The History of Prostitution Part 23

"In the Konigstadt there is a drinking saloon where, besides the wife of the host, there are two young girls who exceed all compeers in shamelessness and depravity. The elder betrays secondary syphilis in her voice; the younger has such n.o.ble features, is of such beauty, and is altogether of such prepossessing appearance, that the infamy of her conduct is incredible. In the evening these girls and the host are generally drunk. At one or two in the morning the place is a perfect h.e.l.l, the whole company, guests, host, and girls, being mad with liquor. Some are dancing with the girls to the tinkle of a guitar, the player of which acted her part in one of the abolished brothels; others are roaring obscene songs. If the guitar-player has brought her daughter, then the tumult of the den is complete. It is never closed before four o'clock in the morning, when the girls retire to their dwellings in company with one or the other of their guests."

In reading these descriptions, it must be remembered that, under the toleration system, the police would not permit prost.i.tutes to visit places of public amus.e.m.e.nt, nor would they allow music and dancing in the brothels.

Another part of Dr. Sa.s.s's work contains a truly horrid picture of the immorality of the city. We transcribe it, in conclusion of this branch of the subject:

PRIVATE LIFE IN BERLIN.

"... Let us enter the house. The first floor is inhabited by a family of distinction; husband and wife have been separated for years; he lives on one side, she on the other; both go out in public together; the proprieties are kept in view, but servants will chatter. On the second floor lives an a.s.sessor with his kept woman. When he is out of town, as the house is well aware, a doctor pays her a visit. On the other side the staircase lives a carrier, with his wife and child. The wife had not mentioned that this child was born before marriage; he found it out; of course they quarreled, and he now takes his revenge in drunkenness, blows, and abuse. We ascend to the third floor. On the right of the stairs is a teacher who has had a child by his wife's sister; the wife grieves sorely over the same. With him lodges a house-painter who ran away from his wife and three children, and now lives, with his concubine and one child, in a wretched little cupboard. On the left is a letter-carrier's family. His pay is fifteen thalers (twelve dollars) a month, but the people seem very comfortable. Their daughter has a very nice front room, well furnished, and is kept by a very wealthy merchant, a married man.

Exactly opposite there is a house of accommodation, and close by there is a midwife, whose sign-board announces 'An inst.i.tute for ladies of condition, where they can go through their confinement in retirement.'

I can a.s.sure the reader that in this sketch of s.e.xual and family life in Berlin I have 'nothing extenuated, nor set down aught in malice.'"

In estimating the effects of the suppression of brothels, it will be necessary to take medical testimony. In Dr. Loewe's pamphlet, "Prost.i.tution with reference to Berlin, 1852," we find:

"In vain the Charite, after the ordinary wards were full of venereal patients, set aside other parts of the building. The patients were still poured in from the houses of detention, until, at length, the directors of the Charite refused farther admission, the consequence of which was a long and angry correspondence between them and the police.

The Minister of the Interior interfered, and ordered more accommodation for the Charite. This was done, but the new wards were soon filled with venereal females; the patients exceeded the accommodations, and at last it was found necessary to take the Cholera Lazaret for syphilitic cases. Against this arrangement the magistracy of Berlin remonstrated that the present influx of venereal patients must be regarded as the inevitable, natural consequence of the abolition of the brothels; that this abolition had not originated with them, therefore they were not bound to provide for it."

Dr. Behrend, to whose work we have already alluded, gives much statistical information, from original doc.u.ments, showing the results of suppression.

He says:

"In 1839, out of 1200 women brought to punishment for begging and similar offenses, there were about 600 common unregistered prost.i.tutes. In 1840, the period of reducing the number of brothels, there were 900 such women. In 1847, a year after their suppression, there were 1250 notorious prost.i.tutes. Those, in the opinion of the police, const.i.tuted but a portion of those who practiced prost.i.tution, but yet had an apparent means of living. Behind the Konigsmauer the traffic is carried on worse than formerly, while the place itself is the scene of disorder and irregularity, which used not to be under the former system. These offenses can not be punished, owing to the difficulties of technical proof which must always exist. The police have done what is possible by continually patrolling the streets, and arresting openly objectionable characters, and even those who are informed against as being diseased, but they can do no more. _The prost.i.tution which was formerly confined within a limited district is now spread over the whole town._"

Respecting the influence of the withdrawal of toleration upon the public health, Behrend concludes there is a greater amount of syphilis. He gives the following list of cases in the Charite:

Year 1840 Females, 757 Males, --- " 1841 " 743 " --- " 1842 " 676 " --- " 1843 " 669 " --- " 1844 " 657 " 741 " 1845 " 514 " 711 " 1846 " 627 " 813 " 1847 " 761 " 894 " 1848 " 835 " 979

He also investigated the average time each patient was under treatment, as tending to show the malignity of the disease, and reports:

Year 1844, men, 21-5/6 days; women, 31-2/3 days; both s.e.xes, 26-3/4 days.

" 1845, " 26-6/7 " " 42-8/9 " " " 34-2/3 "

" 1846, " 30-1/2 " " 51-1/2 " " " 40-7/8 "

" 1847, " 34-1/9 " " 43-2/3 " " " 38-2/3 "

" 1848, " 33-1/3 " " 53-1/6 " " " 43-1/2 "

These facts are corroborated by the registers of the Military Lazaret.

From returns made to the police department by Herr Lohmeyer, General Staff Physician, it appears there were in the garrison

In 1844 and 1845, 735 syphilitic cases. Of these,

633 cases of primary syphilis required 17,916 days of attendance; 102 " " secondary " " 4,947 " "

--- ------ 735 " " " 22,863 " "

In 1846, and the first six months of 1847, there were 618 cases:

501 cases of primary syphilis required 17,788 days of attendance; 117 " " secondary " " 5,213 " "

--- ------ 618 " " " " 23,001 " "

Dr. Behrend states, as the results of conversations and communications with many of the medical profession, and of his own experience:

"1. That in the last four years there are more cases of syphilis.

"2. That, in consequence of the increased facilities for communication, the disease has spread to the small towns and villages.

"3. That it has been introduced more frequently into private families.

"4. That the character of the disease is more obstinate, thereby operating severely on the const.i.tution and on future generations.

"5. That, since the abolition of the toleration system, unnatural crimes have been much more frequently met with."

As to the influence on public morals, he contends that the abolition has produced the most injurious consequences, particularly alluding to the desecration of matrimony. He says:

"It is common for persons of vicious habits to arrange a marriage, for the purpose of enabling them to avoid the police interference. This marriage bond is broken when convenient, and other marriages are formed: sometimes two couples will mutually exchange, and go through the ceremony."

He also made inquiries as to illegitimacy, and publishes some voluminous tables on the subject. From them we condense a

COMPARATIVE STATEMENT OF THE LEGITIMATE AND ILLEGITIMATE BIRTHS IN BERLIN FROM JANUARY 1, 1838, TO MARCH 31, 1849.

+-------------------------------------------------------------------+ Years Births. Ratio of --------------------------------- illegitimate to Legitimate. Illegitimate. Total. legitimate Births. -------------- ----------- ------------- ------- ------------------ 1838 8,587 1196 9,783 1 in 72 1839 7,820 1412 9,232 1 in 55 1840 9,019 1487 10,506 1 in 6 1841 9,024 1557 10,581 1 in 57 1842 10,269 1928 12,177 1 in 53 1843 10,370 1969 12,339 1 in 52 1844 10,958 2000 12,958 1 in 54 1845 11,402 2138 13,540 1 in 53 1846 11,717 2140 13,857 1 in 54 1847 11,294 2204 13,498 1 in 51 1848 12,113 2303 14,416 1 in 52 3 mos. of 1849 3,278 646 3,921 1 in 51 +-------------------------------------------------------------------+

Having rapidly traced the Berlin experience of the various methods of controlling prost.i.tution for nearly three fourths of a century, it only remains to say that the increased evils of illicit prost.i.tution, and the total inability of the police to counteract them; the spread of the venereal disease, and its augmented virulence; the palpable and growing licentiousness of the city; the complaints of public journals; the investigations of scientific men; and the memorials of the citizens generally, reached the royal ear, and induced an ordinance in 1851, restoring the toleration system, and entirely repealing the edict of 1845, which had produced such disastrous results.

The experiment of "crushing out" had been fairly tried. The king and his ministers lent all their energy and inclination to the task, and, after six years' attempt, it was admitted to be a futile labor, and entirely abandoned. Berlin will have to suffer for years from the consequences of this misdirected step, for it is an easy matter to abandon all control, but an exceedingly difficult one to regain it. Now that the police are reinvested with their former authority, they strive, by every possible means, to repair the evils of the interregnum. Their most recent regulations are embodied in the following

DIRECTIONS FOR KEEPERS PERMITTED TO RECEIVE FEMALES ABANDONED TO PROSt.i.tUTION INTO THEIR HOUSES.

"1. The duties hereby imposed upon the keeper are not to be taken to relieve him from the ordinary notices to the police respecting persons taken into his house or employment.

"2. The keeper must live on the ground floor of his house, near the outer door, in order to watch all entrance into his house, and to be ready to interfere in case of tumult or uproar therein.

"3. The keeper has the right to refuse any person admittance into the house. For preservation of order and quiet in, and in front of his house, the keeper will have the requisite a.s.sistance from the police.

"4. Dancing and music in the house are strictly forbidden; billiards, cards, and other games are also forbidden, whereof the keeper is to be particularly watchful.

"5. In order to avoid quarrels with the visitors, the keeper must affix, in each of his rooms, a list of prices of refreshment, to be previously submitted to the undersigned commission for approval.

"6. The agreement which the keeper enters into with the females living in his house must be also communicated to the undersigned commission.

In case of dispute as to this agreement between the keepers and the females, both are to address themselves to this commission.

"7. Each of the females receives a printed list of directions, which she is strictly to follow. It is the duty of the keeper to make himself well acquainted with these directions, and to see that they be followed.

"8. It is for his own interest that the keeper should keep his house in order and quiet, and should also give attention to the cleanliness and health of the female inmates. Each of these is ordered to obey him in every thing relating thereto, and should any of them be contumacious, the keeper is to appeal to the police commissary, or to the undersigned commission, but he can not himself chastise or use force with any female.

"9. If the keeper know or suspect any female to be sick with venereal disease or itch, he must give notice to the visiting medical officer, or to the undersigned, and the person is to be kept apart until she has been examined. In default of this notice, or even of the privacy required, the keeper is liable to the same punishment as the law inflicts for being knowingly accessory to illness of other people.

"10. If the keeper knows or suspects that any of the females are pregnant, he must give notice thereof to the visiting medical officer.

Neglect of this involves the punishment of concealing pregnancy.

"11. Every person is to be visited thrice a week by a medical officer, on appointed days and hours; and, besides, according to the order of the commission, at hours not appointed. These visits the keeper is to facilitate in every way.

"12. For these visits, indispensably requisite for the health of the female inmates, the keeper is to provide beforehand,