In the age before the pill, children were born because nature intended them to be. Some were seen as a gift from God. Others were born because two people had had sex. They were never the center of attention. They had to fit in, they had to make their mark or they got a beating.
„Through the rod, parents save their child’s soul from hell, because the beating frees them from sin.“ This was the opinion of Martin Luther, expressing exactly what corresponded to the spirit of the time. The „General Prussian Land Law“ (ALR) of 1794 even enshrined corporal punishment of children in law. According to this law, the father could „use appropriate means of discipline“ and was legally authorized to educate his children with the cane, rod and whip.
From the very beginning, only the father was entitled to this right of chastisement. He was the patriarch, the head of the household, the ruler of the family. His only slightly limited power extended not only to the children, but also to the wife. In Germany, this came to an end in 1958. However, the relevant paragraph was not deleted to protect children, young people and adolescents from being beaten by their father. Rather, it was simply a matter of cutting the man’s privilege because it violated the equal rights of men and women that had been introduced at the time.
The right to corporal punishment was therefore not really abolished. There was just no longer a paragraph regulating it. So it lived on as a customary right and was tacitly tolerated. There was not even a legal definition of how far a father could go in breeding his children. Instead, there was a broad arsenal of chastisement methods and each region had its own preferences.
The cane was very popular. It had already proved its worth in the classroom and was considered highly effective in ensuring the desired discipline. It also had the advantage that the girl or boy did not have to undress, as a little fabric on the skin cannot really diminish the effect of a cane. An aspect that was definitely important in the rather prudish society of the time.
„But we girls were clearly at a disadvantage,“ reports a now seventy-year-old woman who spent her school years in a Catholic nursery. „Sister Walburga simply pulled the boys‘ pants tight before the cane went into action. She didn’t just lift up our girls‘ skirts. She also pulled our panties between our buttocks and we felt the cane directly on our bare skin.“
Fathers were even less considerate when it came to punishing a daughter. Punishment and humiliation went hand in hand, according to the widespread opinion in those days. A rebellious girl had no right to be ashamed. The birch rod or bullwhip was therefore particularly popular in rural areas. And, of course, the leather strap, which practically every man wore. „I would tense up when I heard the sound of my father pulling his belt out of his trousers,“ reported a woman who had lived through her teenage years in the 1960s. Of course, she was naked when the belt hit the twitching flesh, as this was the only way to ensure the best possible effect of the leather.
While a cane has to be imported from somewhere in the Far East and a leather strap is the work of a skilled craftsman, the thin branches of the birch cane practically grow by the wayside. It is therefore not surprising that their hissing sound could be heard regularly, especially in rural areas. But for effective chastisement with the birch rod, the pupil must be naked. A bundle of thin twigs causes hellish pain, but only on the bare bottom, or at least on bare female thighs after the skirt and panties have been removed.
„We had a large clay vase that stood right next to the front door. Several dozen thin birch rods were always soaked in it to keep them nice and soft,“ Marija recalled of her youth in Carinthia. „If one of the maids was to be punished, she was strapped over the punishment rack in the barn. Her skirt and underwear were removed and the farmer would beat her with the rod until blood appeared.“
The ox goat was particularly at home in the east of the country. In the vast plains of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, large landowners ruled the land for many centuries. In the period before the last world war, these were the rulers of entire regions, who had a large army of farmhands and maidservants under them, who were more or less at their mercy. These were rich and respected men who knew exactly how to make men work and keep women submissive.
The bullwhip was the symbol of their power and its bite was obviously intended primarily for the unbending female members of a manor. It usually consisted of a dozen or so hard leather straps connected to a solid wooden handle. They cut mercilessly into the skin and left thick, swelling welts that could be felt for days. It was not uncommon for the marks left by the bullwhip to be bloody. In any case, they ensured that the chastised woman would do anything for a long time so that her master had no reason to discipline her again. She was usually hung on a rope so that she could barely touch the ground. Or she was stretched on a trestle with her legs open and her labia gaping. An unruly woman had no right to be ashamed and a common maid even less so.
Until well into the 1960s, spanking was considered the only practicable means of a good upbringing. Everyone knew this and the media of those days did not scandalize the issue as they do today. The Neue Deutsche Gerichtszeitung (New German Court Newspaper) was a campaigning paper for a strict upbringing until well into the 1970s. „Let’s defend what we have built,“ was the paper’s headline at the time. „Of course a 14-year-old girl should get a good spanking,“ was the demand. „And properly with a thin cane.“ The „dutiful mother“ who worked her straying daughter’s bottom with the leather strap until it turned green and blue was described as exemplary.
In order to prevent criminal activities, parents should work on their daughters‘ „buttocks with a cane, strap or wooden spoon“, according to the militant newspaper. It is described as exemplary when parents work together and the mother lends a hand to the energetic master of the house to restrain the „little fruit“ on the table so that she can experience the full effect of the „domestic punishment“.
In August 1952, the „Gerichtszeitung“ asked its readers what they thought about education at home. 96.6% of the entries voted for equality in the treatment of girls and boys and approved of the use of corporal punishment.
Several surveys were subsequently conducted on this topic. One aspect that had never been so clear in the past was striking: sons were hardly ever physically chastised from around the age of 16. Girls, on the other hand, often experienced full parental strictness until their late teens. The reason for this was usually the quite justified concern that the daughter would do something stupid and become pregnant. In those days, a father would often say: „As long as you put your feet under my table, you will do as I say, or I will not hesitate to get the cane.“ It was not uncommon for young girls to hear this until they were „under the hood“ and pregnancy was no longer a problem. „I got my last real spanking the day before my wedding,“ a young bride is quoted as saying in Stern magazine in 1968. Her father used a leather strap and made her naked beforehand, as he had always done. That was the custom at the time. It was a common custom that was practiced in one way or another in practically every family.
This is a custom that quite a few parents would like to see returned, so that they can finally practice again what the majority of the population still understands by parenting today.