Part 17 (1/2)

Thus much for Hamburg legislation, and the sound arguments in its favor.

We will now give some facts ill.u.s.trative of the vice as it exists at the present time, using a pamphlet by Dr. LIPPERT, ent.i.tled ”Prost.i.tution in Hamburg. 1848.”

It must be premised that, for the purpose, Hamburg is divided into two parts: the city proper, and the suburb of St. Paul. The latter is under a distinct munic.i.p.al authority, and is the ordinary residence of seamen and those depending on a seafaring life.

For many years the police returns of the city proper would show about five hundred of the registered ”common women” (_eingeschrieben Dirnen_), and one hundred registered brothels. The police regulations requiring monthly payment of the personal and house tax, and also a renewal of the permission to keep brothels at the same time, is a very convenient method of obtaining a census of the cla.s.s. The following is a statement of the largest and smallest monthly number of registered women for several years:

Year 1883 Largest number, 550 Smallest number, 456 ” 1834 ” ” 550 ” ” 450 ” 1835 ” ” 481 ” ” 441 ” 1836 ” ” 546 ” ” 473 ” 1837 ” ” 514 ” ” 484 ” 1844 ” ” 502 No reports.

” 1846 ” ” 512 No reports.

These monthly reports do not show any marked variation at any particular period, the rise and fall being arbitrary. The fluctuation is not very great in the aggregate, although from November, 1834, to January, 1835, there was a decrease of 86 (or nearly one fifth), while between November, 1835, and January, 1836, there was a corresponding increase. Since that time the numbers have remained steadily at about one point.

The housekeepers' (_bordelwirth_) return does not vary to the same extent.

The average is 105 But it decreased in 1844 to 90 ” ” ” 1845 ” 93 ” ” ” 1846 ” 96 Of these housekeepers in the last-named year (1846) there were Males 60 Females 36--96 In December, 1844, there were Registered women 502 who were subdivided into those Living in registered houses 294 Living privately 208--502 In May, 1845, there were Registered women 505 who were subdivided into those Living in registered houses 326 Living privately 179--505 (At this period there were four registered houses without any women in them.) In August, 1846, there were Registered women 512 who were subdivided into those Living in registered houses 334 Living privately 178--512

These figures show that the number of those living privately is gradually diminis.h.i.+ng, more of them being concentrated in the registered houses.

Dr. Lippert is of opinion that prost.i.tution decreases in the summer and increases in the winter months. The statistics will certainly support this theory, but the difference is so small as scarcely to warrant its reception as a rule.

Thus the months of May and July, for five years, give a monthly average of 499-5/10 and the months of November and January for the same time give a monthly average of 501-1/10 -------- showing an average increase in the winter months of 1-6/10

or about one third of one per cent. on the average number of prost.i.tutes.

In reference to the cla.s.ses from which the ranks of the common women in Hamburg are recruited, Dr. Lippert states that four fifths are from the agricultural districts of the vicinity; that they live as house-servants, tavern-waiters, or in other callings for a time, and then become prost.i.tutes ”as a matter of business.” Without any desire to controvert his opinion on local questions, it may be doubted whether bad example, vicious education, ignorance of moral or religious obligations, or temptation, are not sufficient to account for their fall, aside from this sweeping denunciation, this commercial view of the question, opposed as it is to all experience in every civilized country where any inquiries on the subject have been made.

The private prost.i.tutes, whether registered or unregistered, are mainly seamstresses or others dependent upon daily labor. These women seem to retain some natural sense of the disgrace attached to open and avowed courtesans, and in their secrecy and quiet retain a few feminine characteristics of which the common brothel woman is dest.i.tute.

We have no reliable detail of private unregistered prost.i.tution, or of mere houses of accommodation in Hamburg; but an important fact is to be found in the number of illegitimate children, and the decrease, in proportion to the population, of the number of marriages. The following results are taken from Neddermeyer's ”Statistics and Topography of Hamburg.”

In 1799, the marriages were about 1 in 45; From 1826 to 1835, ” ” ” ” 1 ” 97; In 1840, ” ” ” ” 1 ” 100.

The proportion of illegitimate to legitimate children is about 1 to 5, the actual number of illegitimate births being as follows:

Years Illegitimate Births.

1826 649 1827 606 1828 723 1829 801 1830 786 1831 805 1832 926 1833 867 1834 846 1835 730 1836 807 1837 771 1838 762 1839 765 1840 754 1841 749 1842 702 1843 655 1844 797 1845 778 1846 779

The population of Hamburg was in 1826 100,902 ” ” ” ” 1840 124,967 ” ” ” ” 1846 130,000 or upward was a.s.sumed as the number.

We have now to examine the physiological and pathological peculiarities of the Hamburg prost.i.tutes.

The police regulations require that no registered woman shall be under twenty years of age; but in this they have a discretionary power, so as to keep under inspection and supervision some younger girls whom neither the work-house nor prison can reclaim, the experience of the Hamburg authorities having convinced them that such _punitive inst.i.tutions are seldom successful in the work of reformation_; a truth which will, ere long, be more generally acknowledged, especially in reference to abandoned women, than it is at the present day.

The official list for 1844 shows that of the registered prost.i.tutes there were

Under 20 years of age 16 From 20 ” to 30 years 401 ” 30 ” ” 40 ” 74 ” 40 ” ” 50 ” 11 --- Total 502

In 1846, of women living in registered houses, there were

From 20 years to 30 years of age 199 ” 30 ” ” 40 ” ” 50 ” 40 ” ” 50 ” ” 8 --- Total 257

The birth-places of the 502 women reported in 1844 included most of the countries in Germany. There were from