Mutterschaft bei Gina Kaus

Summary Gina Kaus and the discourse of motherhood This article examines discourses and representations of motherhood in the 1920s and 1930s, drawing on contributions from the child psychology journal »Die Mutter«, which was edited by the writer and individual psychologist Gina Kaus in Vienna from 1924 to 1926. Many of the journal’s contributors played a significant role in the contemporary socio-hygienic reforms initiated by the Social Democratic city government of Red Vienna, reforms that demonstrably improved the living conditions and health of mothers and children. Among these contributors was the physician and politician Margarete Hilferding, who in 1911 presented a revolutionary theory of maternal love and actively advocated for a liberal abortion legislation. In her literary texts, Kaus addresses various aspects of motherhood, including the double burden faced by working-class women and single mothers, the tension between female self-realisation and the fulfillment of societal expectations, and also the role of foster motherhood. Through her nuanced perspective, she not only contributes to a differentiated understanding of the topic, but also to emancipatory efforts.