GERMANY
Germany was the next to follow, in 1889, when Herr Max Hausmeister and Herr Karl Lotter founded the Sozial Harmonische Verein, with its paper Die Sozial Harmonie. Like the English League, this society has confined its teachings to the theoretical and economic aspects of the subject, in which it has especially distinguished itself. In Germany all such doctrines are of course anathema, but the enormous decline in the birth-rate in several towns testifies to the refusal of the German people to be hectored into misery. All the signs point at present to an extraordinary ferment of new ideas in Germany, and a large number of other movements are more or less openly Neo-Malthusian.—From The Malthusian (London), January, 1909.
The German Sozial Harmonische Verein, founded in 1889, by Herr Max Hausmeister, has continued its quiet, but effective, work, and its periodical, Die Sozial Harmonie, has contained many articles of great economic value. A remarkable feature in Germany, however, has been the rapid rise of the Mutterschutz Society, under the able presidency of Dr. Helene Stocker, a society which aims at obtaining greater security and freedom for married and unmarried mothers, and at securing better conditions for the rearing of their offspring. Neo-Malthusianism (Birth Control) is becoming an important feature of this work, and is also dealt with in the Zeitschrift fur Sexual-wissenschaft, a scientific journal devoted to sex matters. The birth-rate of Prussia has seen one of the most rapid declines, from 36.2 in 1901 to 33.7 in 1906, and 33.0 in 1907; while the death-rates for the same years have been 20.5, 17.9, and 17.8, and the infantile mortalities 200, 177, and 168 respectively. The birth-rate of Berlin in 1907 was 24.3, or below that of London, 26.8.—From The Malthusian (London) for July 15th, 1909.