The 'Wunschkindpille'Hormonal Contraception in the GDR.A Cultural History between Socialistic Ideology and Pharmacology

我们的研究项目探索了民主德国荷尔蒙避孕的文化史。我们关注荷尔蒙避孕药的发展以及女性(和男性)使用荷尔蒙避孕药的经验。药丸是现代社会的产物，它由不同的主人公开发、实施、宣传和获得，每个人都有特殊的意图。我们可以证明，在中等水平上，在社会主义专政的等级制度内存在着一个特殊的专家网络。医药界、社科界和政界的男男女女是准备和实施这一药丸到东德社会的主角。对于西德的女性来说，获得荷尔蒙避孕药的机会受到了许多政客、医生，尤其是天主教会所宣扬的保守规范的限制。在东德，社会主义政权和许多专业人士提倡使用所谓的温施金德皮勒，将其作为最佳避孕方法和有用的计划生育。相反，传记叙述表明，在民主德国，荷尔蒙避孕的文化经历要复杂得多。荷尔蒙避孕药对伴侣关系、婚姻、家庭和性行为产生了深远的影响。在社会主义独裁统治下，药丸的社会化也是一个谈判的过程，政治精英、专家和(女性)使用者的权力组合不断变化。除了接受激素避孕药的不同形式外，我们的访谈研究还显示了不同形式的故意获取。首先，我们发现了战后社会成就伦理驱动下的家庭牺牲叙事。其次，有一种关于(单身母亲)自主的女性独立的叙事，它包含性解放，但并不完全与避孕药联系在一起。第三，与民主德国的计划生育政策形成对比的是，人们对替代避孕方法的雄心日益高涨，特别是在信教的妇女和男子中。一种非常特殊的获取形式是对反对的叙述。有意放弃避孕药和有意识地决定大家庭模式，被受访者解读为对社会主义制度强加的社会规范和家庭规范的拒绝。

Our research project explores the cultural history of hormonal contraception in the GDR. We focus on the development of hormonal contraceptives as well as the experiences of women (and men) with hormonal contraceptives. The pill is a product of modern society, and it was developed, implemented, propagated and acquired by different protagonists, each with special intentions. We can show that at medium level a special network of experts existed within the hierarchic system of socialistic dictatorship. Those men and women of medical and pharmaceutical profession, social sciences and politics were the protagonists of preparation and implementation of the pill to the East German society. For women in Western Germany the access to hormonal contraceptives was limited by conservative norms propagated by many politicians, physicians and especially by the Catholic Church. In Eastern Germany the socialistic regime and many professionals promoted the use of the so called Wunschkindpille as the best way of contraception and useful family planning. Biographic narratives instead show that cultural experience of hormonal contraception in the GDR is much more complex. Hormonal contraceptives had a deep impact on partnership, marriage, family and sexuality. The socialization of the pill within the socialistic dictatorship was a process of negotiation, too, with changing sets of power of political elites, experts and (female) users. Beside different forms of accepting hormonal contraceptives our interview research shows different forms of willful acquirement. Firstly, we found a narrative of sacrifice for family driven by the ethics of achievement of postwar society. Secondly, there is a narrative of self-determined female independence (of single mothers) which incorporates sexual liberation but is not exclusively linked with the pill. Thirdly, in contrast to the GDR policy of family planning, there were rising ambitions in alternative methods of contraception, especially among religious women and men. A very special form of acquirement was a narrative of opposition. The intentional renouncement of the pill and the conscious decision for the model of an extended family is interpreted by the interviewee as a rejection of societal norms and family norms which were imposed by the socialistic regime.