Abortion in the Third Reich?

Panzer Leader · Post by **Panzer Leader** » 26 Apr 2007 01:09

This maybe a touchy topic but I'll go ahead with the risk and ask anyways.

Was abortion legal in Nazi Germany? I ask this because I really don't see anything out on the subject and if it was legal in the Third Reich or not.

faf_476 · Post by **faf_476** » 26 Apr 2007 08:22

I am sure that Germany is an anti country against Abrotion, as they are Catholic, they would really resist about that. But maybe I am wrong,

Jiri · Post by **Jiri** » 26 Apr 2007 17:43

Well, it depends - while The Third Reich was a race-obsessed state, it depended on racial basis - the abortion was completely forbidden for German women, who were of "good blood", and rise of birth rate was quite in accordance with Nazis racial views, abortions being permitted onyl if the life of German mother was in danger, but abortion of children of "inferior races" was quite encouraged, and in case of some Jewish ghettoes abortion was virtually compulsory, when all births were banned. See for example this: http://www.ima.org.il/imaj/ar07mar-23.pdf

maxxx · Post by **maxxx** » 26 Apr 2007 18:27

btw: germany isnt and was never a "Catholic" country...
just the southern and some western parts...
especially the "prussian" tradition is rather ant-catholic

ManfredV · Post by **ManfredV** » 26 Apr 2007 21:51

maxxx wrote:btw: germany isnt and was never a "Catholic" country...
just the southern and some western parts...

Southern Germany is not only catholic: great parts of Franconia, Baden, Wuerttemberg and Hessen have more Protestants.

faf_476 · Post by **faf_476** » 27 Apr 2007 14:14

Out of topic question: Then why did the Germans used the cross as their official insignias?

Well, we should know that Abortion was not compulsory as said before, and man power was very needed at that time.
thanks mates..

markvs · Post by **markvs** » 28 Apr 2007 10:40

I would imagine you are correct,
I remember seeing a programme saying that 'the mentally deficient' were not to be allowed to 'breed', and that sterileisation for these people ebventually became euthenasia.
As today it started with abortions being legalised

Mr Holmes · Post by **Mr Holmes** » 28 Apr 2007 10:58

faf_476 wrote:Out of topic question: Then why did the Germans used the cross as their official insignias?

I don't think that the mainstream historical Protestant Churches such as the Lutheran Church rejected the validity of the Cross as such, probably moreso only in its ritualistic manifestations as being something akin and identifiable, almost, to the Inquisition and Indulgences. But I'm going off-topic with this.

Mr Holmes · Post by **Mr Holmes** » 28 Apr 2007 11:02

I would presume that abortion was not something to be encouraged. Martin Bormann proposed that after the war ex-soldiers (not sure if this included Heer personel or only SS) would be able to have two women for breeding purposes because of the depletion of German manpower through attrition. How realistic a proposition this would become had Germany won the war, is anyone's guess.

Vikki · Post by **Vikki** » 29 Apr 2007 20:55

Abortion had been banned in Germany long before the Third Reich, though the laws and punishment were strengthened at that time. See:

nondescript handle wrote: Abortion in Germany is regulated in the article 218 of the penal code since 1871:
In the 1871 version abortion is banned without exeption.
In 1925 the highest court (Reichsgericht) ruled that an abortion to save the mother from serious harm is not punishable.
In 1935 there is a law which determined the exact procedure to judge what "serious harm" is, the same law aggravates the punishment if the
child is healthy and arian to death.
After 1945 the 1935 law was repealed, the 1925 rules stayed in effect
until 1972.

So in a summary: from 1871 to 1972 abortion was banned in Germany,
unless there was a danger for the mother.

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=58804

A couple of other threads with information on the topic, which can also easily be located with the search engine here:
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=76883
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=20014