Making of a German Constitution : a Slow Revolution

Discontent in the Bürgerliche Society 1900–1933 • 233the father still subsists) of the child.’ 112 The proscription on independent guardianshipby mothers, therefore, was tied to the denial of women’s civil rights more generally,particularly the right to property. The exercise of full guardianship rights would havemade women, if not as persons or wives, then as mothers, fully geschäftsfähig andthis, of course, was the key to the political participation that they were denied.By examining the relationship between the feminist concept of motherhood andBachofen’s theory of ancient Mutterrecht, and by comparing it with Germanist politicalideology and the legislated expression of that ideology in the BGB, the fullpolitical implications of the concept become clear and reveal the radicalism of thewomen’s movement’s political engagement. The ideology of motherhood was deeplypolitical and struck at the heart of German liberalism and the exclusive liberal orderthat came into existence with the BGB. Motherhood challenged the legitimacy ofpatriarchy in both the historical and contemporary context and, thus, challenged thelegal foundation of the bürgerliche society and the majority rule that was the basis ofthe bürgerliche Gemeinwesen. It denied the validity of exclusive väterliche Gewaltand the eheliches Güterrecht of the BGB. Moreover, it redefined the political organizationof the state in such a manner that it gave women exclusive control of matterssuch as education, social welfare and the general moral common good.Discontent in the Republics: A Continuity in German HistoryIn addition to the discontent in high culture, the constitutional transformation ofGermany into an exclusive bürgerliche Gemeinwesen produced both organized andindividual popular discontent at the grassroots of German society. Liberals tried tolegislate into existence a sociopolitical order designed to sustain majority rule. TheBGB, particularly its family law, left no German untouched. As soon as it becamelaw, the state, rather than the National Liberal Party, became the target of resentmentand protest. Liberal ideals of creating happiness and good for the people fell flat whenfar too many Germans found themselves trapped in unhappy unions, and the statebecame the target of personal discontent.The legal revolution in Central Europe that began with procedural reform in Hanoverslowly eroded the gains women had made during a century of promise anddenied women equal civil rights under bürgerliche law. As Beatrix Geisel suggests:‘The women’s movement cannot be understood without its foundation in the reactionto mounting civil legislation.’ 113 Ute Gerhard has written that the chief instrumentused to consolidate paternalistic gender relations in bürgerliche society was thelaw. 114 The introduction of the Civil Code of Saxony (BGBS) in 1865 offered an importantharbinger for what would occur at the national level in 1896. The AllgemeinerDeutscher Frauenverein (ADF) was founded the same year, partially in response tothe enactment of the BGBS, and the founding of the Frauenrechtschutzverein byMarie Stritt, Marianne Menzer and others in Dresden soon followed. As early as