This activity should take about one class day, and is part of a 2-day mini-unit which discusses the play Cyankali. The play is about 70 pages long, and thus students will have 35 pages of reading per day of the unit.
Reproductive Rights: Cyankali by Friedrich Wolf, Part 2
Conceptual Frames and Background
Performing and receiving abortions has been explicitly illegal in Germany since the 1800s. Specifically, Paragraph 218 made abortions illegal under German law. Although there has always been a fight for reproductive freedom in German territories, the abortion debate became a main issue in WWI and Weimar Germany. Many factors led to this- women were becoming more active in the workplace either by choice or of necessity to provide for their families, the financial crisis prohibited women and couples from starting families, extramarital sex became more accepted, and working class German women did not want to create “cannon fodder” for future wars.
For those found guilty of seeking abortion care, they would serve jail time. Doctors and medical professionals who provided abortions actually served longer sentences, often upwards of 10 years.
Making abortions illegal, however, did not stop women from getting them. Wealthy women could afford to travel to other countries where abortion was legal, or could pay a price to have a medical professional perform an illegal abortion. For the majority of women, this was impossible- and thus they were forced to find alternative ways to terminate pregnancy by visiting a so-called angel maker or by undergoing painful and often deadly treatments.
One method of treatment was the now well-known poison, cyanide, which taken in small doses can be effective in terminating pregnancy. However, women often were instructed to or felt compelled to take too high of a dose, resulting in sickness or death. Friedrich Wolf’s play is the story of such a case.
Introduction
Frierich Wolf was not only an author and activist, but was also a trained medical professional and performed abortions, for which he was arrested in 1931. Wolf wrote and staged Cyankali to expose the inequality and trauma behind Germany’s abortion legislation, and to create a greater public discussion surrounding the termination of pregnancies. The piece, first performed in 1929 in Berlin, was performed in big cities around the globe, including New York, Hong Kong, Paris, Munich, and London. Wolf suggested in following performances of the play throughout the 30s and 40s that the global popularity of the play suggested that the issue of abortion access was not only German, but international.
In his later introductions to the play, he reiterates the real numbers regarding illegal abortion in Germany- between 500,000 and 800,000 women receive illegal abortions, of which 10,000 die, and 50,000 become sick. He references several real-life cases of women who sought abortions for reasons of health or financial burden who became ill or died as a result. In one case, he quotes the case of a mother of 3 who works at a construction site to care for her children and injured WWI veteran husband, and who considers terminating her pregnancy because she is unable to provide for yet another person. She laments:
Ich liebe meine Kinder, aber jetzt bin ich verzweifelt. Wie soll dieses Kind gebettet, gewindelt, genährt werden? Ich muss um die Gesundheit dieses Kindes jetzt schon bangen, lange vor der Geburt…Ich stehe vor dem schwersten Konflikt meines Lebens. (166)
Wolf was particularly interested in advocating for women’s medical and financial freedom, and expressed that his goal was to foster a better and more stable world for women so that they might feel ready and able to have children without needing to suffer.
Preparation
Students should read the remainder of the play, or acts 5-8. While reading, students should:
- Briefly summarize the main ideas of each act in their own words (English or German)
- Consider these discussion questions:
- Newspapers and current events are not only mentioned a lot in the play, but also help move the plot along. Why do you think newspapers play such a huge role, especially regarding the topic and the time period?
- Think about the various people Hete approaches about getting an abortion. Prosnick, Dr. Möller, Madame Heye, Paul, her mother…Who helps her, who doesn’t, and what reasons do they give?
- Why is it important that Hete is continuously described as a hard-working, virtuous, beautiful girl?
- Consider the ending of the play- what impact did the ending have on you, and what impact do you think Wolf intended to make on his Weimar audience?
Students can also watch the end of the play here (beginning at 1:01:00) in the 1977 DDR film adaptation, beginning with the scene in which Hete’s mom gives her the cyanide drops. For the instructor: For more analysis on the play, see Sabine Schroeder’s piece The Changing View of Abortion: A Study of Friedrich Wolf’s Cyankali and Arnold Zweig’s Junge Frau von 1914.
Text and Discussion
Students should approach the second half of the play considering what the play is about beyond abortion. As students summarize each act and discuss, they should keep this question in mind- Who is a victim in this play, beyond Hete? How?
Allow students to break into 4 groups to discuss and summarize acts 5-8. When the class comes together to discuss each act, call attention to these details or points of discussion:
Act 5:
- How did Paul react when Hete asked him to assist in her abortion? How would you describe Hete’s response to him, and why?
- Students can discuss how they feels about the friends protecting and hiding their fugitive friend, Paul
Act 6:
- What kind of a woman is Madame Heye? What are her motivations for doing what she does?
- Hete suggests to Heye that if she doesn’t help her, she will end up dead and it will be Heye’s fault. Where do students feel blame should be placed in this situation- on Heye, or on the government at large?
- What convinced Heye to finally give Hete the cyanide? Pity, profit, both?
Act 7:
- Why does Hete’s mother decide to help her?
- At this point, the play is just as much about her fever as it is about the abortion. Why is the fever so central to the message Wolf is sending?
Act 8:
- What does Hete die from? The fever, or the cyanide?
- Actually, we don’t know. It remains unclear, which strengthens the play. The viewer knows that it is possible and likely that any women seeking an abortion could fall prey to any of these forms of death, and it is not important what causes the death, but rather the fact that is probable.
- Dr. Möller suggests that in order to change the law, the only thing to do would be for the voters to overturn the law. Is this reasonable? Do students agree with Paul’s argument that thousands more women will die before this happens?
Women with unwanted pregnancies in older German literature are often described as being powerless. The women are often unemployed, resourceless, and victims of older, richer men. Alternatively, many literary pieces before the 1920s involve not abortion, but infanticide. The big difference between these older pieces and plays like Cyankali is the question of Agency.
- Who has agency in Cyankali? How do women, specifically Hete, control their own destinies, as compared to the men in the play?
- Students might think particularly about Hete, Paul, Dr. Möller, Mutter Fent, and Madame Heye. Whereas Paul and Dr. Möller cannot or will not assist Hete with the abortion, Madame Heye and Mutter Fent at least do something for Hete, even if it is against their best interests.
Finally, the class might discuss the concept of victimhood in Cyankali. Who would be the “traditional” victim in this type of story, and how might we see other characters as victims of the system, according to Wolf?