MARRIAGE PROSPECTS IN GERMANY.
BY MISS KÄTHE SCHIRMACHES.
The marriage prospects of every woman depends as a rule upon three circumstances, the first of which is the number of eligible men living in the country. In this respect the German women are not particularly favored, for their number exceeds that of the men by a round one million and a half, so that it is impossible every German woman should marry, unless you institute polygamy, put a tax on bachelors, or forbid young men to emigrate.
The second circumstance the marriage prospects of a woman depend upon, is the more or less facility her countrymen find in founding a household of their own and supporting a family. In this direction the prospects are not bright. All over Germany you hear the same complaint; the needs are great, money and employment scarce, no new openings to be found, and the possibility of making both ends meet Jess than before. Under these circumstances the number of marriages is likely to decrease, and it actually does.
I come to the third point to be considered. It is of a less material character than the two preceding ones, but of a still more vital interest. It implies the views the two sexes hold on marriage in general, and the ideal type they expect one another to live up to. Now, what is, as a rule, a German man entitled to expect his wife to be? The answer is very short—his inferior, but a pleasant one; inferior, but at the same time one who is a lady and meets with all the outward marks of respect due to a lady, yet remains an inferior. This is no exaggeration.
Consult the church in Germany, she says: The Christian wife is an obedient wife. Consult the German law; it says: The German wife is a person supported by her husband; has in all circumstances to submit to his will, and in affairs of greater importance may not act without his permission.
Consult the army; as the most privileged and most highly considered class of Germany, it will answer. A wife is a very pretty, rich and lovable object, but incapable of doing military service. Consult the men of science, and except some of broader views, they will pretend, should it be the teeth of fact, that a woman is incapable of rough work, high intellectual training, and high intellectual achievement. Consult the German government; it has hitherto shut out women from the university as a student, from the upper classes of girls’ high schools as a teacher, from the school board and advisory councils, in all public affairs and all public functions. A German woman is no citizen. Cousult the German press, and except some liberal papers and reviews, they but reach the judgments quoted above, and even liberal-minded editors of great liberal papers are taken aback at the idea of a woman discussing political economy and politics. Consult German literature, and you will find it only knows of one relation between men and women, the relation through love and passion. The relation through thought, opinion, work, seem to be perfectly unknown hitherto. Then, after having consulted all these authorities, address yourself to a German average man on the point of getting married, and ask him what he expects his future wife to be. I think he will answer: “Pretty and gay, ignorant of life, able to follow in my thoughts, but by no means independent.” Now, a modern woman may be pretty, and she may be gay, but she is never ignorant of life, and always independent. Therefore, her marriage prospects in Germany, and all the countries sharing the German ideal, are bad ones. This is the chief point where her difference from the older type lies. Hitherto a German woman on the average had but one way of getting happy,' use-
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