GERMAN WOMEN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXVI, Issue 17535, 31 March 1919, Page 3

GERMAN WOMEN

By HENRY DE HALSALLE, Author of "Degenerate Germany."

Judging by the infrequent and lukewarm references to her in the German Press during the war, the German woman has cut but a sorry figure com- ; pared with our British women and girls. | •JSlie appears to have kept far away from ; the danger zone, and what heroic ex.ploints she may have accomplished .'ir any) remain unchronicled. 1 Of iier cruelties and outrageous be- ! haviour to our wounded we have heard : some details, but nothing like all. Of any kuuhiefs or consideration shown to them we have yet to learn. i Especially among German women of the middle and leisured classes is the physical' inferiority to the English-, woman apparent. By inheritance, by. education, by prejudice, by continued i inter-marriage, by defective but not de- ! ficient diet^ by dread of exercise, hatred ! of fresh air and ccVl water, the German; woman has persistently enervated her-i self from generation to generation. ! A Berlin physician, writing in tho \ "Hygienische Rundschau," maintained j that: j "The women of our upper-class are < tota'iv unfitted for the fatigues and du-| ties.of maternity. Our girls are all, anaemic; they cannot fulfil the func-j tions that nature intends every mother 1 should fulfil. They have no constitu-' tion. no stamina, no nerro", no physique, I no race. \. . . There is a want of

lime-doposit in the bone system, hence their shockingly defective teeth. How cay: they have pluck and nerve, and sound, firm flesh, strong muscle, &nd healthy bone if they have no fresh air, no regular exercise, unnutritive food, and more'than this, no desir© to change, alter, or amend the order of their unhealthy lives?" » • * •

With the Berlin physician's criticism ! of his countrywomen no one who knows j the Gorman woman of the middle md: leisured classes will disagree. She has i

certainly no stamina, no pluck, and no , nerve. v To be physically healthy she; gorges herself with far too fatty foods, j and drinks too much beer; whi'e her i distaste for fresh air and exercise is! proverbial. j Croquet, boating, archery, and ten--nis. among* other forms of sport, make' little appeal to German femininity in general, while horse-ridine; is for the most part looked upon with horrdr as a totally unfeminine recreation. The .apparition of a woman on horseback is such a novelty in Berlin that, outside j the Tiersarten, juvenile Berliners will j testify their astonishment by stoning the riderl After all, lack of race is the best exp'anation of the German woman's inferiority. Germany is no land of Grace Darlings and Florence Nightingales.