Source
Intertitles:
“...this complaint has been made to us. I consider an arrest to be
necessary.”
[Prosecutor signs the arrest warrant.]
Arrest warrant. The arrest of the working-class couple... is hereby ordered on the strong suspicion of having violated §§ 218/219 (crimes against developing life). Signature
Doctor: “Why didn’t you heed my warning?”
Teacher: “Couldn’t you
have saved these poor people from disaster?”
Doctor: “No! The law
only allows this medical assistance in very exceptional
cases.”
[Man enters the apartment.]
Detective Inspector Dr.
Manning.
[Manning tells the husband he will have to arrest him and
his wife.]
Doctor: “The wife is dead! Do you still have to arrest
the husband under these circumstances?”
[Manning shows him the
warrant, issued for both spouses. The teacher recognizes the signature
of her fiancée, the district attorney.]
[Manning arrests the
husband, the teacher looks after the couple’s
children.]
[...]
[The doctor argues with the
prosecutor.]
Doctor: “In this case, economic hardship and the fear
that the child would suffer from illness were the
cause.”
Prosecutor: “No! It is moral looseness!”
Doctor: “The
deep maternal instinct of these women only allows them to act in this
way under extreme duress!”
[He shows the prosecutor a German copy
of Malthus’ An Essay on the Principle of
Population (1798)].
“The poverty and misery arising from a too
rapid increase of population had been distinctly seen, and the most
violent remedies proposed, so long ago as the times of Plato and
Aristotle.
[...] I am inclined to think that, from the prevailing
opinions respecting population, which undoubtedly originated in
barbarous ages, and have been continued and circulated by that part of
every community which may be supposed to be interested in their support,
we have been prevented from attending to the clear dictates of reason
and nature on this subject.
War is the great pest of the human
race. The ambition of princes would want instruments of destruction, if
the distresses of the lower classes of people did not drive them under
their standards. The legislators and statesmen of each country,
adverting principally to the means of offense and defense, encouraged an
increase of people in every possible way.”
[Prosecutor
scoffs.]
Prosecutor: “We could only take other paths if women
restrained themselves, did not succumb to a momentary desire and then
tried to shirk the consequences!”
“...in any case, it still is
murder and...” [he points to the Ten Commandments on the wall of his
office.]
Thou shalt not kill.
Doctor: “Eliminating a diseased
seed is for the good of the people and is not murder, but...”
[The
image of a military cemetery appears on the wall.]
Prosecutor: “War
is born out of political necessity and cannot be equated with the
killing of germinating life.”
[...]
[The teacher has been
raped by a mentally disabled man. She seeks the doctor’s
help.]
Teacher: “So it is not permissible for me to be relieved of
a child that I was not responsible for creating?”
“And the state
would discharge me from the civil service if I became a mother through
no fault of my own?”
Doctor: “Prove your innocence to the
state.”
“Excuse me. I would never impose such an unreasonable
demand on you of my own accord.”
Teacher: “My whole life is
destroyed - I will lose my fiancée, too. He is a
jurist.”
[...]
[Doctor argues with the prosecutor
again.]
Doctor: “A young woman has become the victim of an assault.
She has realized she is pregnant and is asking for my help. What should
I do?”
Prosecutor: “You know the law!”
Doctor: “She fears
losing her fiancé and her position if she is not freed from this
disgrace.”
Prosecutor: “Why? If she is truly not to blame for this
disgrace?”
Doctor: “Would you accept it?”
Prosecutor: “Please
refrain from asking personal questions.”
[...]
[Prosecutor is
in his office. He has visions of his fiancé collapsing dead on the floor
after having taken cyanide. The ghosts of the many women who have died
during illegal abortions begin haunting him.]
Source: Kreuzzug des Weibes, dir. Martin Berger, Internationale Film Exchange, 1926. Bundesarchiv Filmarchiv Filmwerk ID: 1510. https://digitaler-lesesaal.bundesarchiv.de/video/1510/681897