Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T21:31:52.839Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Debate about Foundling Hospitals in Enlightenment Germany: Infanticide, Illegitimacy, and Infant Mortality Rates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2008

Otto Ulbricht
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The German Enlightenment has often been described as a philosophical or literary movement. This is certainly true to some extent; however, it is far from being an adequate description. It seems more justified to regard it as a general reform movement, even though many reforms that were suggested were not introduced. In the second half of the eighteenth century, social and economic problems became increasingly important for the enlightened thinker. First the emancipation of the peasants was demanded, then that of the Jews, and towards the end of the century, some even asked for the emancipation of women, to name just a few major groups. The enlightened reformers advocated the abolition of the guilds, the introduction of free trade and agricultural reforms. The old penal law was to be brought up to the standards of the time, and the system of poor relief to be reorganized. Groups that needed special care, like the blind, the deaf, and the insane, now received more attention. For the first time, public health became a matter of general concern. Educational reforms were proposed, not only to improve schooling, but also in order to change society through an educative process.

Type
Article
Information
Central European History , Volume 18 , Issue 3-4 , September 1985 , pp. 211 - 256
Copyright
Copyright © Conference Group for Central European History of the American Historical Association 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Kopitzsch, Franklin, “Einleitung: Die Sozialgeschichte der deutschen Aufklärung als Forschungsaufgabe,” in Kopitzsch, Franklin, ed., Aufklärung, Absolutismus und Bürgertum in Deutschland (Munich, 1976), 41–42Google Scholar; idem, Grundzüge einer Sozialgeschichte der Aufklärung in Hamburg und Altona, pt. 1, Beiträge zur Geschichte Hamburgs, vol. 21 (Hamburg, 1982), 60.Google Scholar

2. For an 18th-century account of institutions similar to foundling hospitals in ancient times and during the Middle Ages see Ludewig, Johann Peter von, “Gründliche Ursachen, zur christlichen Policey, in Anlegung der Findelhäuser,” Gelehrte Anzeigen, 3 vols. (Halle and Leipzig, 1743–1745), 3:17–20, 23–32Google Scholar; also Beckmann, Johann, Beyträge zur Geschichte der Erfindungen, 5 vols. (Leipzig, 1782–1805), 5:356–94Google Scholar with long passages from the sources, especially from the medieval ones; Hügel, Fr. S., Die Findelhäuser und das Findelwesen Europa's (Vienna, 1863), 1–56Google Scholar; Ruland, Ludwig, Das Findelhaus, seine geschichtliche Entwicklung und sittliche Bewertung, Veröffentlichungen des Vereins für Säuglingsfürsorge im Regierungsbezirk Düsseldorf, no. 9/10 (Berlin, 1913), 9–18Google Scholar; Pfeil, Sigurd Graf von, Das Kind als Objekt der Planung (Göttingen, 1979), 285–324Google Scholar for the Middle Ages and the early modern period. More reliable than these, and more detailed for Germany, is Mummenhoff, Ernst, Das Findel- und Waisenhaus zu Nürnberg orts- kultur- und wirtschaftsge-schichtlich (Nuremberg, 1917), 1–39.Google Scholar

3. Mummenhoff, Findel- und Waisenhaus, 78, 388–92; the same applies to the foundling hospital in Cologne, which had been ordered to take in orphans in 1602. Urban, Paula, Die Kindesaussetzung: Rechtsgeschichtliche Entwicklung, Dogmatik und Bekämpfung (unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Stadt Köln) (doct. thesis, Düsseldorf, 1936), 50.Google Scholar

4. Ludewig, Johann Peter von, “Leichtes Mittel dem Kindermord, durch Findelhäuser abzuhelffen,” Gelehrte Anzeigen, 3:65–66Google Scholar. (“Von dem Findelhaus zu Paris aus der Handschrift eines guten Freundes.”) This article was first published in 1740. For England McClure, Ruth, Coram's Children: The London Foundling Hospital in the Eighteenth Century (New Haven-London, 1981), 21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5. There had been a short-lived attempt to save the lives of foundlings in Hamburg by installing a revolving basket at the orphanage (1709–1714). Mönckeberg, C., “Jobst von Overbeck,” Zeitschrift des Vereins für hamburgische Geschichte 4 (1858): 322–24Google Scholar. This private endeavor does not seem to be connected with the later foundations. The same applies to an attempt to prevent infanticide in Würzburg, where a windlass and a small bell had been fixed at the orphanage in 1688. Mummenhoff, Findel- und Waisenhaus, 24. On the proposal to establish a “foundling hospital” in Vienna between 1639 and 1644 see Brust, Lucie, Geschichte des Findel-und Waisenwesens bis zu Ende des XVIII. Jhrt. mit Rücksicht aufdie Verhältnisse in Wien (unpub. doct. thesis, n. p., n. d. [Vienna, 1930]), chap. II, p. 4a.Google Scholar

6. Stein, Karl, Das Waisenhaus in Kassel (unpub. doct. thesis, n. p., 1923), 95–96Google Scholar; Berge, Otto, “Wohlfahrtspflege und Medizinalwesen unter Landgraf Friedrich II.,” Zeitschrift des Vereins für hessische Geschichte und Landeskunde 65/66 (1954/1955): 137–38Google Scholar. The foundling hospital was opened two years later.

7. [von Bayer, Thaddäus Edler], Beschreibung der Armen-Versorgungsanstalten in der königl. böhmischen Hauptstadt Prag (Prague, 1793), 22–24Google Scholar. The institution was not opened until 1765 for foundlings and 1766 for pregnant unmarried women.

8. Brust, , Findel- und Waisenwesen, chap. 1, pp. 12–13, chap. 3, p. 10Google Scholar; Feldbauer, Peter, Kinderelend in Wien (Vienna, 1980), 49, 65.Google Scholar

9. [Hardenberg, ], “Ein Wort der Aufmunterung an wahre Patrioten, und besonders diejenigen, welche Gott mit zeitlichen Gütern vorzüglich gesegnet hat,” Hannoverisches Magazin 4 (1766): 177–88Google Scholar; [Hardenberg];, “Beytrag zu dem im 12ten Stücke des Hannöverschen Magazins befindlichen Worte der Aufmunterung an alle wahre Patrioten,” ibid., 273–84. Ruland, Findelhaus, 61 says this is all that can be found out about this attempt. See however Hannoverisches Magazin 7 (1769): 1329–36Google Scholar, where the author (Landrat von Hardenberg) reveals his name and other details.

10. Feldbauer, Kinderelend, 82–83; Wertheim, D. Z., Versuch einer medicinischen Topographie von Wien (Vienna, 1810), 408–13, 415–23.Google Scholar

11. “Ueber Krankenanstalten, vorzüglich die zu München,” Wissenschaftliches Magazin für Aufklärung 2 (1786): 103–5Google Scholar; [Westenrieder, L. v., Beschreibung der Haupt- und Residenzstadt München (Munich, 1782), 253–54Google Scholar. The other Austrian foundling hospitals were situated in Graz, Linz, Laibach, and Trieste.

12. McClure, Coram's Children, 105–12; for the foundation of a foundling hospital in Copenhagen and the dispute over it see Winkle, Stefan, Johann Friedrich Struensee (Stuttgart, 1983), 584.Google Scholar

13. Hommel, Karl Ferdinand, Des Herrn Marquis von Beccaria unsterbliches Werk von Verbrechen und Strafen (Breslau, 1778), 168.Google Scholar

14. Schlözer, August Ludwig, Briefwechsel meist historischen und politischen Inhalts 4 (1779): 20Google Scholar (Schlözer's footnote; the German is “moralische und physische Mördergruben”); ibid., 8 (1781): 44 and Meissner, C. F., Zwo Abhandlungen über die Frage: Sind die Findel-Häuser vorteilhaft oder schädlich? (Göttingen, 1779), 78Google Scholar, quoting a letter he had received from Schlözer.

15. See, e.g., von Mohl, Robert, “Die Findelhäuser und die Waisenhäuser,” Deutsche Vierteljahrs Schrift, 4th issue 1838, 240–66Google Scholar; Eiselen, , “Findelhäuser,” Allgemeine Encyklopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste, ed. Ersch, J. S. and Gruber, J. G., sec. 1, pt. 24 (Leipzig, 1846), 233–44.Google Scholar

16. See, e.g., Ruland, Findelhaus, and Feld, Wilhelm, “Findelhäuser in Deutschland?” Zeitschrift für das Armenwesen 15 (1914): 1–16, 43–60.Google Scholar

17. See for instance Koch, Charlotte, Wandlungen der Wohlfahrtspflege im Zeitalter der Aufklärung (diss., Erlangen, 1933), 173–78Google Scholar. Even Jacobs, J., Der Waisenhausstreit (Quakenbrück, 1931)Google Scholar, who on the whole adheres to his subject, the controversy about orphanages, includes a review of Meissner's book on foundling hospitals quoted above. Jacobs, 17, 21.

18. The moral criticism of foundling hospitals led to the suggestion that the London Foundling Hospital should change its name to Orphans Hospital, McClure, Coram's Children, 110. It should be mentioned that in Germany orphanages took in orphans from respectable families only and were therefore in general closed to illegitimate children ( Röper, Friedrich Franz, Das verwaiste Kind in Anstalt und Heim [Göttingen, 1976], 139Google Scholar). Whereas the orphans from respectable families received an adequate education in the orphanage, orphans from lower-class families were sent to houses of correction (Zuchtund Arbeitshäuser) to live with criminals and the insane.

19. “Nachschrift vom Nutzen der Publizität bei Kranken-, Armen-, Waisen- und dergl. Häusern, sonderlich in deutschen Reichsstädten,” Stats-Anzeigen, ed. Schlözer, August Ludwig, 2 (1782): 386.Google Scholar

20. For example Ludewig, cf. n. 4. In 1750, Frederick II of Prussia mentioned foundling hospitals favorably in his “Dissertation sur les raisons d'établir ou d'abroger les lois,” Oeuvres de Frédéric le Grand, 31 vols. (Berlin, 1846–1857), 9:28Google Scholar. For a late 17th-century example (J. J. Becher), see Leuchtenmüller-Bolognese, Birgit, “Bevölkerungspolitik zwischen Humanität, Realismus und Härte,” in Matis, Herbert, ed., Von der Glückseligkeit des Staates: Staat, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft in Österreich im Zeitalter des aufgekläxrten Absolutismus (Berlin, 1981), 199.Google Scholar

21. Meisner, C. F. [-Meissner], “Untersuchung der Frage: Ob Fündlingshospitäler, oder Häuser in welchen neugeborene Kinder, die von den Ihrigen ausgesetzt sind, auf öffentliche Kosten aufgenommen und erzogen werden, einem Lande nüzlich oder nachtheilig sind,” Hannoverisches Magazin 11 (1773): 1329–40, 1345–76.Google Scholar

22. Idem, “Einige Betrachtungen über die Fündlingshäuser, und über die Einrichtung derselben, wenn sie dem Staate wo nicht nützlich, doch minder schädlich seyn sollen,” Hannoverisches Magazin 16 (1778): 577–634.Google Scholar

23. Meissner, Zwo Abhandlungen.

24. Drei Preisschriften über die Frage: Welches sind die besten ausführbarsten Mittel dem Kindermorde abzuhelfen ohne die Unzucht zu begünstigen? (Mannheim, 1784), 32–36, 89–90, 121–22, 132–40, 149Google Scholar. Pfeil, Das Kind, 316, maintains that the answers to the prize question rarely dealt with the subject of foundling hospitals. This is not correct, as many of the following footnotes will show. As the Drei Preisschriften were written by different authors, these will be named when citing this work.

25. See, e.g., von Zinck, Freyherr, “Ueber die besten ausführbarsten Mittel, den Kindermord zu verhüten,” Wissenschaftliches Magazin für Aufklädrung 3 (1787): 275–77.Google Scholar

26. Krünitz, Johann Georg, “Findel-Häuser,” Ökonomisch-technologische Encyklopädie, vol. 13, 2d ed. (Berlin, 1786), 358–94.Google Scholar

27. Frank, Johann Peter, System der medicinischen Polizey, 4 vols., 2d ed. (Mannheim, 1780–1988), 2:443–45Google Scholar sees the foremost purpose of foundling hospitals in the prevention of abandonments.

28. See, e.g., “Gedanken über den Kindermord, und Vorschläge denselben, besonders durch Anstalten für Unterhaltung ohnehelicher Kinder zuvorzukommen,” Ephemeriden der Menschheit, 4th piece, 1778, 14; Hinze, H. J., “Versuch einer Beantwortung der Preisfrage: Welches sind die besten asführbaren Mittel, dem Kindermorde Einhalt zu thun,” Gelehrte Beyträge zu den Braunschweigischen Anzeigen, 1781, 756Google Scholar.

29. This kind of reception implied that a foundling hospital had to take in the children of married mothers as well although it was not intended for those. If there happened to be any genuine foundlings—infants abandoned in front of a church or in a public place—the foundling hospital would care for them too. For orphans there were separate institutions, as has been pointed out. The term“foundling” as used here refers to all infants placed in a foundling hospital. As the great majority of them were illegitimate children, this expression is often used instead of “foundling.”

30. “A maternity ward [Accouchementhause] is a splendid institution to prevent infanticide: a charity of far greater value than a dance hall because the first takes in the unfortunate the latter has seduced.” Churbaierisches Intelligenzblatt, 1771, 35.

31. Kreuzfeld in Drei Preisschriften, 132–40.

32. Bergius, Johann Heinrich Ludwig, “Findelhaus,” Policey- und Cameral-Magazin, 9 vols. (Frankfurt a.M., 1767–1774), 3:92.Google Scholar

33. Hommel, Beccaria, 168. The other author elaborated upon Hommel's ideas: Völkersamen, Jacob, Politischer Vorschlag dent Kindermorde, ohne alle Strafen und ohne dass der Fürst mit Erbauung ernes Findelhauses beschweret werde, sicher vorzubeugen (n. p., 1779)Google Scholar. From a different point of view, Willebrand came to a completely different conclusion: “Nobody will doubt,” he wrote, “that such foundling hospitals are an ornament to any town.” Willebrand, Johann Peter, Grundriss einer schönen Stadt, 3 vols. (Hamburg and Leipzig, 1775–1776), 1:231.Google Scholar

34. Völkersamen, Politischer Vorschlag, 15–16; and “Gedanken über den Kindermord,” 24–30.

35. The idea to draw the money from numerous sources and some of the sources themselves, strongly remind of the foundation of orphanages under pietist influence two generations earlier, at the beginning of the 18th Century. Scherpner, Hans, Geschichte der Jugendfürsorge, bearb. H. Scherpner, von (Göttingen, 1966), 84, 86.Google Scholar

36. See, e.g., Churbaierisches Intelligenzblatt, 1771, 134. Also [Milack, Johann], Schutzschrift für unsere Mitbürger im Reiche der Möglichkeit (Breslau and Leipzig, 1772), 81Google Scholar, who moreover recommended the idea of a central fund, 80–81.

37. Cf. n. 2.

38. With one exception, there is no indication for an increase of the crime as a reason to propagate this measure. Ludewig speaks of an increase, but that seems to be an unfounded remark made in passing. Ludewig, “Leichtes Mittel,” 60.

39. “Allgemeines Edict wegen des Kinder-Mords/ worinn die Straffe des Sackens verordnet: De dato Berlin den 30. Augusti, 1720,” Grube, G., ed., Corpus Constitutionum Prutenicarum (Königsberg, 1721), 540Google Scholar. Die Peinliche Gerichtsordnung Kaiser Karls V., § 131, which sets down plain drowning as punishment (no sack required; drowning in a sack with some animals in it dates from the end of the 16th century).

40. Ludewig, “Christliche Polizey,” 12–13; “Erste Fortsetzung,” 23–24; “Leichtes Mittel,” 60.

41. Schmidt, Eberhardt, Die Kriminalpolitik Preussens unter Friedrich Wilhelm I. und Friedrich II. (Berlin, 1914), 59–61.Google Scholar

42. Hess, Ludwig von, “Versuch über die Mittel zur Bevölkerung,” Staatsschriften (Frankfurt a.M., 1772), 290–91.Google Scholar

43. Wächtershäuser, Wilhelm, Das Verbrechen des Kindesmordes im Zeitalter der Aufklärung, Quellen und Forschungen zur Strafrechtsgeschichte, vol. 3 (Berlin, 1973), 7–19Google Scholar for the old view, 24 for the new one.

44. See, e.g., Barkhausen, Victor, “Vermischte Anmerkungen und Erläuterungen über die Todesstrafe und verwandte Materien,” Deutsches Museum, 1777, 2:338–39Google Scholar. Other authors, however, who supported only a restriction of capital punishment, also recommended foundling hospitals, see, e.g., Beseke, Johann Melchior Gottlieb, Versuch eines Entwurfs zu einem vollständigen Gesezzesplan für Verbrechen und Strafen (Dessau, 1783), 73.Google Scholar

45. Hommel, Beccaria, p. xviii.

46. Of course, this attitude had not disappeared by the 1780s. The unknown author of Das beste ausführbare Mittel wider den Kindermord (Dresden, 1781)Google Scholar recommended a strictly chaste life as the best means to prevent infanticide.

47. “Über die Wiederherziehung entwichener und entführter Einwohner, Fabrikanten und Bauern, Dresden, 19. Juli 1762,” document printed in Schlechte, Helmut, Die Staatsreform in Kursachsen 1762–1763 (Berlin, 1958), 366.Google Scholar

48. Hess, “Versuch,” 308.

49. Hommel, Karl Ferdinand, Principis cura leges oder Des Fürsten höchste Sorgfalt: die Gesetze, aus dem Lateinischen neu übersetzt und mit kurzen Erläuterungen begleitet von Rainer Polley (Karlsruhe, 1975), 109–11.Google Scholar

50. Frank, , Medicinische Polizey, 2:445Google Scholar for Paris; Hess, “Versuch,” 295 for Stockholm.

51. “Gedanken…,” 18. This led to the suggestion to specify certain places in the country where the infants could be handed over secretly.

52. Meister, Christian Friedrich Georg, Rechtliche Erkenntnisse und Gutachten in peinlichen Fällen, pt. 1 (Göttingen and Kiel, 1771), 38, 41, 42.Google Scholar

53. “Aus verschiedenen Orten in Europa, in deren einem ein FindelHaus, und in den andern ein Lotto ist,” August Ludwig Schlözer's Briefwechsel 7 (1780): 150Google Scholar; Osiander, Friedrich Benjamin, Beobachtungen Abhandlungen und Nachrichten, welche vorzüglich Krankheiten der Frauenzimmer und Kinder und die Entbindungswissenschaft betreffen (Tübingen, 1787), 49 for Cassel.Google Scholar

54. It must be pointed out that most of the authors who tried to answer the prize question set in 1780 advocated a package of measures against infanticide.

55. Bielefeld, Baron de [von B, Jakob Friedrich.], Institutions politiques, 3 vols. (La Haye, 1760–1772), 1:60.Google Scholar

56. Schlechte, Staatsreform, 366.

57. Ibid., 367.

58. Heinrich, JohannJusti, Gottlob von, “Von der Bevölkerung als dem Haupt-Augenmerke weiser Finanz-Collegiorum,” Politische und Finanzschriften, 3 vols. (Koppenhagen and Leipzig, 1760–1764), 3:396.Google Scholar

59. Bergius, “Findelhaus,” 86.

60. Sonnenfels, Joseph von, Grundsätze der Polizei, Handlung-und Finanzwissenschaft, 2 vols. (Vienna, 1765–1767), 1 (3d ed. 1770): 214 and 215Google Scholar, quoting the elder Mirabeau.

61. Hess, “Versuch,” 294–97.

62. Milack, Schutzschrift, 68–71, 78–79.

63. Bergius, “Findelhaus,” 97.

64. Hommel, Beccaria, 168; also Milack, Schutzschrift, 71, 78–79.

65. Johann August Friedrich, Block, “Ιst es gut ein Findelhaus in einem Lande zu haben und wovon soll es angelegt und unterhalten werden?” Fünf und zwanzig für den Staat interessante Aufgaben (Berlin, 1776), 186.Google Scholar

66. Ibid., 189.

67. There is, however, an estimate for Paris by a German author. In a dispute with Meissner on the utility of allowing abandonment, Frank argues that 3,000 infanticides would have been committed in Paris per year had it not been for the foundling hospital. Frank, , Medicinische Polizey, 2:444Google Scholar. This incredible figure is easily refuted by [von Raumer, Karl Georg], Versuch über die Mittel wider den Kindermord: Von einem Kriminalrichter (Berlin and Stralsund, 1782), 37–39.Google Scholar

68. Süssmilch, Johann Peter, Die Göttliche Ordnung in den Veränderungen des menschlichen Geschlechts, aus der Geburt, dem Tode und der Fortpflanzung desselben erwiesen, 2 vols. 3d ed. (Berlin, 1765).Google Scholar

69. For the early eighteenth century see for example Iccander, , Kurtz-gefastes Sächsisches Kern-Chronicon (Freyburg, 1721–1725), 50–64, 146–48, 520–22.Google Scholar

70. Leipziger Intelligenz-Blatt 1775, 257; ibid. 1778, 283–85; ibid. 1780, 271; also Beyträge zur juristischen Litteratur in den preussischen Staaten 1 (1775): 240–41; 2 (1778): 290–91; 4 (1780): 301. In the 1780s, these tables became more frequent. Data for the Electorate of Hanover can be found in “Uebersicht der sämtlichen Karren– und Zuchthaus-Gefangenen in den Braunschweig-Lüneburgischen Churlanden von 1785,” Annalen der Braunschweig-Lüneburgischen Churlande 1 (1785): 150–59Google Scholar; “Verzeichniss der Missethäter, welche seit 1719 im [sic] verschiedenen Städten des Fürstenthums Onolzbach vom Leben zum Tode gebracht worden sind,” Journal von und für Teutschland 3 (1786), pt. 1:322–29Google Scholar; it should be pointed out that authorities had started to keep tables of all crimes committed on their territory years before these articles appeared. See Wächtershäuser, , Das Verbrechen des Kindesmordes, 113–17Google Scholar, who quotes the example of Würzburg where such lists were started in 1769.

71. Schlözer, , Briefwechsel, 9 (1781): 297Google Scholar (comment on the number of infanticides in Sweden). When it was reported that there had been only 79 executions for infanticide in the Netherlands between 1732 and 1780, this was found to be such an astonishingly small number that it needed explanation. See “Historische Nachrichten, 8. Kindermord,” Ephemeriden der Menschheit, 3d piece, 1782: 349–50Google Scholar.

72. Leipziger Intelligenz-Blatt, 1775, 257; ibid., 1778, 283–85; ibid., 1780. 271.

73. , Süssmilch, Göttliche Ordnung, 3d ed., 2:308–18.Google Scholar

74. The author of “Gedanken…,” 15, points out that 32 infanticides equal the loss of 12–18 adults. See also Völkersamen, Politischer Vorschlag, 5–6, 15–16.

75. When Schlözer assessed the number of infanticides in Germany, and pointed out that the loss of 112 infants, from the national economical point of view, meant the loss of only 60 adults, he was obviously taking this argument seriously. , Schlözer, Briefwechsel, 9 (1781): 297.Google Scholar

76. “Gedanken…,” 12–13; Pfeil in Drei Preisschriften, 33. For an early example of the belief in an increase in infanticide see the Prussian law of 1765 “Edict wieder [sic] den Mord neugebohrner unehelicher Kinder, Verheimlichung der Schwangerschaft und Niederkunft: De Dato Berlin, den 8. Februar 1765,” Novum Corpus Constitutionum Prussico-Brandenburgensium, 3 (Berlin, 1766): 583.Google Scholar

77. Bergius, “Findelhaus,” 93.

78. Schulz, David, “Rede von der Kinderzucht überhaupt und insbesondere in Kinderhäusern,” in , Daniel Gottfried Schreber, Neue Cameralschriften, 4 (Halle, 1766)Google Scholar: 30 demanding it for the Stockholm children's home.

79. “Gedanken…,” 22; Völkersamen, Politischer Vorschlag, 15.

80. “Gedanken…,” 22–23.

81. [Milack], Schutzschrift, 70, 79; Zinck, “Ueber die besten und ausführbarsten Mittel,” 275; Willebrand, Grundriss, 230–31.

82. “Population alone will not do. Of what use is an idle train to a country which is not capable of any useful work? If skill and the disposition to work or the appropriate means of production are lacking then a huge number of people is certainly of no advantage to a state.” “Nachricht an das Publicum von einer neuen Verfassung der Armenpflege in Kopenhagen,…” Hannoverisches Magazin 10 (1772): 282.Google Scholar

83. Zorn, W., “Sozialgeschichte 1648–1800,” in Handbuch der deutschen Wirtschafts– und Sozialgeschichte, vol. 1, ed. Aubin, H. and Zorn, W. (Stuttgart, 1971), 600Google Scholar; Endres, Rudolf, “Das Armenproblem im Zeitalter des Absolutismus,” in Kopitzsch, F., ed., Aufklärung, Absolutismus und Bürgertum in Deutschland (Munich, 1976), 227Google Scholar; van Horn Melton, James, “Arbeitsprobleme des aufgeklärten Absolutismus,” MIÖG 90 (1982): 70–71.Google Scholar

84. Bergius, “Findelhaus,” 97; Feldbauer, Kinderelend, 48.

85. Feldbauer, Kinderelend, 50.

86. Justi, “Von der Bevölkerung,” 396; repeated word for word by Bergius, “Findelhaus,” 86. See also Schulz, “Rede von der Kinderzucht,” 26.

87. Block, “Findelhaus,” 189. Block says that his statement is meant “sans comparaison.” But it is of course a very fitting comparison or else he would not have made it.

88. Ruland, Findelhaus, 31: Madariage, Isabel de, Russia in the Age of Catherine the Great (London, 1981), 492Google Scholar. The idea of malleability also turns up in this utterance from a visitor to the Paris foundling hospital: “It is certain, that if one forms a new people from these children alone, one will have people like the American Indians as Pauw describes them.” [Carl Grimm], Johann Friedrich, Bemerkungen eines Reisenden durch Deutschland, Frankreich, England und Holland, 6 vols. (Altenburg, 1775–1779), 1:304Google Scholar. In his Recherches Philosophiques sur les Americains, 2 vols. (Berlin, 1770)Google Scholar Pauw had described the Indians as stupid and incapable of learning anything once they had passed childhood.

89. Feld, Wilhelm, “Findelfürsorge,” in Handwörterbuch der Staatswissenschaften, 4, 4th ed. (Jena, 1927): 181.Google Scholar

90. Kopitzsch, “Einleitung,” 86.

91. Schultz, Cf. D., “Nachricht von dem gegenwärtigen Zustande des Kinderhauses der Freymaurer in Stockholm,” in Neue Sammlung verschiedener in die Cameralwissenschaft einschlagenden Abhandlungen und Urkunden, auch andere Nachrichten, 3 (Bützow and Wismar, 1763): 625Google Scholar. In 1766 Bergius, “Findelhaus,” 95, recommended inoculation against smallpox. Whereas in the London Foundling Hospital it had been adopted as early as 1744 (McClure, Coram's Children, 207), it was not introduced in the Paris Hôpital des Enfants Trouvés until the beginning of the French Revolution. Sandrin, Jean, Enfants Trouvés, Enfants ouvriers (Paris, 1982), 43.Google Scholar

92. Schulz, “Rede von der Kinderzucht,” 32–33; Bardet, Jean-Pierre, “Enfants abandonnés et enfants assistés ä Rouen dans la seconde moitié du XVIIIe siècle,” in Sur la population française: Hommage à Marcel Reinhard (Paris, 1973), 30–31.Google Scholar

93. , Frank, Medicinische Polizey, 2:484.Google Scholar

94. McClure, Coram's Children, 47–48.

95. Röper, Kind, 137; “Legitimation der unehlich gebohrnen Zöglinge im Waisenhause zu München,” Ephemeriden der Menschheit, 7th piece, 1781: 120–23Google Scholar. For the refusal to apprentice children after their legitimization see Dithmar, Justus Christoph, “Von Der Handwercker und Handwercks Zünfften in Teutschland Ursprung, wie auch Verfall derselben in allerhand Missbräuche,” Die oeconomische Fama (Franckfurth and Leipzig, 1731), 13Google Scholar and Freimüthige Gedanken über die Preissfrage: Welches sind die bessten Mittel, dem Kindermorde Einhalt zu thun (Göttingen, 1781), 32Google Scholar. It should be mentioned in this context that foundlings proper as distinguished from illegitimate children were considered as legitimate children in legal theory. See Schubart-Fikentscher, Gertrud, Die Unehelichen-Frage in der Frühzeit der Aufklärung, Sitzungsberichte der Sächsischen Akademie der Wissen-schaften zu Leipzig, Philologisch-historische Klasse, vol. 112, pt. 3 (Berlin, 1967), 31.Google Scholar

96. Valjavec, Fritz, Geschichte der abendländischen Aufklärung (Vienna-Munich, 1961), 199, 204, 211Google Scholar. Gay, Peter, The Enlightenment: An Interpretation, 2 (London, 1970): 34–36.Google Scholar

97. Ludewig, “Gründliche Ursachen,” 11–12.

98. [Hardenberg], “Ein Wort der Aufmunterung,” 179.

99. Ibid., 180; cf. also Kreuzfeld in Drei Preisschriften, 137.

100. Völkersamen, Politischer Vorschlag, 10; Spörl, C. C., Beantwortung der Manheimschen Preiss-Frage: Welches sind die besten ausfürbaren Mittel, dem Kindermorde Einhalt zu thun? (Mühlhausen, 1781), 21–22.Google Scholar

101. Sonnenfels, , Grundsätze, 1:213–15.Google Scholar

102. Ibid., following Mirabeau the Elder. It might be mentioned in this context, that at the same time harder punishment for fornication was demanded for men, who were generally seen as the more guilty party in this offense.

103. “Auszüge aus Briefen, I.,” Journal von und für Teutschland 3 (1786): 55.Google Scholar

104. Birkner, Siegfried, Leben und Sterben der Kindsmörderin Susanna Margaretha Brandt (Frankfurt a.M., 1973), 86.Google Scholar

105. These expressions are taken from “Allgemeines Edict… Berlin den 30. Augusti, 1720,” 540.

106. Sonnenfels, , Grundsätze, 1:215Google Scholar. When speaking of these women, Hommel called them “these poor and as such already sufficiently unhappy persons.” Hommel, Principis cura leges, 110.

107. Runde, Justus Friedrich, “Die Rechtmässigkeit der Todesstrafen aus Grundsätzen des allgemeinen Strafrechts vertheidigt,” Deutsches Museum, 1777, pt. 1:329, speaking of women who had killed their infantsGoogle Scholar. Osiander, Beobachtungen, 17, describes the majority of women taking their children to foundling hospitals as given to “vilest lust” see also 266. Hommel's view is opposed by Hankel's comments; see Principis cura leges, 111.

108. May, Franz, Vorbeugungsmittel wider den Kindermord: Für Seelsorger, Eltern, Polizeiverwalter, Wundärzte und Geburtshelfer (Mannheim, 1781), 76–78Google Scholar. Another example for this attitude is Osiander, Beobachtungen, who praises maternity wards (38f.), but is strictly opposed to foundling hospitals (42–52, 261–65).

109. Sonnenfels, , Grundsätze, 1:214–15Google Scholar, quoting the elder Mirabeau.

110. Endres, “Das Armenproblem,” 227.

111. Perhaps more by including the foundlings as a separate unit into the system of welfare than through legal emancipation (cf. n. 95) which was generally demanded for illegitimate children (Frank, , Medicinische Polizey, 2:490).Google Scholar

112. “Ueber die Preissaufgabe: Welches sind die besten ausführbaren Mittel dem Kindermord Einhalt zu thun?” Chronologen 7 (1781): 92Google Scholar. “A foundling hospital is counted amongst the achievements of enlightened times and this is right in a way for experience has shown that it kills more children than would probably have been killed by their mothers had things run their ordinary course.”

113. Meissner, Zwo Abhandlungen, 98, quoting a letter from Schlözer in which he speaks of “politische Mördergruben” the exact words turn up first in his Briefwechsel, 4 (1779): 20Google Scholar; repeated in “Ueber die Preisaufgabe,” 98; in Nicolai, Friedrich, Beschreibung einer Reise durch Deutschland und die Schweiz im Jahre 1781, 12 vols. (Berlin and Stettin, 1783–1797), 3:67Google Scholar; Osiander, Beobachtungen, 51. Another slogan popularized by Schlözer was that foundling hospitals were places where “children died like flies from cobalt.” “Volksmenge in Frankreich,” Briefwechsel, 4 (1779): 131.Google Scholar

114. Süssmilch, , Göttliche Ordnung, 1:113–14.Google Scholar

115. Meissner, Zwo Abhandlungen, 39–40.

116. Ibid., 79. (First published in 1778 in the Hannoverisches Magazin, five years after the first article appeared there.)

117. Schlözer, , Briefwechsel, 6 (1780): 344.Google Scholar

118. Jean-Pierre Bardet, “Enfants abandonnés… à Rouen,” 27. This figure concerns infants that were placed in the hospital a few hours after birth.

119. McClure, Coram's Children, 102, 261.

120. Antoinette Chamoux, “L'enfance abandonnée à Reims à la fin du XVIIIe siècle,” Annales de démographie historique, 1973, 277.

121. Osiander, Beobachtungen, 261–62. Stein, Waisenhaus in Kassel, repeats Osiander's statements and prints two inconclusive lists, 117, 98. This infant mortality rate is not directly comparable with the others as the infants were not boarded out in Cassel. According to Osiander only 10 survived to reach adult age. As Osiander is strictly opposed to foundling hospitals this extraordinarily high mortality rate for older children seems rather suspicious.

122. Leuchtenmüller-Bolognese, “Bevölkerungspolitik,” 198. Leuchtenmüller-Bolognese's description of the Vienna foundling hospital as an “almost inexhaustable reservoir” of workers is not consistent with the figure she gives. Wertheim, Wien, 449, gives an even worse infant mortality rate for 1807, namely over 62%.

123. Süssmilch, , Göttliche Ordnung, 3, ed. Baumann, Christian Jacob (Berlin, 1776): 210–13 and p. 19Google Scholar of the appendix.

124. [Hardenberg], “Ein Wort der Aufmunterung,” 177–81 and Hinze, “Versuch einer Beantwortung,” 795–97.

125. McClure, Coram's Children, 13–14.

126. Apart from the fact that foundlings were not often sent to orphanages, a comparison is not feasible because of the different age of the children these institutions took in.

127. “Schreiben an den Herrn Verfasser der Betrachtung über die Findelhäuser im 37sten Stücke des Magazins,” Hannoverisches Magazin 16 (1778): 1538Google Scholar; Osiander, Beobachtungen, 254–55 (abortion attempts); also Chamoux, “L'enfance abandonnée à Reims,” 279–80; Bardet, “Enfants abandonnés … à Rouen,” 29–30.

128. Osiander, Beobachtungen, 45, 49; and repeating him, Stein, Waisenhaus in Kassel, 110; McClure, Coram's Children, 87, 103–4 for the London Foundling Hospital.

129. Such inadequate comparisons can still be found in general treatments of the subject; see Sandrin, Enfants Trouvés, 45.

130. Osiander, Beobachtungen, 41–42, 45–46 about the Cassel foundling hospital.

131. Schulz, “Rede von der Kinderzucht,” 35–37. Bergius, “Findelhaus,” 88–90 repeats Schulz's suggestions.

132. Meissner, Zwo Abhandlungen, 113–14 quoting material that Schlözer had sent to him.

133. Bergius, “Findelhaus,” 90, 99.

134. “Schreiben an den Herrn Verfasser,” col. 1545, representing the supporters, and Meissner, Zwo Abhandlungen, 109.

135. Osiander, Beobachtungen, 51f. for the change introduced in Cassel in 1781; [Bayer], Armen-Versorgungsanstalten, 115–18 for Prague where there existed a two-class system; McClure, Coram's Children, 139–41 for the system of petitioning introduced in London.

136. Chamoux, “L'enfance abandonnée à Reims,” 274–76 and the table of the nourrice families, 282. It should be pointed out, however, that in some regions at least, wetnursing seems to have been a collective activity and that it might therefore be misleading to base one's assessment on the person receiving the infant. See Peyronnet, Jean-Claude, “Les enfants abandonnés et leur nourrices à Limoges en XVIII siècle,” Revue d'histoire moderne et contemporaine 23 (1976): 435–36.Google Scholar

137. Meissner, Zwo Abhandlungen, 146. (Schlözer commenting on material he had sent to Meissner, who printed it.)

138. For an example of a reformed foundling hospital which claimed to have reduced the infant mortality to average level see “Vermischte Nachrichten, 1: Heilsame Medicinal Anstalten und Verordnungen,” Gazette de Santé 2 (1783): 517–18 (Siena in Italy).Google Scholar

139. Conrad, J., “Die Findelanstalten, ihre geschichtliche Entwicklung und Umgestaltung in der Gegenwart,” Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik 12 (1869): 258–59.Google Scholar

140. Meissner, Zwo Abhandlungen, 81.

141. [Hardenberg, ];, “Beytrag zu dem im 12ten Stücke des Hannöverischen Magazins befindlichen Worte der Aufmunterung an alle wahre Patrioten,” Hannoverisches Magazin 4 (1766): 276.Google Scholar

142. [Bayer], Armen-Versorgungsanstalten, 23.

143. Stein, Waisenhaus in Kassel, 120 for the debts the foundling hospital had contracted at its closure. The reform in 1781 was also caused by financial problems, 107–8. It had cost the British over £548,000 to support the London foundling hospital for the period of general reception from 1756–60, including the eleven years during which the grants were slowly running out. McClure, Coram's Children, 120.

144. [Bayer], Armen-Versorgungsanstalten, 25.

145. Justi, Johann Heinrich Gottlob von, Grundsätze der Policeywissenschqft, 3d ed. (Göttingen, 1782), 90 (1st ed. 1756).Google Scholar

146. Meissner, Zwo Abhandlungen, 81. Meissner might have been referring to the Cassel foundling hospital. If so, cf. Osiander, Beobachtungen, 261–62.

147. Ludewig, “Vierte Fortsetzung, von christlicher Policey, in Anlegung der Findelhäuser,” Gelehrte Anzeigen vom Jahre 1740, 36. Biedermann, K., Deutschland im achtzehnten Jahrhundert, ed. Emmerich, W. (Frankfurt a.M.-Berlin-Vienna, 1979), 192.Google Scholar

148. Feld, “Findelfürsorge,” 181.

149. Völkersamen, Politischer Vorschlag, 14–16.

150. An example which illustrates this point is that suits between parishes on the financial responsibility for an illegitimate child were quite frequent. See also Zedler, Johann Heinrich, Grosses vollständiges Universal-Lexikon, 9 (Halle and Leipzig, 1735): 938Google Scholar, where the case of an infant taken over the border into the neighboring parish is discussed. This was also quite common in England (Porter, Roy, English Society in the Eighteenth Century [Harmondsworth, 1982], 144Google Scholar) and France (Sandrin, Enfants Trouvés, 31–32).

151. “Wider pias causas, Stiftungen und Gesellschaftskassen,” Berichte der allgemeinen Buchhandlung der Gelehrten vom Jahre 1784, 34–35.

152. Churbaierisches Intelligenzblatt, 1771, 134.

153. Jacobi, Johann Friedrich, Betrachtungen über die weisen Absichten GOTTES, bei den Dingen, die wir in der menschlichen Gesellschaft und der Offenbahrung antreffen, pt. 4. (Hanover, 1766), 323Google Scholar; Meissner, Zwo Abhandlungen, 42.

154. Ibid., 39, cf. also 129.

155. “Ueber die Preissaufgabe,” 93–94.

156. Ibid., 94; Raumer, Versuch, 35; Beckmann, “Findelhäuser,” 394. This contrast and the statements to follow on breast-feeding do of course recall Rousseau's preachings. But in spite of the general reception of his books, he is not quoted by the opponents. Perhaps an author who put his own children in a foundling hospital was not a suitable authority to cite in the fight against these institutions.

157. May, Vorbeugungsmittel, 12–13.

158. Hess, Ludwig von, Eine Antwort auf die Preissfrage: Welches sind die besste ausfürbare Mittel dem Kindermorde Einhalt zu thun? (Hamburg, 1780), 14–17.Google Scholar

159. Bergius, “Findelhaus,” 87.

160. It should perhaps be mentioned that the change in the person caring for the baby cannot be regarded as detrimental to the development of the infant according to modern specialists, because they were taken to the country long before the critical stage—after the second month, more particularly between the sixth and tenth month—was reached. Hassenstein, Bernhard, Verhaltensbiologie des Kindes, 3d ed. (Munich, 1980), 49Google Scholar, 108, 363–65. It is quite interesting to note that Schulz, who of all contemporary authors shows most insight into the needs of babies, thinks that the baby will profit from the upbringing in the country, although it cannot enjoy its mother's milk there. Schulz, “Rede von der Kinderzucht,” 31, 33.

161. McClure, Coram's Children, 94, 129–31. From Peyronnet's study one can infer that this was also true of a number of abandoned children in the Limoges area. Unfortunately he does not comment on them. “Les enfants abandonnés … à Limoges,” 433, table. See also Sandrin, Enfants Trouvés, 60.

162. Chamoux, “L'enfance abandonnée à Reims,” 275.

163. Meissner, Zwo Abhandlungen, 32–33, 54.

164. Freymüthige Gedanken, 9.

165. Meissner, Zwo Abhandlungen, 40, who, strangely enough, argues from a populationist point of view here.

166. Schlözer, commenting on material he had sent to Meissner, who printed it in Zwo Abhandlungen, 146.

167. Shorter, Edward, The Making of the Modem Family (Glasgow, 1977), 168–204.Google Scholar

168. Hufeland, Christoph Wilhelm, Die Kunst das menschliche Leben zu verlängern (Jena, 1797), 200.Google Scholar

169. Stone, Lawrence, The Family, Sex and Marriage in England 1500–1800 (London, 1977), 476.Google Scholar

170. Meissner, Zwo Abhandlungen, 48.

171. As Meissner and the other opponents had a rather idealized conception of the family, it should be pointed out here that foster parents—like foundling hospital personnel—were sometimes moved by purely material considerations in their decision to bring up a foundling and that they sometimes exploited these children. They may have felt legitimized to do so as some authors recommended a sort of bondage of the foundlings to the families raising them: Frank, , Medicinische Policey, 2:489–92.Google Scholar

172. If this preference does not reflect a certain ideology, that is. On the problem of birth out of wedlock, foundling hospital upbringing and criminality see also Kaplow, Jeffrey, “Concubinage and the Working class in Early Nineteenth Century Paris,” Vom Ancien Régime zur Französischen Revolution: Forschungen und Perspektiven, ed. Hinrichs, Ernst, Schmitt, Eberhard, and Vierhaus, Rudolf (Göttingen, 1978), 356–57Google Scholar. A comparison of the three ways of bringing an illegitimate child up—by its mother and her relatives, by foundling hospitals, and by foster parents—is not possible for eighteenth-century Germany. Except for the standard stereotypes not much is actually known about the qualitative side of illegitimate childhood at that time. For the family forms in which illegitimate children were brought up see Mitterauer, Michael, “Familienformen und Illegitimität in ländlichen Gebieten Österreichs,” Archiv für Sozialgeschichte 19 (1979): 123–88, in particular 137–45.Google Scholar

173. Meissner, Zwo Abhandlungen, 42–53.

174. “Ueber die Preissaufgabe,” 94.

175. Pfeil in Drei Preisschriften, 33. Klippstein, in the same work, 89, also believes they would promote fornication. “Aus verschiedenen Orten in Europa…,” 150.

176. Frank, , Medicinische Policey, 2:444–45Google Scholar argues that a woman would say yes if the moment had come—regardless of the existence or nonexistence of a foundling hospital.

177. Delasselle, Claude, “Les enfants abandonnés à Paris au XVIIIe siècle,” Annales ESC 30 (1975): 213–14.Google Scholar

178. Süssmilch, , Göttliche Ordnung, 1:113–14, 193Google Scholar; Meissner, Zwo Abhandlungen, 62–66, prophesying the downfall of the French nation if the number of infants placed in this institution would continue to rise.

179. To understand the extraordinary status of this foundling hospital, not only the particular place of Paris in French society has to be kept in mind, but it also has to be remembered that it was known all over France and in the neighboring countries. Consequently, foundlings from all over France and even from abroad were sent there. These are facts the opponents often did not take into account. The extraordinary status of the Maison des Enfants Trouvés is reflected in the fact that it became a place of interest for foreign travellers. See, e.g., [Grimm], Bemerkungen eines Reisenden, 1:299–305, and 2:109.Google Scholar

180. Delasselle, “Les enfants abandonnés à Paris,” 187–218; see also Meyer, Jean, “Illegitimates and Foundlings in Pre-Industrial France,” in Laslett, Peter, Oosterveen, Karla, Smith, Richard M., eds., Bastardy and its Comparative History (Cambridge, 1980), 251–53, 258–63Google Scholar, who, quite unconvincingly, regards “a growing indifference both to children and the traditional family pattern” as one of the main causes.

181. Delasselle, “Les enfants abandonnés à Paris, 207–9; in his article on abandoned children and those receiving support in Rouen, Bardet had already drawn attention to the resemblance of these two curves. Bardet, “Enfants abandonnés… à Rouen,” 26. Peyronnet's detailed study of the great famine of 1770–72 gives full support to this interpretation. “Les enfants abandonnés … à Limoges,” 425–28; Sandrin, Enfants Trouvés, 15–19; Urban, Kindesaussetzung, 56, 63, who in general terms maintained a correlation between times of high prices and war on one side and the number of abandonments on the other side.

182. Kraus, Antje, “'Antizipierter Ehesegen' im 19. Jahrhundert,” VSWG 66 (1979): 187Google Scholar. This figure applies to the time before drastic marriage restrictions were introduced in 1834. Walle, Etienne van de, “Illegitimacy in France during the Nineteenth Century,” in Bastardy and its Comparative History, 270Google Scholar. A sudden short-term change in the level of illegitimacy can be excluded, because illegitimacy patterns are generally constant over long periods. Mitterauer, Michael, Ledige Mütter: Zur Geschichte unehelicher Geburten in Europa (Munich, 1980), 23.Google Scholar

183. Meissner, Zwo Abhandlungen, 50.

184. Peyronnet, “Les enfants abandonnés … a Limoges.”

185. Ibid., 421–23, 440–41. See also François Lebrun, who suggests that abandonment can also be seen as a way to limit family size to secure better living conditions for the rest of the family at a time of reasonably secure economic conditions. “Naissances illégitimes et abandom d'enfants en Anjou au XVIIIe siècle,” Annales ESC 27 (1972): 1188Google Scholar; Meyer, “Illegitimates,” 258, also regards abandonments as a form of family limitation, but interprets it as the result of a negative development.

186. For a different view see Sandrin, Enfants Trouvés, 45.

187. Quoted in Catharina List and Soly, Hugo, Poverty and Capitalism in Pre-Industrial Europe, Pre-Industrial Europe 1350–1850, vol. 1, (Hassocks, 1979), 186Google Scholar.

188. Shorter, Edward, “Illegitimacy, Sexual Revolution and Social Change in Modern Europe,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 2 (1971): 237–72CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Mitterauer, Ledige Mütter, 86–87.

189. Knodel, John, “Two and a Half Centuries of Demographic History in a Bavarian Village,” Population Studies 24 (1970): 365–67CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Imhof, Arthur E. unter Schmidt, Mitarbeit von G., “Die Illegitimität in Giessen und Umgebung,” Imhof, Arthur E., ed., Historische Demographie als Sozialgeschichte: Giessen und Umgebung vom 17. zum 19. Jahrhundert, 2 vols., Quellen und Forschungen zur hessischen Geschichte, vol. 31 (Darmstadt and Marburg, 1975), 1:517–58Google Scholar. Zschunke, Peter, Konfession und Alltag in Oppenheim, Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für europäische Geschichte Mainz, Abteilung Abendländische Religionsgeschichte, vol. 115 (Wiesbaden, 1984), 149f.Google Scholar

190. Laslett, Peter, “Introduction,” in Bastardy and its Comparative History, 1.Google Scholar

191. Süssmilch, , Göttliche Ordnung, 1:462Google Scholar assumes a rise in his own time but that might have been due to his moral outlook; ibid., vol. 3, ed. Christian Jacob Baumann, appendix, 11, and Rüling, Johann Philipp, Physikalisch-Medizinisch-Oekonomische Beschreibung der zum Fürstenthum Göttingen gehörigen Stadt Northeim und ihrer umliegenden Gegenden (Göttingen, 1779), 177Google Scholar clearly show the rise in the 18th century as compared to the 17th.

192. See, e.g., Klockenbring, Friedrich Arnold, “Einige Resultate und Bemerkungen, aus den Geburts- und Sterbelisten der Chur-Braunschweigisch-Lüneburgischen Landeüberhaupt, und der Stadt Hannover insbesondere,” Aufsätze vermischten Inhalts, 2 vols. (Hanover, 1787), 1:20–21.Google Scholar

193. Nicolai, , Beschreibung einer Reise, 3:lxviiGoogle Scholar; see also p. 238. It is quite interesting to note that Nicolai prints “the ties of paternal and maternal care” in capital letters, but not the term for the other point he criticizes, namely the high infant mortality.

194. “Tadelhafte Gebräuche in Absicht der Findelkinder und ihrer Mütter,” Hamburgisches Magazin 24 (1760): 125–27.Google Scholar

195. Meissner, Zwo Abhandlungen, 100–104. The change of style and the amount of space Meissner devotes to refute this view are quite telling.

196. Leuchtenmüller-Bolognese, “Bevölkerungspolitik,” 204. For parallel developments in England see Stone, The Family, 36.

197. “Vorschlag, die Geistlichen nicht mehr bei Vollziehung der Ehen zu bemühen,” Berlinische Monatsschrift, 2 (1783): 265–76Google Scholar and the answer “Ist es rathsam, das Ehebündniss nicht ferner durch die Religion zu sanciren,” ibid., 508–17. A year before, a German author had written that of all matters he could think of none was less suited for church interference than marriage. Diez, “Ueber die Ehen und die Geschlechtsverbindungen,” Berichte der allgemeinen Buchhandlung der Gelehrten vom Jahre 1782, 352.

198. Hupel, August Wilhelm, Vom Zweck der Ehen, ein Versuch die Heyrathen der Castraten und die Trennung unglücklicher Ehen zu vertheidigen (Riga, 1771)Google Scholar; Prüfung der bisher gewöhnlichen Begriffe von der Ehe und von der Keuschheit, wie auch des Satzes des kanonischen Rechts, dass der Beyschlaf ohne Absicht der Zeugung eine schändliche Handlung sey (Magdeburg, n. d.). Diez went so far as to name “lust” as the main function of marriage, “Ueber die Ehen …,” 352.

199. Montesquieu, , De l'esprit des lois, αuvres complètes, vol. 2, texte presenté et annoté par Roger Callois (Paris, 1951), 519–22.Google Scholar

200. Knodel, “Two and a Half Centuries,” 361; Imhof, Arthur E., “Die namentliche Auswertung der Kirchenbücher: Die Familien von Giessen 1631–1730 und Heuchelheim 1691–1900, in Historische Demographie als Sozialgeschichte, ed. Imhof, Arthur E., 2 vols. (Darmstadt and Marburg, 1975), 1:332.Google Scholar

201. Pfeil in Drei Preisschriften, 15, 33–34.

202. Meissner, Zwo Abhandlungen, 28–29; Pfeil in Drei Preisschriften, 12; Valjavec, Aufklärung, 98.

203. Meissner, Zwo Abhandlungen, 103–4, who prefers to give his view in an indirect way; Osiander, Beobachtungen, 269–70, criticizing the mild court sentences for infanticide.

204. As most of the opponents of the foundling hospitals admitted: Meissner, Zwo Abhandlungen, 19; “Ueber die Preissaufgabe,” 92; Nicolai, Beschreibung einer Reise, 237.

205. Zückert, Johann Friedrich, Unterricht für rechtschaffene Eltern zur diätischen Pflege ihrer Säuglinge (Berlin, 1764)Google Scholar and Schulz, “Rede von der Kinderzucht,” 1–26.

206. This is not meant to imply that this was the only or the most important reason for the closure of orphanages.

207. Möser, Johann Jakob von, “Über die zu unsern Zeiten verminderte Schande der Huren und Hurkinder,” Nützlicher Beylagen zum Osnabrückischen Intelligenz-Blate 1772, 113–20Google Scholar.

208. Leuchtenmüller-Bolognese, “Bevölkerungspolitik,” 194–99.