die Rede von "Gender-Ideologie," "Genderismus" und "Gender-Lobby" in kirchlichen Kreisen tabu sein sollte," Feinschwarz.net, November 23, 2021, Accessed July 28, 2022. https://www.feinschwarz.net/worte-sind-nicht-unschuldigwarum-die-rede-von-gender-ideologie-genderismus-und-gender-lobby-in-kirchlichen-kreisen-tabusein-sollte/.

then be scared of it." As soon as the lights are switched on, the imagined threat disappears.⁵⁶

Despite the terminological imprecision, it is noticeable that the family is frequently evoked as the main area of concern. This entails other related issues, such as the belief in the sanctity of marriage as a heterosexual unit, the rejection of reproductive freedom, the threat of an early sexualization of children and the protection of children from abuse (the latter two topics are often falsely linked to children's exposure to non-normative sexual and/or gender identities), and the power of parents – as opposed to the state – as ultimate rulers over their children's life and education. The family is thus the area where religious and right-wing interests most clearly intersect. In the internal logic of both right-wing ideologies and patriarchal religions, the heteronormative nuclear family functions as the core organizational unit and, consequently, a microcosm of the state, and perceived attacks on this unit are considered attacks on the stability of patriarchal societies.⁵⁷ Anything that would dissolve the gender binary hence threatens the patriarchal and heteronormative gender order, as Gabriele Dietze and Julia Roth summarize: "Assuming two (and only two) sexes as binary and hierarchically arranged is the essential category of order per se. The right-wing struggle against gender is thus always also a struggle against the dissolution of 'natural' orders, indeed, against a challenge of order in general."⁵⁸ This fear, however, is not just patriarchal but also nationalist: the family is the site of both a natural order and the reproduction of such an order, and so demographic concerns about the stability and longevity of the nation cut across concerns of patriarchal power.

The link between antifeminism and anti-genderism and right-wing ideologies has been corroborated by the findings of two recent surveys about right-wing and authoritarian attitudes in Germany: the Mitte Studie (2020/21) and the Leipziger Autoritarismus Studie (2020). Both define antifeminist and anti-gender attitudes as antidemocratic and antipluralist: "[A]nti-gender attitudes correspond to a mistrust in democracy, its principles and institutions insofar as efforts to democratize gender relations and to institutionalize gender equality are fundamentally rejected."⁵⁹

<sup>56</sup> Arnd Bünker, "Gespensterdebatte: Licht machen," Feinschwarz.net, October 19, 2015. Accessed July 28, 2022. https://www.feinschwarz.net/gespensterdebatte/.

<sup>57</sup> Viola Dombrowski and Katharina Hajek, "Zwischen Femonationalismus und Antigenderismus: Rechtspopulistische Geschlechterpolitiken in Deutschland," in Mobilisierungen gegen Feminismus und Gender, eds. Annette Henninger et al. (Opladen: Verlag Barbara Budrich, 2021), 52.

<sup>58</sup> Gabriele Dietze and Julia Roth. Right-wing Populism and Gender: European Perspectives and Beyond (Bielefeld: Transcript, 2020), 15.

<sup>59</sup> Nico Mokros, Maike Rump and Beate Küpper, "Antigenderismus: Ideologie einer 'natürlichen Ordnung' oder Verfolgungswahn?," in Die geforderte Mitte. Rechtsextreme und demokratiegefähr-

These antidemocratic positions are frequently coupled with a tendency to embrace conspiracy theories, especially those based on the belief in an inalterable "natural order" and a traditional gender role allocation.⁶⁰ One of the most common conspiracy theories used by anti-gender critics is that of the total abolition of gender and the forced re-education of all human beings to live in a genderless world, where "men are not allowed to be men and women are not allowed to be women," which is evidently connected to the fear of losing one's hegemonic position in society.⁶¹

Of course, anti-gender or antifeminist opinions are not exclusive to right-wing thinking. The Leipzig survey found that they are indeed widely held in Germany: about one-third of the survey's participants (47.3% of the men and 28.7% of the women who were questioned) agreed with at least one antifeminist statement.⁶² This is what makes antifeminist and anti-gender attitudes so relevant to the right: they can serve as a gateway to the wider population. Mokros, Rump, and Küpper's findings point to a correlation between "anti-gender attitudes and right-wing populist orientations" in that the arguments of both groups frequently overlap.⁶³ This connection is underlined by Höcker, Pickel, and Decker's survey, in which participants were asked to state their party-political allegiances; unsurprisingly, antifeminism was found to be particularly common amongst AfD voters.⁶⁴ Höcker, Pickel, and Decker could thus conclude that their findings showed that antifeminism is "a fundamental element of far-right and right-wing extremist thinking as well as part and parcel of their tactics and strategy."⁶⁵

To distract from this, right-wing movements feign an interest in the well-being of children (born and unborn) and home in on the alleged dangers that feminism, gender studies, and non-traditional family forms such as blended or queer families pose for children's development, and especially the development of their sexual and gender identity.⁶⁶ In other words, the focus on the protection of the family

dende Einstellungen in Deutschland 2020/21, eds. Andreas Zick and Beate Küpper (Bonn: J.H.W. Dietz, 2021), 261.

<sup>60</sup> Ibid., 259; Höcker et al., "Antifeminismus," 254.

<sup>61</sup> Mokros et al., "Antigenderismus," 252; Liane Bednarz and Steven Schäller, "Rechts und konservativ ist nicht dasselbe. Ein Gespräch über Christen in der Politik," in Die Neue Mitte? Ideologie und Praxis der populistischen und extremen Rechten, eds. Johannes Schütz, Steven Schäller, and Raj Kollmorgen (Bonn: J.H.W. Dietz, 2021), 103.

<sup>62</sup> Höcker et al., "Antifeminismus," 262.

<sup>63</sup> Mokros et al., "Antigenderismus," 259.

<sup>64</sup> Höcker et al., "Antifeminismus," 272.

<sup>65</sup> Ibid., 276.

<sup>66</sup> In a similar manner, concerns about the influence of (and contact with) ethnic minorities on the development of white children and the need to protect white women from ethnic minority

mainly serves as a means to appear more innocuous, as Götz Kubitschek, the most prominent representative of the New Right in Germany, put it, so that right-wing agents can establish a new narrative about themselves, namely that of "harmlessconservative, pacifist protectors of the family and of life."⁶⁷ According to Strube, the New Right's anti-gender discourses thus have very little to do with a wish to maintain traditionalist family structures or protect children; instead, they exploit traditional and/or Christian understandings of the family to forge strategic alliances and appear to have been moving away from the right margin closer to the center of society.⁶⁸

## Conservative or Right-Wing? The Antifeminist and Anti-Gender Rhetoric of Antiabortion Protesters

Because the right likes to use conservatism as a guise or "mimicry"⁶⁹ and because anti-gender attitudes are widespread but not indicators per se of right-wing thinking, it is crucial to distinguish between anti-gender positions that are merely conservative and those that err on the side of the far right. Bednarz offers the following general distinction between conservatism and right-wing movements: conservatism, she claims, is embedded in the liberal and pluralist traditions of the West.⁷⁰ While tradition and the nation play an important role and are considered values worth protecting, they are not constructed as exclusionary.⁷¹ Strobl states succinctly that conservatism is generally understood as an "anti-egalitarian" and "anti-revolutionary" attitude, meaning that fixed hierarchies – especially class positions – form part of conservative visions of order and that this order is to be

communities form part of the same strategy. For a detailed analysis of femonationalism in the German context, see, e. g., Dombrowski and Hajek, "Zwischen Femonationalismus und Antigenderismus." For the European context, see Sara R. Farris, In the Name of Women's Rights. The Rise of Femonationalism (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2017). For the intersection of femonationalism, homonationalism, and ablenationalism, see Angeliki Sifaki, C.L. Quinan, and Katarina Lončarević, eds., Homonationalism, Femonationalism, and Ablenationalism: Critical Pedagogies Contextualised (London: Routledge, 2022).

<sup>67</sup> Strube, "Worte."

<sup>68</sup> Strube, "Antigenderismus," 52.

<sup>69</sup> Bednarz and Schäller, "Rechts," 100.

<sup>70</sup> Liane Bednarz, "Rechte Christentumsdiskurse – ein Überblick," in Einsprüche. Studien zur Vereinnahmung der Theologie durch die extreme Rechte (Berlin: Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft Kirche und Rechtsextremismus, 2020), 14.

<sup>71</sup> Bednarz and Schäller, "Rechts," 96.

maintained.⁷² In contrast, right-wing thinking is based on the three pillars of antipluralism, antiliberalism, and ethnopluralism.⁷³ Bednarz elaborates on how these pillars represent the following attitudes and positions with respect to the religious right. First, antipluralism is expressed in the belief in the moral duty and right of the 'true' German people to represent themselves and that there can only be one voice that speaks for all people – the German concept of "Alleinvertretungsanspruch."⁷⁴ Applied to religious contexts, this translates to the belief that there is only one true faith. Consequently, minorities – religious and otherwise – are frequently othered and marginalized. Second, antiliberalism represents the rejection of all things modern, including gender and political correctness, which are framed as society's arch-enemies, accused of totalitarianism, and made responsible for the decline of society and the nation. Political and religious discourses are perhaps most visibly aligned here. Finally, ethnopluralism encompasses a rejection of multiculturalism and instead posits cultural and religious apartheid as a social ideal, meaning that different religious groups should not mix with others.⁷⁵ Bednarz's observations are seconded by those of Strube, whose research has shown that Christians who are convinced of the superiority of their own faith over other religious denominations are particularly susceptible to right-wing attitudes.⁷⁶ Furthermore, she identifies a noticeable overlap between right-wing and Catholic positions amongst those Catholic groups that embrace antimodernism and reject the Second Vatican Council.⁷⁷ Most worryingly, perhaps, she concludes that those most at risk of adopting right-wing views are believers who conflate their own perspective with God's will,⁷⁸ in other words, those whom Rigl might qualify as fundamentalist.

A second useful distinction between conservatism and right-wing thinking that Strobl, Bednarz, and Strube highlight is that right-wing political visions and rhetoric often rely on narratives and imagery of struggle or even war. Strobl traces this back to the notion of politics as an "arena of constant combat."⁷⁹ She remarks that whereas conservatism is decidedly antirevolutionary and wants to conserve an es-

<sup>72</sup> Strobl, Radikalisierter Konservatismus, 12.

<sup>73</sup> Bednarz and Schäller, "Rechts," 96; Bednarz, "Rechte," 15.

<sup>74</sup> Bednarz, "Rechte," 20.

<sup>75</sup> Ibid., 20–22. This becomes particularly obvious in the positions of right-wing populists toward Islam.

<sup>76</sup> Sonja Angelika Strube, "Religiös und rechtsextrem? Beobachtungen zu unerwarteten Anschlussmöglichkeiten," 10. Accessed July 28, 2022. https://bagkr.de/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/ STRUBE-Artikel-Religi%C3%B6s-und-rechtsextrem-8.2015.pdf.

<sup>77</sup> Ibid., 5.

<sup>78</sup> Ibid., 22.

<sup>79</sup> Strobl, Radikalisierter Konservatismus, 12.

tablished order, fascism or national socialism want to overthrow it.⁸⁰ As part of this struggle, right-wing thinkers often position themselves as the victims of the established but ultimately doomed social order that marginalizes them and forces them to stay silent. The tone of their arguments is often plaintive and pessimistic.⁸¹ Applied to the religious context, a common rhetorical strategy is to paint one's opponents as sinners, responsible for the impending decline of society and the nation, and oneself and one's supporters as true believers and saviors.⁸²

Both Bednarz and Strube have posited that the overlap of religious and rightwing interests and rhetoric is particularly striking in antiabortion activism.⁸³ In their book on antiabortion protest, Christian fundamentalism, and antifeminism, Eike Sanders, Felix Hansen, and Ulli Jentsch analyze the German-speaking antiabortion scene and the main rhetorical strategies used in it, which they define as emotionalization, moralization, and scandalization. Exaggeration is the key component of emotionalization and is used when, for example, the act of abortion is referred to as "murder" rather than a medical procedure, and instead of using medically correct terminology like "embryo" and "fetus," terms like "baby" or "child" are used to appeal to the pregnant person's empathy.⁸⁴ The strategy of moralization frequently draws on the idea of a "culture of death" – a phrase used by Pope John Paul II in a papal encyclical in the 1990s to describe issues relating to the sanctity of human life, such as abortion and euthanasia – vs. a "culture of life."⁸⁵ This argument presents abortion as a perversion of freedom and civil liberty and links it, along with contraception and sterilization, to the decline of civilization, causing low birth rates, high divorce rates, and depression.⁸⁶ The third strategy, scandalization, is the one that most obviously intersects with right-wing rhetoric,

<sup>80</sup> Ibid.

<sup>81</sup> Bednarz and Schäller, "Rechts," 97.

<sup>82</sup> Strube, "Religiös," 14.

<sup>83</sup> Strube, "Anti-genderismus," 54; Bednarz, "Rechte," 15.

<sup>84</sup> Eike Sanders et al., "Deutschland treibt sich ab": Organisierter "Lebensschutz", Christlicher Fundamentalismus, Antifeminismus (Münster: Unrast Verlag, 2014), 17.

<sup>85</sup> The full text of the "Evangelium Vitae" can be found on the Vatican website at https://www. vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf\_jp-ii\_enc\_25031995\_evangelium-vitae. html.

<sup>86</sup> Sanders et al., "Deutschland treibt sich ab", 19. In a similar vein, antiabortion groups use postabortion syndrome as a deterrent. Post-abortion syndrome is a pseudo-medical term which describes the alleged mental stress experienced by people who have had an abortion. It is not recognized as an actual medical or psychological condition by the American Psychological Association. In fact, research has shown that it is not abortion but the restriction of access to abortion that causes mental trauma. Zara Abrams, "The facts about abortion and mental health," Monitor on Psychology 53, no. 6 (2022): https://www.apa.org/monitor/2022/09/news-facts-abortion-mentalhealth.

as it addresses two classic far-right topics: demographic concerns about the reproduction or the death of the nation (the German term "Volkstod," which was used in National Socialist propaganda, is a common image) and antisemitism. This argument claims that abortion violates everyone's "right to life" and hence represents a chasm in the development of civilization. Here, radical antiabortion activists draw more or less explicit comparisons to the Holocaust, for instance by using the term "Zivilisationsbruch," which refers to the era of National Socialism and its crimes against humanity,⁸⁷ and by relativizing the Holocaust with such neologisms as "babycaust," the URL and title of German antichoice activist Klaus Günter Annen's website.⁸⁸

# The Aktionskomitee Christen für das Leben and the Society of St. Pius X in Saarbrücken: Their Narratives and Connections

Our analysis of the antiabortion scene in Saarland relied largely on organizations' web-based activities, such as their personal and official websites and their accounts on social media outlets such as Facebook and YouTube, but also on rightwing web portals like gloria.tv, which they often use to document their activities. Both Strube and Strobl have highlighted the importance of the internet as the New Right's and the religious right's main tool for communication and recruitment.⁸⁹

As mentioned above, antiabortion protests in Saarbrücken are organized by the Aktionskomitee Christen für das Leben, whose speaker and main event organizer is Peter Josef Feid. In an interview published on gloria.tv after the so-called "March for Life" in 2019, Feid stresses that the Society of St. Pius X has been involved in the local marches since their beginning.⁹⁰ He praises the commitment of Pater Peter Lang, former prior of the Society in Saarbrücken, as well as that of a retired local Christian Democratic Union politician, Ernst Brößner. According to Feid, Lang was instrumental in uniting the efforts of local activists in the Aktionskomitee in 1990.

<sup>87</sup> See Dan Diner, Zivilisationsbruch – Denken nach Ausschwitz (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 1988). 88 Sanders et al., "Deutschland treibt sich ab", 21.

<sup>89</sup> Ibid., 18; Strobl, Radikalisierter Konservatismus, 25.

<sup>90</sup> Gloria.tv, "Saarbrückener Marsch für das Leben: 'Die Hölle bäumt sich gegen uns auf' – Interview," Gloria.tv, November 13, 2019. Accessed July 29, 2022. https://gloria.tv/post/ heq1HC7qZcGb1Vxk73SeLedzj.

The language Feid uses in this interview exemplifies the argumentative strategies and narratives mentioned above, especially those of emotionalization, moralization, and scandalization. The title of the interview alone, "Hell is closing in" ("Die Hölle bäumt sich über uns auf"), indicates a dualistic worldview – heaven vs. hell, us vs. them, good vs. evil – and ties abortion to the threat of decline or, in this case, quite literally the descent into hell. Instead of using the German term for abortion ("Abtreibung"), Feid frequently uses terms like "Kindertötung" ("the killing of children") or "Zerstückeln" ("dismemberment"), as well as "Blutrausch" ("bloodlust") and "Kinderblut" ("the blood of children"). He refers to the pro familia counseling center as "Kindermordstation," which loosely translates to "infanticide station," and as "Hinrichtungsstätte" (a "site of execution"); both terms are thinly veiled references to National Socialist concentration camps. Feid also uses the terms "Kultur des Todes" ("culture of death") and "Lebensvernichtung" ("destruction of life") in a description of his opponents: pro-choice protesters.

Feid clearly positions himself and his fellow protesters as the peaceful victims of both the pro-choice protesters and the local authorities and police, highlighting one protest in the 1990s when the Aktionskomitee invited Klaus Günter Annen to Saarbrücken. Annen is described as "a pro-life activist of outstanding merit" and as "unstoppable" despite his well-known use of antisemitic rhetoric. Annen led the protest to the pro familia counseling center during its opening hours and had to be escorted from the premises by the police. Feid's use of religious imagery is particularly striking and exemplifies Strube's claim that right-wing Catholicism often positions itself as the one true religion and its opponents as sinners (who might potentially still be saved). The protests organized by the Aktionskomitee are referred to as "Sühnegebete" ("prayers for atonement") and the marches as "Gebetsmärsche" ("prayer marches"), and Feid claims that it is his and his followers' intention to "proselytize" their opponents. The interview ends with a call to action: "Today, every Christian should understand this: It is time to wake up!" This directly addresses religious people and uses the image common to conspiracy theories worldwide that those who are not in the know are 'sleeping.'

Feid's interview features photos from the 2019 march that show the placards used by his group. Additional photos from the 2017 march, where the same placards were used, can be found on the website of the Aktionskomitee's cooperation partner that year, the Trierer Bündnis für Lebensrecht und Menschenwürde.⁹¹ The

<sup>91</sup> The photos can be found at Trierer Bündnis für Lebensrecht und Menschenwürde, "Marsch für das Leben 2017." Accessed July 29, 2022. https://trierer-buendnis.jimdofree.com/veranstaltungen/ marsch-f%C3%BCr-das-leben-saarbr%C3%BCcken/2017/.

placards and slogans shown in these photos are further proof of the right-wing and antifeminist/anti-gender rhetoric of the antiabortion protesters in Saarbrücken. They include slogans such as: "Abortion is not just murder but suicide," invoking the alleged moral dangers of abortion and hinting at the narrative of the culture of death; "Abortion is against God's law," alluding to ideas ofanatural (and Godgiven) order and the validity of a theocratic state; "Protect parents' rights – stop gender ideology," constructing gender as a threat to the authority of the parents over their children and thus implicitly staging it as the tool of a totalitarian state that violates its citizens' rights; and "Our population pyramid has reached its tipping point," "Babies are tomorrow's economic leaders," and "Germany is getting rid of its future," expressing openly nationalistic and demographic concerns about the future of the German state. The latter slogan – "Deutschland treibt seine Zukunft ab" – is a reference to former Social Democratic Party member Thilo Sarrazin's book Deutschland Schafft Sich Ab, in which he predicts the decline of the German nation due to falling birth rates and an increase in migration, especially from the Muslim world. Bednarz describes Sarrazin as "a key figure" for the progress of right-wing populist discourses toward the political center in Germany and as someone who has been a crucial point of reference for rightwing Christians' self-identification.⁹²

To conclude, even a cursory analysis of the language used by the Aktionskomitee and its supporters demonstrates that common right-wing narratives and rhetorical strategies are employed in descriptions of and during their activities. It is equally obvious that the Aktionskomitee has close ties to other agents in right-wing parties and movements. As far as local politicians are concerned, Klara Katharina Bost's article about the 2016 march in the antifascist magazine Lotta features photos of two local National Democratic Party (NPD) politicians, Peter Marx and Klaus-Peter Nuhn, marching alongside former Saarbrücken prior, Father Johannes Reinartz of the FSSPX.⁹³ Local AfD politician Jeanette Schweitzer is a frequent speaker at the marches.⁹⁴ It is likely that another local NPD politician, Gerhard Ambrosius, is the person behind the username "Ambro-

<sup>92</sup> Bednarz and Schäller, "Rechts," 102.

<sup>93</sup> Klara Katharina Bost, "Die Marschrichtung der Lebenschützer," Lotta 70 (2018): 43–46.

<sup>94</sup> Schweitzer is officially announced as a speaker for the 2017 march on this flyer: FSSPX, "March für das Leben." Accessed July 29, 2022. https://fsspx.de/sites/sspx/files/demo\_2017\_sb\_verb.\_version\_ 2\_quer.png. Videos of her 2017 and 2021 speeches can be found here: Trierer Bündnis für Lebensrecht und Menschenwürde, "Marsch für das Leben 2017". Accessed July 29, 2022. https://triererbuendnis.jimdofree.com/veranstaltungen/marsch-f%C3%BCr-das-leben-saarbr%C3%BCcken/2017/; Gloria.tv, "Rede von Jeanette Schweitzer Marsch für das Leben 2021," Gloria.tv, October, 10, 2021. Accessed July 29, 2022. https://gloria.tv/post/xamPPWnNN3m41sGEvqvTPcug9#15.

sius", who posts about many of the activities of the antiabortion scenes in Saarland (as well as related issues) on gloria.tv. In 2016, the Aktionskomitee invited Inge Thürkauf to speak at the March for Life.⁹⁵ Thürkauf is a former actor and publicist and the author of the text Gender Mainstreaming: Multikultur und die neue Weltordnung about the antisemitic New World Order conspiracy theory. Thürkauf has recently received some attention for her criticism of Covid-19 containment measures and her support for anti-vaxxer conspiracy theories.⁹⁶

The Aktionskomitee has also cooperated with other antiabortion groups. At the 2021 march, for instance, it received support from two other antiabortion networks: Aktion Leben and 40 Days for Life. Aktion Leben, based in Weinheim and run by Walter Ramm and Gabriele Hüter-Ramm, claims that it is "one of the biggest pro-life organizations which fights for the right to life from conception until natural death."⁹⁷ The website does not specify this claim any further, so it is fair to assume that the superlative used to describe its size is an example of astroturfing. Aktion Leben uses the pseudo-medical "post-abortion syndrome," or PTSD, as it refers to it, as an argument against abortion on their website and offers counseling. 40 Days for Life is a US-based international antiabortion network whose self-aggrandizing claim that it is "[t]he world's largest grassroots movement to end abortion" should also be taken with a pinch of salt. The organization's name describes its primary strategy: "The visible, public centerpiece of 40 Days for Life is a focused, 40-day, non-stop, round-the-clock prayer vigil outside a single Planned Parenthood center or other abortion facility in your community."⁹⁸ 40 Days for Life was represented in Saarbrücken by Tomislav Cunovic, who, according to gloria.tv, is its organizer in Germany and gave a speech at the 2021 march.⁹⁹

In 2021, the Aktionskomitee's Facebook page shared a post about the Covid-19 pandemic and the vaccination campaign that can clearly be identified as a conspiracy theory. The post shares a video showing a woman named Pamela Acker,

<sup>95</sup> Adolf-Bender-Zentrum für Demokratie und Menschenrechte, "Die Piusbruderschaft und die menschengemachten Menschenrechte." Accessed July 29, 2022. https://adolfbender.de/blog/die-pius bruderschaft-und-die-menschengemachten-menschenrechte/; Huenermann66, "Ansprache von Inge Thürkauf auf dem Marsch für das Leben in Saarbrücken am 29.10. 2016," YouTube, October 31, 2016. Accessed July 29, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOMtT0bVicU.

<sup>96</sup> Herz Mariae, "CORONA: Napoleons Impfprogramm – Verschwörung – Neue Weltordnung – Frau Inge Maria Thürkauf," Gloria.tv, July 3, 2021. Accessed July 29, 2022. https://gloria.tv/post/ whRbu1UtJLph132e3U2KyWVm3#105.

<sup>97</sup> Aktion Leben, "Homepage." Accessed July 29, 2022. https://www.aktion-leben.de/.

<sup>98</sup> "About," 40 Days for Life. Accessed July 29, 2022. https://www.40daysforlife.com/en/about-over view.aspx.

<sup>99</sup> Ambrosius, "Lebensrechtskundgebung in Saarbrücken 9.10. 2021," Gloria.tv, October 11, 2021. Accessed July 29, 2022. https://gloria.tv/share/7VYdmYq13ke41MBDPr2oebdAm#30.

who claims that hundreds of fetuses were killed in the development of the Covid-19 vaccine. The post then encourages its followers to "wake up" and "spread the news."¹⁰⁰ This suggests that there might be an overlap between the local anti-vaxxer scene and antiabortion protesters and that the two groups share a similar ideological foundation. Bednarz has also noted this somewhat curious alliance, which illustrates again that the pro-life position of the antiabortion movement does not apply to everyone.¹⁰¹

What makes the Aktionskomitee's local activism particularly insidious is the fact that it does not just share its messages online but also in the two schools the FSSPX run in Saarbrücken: the Don-Bosco elementary school and the Herz-Jesu secondary school, which is also a boarding school. Despite their antidemocratic stance and accusations of abuse in 2010, which led to the temporary closing of the boarding school,¹⁰² the two schools are officially recognized by the German state and are eligible for state funding. According to Saarland's 2021/2022 federal budget plan, the secondary school received 487,000 euros in state funding in 2022 and 477,400 euros in 2021, and the elementary school received 199,900 euros and 195,900 euros, respectively.¹⁰³ Shortly after the 2021 march, the director of the boarding school, Uwe Bibow, posted the following on the school's website: "Prior to the march, we talked to our students in religious education about the drama and the cruelty of the abortion mentality. That's why students and teachers support this prayer march every year in order to raise their voices for the smallest members of our community, who have no voice."¹⁰⁴ The same post also uses terms like "Tötungshaus" ("killing factory") and "gemordete Kinder" ("murdered chil-

<sup>100</sup> Aktionskomitee Christen für das Leben, "Pamela Acker," Facebook, May 28, 2021. Accessed July 29, 2022. https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Community/Aktionskomitee-Christen-f%C3%BCrdas-Leben-1818915925034879/.

<sup>101</sup> Liane Bednarz, "Lebensgefährliche Lebensschützer," Der Spiegel, December 19, 2020. Accessed July 29, 2022. https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/christliche-corona-verharmloser-leb ensgefaehrliche-lebensschuetzer-a-8c5ac68a-c030-414d-bb89-ed81cd992cf7.

<sup>102</sup> See, e. g., Claudia Keller, "Saarland schließt Internat der Piusbruderschaft," Tagespiegel, April 28, 2010. Accessed July 29, 2022. https://www.tagesspiegel.de/gesellschaft/panorama/beengte-moralsaarland-schliesst-internat-der-piusbruderschaft/1809976.html.

<sup>103</sup> "Haushaltsplan des Saarlandes für die Rechnungsjahre 2021 und 2022 – Einzelplan 06 für den Geschäftsbereich des Ministeriums für Bildung und Kultur." Accessed July 29, 2022. https://www. saarland.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/mfe/Haushaltsplan\_2021-2022/Einzelplan06.pdf?\_\_blob=pub licationFile&v=2.

<sup>104</sup> Uwe Bibow, "Die Würde des Menschen ist unantastbar!" Last modified November 2, 2021, http://don-bosco-sb.de/2021/11/3617/.

dren") and refers to the German heads of state as "anti-Christian rulers" who "have perverted, misinterpreted, and trampled on human dignity."¹⁰⁵

Previously, Bibow had also posted about the 2015 march on the school's website. In that post, he talks about the conspiracy theory of "an American antiabortion lobby, whose long arm reaches all the way to pro familia," complains about the fact that politicians are not interested in the issue, and closes with the hopeful wish that he and other protesters have "played their part in offsetting the egregious sin committed in our country."¹⁰⁶ Another one of Bibow's posts addresses what he refers to as "gender ideology" by recommending a video by the educator and therapist Wolfgang Bergmann, in which Bergmann criticizes gender studies as "absurd" and "utter nonsense" based on his understanding that gender studies denies that there is a difference between girls and boys.¹⁰⁷ Given that all three posts reveal the school's problematic relation to democratic processes, freedom of opinion, the neutrality of education, as well as academic integrity, it is highly questionable whether the schools adhere to state curricula and hence should not be receiving state funding.

## Conclusion

The findings of our project are unsurprising insofar as they are coherent with what other researchers in the social sciences and humanities have already posited: the positions of antiabortion protesters, such as the Aktionskomitee Christen für das Leben in Saarbrücken, overlap to a considerable extent with right-wing ideologies. In the formation of the antiabortion movement (both locally but also in general), anti-gender attitudes play a crucial role. As Höcker, Pickel, and Decker point out, this is problematic because it is precisely the discursive field of antifeminism and anti-genderism that offers points of connection between conservatism, religion, and right-wing movements and which thus has to be understood "as a fundamental threat to democratic and modern developments."¹⁰⁸ It is of the utmost importance that liberal Christians clearly position themselves against their rightwing counterparts and draw attention to their anti-democratic narratives, especially if their religious leaders fail to do so. Right-wing movements are likely to con-

<sup>105</sup> Ibid.

<sup>106</sup> Uwe Bibow, "Gebetszug für das Leben." Last modified October, 5, 2015, https://don-bosco-sb.de/ 2015/10/gebetszug-fuer-das-leben/.

<sup>107</sup> Uwe Bibow, "Erläuterungen zur Jungenpädagogik." Last modified April 3, 2019, https://donbosco-sb.de/2019/04/erlaeuterungen-zur-jungenpaedagogik/.

<sup>108</sup> Höcker et al., "Antifeminismus," 278.

tinue to pursue the strategies described in this chapter, while right-wing Catholics will gain more legitimacy as long as the Catholic Church does not take a clear stand against them and refuses to engage meaningfully with feminism and gender studies.

# Works Cited


Aktion Leben. "Homepage." https://www.aktion-leben.de/ (accessed July 29, 2022).


Rechte. (Berlin: Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft Kirche und Rechtsextremismus, 2020): 8–23.


Deutschland." In Mobilisierungen gegen Feminismus und Gender, edited by Annette Henninger et al., 42–58. Opladen: Verlag Barbara Budrich, 2021.


"Abtreibung häufigste Todesursache." FSSPX. Last modified January 11, 2022. https://fsspx.news/de/ news-events/news/abtreibung-2021–weltweit-die-h%C3%A4ufigste-todesursache-70942


# 13 Contributors

Steinar Aas is professor in modern history at Nord Universitet, Bodø. His research has been centered around modernization processes, like industrialization and urbanization, as well as the rise of the modern participatory democracy and the role of civic and political organizations. Studies of the Labor movement have particularly been of interest in recent years, too. Aas has also published books and articles in the field of polar history, Italian fascism and memory studies in connection with World War II, including "New perspectives on the Italia tragedy and Umberto Nobile," in Polar History (2005).

Mariela Fargas Peñarrocha, PhD in Early Modern History and Law graduate, is a tenured professor of Early Modern History in the Department of History and Archaeology at the University of Barcelona and is also a researcher at the "Adhuc" Research Center: Theory, Gender, Sexuality there. Her interests focus on the history of the family and of women in Spain and Catalonia between the 16th and 18th centuries, particularly family power relations and female agencies. She has broadly published on these topics in recent years, icluding the books Women in the Old Regime (Barcelona, 2009), Captive Genealogy: Property, Mobility and Family in Barcelona 1500-1650 (Valencia, 2012) and has edited the volume Alternatives: Women, Gender and History (Barcelona, 2020). Furthermore, she is co-director of the Gender(s) collection edited by the University of Barcelona.

Martin Göllnitz, PhD, studied history and German language and literature at Kiel University. From 2014 to 2017, he worked there as a research assistant at the Department of Regional History, where he also received his doctorate with a study on the possibilities for action of young academic Nazi functionaries. Immediately afterwards, he researched and taught as a visiting scholar for six months at the University of Odense (Denmark) and from October 2017 to February 2019 as a research assistant at the Department of Contemporary History at the University of Mainz. Since March 2019, he has been a research assistant at the Chair of Hessian Regional History at the University of Marburg. There, he has also been working on a sub-project in the Collaborative Research Center /Transregio 138 "Dynamics of Security" since January 2022. His research interests include the history of terrorism, violence, and culture in modern times, the history of universities and science, as well as historical security research.

Jana Günther, born in 1978 in the GDR, is a professor of social sciences at the Protestant University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt (ehd Darmstadt, Hesse) with a research and teaching focus on social inequality and poverty, social movements and protest research, anti-discrimination policy, and classical feminist theory. Günther is currently researching the role of women's movement organizations in the war industry.

Frank Jacob is Professor of Global History at Nord Universitet, Norway. He studied History and Japanese Studies at the universities of Würzburg, Germany and Ōsaka, Japan. His main fields of research include transnational anarchism, revolution theory, and modern Japanese History. Jacob is the author or editor of more than 100 books and his recent works include Emma Goldman oder: Freiheit um jeden Preis (Dietz, 2023) and Wallerstein 2.0: Thinking and Applying World-Systems Theory in the 21st Century (Transcript, 2023).

Open Access. © 2023 the author(s), published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111102757-013

#### 252 13 Contributors

Beñat Elortza Larrea received his PhD from the University of Aberdeen in 2018, and is an Associate Professor at Nord Universitet in Bodø, Norway. His research interests include the Scandinavian 'state formation' processes in the Middle Ages, medieval martial culture, and aristocratic identity and mobility. He has authored several publications on these topics, including his recent monograph, Polity Consolidation and Military Transformation in Medieval Scandinavia: A European Perspective, c.1035- 1320 (Brill, 2023).

Heike Mißler is a senior lecturer at Saarland University, where she teaches British Literary and Cultural Studies. Her research interests include gender and queer theory, feminist theory, critical race studies, critical whiteness studies, British cultural studies, contemporary British novels, popular romance studies, chick lit, popular culture studies, TV and film studies, and posthumanism. She has published on postfeminist fiction and film, as well as posthumanist literature and is currently involved in a community-based activist project on antifeminist discourses and abortion rights in Germany and beyond.

Jowan A. Mohammed, an avid researcher interested in women's history and World War One, lives in Norway and is a PhD student at Nord Universitet, where she works on her dissertation project "Women as War Critics in the Urban Space: A study of Social Change in Times of War." Her monograph Mary Hunter Austin: A Female Writer's Protest Against the First World War in the United States (Vernon Press, 2021) was her debut on the life and works of Mary Hunter Austin (1868-1934).

Sabine Müller is Professor of Ancient History at the History Department of Marburg University. She studied Medieval and Modern History, Art History, and Ancient History. Her research focuses on the Persian Empire, Argead Macedonia, the Hellenistic Empires, Macedonian royal women, Lukian of Samosata, and reception studies. Her publications include monographs on Alexander the Great, Ptolemy II and Arsinoë II, and Perdikkas II. She is co-editor of the Lexicon of Argead Makedonia and The Routledge Companion to Women and Monarchy in the Ancient Mediterranean World.

Florian Wenninger is Head of the Insitute for Historical Social Research (Institut für Historische Sozialforschung) at the Chamber of Labour (Arbeiterkammer) in Vienna. He is leading the research project "Politische Repression in Österreich 1933-1938" ("Political Repression in Austria 1933-1938") and his research foci include Police and deviance, Dictatorship and transformation, as well as Historical identity formation.

Sigrun Borgen Wik is currently a PhD candidate in History at Trinity College Dublin. Her doctoral thesis centers around the depictions of villainous, dishonorable, and otherwise negatively presented characters in the sagas of Icelanders, and how these depictions are influenced by the views of gender in Medieval Iceland.

#### Index Terms

Aktionskomitee für das Leben 226, 240–243 Aktionskomitee Christen für das Leben 227, 239, 244–245 anarcha-feminist 86, 89, 102. anarcha-feminism 86. anarchism 86, 89, 90, 96, 98, 100, 101, 102, 108, 118 Andromakhe 7. anti-feminism VI, 185, 187, 200, 20, 224, 229, 231, 232, 233, 234, 235, 236, 238, 241. anti-hierarchical core values 88 antimilitarism iii, 125, 132, 141, 142, anti-rape 218 Araxes 12 Argentina 226 aristocratic women 47, 48, 51, 61, 62, 63 Artemisia of Halikarnassos 16, A/S Sulitjelma gruber 125, Austria 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 156, 160, 161, 164, 165, 171, 173, Austrian Workers' Army (Österreichische Arbeiterwehr) 153 Baeumler, Alfred 191, 197, Barcelona III, 65, 68, 69, 79, Belarus 2, 218 Benét, Stephen Vincent 149, 177 Benford, Robert 107, 123 Bergen 49, 50, 53–54, 60 Berkman, Alexander 86–91, 96–99, 101–102, 112, 121 Berlin 188–189, 194–195 Birger Magnusson 50, 55 Birkebeiner 49, 52 Birtavarre 133 birth control 89, 94, 96 Blüher, Hans 190–191 Bodø 4, 127, 132, 134–135, 137–140, 142–143, 145–147 bohemian intellectual hub 104–105 Bourdieu, Pierre 129, 146–147, 195, 197, 207– 208, 219 Bradford Academy for Young Women 112

Brennu-Njáls saga 36, 44 Bull, Edvard 127–128, 132, 146 Bundesverband Lebensrecht 223 Butler, Judith 1, 5, 208–209, 215, 217–219, 233, 246 Camden Chronicle 98–100 Campbell, Karen E. 108, 123 Canonical doctrine 76 Cape Artemision 16 Carnegie Steel Company 97 Carney, Elizabeth 8–9, 19, 23–25 Catalan law 69 Catholic Education for Women 111–112 Catt, Carrie Chapman 112–113, 115, 121 Central Asia 10 Chicago 98 Christian piety 56 Christoffer of Halland-Samsø 58 Church of Sant Just, Barcelona 79 civil disobedience 202–204, 214, 215 College of St. Elizabeth 111–112 Colombia 226 Corella, Jaime de 67 Council of Trent 68, 73, 79, 83 Creditanstalt 150 Czolgosz, Leon 98–99 "Demokratie Leben!" ("Live Democracy!") 223 Denmark 47, 50, 58 Dionysos 21–22 Dionysos Pseudanor 22 Duke of Södermanland 50, 54 Egils saga Skallagrímssonar 37 Egill 37–38, 41 Ehala, Martin 109, 122 Enseñanza convent 80 Erik Magnusson, of Sweden 50, 54–55 Erik VI Menved, of Denmark 50 Erikskrönikan (Chronicle of Duke Erik) 50, 54– 56, 58–59, 63 Esger Juul 58

Open Access. © 2023 the author(s), published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111102757-014

European Middle Ages 14, 47 Evjen, Bjørg 126, 130–131, 146 Eyrbyggja saga 36–37, 44–45 Fagerli 136 family structures 67, 236 Farmers' Defense (Bauernwehren) 152 Fauske 132, 134, 147 February Uprising, Austria iii, 150–152, 159, 162, 175 Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women, and Youth, Germany 223 female protest formation 2–3, 103–104, 106– 110, 117–120, 151–152, 165, 175–176 feminine 38, 65, 185, 189 femme fatale 88, 96, 99 Ferguson, Kathy E. 86, 87, 90, 91, 93, 99, 101 First Austrian Republic 151 First World War 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 117, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 125, 126, 144, 181 Fons, Narcisa 69, 70, 71, 73, 77 Four Lights 114 Freedom League (Freiheitsbund) 152, 177 freedom of speech 116, freedom of the press 116, 140 Frick, Henry Clay 88, 96–97, 99, 102, Fricker, Miranda 110, 122 Fridays for Future 201 Front Fighter Association (Frontkämpfervereinigung) 152 Frostaþinglög 29

Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand 204 gender-coded 188, 201 gender identity 87, 181, 193, 196, 202, 235 gender norm 1–3, 85, 88, 91, 94, 114, 165, 187 gender role 9, 48, 93, 181, 231, 232, 235 gender-related injustices 110 gender-related limitations 2 gender-related problems 96 gender-related reform 100 gender-related roles 1 gender studies 206, 225, 232–233, 235, 244 Germany 98–99, 129, 181, 196, 215, 223, 225– 227, 234–236, 241–242 Goldman, Emma iii, 85–102, 112, 114, 118, 121

Grágás 29–30 Granberg, Ellen M. 108, 123 Greenwich House 106, 113 Gregory VII 47, 63 Gulaþingslög 32 Habermas, Jürgen 104, 122 habitual dispositions 182, 184 Håkon Galen 49 Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar 49, 51–54, 59–61, 63 Håkon III Sverresson 49–52 Håkon IV Håkonsson 48, 50–51, 53, Håkon V Magnusson of Norway 48, 50 Halikarnassos 9, 16 Hålogaland 50, 52, 60 Hanken mine 134–135 Håvard, Bishop of Bergen 49 Hay, Mary Garrett 113 Heebøll-Holm, Thomas 56–57, 59, 61, 63 Hektor 7 Helsingborg 126 Herodotos iii, 7, 10–18, 20–23 Hess, Rudolf 191 historical women's movements 201–202 Home Guards (Heimwehren) 152–153, 161, 170 Homestead Steel Strike 96 Homosexuality 186, 190–192, 198, 200, 230 Honolulu Republican 98, 100 Hoover, J. Edgar 87 Horgby, Björn 129, 146 Höskuldr 41 Housemaid 131 Hrafnkell 35, 38 Hrafnkell saga Freysgoða 34–35, 44, Hughan, Jessie Wallace 112, 122 Hybris 11 Icelanders 29, 38, 44 Iliad 7 image politics 206 immigrants 106, 116, 123 Inga of Varteig 48–54, 56, 58–62 Inge Bårdsson 49 Ingebjørg Håkonsdatter 48, 50, 54–55, 58, 62 Ingeborg Valdemarsdatter 56–57, 61 Innocent III 57, 63

International Ladies' Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) 106, 116–118 122–123 Iran 2, 6 Ireland 41 Íslendingasögur iii, 29, 31, 33, 40, 41–42, Jakobsbakken 136, 139 Jensen, Eric 184, 198 Jorunn 41 Karelia 56 Karl-Marx-Hof, community house 173 Karlsson, Karl 41 Karl the Older 41 Karl the Younger 41 Kaspian Sea 10 King, Martin Luther 204, 220 kings' saga 51 kinship 33, 55, 79 Klaufi 38–39, 41 Knud Porse 51, 59 Knud IV, of Denmark 56 Köpenicker Blutwoche 194–196, 199 Kyros II, of Persia 8, 10–11, 14–15, 22, 24 Lake Langvannet 127 La perfecta casada 67 legal codes 29 León, Fray Luis de 67 Leonidas 14–15 LGBTQIA+ 4 lineage system 67 Little, William 105, 109, 122 Lorntsen, Martin Kr. 134 Lucius Verus 18 Archbishop of Lund 58 Lüdtke, Alf 129 Machtan, Lothar 190, 198 Magnus Eriksson 48, 50, 55, 58, 61 male association 189 -191 "March for Life" 239, 242 Marcus Aurelius 19 Margrete I 47, 59, 63 Marriage iii, 8, 25, 50, 54, 60, 65, 67, 69–70, 73, 76, 79–83, 85–86, 90–94, 96, 99, 102, 215, 234

Marx, Karl 107, 205, 207, 208, 220 Marxism 108, 230 Masculinity VI, 7, 31–34, 43, 181, 183–185, 187– 189, 191, 195, 196, 200 Massagetai 10, 12, 14, 17 Matilda of Canossa 47, 62 McCammon, Holly J. 108, 123 McKinley, William 88, 98–99, 101, Medby, Johan 127–128, 132–146 Melkorka 40–43 Melkorkustöðum 41 Meløy 143 Milholland Boissevain, Inez ii, 3, 5 militant radical unionism 108 militarism 116, 133, 135 Mimallones 22–23 mining community 125, 128, 135–136, 140 Mo i Rana 132 Montfar, Ana María 71 Morality 94, 119, 183 Mörðr Mostellaria 39, 45 Mother Earth 89, 90, 97, 101, 114, 121 Mowery, Christine 108, 123 Næss, Lars 133, 144 Narvik 132 National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) 110, 119–120, 123, 204 National Socialism 182, 183, 185, 186, 190, 200, 216, 238–239 National Socialists (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, NSDAP) 181, 185, 187 National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) 115 Nelson, Alice Dunbar 113, 121–122 New Right 225–226, 229, 236, 248 New York City iii, 96–98, 100, 103–108, 110–111, 113, 116–117, 119–120, 122–123 New York Tribune 97, 100, 112, 114–115, 121 Nidaros 49, 52 No-Conscription League 110 Nordland 52, 125, 127, 132, 139, 144 Nordlandsposten 127, 138–140, 145 Nordlands Social-Demokrat 127, 133, 135, 139– 140, 143,

Norway 4, 47–51, 57, 62–63, 88, 125–128, 130– 134, 137–138, 140, 142, 144 Norwegian Communist Party (NKP) 133 Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions 126, 133, 142 Norwegian labor movement 125–128, 132–133, 138, 143–144 Norwegian Labor Party 127, 128, 133, 138, 144 Norwegian Workers' Union 127, 129–130, 132, 138–139, 142–144 Nyköping Castle 50 Ny Tid 128–129, 140 O'Hare, Kate Richards 112 Ohio 115 Óláfr 40–41, 43, 60 Old Norse sagas 29–32, 40, Øreting 52 Østfold 49 Østlandet 50, 52, 59 Ostmarkian Storm Crowds (Ostmärkische Sturmscharen) 152, 178 pacifism 108–109, 111–112, 122, 236 Paris 3, 94, 115, 156, Parks, Rosa 204 Pastor, Joseph 69–74, 78–80 patriarchal culture 65–66 patriarchic elite 2 patriarchic society 85, 86, patriarchic system 89 patriarchic control 91 patriarchic regime 93 Práctica del confesionario 67 Pelling, Christopher 16–17, 25, Pelopidas 7 Pennsylvania 96, 149 Persian Teispid Empire 10 Persian Wars 10, 16 Philip II Augustus 56–57 Pinkerton Boys 97 Plutarch 7, 18, 21, 26 Polyainos iii, 7, 9, 10, 18–26 Pompeius Trogus 15, 17 Portland Daily Press 98, 100 Proletariat 128, 133, 144 Pseudolus 39–40, 45

Rancière, Jacques 1–2, 6, Rape 8, 29, 30, 45 Red Front Fighters' League (Roter Frontkämpferbund) 153 Renaissance 66, 67, 83 reproductive freedom 224, 227, 231–232, 234 reproductive health 89, 223, 226 reproductive healthcare 226 Republican Protection League (Republikanischer Schutzbund) 151, 153–166, 168–172, 174– 176, 178–179 revolutionary movement 2, 4, 103, 107, 125, 126, 132, 211, 213, revolutionary transformation process 2, 211 religious-fundamentalist rhetoric right-wing rhetoric 224, 225, 226, 236, 238, 240–241 Road to Freedom 114 Röhm, Ernst 183, 190–193, 199–200 Roman Empire 18 Roman Republic 9, 39, 40, 45 royal council 50–51, 54, 59 Russian Revolution 87, 101–102, 126, 132, 144, 213 Saarbrücken VI, 223–224, 227, 230, 239–245 Salamis 11, 16, 24 Saltdal 132, 133, 139 Salten 125, 127, 132, 136, 146, 147 San Francisco Call 87, 98, 100 Sarpsborg 49 Scandinavia iii, 48, 60, 125 Schirach, Baldur von 192 Second Austrian Republic 151 Second Sophistic 18–20, 25–26 Second Vatican Council 227–228, 237 sexual assault 30, 45, sexual emancipation 89 sexual freedom 89–90, 94, 95, 101, 216 sexual liberation 88, 94–95, 99, sexuality 30, 44, 89, 95–96, 102, 183, 187, 190– 192, 216, 231 Simmel, Georg 68 Sisters of the Immaculate Conception 80, Skåne 50 Skånska Superfosfat och Svavelsyrefabrikaktiebolag 126

Skara 55, 58 Skule Bårdsson 49, 53 Skythians 10 Slavery 29–30, 39, 41, 43, 50, 90, 119, 212 Snow, David 107, 123, Social-Demokraten 132, 138, 142, 145 Social Democratic Party of Austria (SDAPÖ) 153–154, 164–165 Social Movements 2, 5, 106–108, 110, 202–207, 209, 215, 220, Socialist Party, of America 112, 115, 118 Society of Saint Pius X (Fraternitas Sacerdotalis Sancti Pii X, FSSPX) 224 Spain 67 Spargapises 13 St. Louis Post-Dispatch Sunday Magazine 85 Strobl, Natascha 226, 236–237, 239, 248 Styria 152, 158 suffragist movement 91, 94, 104, 108, 214, Sulitjelma 125–137, 139–144 Sulitjelma Affair (or Medby Case) 130, 132, 140, 144–147 Sturmabteilung (SA) 182–191, 193–196 Svarfdæla saga 38–39, 41–43, 45 Sverre Sigurdsson 49 Sweden 47, 48, 50, 51, 54, 55, 58, 125, 126, 129, 131 Sysselmann 53, 60 Tamarit, María de 76 Theopropides 39 Thermopylai 15 The Trade Union Opposition of 1911 (Fagopposisjon av 1911) 128, 141, 145, Thoreau, Henry David 203–204 Tomyris II, 7, 9–23, 26 Tranio 39 Tranmæl, Martin 128, 129, 141–143, 147

Trondheim 128, 138, 141–143 Trøndelag 52, United States of America 3, 5, 85-87, 96, 110, 114, 115, 119-122 Upton, Harriet Taylor 115 urban space 103–105, 110–111, 113, 117, 120 Valdemar I, of Denmark 56 Valdemar II, of Denmark 56 Valdemar Magnusson 50, 55 Vegard of Verdal 49 Vienna 149–153, 155, 158–160, 162, 163–167, 169, 171–173, 177–179 Vienna Federal Police Directorate 150 Volksgemeinschaft 182, 189, 198 Washington, D.C. ii, 3, Waugh, Robin 42, 43, 45 Weimar Republic 184–188, 195–197, 200 Wheeler, Hoyt N. 108, 109, 123 Woman Suffrage Procession 3, 6 Women's Peace Party (WPP) 114 women's silent protest 66 Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) 204, 214 Workers' Federation for Sport and Physical Culture (Arbeiterbund für Sport und Körperkultur, ASKÖ) 154, working-class women 130–131, 170 Worman, Nancy 15, 27 Xerxes 9, 15–17, 26 Yngvildr 41–43, 45 Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft 87, 102, 190, 199–200