Lisa M. Todd’s research while affiliated with University of New Brunswick and other places

In May 1917 twenty-seven residents of Landau (Wrttemberg) sent a long petition to the German Reichstag. The group, which included doctors, pastors, teachers, and industrialists, demanded that the state put an end to the immoral behavior of women who had romantic relationships with foreign prisoners of war. The petition included more than one hundred examples of such affairs, gleaned from newspapers, court records, and eyewitness accounts. The petitioners lamented the sinking morality of the countryside and the damaged reputation of German women. They also had more immediate concerns. These affairs were threatening the happiness of families, complicating the feeding of the nation, weakening the strength of the people, and heightening the fear of espionage. The petitioners went on to warn the Reichstag deputies that good German citizens are full of anger at such events, and that the common person's sense of sacrifice was dwindling now, in the third year of the war. © 2011 Conference Group for Central European History of the American Historical Association.