The History of Prostitution Part 20

Again, turning to the pages of Fiducin, we find that, "in all the great towns of the German Empire, the public protection of women of pleasure (_l.u.s.t dirnen_) seems to have been a regular thing," in proof of which he says, "Did a creditor, in taking proceedings against his debtor, find it necessary to put up at an inn, one of the allowed items of his expenditure was a reasonable sum for the company of a woman during his stay (_frauen geld_)." This was a question of state etiquette in Berlin in 1410, a sum having been officially expended in that year to retain some handsome women to grace a public festival and banquet given to a distinguished guest, Diedrich V. Quitzow, whose good-will the citizens desired to cultivate.

During this period of toleration the expediency of controlling public women was unquestioned; but the first Berlin enactment of material importance to this investigation bears date in 1700, and is remarkable as clearly enunciating the principles which have been adhered to, with only a short interval, ever since. The first section declares, "By law this traffic is decidedly not permitted (_erlaubt_), but simply tolerated (_geduldet_) as a necessary evil."

Sections 2, 3, and 4 require the keeper of any house of prost.i.tution to give notice to the commissary of the quarter when any of his women leave him, or when he receives a new one, and restrain him from keeping more women than are specified in his contract.

Sections 5 to 9 provide that a surgeon shall visit every woman once a fortnight, "for the purpose of protecting the health of revelers (_schwarmer_), as well as that of the women themselves;" that every woman shall pay him two groschen for each visit; and that, upon observing the slightest signs of disease, the surgeon shall require the housekeeper to detain the woman in her room. If the keeper neglect this order, he is made responsible for the entire costs of the illness which any visitor could prove was contracted from one of his women. If the surgeon finds the woman already so far infected that she can not be cured by cleanliness and retirement alone, he is authorized to order her removal to the Charite, "where she will be taken care of in the pavilion free of charge."

Sections 10 and 11 provide that the debts of a woman must be paid before she can remove from one house of prost.i.tution to another, or before she can leave one house to commence another on her own account.

Section 12 enjoins that any woman who desires to quit her mode of life altogether shall be entirely discharged from any debts to the housekeeper.

The last section requires every housekeeper who has music to pay six groschen a year for the permit to his musicians, the money to be applied to the benefit of the poor-house.

The "toleration but not authorization" clause is the noticeable feature in these regulations, and indicates the policy which was then generally adopted throughout the kingdom.

In reference to the period succeeding the issue of these rules, which continued in force till 1792, we find some information in the pages of Fiducin. Thus, in 1717, an inquiry proved that the inmates of brothels, and also the secret prost.i.tutes, were mostly the children of soldiers, who "had been brought to vice as a trade, either from the want of a proper bringing up or of a skillful handicraft."... _All measures for the extermination of the evil having been found ineffectual_, "they were obliged to adopt the system of a larger toleration of common brothels, to be strictly watched over by the police, as a necessary outlet for the tendency to immorality." The number of houses of ill fame increased in proportion to the population, the influx of strangers, and the additions to the garrison made under Frederick II.; and still more so after the close of the seven years' war. In the year 1780, there were one hundred such houses in Berlin, each containing eight or nine women. They were divided into three cla.s.ses; the lowest were those in which the women dressed in plain clothes, and were frequented mostly by Hamburg or Amsterdam mariners; the second cla.s.s of women paraded themselves with painted faces, haunted the more retired corners of the town, had little attractive about their persons or dress, and were princ.i.p.ally visited by mechanics and laborers; the third, and apparently the most select of the kind, was a description of coffee-house, frequented by females, who were designated "_Mamselles_:" these did not live in the houses, but used them merely as a convenient rendezvous.

In 1792 a new code of regulations appeared, the bulk of which continued in force in Berlin and other towns for many years. The rules of 1700 were too vague, made no provision for a variety of cases likely to arise, and were silent as to the question of private prost.i.tution. Many inconveniences had arisen from these omissions, and, in consequence, a memorial was addressed to the government by the police director, Von Eisenhardt, containing suggestions for amendments to the law.

The preamble of the royal reply to this application acknowledges the attention of the police to the matter with much satisfaction; admits prost.i.tution (_hurenanstalten_) to be "a necessary evil in a great city where many men are not in a position to marry, although of an age when the s.e.xual instincts are at the highest, in order thereby to avoid greater disorders which are not to be restrained by any law or authority, and which take their rise from an inextinguishable natural impulse;" but expressly reiterates that it is "only to be tolerated (_zu dulden_);" and that it can not, "without impropriety and consequences injurious to morality, be established by the public laws, which do not contain any sanction whatever to common prost.i.tution."

The sections following this preamble provide that any one who seduces a woman, or induces her to carry on a venal traffic with her person, shall be liable to one year's imprisonment in the House of Correction, and on repet.i.tion of the offense, besides doubling the punishment, shall be whipped and driven from the country; declare any man or woman who communicates the venereal disease liable for the expenses of the cure and incidental damages (_sonstigen interesse_), together with imprisonment for three months, commutable by paying a fine of one hundred dollars; prohibit taking young women from the country into houses of prost.i.tution by any device against their will, and authorize the punishment of any man who willfully infects a common woman.

In reference to the special directions touching brothels and prost.i.tutes, the doc.u.ment provides, "as a leading point, that every thing which exceeds the mere gratification of the natural pa.s.sions, and tends to the advancement of debauchery, or the misuse of our toleration of a necessary evil, must be prevented;" and accordingly the women are prohibited from increasing their attractions "by painting or distinguis.h.i.+ng attire," and also from soliciting pa.s.sengers in the public streets, or at the doors or windows of their houses, "as this is not only in contravention to public morals, but especially perilous to male youth; and such means of increasing the gains of people seeking their livelihood in this manner is not to be tolerated." For similar reasons, the keepers of houses were restrained from offering wines or other strong drinks to their visitors, although it is admitted "they can not be prevented from providing refreshments," yet stimulants are forbidden, "because they are great inducements to debauchery, whereby other excesses may be caused."

The orders farther provide that no woman shall become a resident in a house of prost.i.tution without previously appearing before the police, and obtaining permission from them; and the police are directed not to allow this permission to any female under age, unless they are satisfied that she has previously made a trade of prost.i.tution. The section containing this stipulation is prefaced by a statement that "keepers of these houses seek especially to obtain blooming young girls, who can not be procured without infamous seduction, calculated to lead to debauchery."

In reference to precautions against infection, it provides that the prost.i.tutes and keepers of houses shall be instructed by some competent surgeon in the signs of venereal diseases, so that they may detect it in their visitors or themselves; also that any man communicating infection to a prost.i.tute may be sentenced to make ample compensation if the woman can identify him; and farther, that the punishment inflicted upon girls infecting their visitors shall also be inflicted on the housekeepers, "as, although they may be innocent, their being included in the punishment for an incident of their trade is for the general weal." All fines received were to accrue to the medical inst.i.tutions provided for the cure of syphilis.

Again, it was deemed that "the venereal disease was much extended by common street-walkers," and no women but such as resided in the known houses, where medical visits of inspection were constantly paid, were to be tolerated, and the night-watch were instructed to arrest those common women who were in the habit of plying their trade in the streets after dark--a portion of the penalty exacted being awarded to the officers who made such arrests, "to encourage their zeal." But they were strictly cautioned against annoying innocent persons, "inasmuch as blunders in such matters create ill impressions against the authorities, and because the honor and happiness of the person might be irretrievably injured, so that it would be better to pa.s.s over a guilty person here and there, than to inculpate a single innocent one." The royal rescript concludes by directing that a strict _surveillance_ be kept over the females of the garrison, many of whom are stated, in very plain language, to be of improper character.

These directions were subsequently embodied in the general statute, or law of the land (_landrecht_), and upon that the police regulations which we quote hereafter were based.

The statute formally declares procurers and procuresses liable to imprisonment for from six months to three years in the House of Correction, with "a welcome and farewell;" _Anglice_, a sound whipping when admitted, and another when discharged. In the cases of parents or guardians who may aid in or connive at the prost.i.tution of their children or wards, the term of imprisonment is doubled, and made more severe. It requires all common women to reside in the tolerated houses "under the eye of the state," which houses are only to be permitted in populous cities, and "not elsewhere than in retired and back streets therein, the consent of the police authorities having been first obtained." And in any case where a house of prost.i.tution was established without this consent, or in defiance of the public orders, the keeper was to be liable to one or two years' imprisonment. The police are strictly commanded to keep all tolerated houses under strict and constant _surveillance_; to make frequent visits in company with medical men, so as to check the progress of venereal disease; to prevent the sale of intoxicating liquors therein; to see that no woman was introduced without the knowledge and permission of the authorities, under a fine of fifty thalers, for each offense; and, more especially, that no innocent female was, by force or deceit, compelled or induced to live therein; which latter offense imposes "a public exhibition," in the stocks or pillory, we presume, and from six to ten years' imprisonment, with "welcome and farewell," on the keeper, who was not to be allowed to keep such a house again under any circ.u.mstances.

The police are farther enjoined to see that the mistress of the house informs the authorities of the pregnancy of any woman residing in the house as soon as she is aware of it herself, but if it is concealed she (the mistress) is liable to imprisonment, especially if a secret birth takes place. The mistress is required to take charge of any woman who becomes pregnant, if there is no public inst.i.tution to which she can be removed, and is at liberty to seek compensation from the father of the child, or, if he can not be found, she has a claim upon the mother. The child must be removed from the house as soon as it is weaned, and is to be cared for at the public cost if the parents have not means to do so.

If the keeper of the house, or the inmates themselves, conceal any venereal infection from the knowledge of the police, they render themselves liable to imprisonment from three months to a year, with "welcome and farewell."

If thefts, a.s.saults, or other offenses occur in such houses, the keeper is, in all cases, liable to the injured party, who can not in any other way obtain his indemnity, and is also suspected of complicity in the offense so long as the contrary can not be substantiated; and if it is proved that he did not exert all his power to prevent such occurrences, his neglect is to be punished by fine or imprisonment.

No woman desirous of leaving a tolerated house to change her mode of life, and support herself honestly, can be retained against her inclination, and no difficulties may be thrown in the way of her doing so; nor will the master be allowed to force her to remain, even though she may be in his debt, under the penalty of the loss of his permission from the police.

Prost.i.tutes who do not conform to the regulations and place themselves under supervision, are to be arrested and imprisoned for three months, and, when their term of imprisonment has expired, are to be sent to the "work-houses," and detained there until they have inclination and opportunity for honorable employment. Any females, not being inmates of the tolerated houses, who had intercourse while suffering from disease, and thereby infected men, are declared liable to an imprisonment for three months.

This comprehensive legal enactment left many matters of detail to the discretion of the police, and accordingly they issued their rules. The opposition these subsequently encountered makes them important in the history of Prost.i.tution in Berlin, and although they are in many points a mere repet.i.tion of the terms of the statute, we give them _in extenso_.

They are ent.i.tled,

"PROVISIONS AGAINST THE MISLEADING OF YOUNG WOMEN INTO BROTHELS, AND FOR PREVENTION OF THE SPREAD OF VENEREAL DISEASE.

"_Preamble._ It has been brought to notice that simple young girls, especially from the smaller towns, under the craftiest pretensions to place them in good situations, have been brought to Berlin, and, without their knowledge of the fact, taken to brothels, and therein, against their will, led astray to their ruin, and to the life of a common prost.i.tute.

"At the same time, it is matter of remark that common prost.i.tutes, after they have been diseased, continue their practices as long as the state of their sickness permits, and thereby farther infection is extraordinarily increased and extended.

"With the express view of meeting such infamous seductions, and the highly injurious results of the before-mentioned communication of venereal disease, the following directions are brought to the cognizance and perfect information of the keepers of houses of prost.i.tution, and of the females who make a trade of their persons.

"1. No one can set on foot a brothel, or keep women for the purposes of prost.i.tution, without having communicated previously with the Police Directory on the subject, and obtained their permission in writing. Whoso acts contrary to this shall, together with absolute withdrawal of his license, be liable to one or two years in the House of Correction.

"2. Every brothel-keeper must, before taking a girl into his service, produce her before the Police Directory, and must not conclude any contract with her until the Police Director has given him written leave to do so; whereupon, forthwith the conditions upon which the keeper and said woman have agreed are to be registered with the police, and an abstract thereof shall be given to each party, for which eight groschen are to be paid as fees. The before-mentioned brothel-keepers, to whom the Police Director's toleration is extended, must, at his order, produce the common prost.i.tutes, and submit the same to a similar license, and the conditions must be drawn up for them in the before-mentioned manner. If a keeper omits the same, and is accused of having any woman for common use in his house for forty-eight hours without such notice, he shall pay a fine of fifty thalers, and, upon the third offense, in addition to the said fine, his trade shall be stopped, and he shall not carry on the same any more. Further, it shall be no excuse that the person in question was not there for the purpose of prost.i.tution, inasmuch as he is enjoined to point out every female whom he receives into his house, without exception, and neglect of this shall be taken as a proof of contravention. Under penalty of the same punishment, he must give a similar notice if a common woman comes to him from another house.

"3. Females under age, who have not, before the publication of these ordinances, notoriously abandoned themselves to common prost.i.tution, are not to be received by any brothel-keeper, and when he produces such persons before the Police Directory the permit shall not be allowed. If he acts contrary to this prohibition, he shall be punished with two years' labor in jail.

"4. The departure from a brothel of any woman who desires to change her mode of life, and to subsist in a respectable manner, is not to be checked or prevented. Even on account of sureties entered into or debts incurred, the keeper is not to retain any such against her will, at the risk of losing his permit, and the police are charged to give every a.s.sistance. If, however, any such person desire only to remove to another house of prost.i.tution, this can not be done without the consent of her former keeper, until after three months' notice given, when it will be permitted upon proof of brutal treatment by the keeper, or other good and reasonable grounds shown to the police. No woman who seeks to quit a brothel for the purpose of carrying on prost.i.tution for pay on her own account will be permitted to do so; and if any person, having, on pretense of an honest calling, quitted a house of prost.i.tution, shall be adjudged guilty of prost.i.tution on her own account, she shall have four weeks at the House of Correction, with a welcome and farewell. And whereas it is known that many brothel-keepers, who treat their girls with an unbearable harshness, keep so strict a watch upon them that they can not succeed in bringing their complaints before the authorities, information shall from time to time, _ex-officio_, and without the presence of the keeper, be taken, whether the girls have any well-founded complaints to bring forward against the said keeper.

"5. The common prost.i.tutes in the brothels are strictly prohibited from enticing or inviting pa.s.sengers in the streets, with looks or signs from the houses or windows, and the keepers are on no account to permit the same. Diligent regard to this is to be had by the police, and those who act contrary will be punished, the first time with three days, and, on a repet.i.tion of the offense, with a week's solitary confinement, one half of the time on bread and water. The keeper who is shown to have been party to the same will suffer double punishment.

"6. In these houses the keepers shall not supply visitors with wine, brandy, liquor, punch, or other strong drinks, or with food, but only with tea, coffee, chocolate, beer, or similar beverages; further, it is not permitted for the visitors to bring in drink or food. For every case of contravention the keeper shall pay five thalers, or a week's detention; on repet.i.tion, he shall be punished more severely; if this will not suffice, the permit shall be withdrawn from the house. No brothel-keeper shall allow any guest to remain after twelve o'clock at night, nor allow any one to enter after that hour. Whoso acts contrary shall, for the first offense, pay ten thalers; on repet.i.tion, the fine is doubled; for the third time, the keeper shall lose his permit.

"7. Should thefts, a.s.saults, or other offenses take place in such houses, the keeper is in all cases liable to the injured party if he can not get his redress elsewhere. Further, the said keeper is suspected of complicity in the offense so long as the contrary is not proved, and if it appear that he did not use all possible means for the prevention of such offense, he shall be punished by fine or in person.

"8. In case any innocent female shall, by fraud or violence, be brought into any brothel, the keeper and those who are accomplices in such infamous offense shall undergo public exhibition, and four to ten years' House of Correction, with welcome and farewell. Besides this, the permit will be withdrawn. It shall be no excuse for him to allege that he neither knew nor a.s.sisted the said seduction, inasmuch as he had no right to receive any female into his house without first giving notice thereof to the Police Directory, and receiving from them, after inquiry into the circ.u.mstances, permission to do so.

"9. In like manner, a brothel-keeper may not, under penalty of twelve months' imprisonment, give any one (whatever his rank may be) facility to carry on criminal intercourse with any woman who has been brought into his house; and it is absolutely forbidden for any person to bring a female to such house, and there to have any private communication with her, which shall be only with the regular women of the place, inasmuch as by section 2 no keeper is permitted to receive any woman as servant-maid, or under any pretense whatever, among his inmates, without previous notice to the police, and their a.s.sent to the same.

"10. In order to combat the frequent infection of common prost.i.tutes, and, if possible, prevent them from severe attacks of venereal disease, or its farther extension, and at the same time not only to restrain the rapid progress of this highly pernicious malady, but, so far as possible, entirely to root it out, the brothel-keepers and the women kept by them are bound to give their most observant attention thereto, both for their own advantage, and also for the diminution of their own misfortunes and severe punishment. To this end, the brothel-keepers are not to oppose the appointed surgeons in each quarter, so often as the same make their visits to the women at their houses; and every woman shall be subject to these visits. For the information of every brothel-keeper, and of the prost.i.tutes kept by him, a copy of printed directions, prepared by competent authority, shall be given to the brothel-keeper, whereby the signs of actual infection and of the commencement of venereal disease may be known, and they shall be clearly instructed by the duly appointed surgeon how to form an opinion upon their own state of health, and be able to explain the same on his visits, so that thereby the detection of venereal disease at any time may be facilitated. Furthermore, upon perceiving the symptoms whereby venereal disease is known in a man, they should abstain from carnal intercourse with him.

"11. Should a woman suspect that she is infected, she must permit no one to have connection with her, but shall mention the same as well to her keeper as to the surgeon of the district, upon which steps shall forthwith be taken for her cure. If she neglect this she shall be punished with detention, three months for the first time, on repet.i.tion of the offense with six months in the House of Correction, with welcome and farewell. If the said woman, through concealment of her venereal malady, has given occasion to a wider spread thereof, she shall the first time be liable to twelve months in the House of Correction, with welcome and farewell. In case the brothel-keeper shall know of the diseased condition of such woman, and shall not hinder her from the exercise of her trade, or shall keep her therein, he shall be liable to the same punishment, and, moreover, shall be liable to the costs and charges of cure and attendance of the man so infected by such woman, if he requires it, or if he can not pay such expenses. For this reimburs.e.m.e.nt a brothel-keeper shall be held liable even if he did not know the diseased condition of a woman kept in his house, inasmuch as such obligation shall, for the public weal, be taken to be a risk and burden incident to the trade permitted to be carried on by him.

"12. On the other hand, a prost.i.tute can prosecute any one for having infected her by means of connection, and such person shall, upon the complaint and showing of her and the brothel-keeper, bear the expense of cure and maintenance for so a long time as, pursuant to the orders of the authorities of the Charite, the woman may have to remain in the Charite; and further, shall be liable to a fine of fifty thalers, or three months' imprisonment in the House of Correction.

"13. If any woman, before declaring her venereal disease, shall have concealed it so long that, by opinion of competent persons, she must have known the same for a considerable length of time, she shall, whether she shall or shall not have infected other persons, be liable to the same punishment as if she had infected others.

"14. Whereas, it has been the practice for the women to conceal their venereal diseases; and whereas, they have intrusted themselves to incompetent persons for cure; and whereas, the brothel-keepers are bound to refund to the Charite the expenses of the cure and attendance, which sometimes fall ruinously heavy upon them: it is hereby directed, for the removal of this difficulty, that a healing fund (_heilings ca.s.se_) shall be established, by means whereof the keepers and their women, on the occurrence of disease, may be relieved of the heavy expenses to which they are put, and may be a.s.sured against the destruction of their bodies and health, which ensue from the growth of this terrible disease. To this fund every brothel-keeper shall contribute a monthly sum of six groschen (twelve cents) for each woman that he keeps, and shall give in a statement of the name and place of birth of such woman; for which, at the commencement of the following month, he shall receive an acknowledgment, and he shall recover such sum from every woman on whose account he shall have paid the same. Nevertheless, any brothel-keeper who shall have allowed more than one of these monthly payments to run into arrear with the women, shall not, on that account, be able to prevent her leaving him, if, as before ordered, she desires to change her way of life. If a woman goes from one brothel to another without the six groschen having been paid for her, the brothel-keeper to whom she goes must pay this amount in due time for her. This shall happen notwithstanding that she is bound to give notice of her removal to the police commissary of the quarter.

The monthly payment of this tax is to be made to the duly appointed medical officer of the quarter, who shall pay over the whole amount of the same to the collector of the healing fund, who shall give him for the same a receipt under his own hand; whereupon the comptroller shall compare the list of the same with the list of the brothel-keepers and women in the several districts, and shall compel defaulters to pay the outstanding tax.

"15. A perfect account is to be kept of this healing fund, and out of the same every diseased woman shall be taken to the Charite, and, without farther charges to herself or keeper, shall be maintained and thoroughly cured without being sent, as formerly directed, to the work-house. Farther, the woman shall not intrust herself either to the visiting surgeon or to any other person for cure, but such shall take place only in the Charite.

"16. No brothel shall be tolerated in the respectably inhabited and frequented streets and squares of the city, but they shall be established at a moderate distance from the same, so that the police can watch them and speedily correct any disorder; otherwise only in the smaller streets and thoroughfares.

"17. The matters that are ordered and prescribed in the foregoing articles to the brothel-keepers, are also to be observed by female brothel-keepers under like penalties.

"18. Single women living by themselves for purposes of prost.i.tution must give in their notices to the Police Directory in the same manner as the women in the brothels; must also undergo examination by the medical officers of the quarter in which they reside; must pay their six groschen a month to the healing fund, and be subject to all the directions applicable to brothel-keepers and their hired women, and to the like punishments in case of offending against the directions.

"19. Procurers and procuresses, who make it their business to provide opportunities in their houses for criminal intercourse of men and women (whatever their condition), shall be strictly watched, and, upon conviction, shall be liable to three months' detention in the House of Correction.

"20. The street-walkers roaming the streets after dark are not to be tolerated, but where they can be met with are to be taken into custody, and after being cured, if they are affected with venereal disease, shall be sent from six to twelve months to the House of Correction.

"21. Whoever can not pay the fines shall receive a corresponding corporal (_am leibe_) punishment.