Colloquium: The Virtue of Silence. Coping with Infertility in 19th and Early 20th Century Germany

  • Date: Jan 9, 2018
  • Time: 05:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Christina Benninghaus
  • Location: Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Lentzeallee 94, 14195 Berlin
  • Room: Small Conference Room
  • Host: Center for the History of Emotions
  • Contact: sekfrevert@mpib-berlin.mpg.de

The Center for the History of Emotions at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, led by Prof. Ute Frevert, cordially invites all interested to attend its winter semester 2017/2018 colloquium

Christina Benninghaus, University of Oxford

The Virtue of Silence. Coping with Infertility in 19th and Early 20th Century Germany

In recent years, the emotional distress experienced by (some) involuntarily childless men and women has gained public attention. The German Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth has identified infertile couples as in need of financial and psychological support. But how was infertility experienced in the past? Unfortunately, 19th century women and men who encountered reproductive difficulties have left little traces in the historical record. Their silences, she argues, are one of the reasons why historians of the family, of gender and sexuality were slow to turn their attention to unintended childlessness. But while the reticence of past actors is frustrating for the historian, it might have made sense to those concerned. The talk will explore how people addressed or avoided to address reproductive failure and the emotions this might trigger.

Dr. Christina Benninghaus recently joined Wadham College, University of Oxford, as Pat Thompson DAAD Fellow and Tutor in Modern History. Previously she held positions as lecturer at the Universities of Bielefeld, Bochum, Halle and Gießen. From 2012 to 2014 she was an M4Human Senior research fellow at the Department for History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge. Her research focuses on the histories of gender, sexuality and reproduction, the family, youth and social protest in 19th and 20th century Germany. Her current research project examines how experiences of infertility fundamentally changed around 1900, focusing on how women and men searched for medical solutions or adoption to fulfil their dreams of parenthood. She is also pursuing a separate project, on the history of popular representations of the human body.

Go to Editor View