Else Kienle[edit]

Else Ida Pauline Kienle (Born February 26, 1900 in Heidenheim an der Brenz; Died July 19, 1970 in New York) was a German physician and writer who became known primarily for her opposition to Paragraph 218 (which states that abortion is illegal under German criminal code). In 1931 she was briefly imprisoned on charges of commercial abortion.

Life[edit]

First Marriage and Residence[edit]

In the spring of 1928, Else Kienle was called to a friend's house to find the friend's father, who had hanged himself after a financial collapse. While there, she met the dead man's main creditor, the banker Stefan Jacobowitz (1886-1946), who was the owner of the Württembergische Privatbank. Jacobowitz must have been fascinated by the 14-years-younger doctor and did everything to win her over. In addition to giving her a riding horse, he offered to help her start her own practice. Else, who had a penchant for a lavish and glamorous lifestyle, encouraged him. After his divorce, she married the father of four children in Stuttgart on July 27, 1929.

She lived at Marienstrasse 25 in Stuttgart as a medical specialist with a practice for skin, urinary, and leg disorders and cosmetics. Attached to the practice was a small ward with six to eight beds, with a nurse on duty. Here Else was able to perform small operations in the field of reconstructive surgery. These included accident or burn scars, children with cleft lip and palate and disfiguring war scars. More cosmetic surgeries included fixing protruding ears or treating actors and actresses who wanted to get their noses or breasts done.

Fight against Paragraph 218 and Detention[edit]

As a result of the world economic crisis and the looming banking crisis, Stefan Jacobowitz had to sell Württembergische Privatbank in 1930. He then went to Berlin alone. Because Else Kienle had performed illegal abortions as part of her practice, she was anonymously denounced in mid-December 1930 and later arrested on February 19, 1931, along with the physician and writer Friedrich Wolf. She sat in solitary confinement and was interrogated on a total of 210 cases, for several hours every day. On March 21, she began a hunger strike. On the morning of March 27, due to the lack of food, she passed out. After refusing to be hospitalized, she was released at 4 p.m. the next day on grounds of incapacity, following many telephone conversations between the examining magistrate and the chief public prosecutor. After their release, Else Kienle and Friedrich Wolf joined the movement against Paragraph 218. They spoke for the "struggle committee" at many meetings throughout the country. On April 15, 1931, the largest of these rallies took place in Berlin Sportpalast, with well over 10,000 people in attendance.

In May 1931, both were invited to the Soviet Union by the Soviet doctors' and writers' organization. After her return, Else Kienle opened her practice in Frankfurt at Bockenheimer Landstraße 63. She continued to participate in the fight against the abortion paragraph and also continued to perform abortions. 1932 also saw the publication of her first book, Frauen — Aus dem Tagebuch einer Ärztin. (transl. Women — From a Woman Doctor's Diary). During 1932 she was divorced from Stefan Jacobowitz. In the fall of 1932, she received a notice that she should expect to be arrested again. She no longer felt safe and fled to France via Saarbrücken. The reason for her flight was most likely that she had performed an abortion on the Jewish girl Edith Hofmann on March 16, 1932, and that the girl had died for unexplained reasons on April 6, 1932, in Langen Hospital.

References[edit]

Maja (d. i. Mascha) Riepl-Schmidt, Else Kienle – Für eine neue Sexualethik, in: diess., Wider das verkochte und verbügelte Leben, Frauenemanzipation in Stuttgart seit 1800, Stuttgart/Tübingen 1990 u. 1998, S. 255–265.
Mascha Riepl-Schmidt: Else Kienle. Die Verteidigung der Frauen gegen das Gesetz und das Gericht der Männer. In: Birgitt Knorr, Rosemarie Wehling (Hrsg.): Frauen im deutschen Südwesten. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1993, S. 269–274.
Mascha Riepl-Schmidt: Else Kienle. In: Florence Hervé, Ingeborg Nödinger (Hrsg.): Lexikon der Rebellinnen. Edition Ebersbach, Dortmund 1996, S. 139.
Verena Steinecke: Ich mußte zuerst Rebellin werden. Trotz Bedrohung und Gefahr – das gute und wunderbare Leben der Ärztin Else Kienle. Schmetterling, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-926369-16-7.
Jörg Schweigard, Kienle, Else Ida Pauline, Ärztin, Gegnerin des § 218, in: Fred Ludwig Sepaintner (Hrsg. ): Baden-Württembergische Biographien, Band VI, Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2016, S. 245–248.

Weblinks[edit]

Literatur von und über Else Kienle im Katalog der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek
Else Kienle. In: FemBio. Frauen-Biographieforschung (mit Literaturangaben und Zitaten).
Museum für Verhütung und Schwangerschaftsabbruch: Biografie von Else Kienle