Leseprobe

Julia Bienholz- Radtke mented on the travelling exhibition in Erfurt: “The idea of the exhibi- tion that the woman is the decisive bearer and preserver of public health, and that she is assigned a great deal of responsibility through this task, corresponds with the ideas of National Socialism and merg- es with the efforts to guarantee the future of the German people ( Volk ) through generous assistance campaigns for mother and child. […] The exhibition concludes with a show for adults, which familiarises visitors with the symptoms and consequences of syphilis and cancer, the course of a pregnancy and other questions of interest to women, and has an especially valuable and edifying display item in the ‘trans- parent woman’.” 23 Following the around two-week presentation in Erfurt in June 1934, the travelling exhibition “Healthy Woman – Healthy People ( Volk )” commenced with a tour through northern and eastern Germany and could subsequently be viewed in Norway. 24 The specific target audi- ence was women, for whom a visit was recommended in the news- paper articles appearing parallel. 25 The Transparent Pregnant Woman was also presented as a highlight in this section of the tour and was described in advance in the papers as an especially expensive and sophisticatedly manufactured central demonstration object. 26 Exhibitions or exhibition groups that were roughly dedicated to the thematic area of women and motherhood or the care of children and infants already had a firm place in the exhibition programme of the DHMD in 1934. In addition to Marta Fraenkel, the physician Bruno Gebhard (1901–1985) had paid special attention to this thematic area since being hired as a scientific assistant at the DHMD in 1927. 27 The new exhibition material was presented for the first time in 1928 in Vienna and could subsequently be viewed in other thematically rela- ted expositions, including in the travelling exhibition “Healthy Woman – Healthy People ( Volk )”, as well as at the 2nd International Hygiene Exhibition 1930/31 in Dresden. 28 A travelling exhibition revised in 1934/35 toured between 1936 and 1938 under the title “Mother and Child” (Swedish: “Mor och Barn”) through the German Reich, Sweden and Denmark. It also included the Transparent Pregnant Woman as of August 1936. Photographs and documents from the National Ar- chives of Sweden provide insight into the organisation and content of the travelling exhibition, about which hardly any information had previously been available, as well as into the presentation of the Transparent Pregnant Woman incorporated into it. 29 In February 1935, the Secretary General of the Swedish Red Cross, Baron Eric Stjernstedt (1871–1964), addressed the President of the DHMD, Georg Seiring (1883–1972), with the idea of presenting a travelling exhibition of the DHMD in Sweden: “The population de- crease in Sweden is a critical matter, which is why I am of the opinion that it would be appropriate to organise an exhibition on the subject of mother and child, partly with your excellent exhibition ‘Healthy Woman – Healthy People ( Volk )’, partly with statistics and a certain degree of sexual enlightenment appropriate for Swedish condi- tions.” 30 A debate concerning the decline in births and demographic “MOR OCH BARN” WITH THE TRANSPARENT PREGNANT WOMAN 44