Women Doctors in Weimar and Nazi Germany: Maternalism, Eugenics, and Professional Identity

“Kravetz’s book marks a very significant, fresh intervention into scholarly debates over continuity and realignment in public health discourse from Weimar to National Socialism and over women’s complicity in the Nazi dictatorship, respectively. It is highly relevant to the comparative study of feminism, medicine, and the welfare state, and it deserves a wide readership. Kravetz’s clear and engaging style and her thoughtful presentation of intriguing archival materials make the book eminently suitable for the purposes of undergraduate and graduate instruction.” Julia Roos, Indiana University Bloomington, American Historical Review

"Apart from bringing to light the history of women doctors in Germany in this period through the vivid portrayal of a number of key individuals, the book’s main strength is Kravetz’s exhaustive use of archival sources, making German-language material accessible for English-speaking readers. This book will be of interest to those working at the university level in the history of medicine, and especially in connection with women physicians and their role in the field of public health, as well as in the history of gender, women, the family and education in early twentieth century Germany."

C. Elizabeth Koester, University of Toronto, Scientia Canadensis

"Women Doctors in Weimar and Nazi Germany is an original and thoughtful study that analyses the experience of women doctors to ask fundamental questions about the opportunities and limits of women’s careers and agency in two very different political systems. In doing so, she looks at the ways in which the activities of women doctors both were shaped by and transformed important aspects of German biopolitics, which Kravetz understands as the processes of controlling both individual bodies and the collective body for the purposes of the state."

Michael Hau, Monash University, Review in German History

"Inspires the reader to consider what these women were willing to compromise in order to continue doing what they loved, felt called to do, and thought necessary for their patients and themselves. This volume deserves to be widely read and cited; it could be assigned to both upper-level undergraduate and graduate students."

Kristen Ann Ehrenberger, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Central European History

“Although women came late to the study of medicine in Germany in the early twentieth century, there followed a massive influx of women into the medical profession in the inter-war period. Melissa Kravetz considers this wider process by focusing on women in paediatrics and infant welfare, one of the specialisms which was more open to women.” Paul Weindling, English Historical Review

“Kravetz has created a well-researched narrative of female medical practitioners in Weimar and Nazi Germany, which is sure to spark more interest in the gendered experience of National Socialism in medicine. This text provides vivid and rich examples of female physicians’ roles in Weimar and Nazi Germany, while also contributing to the broader debate about medicine from democracy to autocracy. It is sure to inspire more historians to weigh in on this issue, on both sides of the change and continuity debate.” Samantha L. Clarke, Canadian Bulletin of Medical History

“Tracing an important story of middle-class women’s agency, Women Doctors in Weimar and Nazi Germany serves to further complicate our historical narratives about gender, class, and the relationships between public health and eugenics.” Joanne Woiak, Canadian Journal of History

"Bringing to light the ways in which women doctors in the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany secured professional spaces for themselves, Melissa Kravetz has expertly mined archival resources not previously well trawled."

Helen Boak, Department of History, University of Hertfordshire