Domestic Discipline E-Book

Wolfram Steffen

• Herausgeber: Clube de Autores
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 356

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

Domestic Discipline is a relatively new movement and yet it is based on age-old principles and behaviors. A fundamental insight is that men and women are anything but the same. Quite the opposite: even the brain structures look completely different and, as any unbiased observer knows, a woman thinks, feels and perceives completely differently to a man. Nature intended it that way and several thousand years of human history are proof of this. No ideologically motivated gender scientist will be able to change this. Domestic discipline makes the man the leader, the decision-maker and somehow also the ruler over the woman. This has nothing to do with chauvinism. It is simply biology. Men have ruled over women since the cave age. They have determined history, while women have remained a marginal phenomenon. They simply have the genetic prerequisites for their leadership role, no matter how the emancipists see it. This book defines the philosophy behind the Domestic Discipline movement. It shows what it stands for and what it is not. And it uses numerous detailed real-life stories to illustrate the role of disciplining women. Because that s exactly what it s about: the dominance of men over women that is dictated by nature. About his right to decide and determine, to punish and dominate. A right of strength that has proven itself for thousands of years and which even a few green and red dream dancers will not change.

Leseprobe

Domestic DisciplineBecause every woman needs her master

Wolfram Steffenwiderwort

CONTENT

History: Superiority right from the start           3

Religion: Possess and dominate

A no is not planned

Authority: The man as master of the house

Education needs power and strictness

Rules: His will is their law

Trust

Honesty

Obedience

Respect

If you don't want to hear, you have to feel

Submissiveness: obedience as a female virtue

The younger, the more capable of learning

Freedom: a question of duty and responsibility

Alcohol demands responsibility

Consequence: Punishment as a means to an end

She knows exactly what she is not allowed to do

Control: Know everything and experience everything

Anyone who lies must be put on a short leash

Punishments: Punishment with responsibility

Negligence and rebuke

Power: How the man keeps the upper hand

A painful awakening

Behavior: The humility to submit

Gentle kisses and stinging blows

Aids: The effect of wood and leather

The triumph of the cane

The paddle in East and West

Belt and leather straps

The Slapper

The flogger

The riding crop

Memories of the rod

Painful end to a night at the ball

Rituals: signs of a sense of unity

Everyday rituals

Punishment rituals

Respectful manners

His mother lives in the house

Change: From emancipated woman to tradwife

History: Superiority right from the start

A man is different from a woman. You can see that at first glance and nobody seriously questions it. It is true that there is now gender research being taught at universities that questions this simple fact. But according to scientific standards, this is not research anyway, because researchers work with an open mind and do not represent a certain world view that must not be questioned.

It is significant that the field of research known in the USA as gender studies originated in the women's movement and is still almost exclusively represented by women today. Everywhere in nature there are two sexes that need each other in order to reproduce. Gender research, on the other hand, simply ignores elementary biological facts. Gender is interpreted as a "social construct" and the fact that men and women differ both physically and psychologically is simply ignored.

These differences are more than obvious. Men who feel like women because of some psychological aberration have to be pumped full of oestrogen so that they at least start to grow breasts. But they have to shave just like other men so that the illusion of being a woman is not revealed as such at first glance. Women with male feelings can make their voices a few octaves lower with a constant supply of testosterone. But they still can't grow a real penis and peeing standing up remains out of reach.

Such unfortunate people are therefore still the men or women they were born to be. Everything else is an aberration of nature that primarily takes place in the mind but is not reflected in the body in the same way.

A woman has a wider pelvis than a man. On average, she is smaller than a man and has less muscle mass, which makes her inferior to men in terms of strength. Brain research knows that a woman's entire cognitive behavior also differs from that of a man. Men and women simply tick differently. They have different emotional and mental needs and usually pursue very different goals in life.

The simple fact is that man and woman need each other to be at least somewhat perfect. Male toughness needs female gentleness. Male logic operates on a different level to female intuition. Male aggression and strength give women the protection and security they need to survive together with their helpless offspring for a long time. Without a man, a woman is dependent on outside help, which ultimately only a highly civilized and socially minded society can offer her.

When people still lived in caves, the protection of a man was still essential for a woman's survival in a very direct sense. Without a man, there was no meat and the most important source of food was lost. Without a man, the woman was lost and for better or worse was dependent on her and her offspring being accepted by the whole clan. A situation that has not changed significantly over the millennia.

The woman produced the offspring and thus ensured the continuation of the human species. The man protected the woman, who was particularly vulnerable with her offspring, from all external threats. Both therefore pursued common interests and both knew that they had to stick together in order to survive.

The principle has been preserved over several millennia. The roles of men and women have always been determined by biological circumstances and mutual dependencies. And the dominance of the man has been an essential element of this since prehistoric times. For the man was superior to the woman, fundamentally and in all decisive areas. He was not only physically stronger than her. He was also not subject to constant hormonal fluctuations. He did not have menstruation, which constantly restricted his freedom of action. And he did not give birth to children who required his full attention for many years.

And as always, when superiority is involved, power arises. And, of course, abuse of power resulting from the position of the strongest.

So he was in charge. He determined the path. He made the decisions for her. He laid down the rules that she had to follow. He determined what she was allowed to do and what not. And he punished her if she defied him.

The dominance of men has therefore been a kind of natural law from the very beginning and can be traced throughout human history.

Religion: Possess and dominate

With the emergence of the major religions, the relationship between men and women was also consolidated. The division of roles was clearly defined and understood as the will of the Lord. There were clear differences from region to region. But a largely consistent hierarchy can be recognized everywhere. In the Christian religion, God is the Lord above all and every person is responsible to him. He alone is worshipped, he determines what is sinful and therefore forbidden, and only he can forgive.

Whether this is all logical and makes sense is not for us to decide here. But it is the basis for a universal order that assumes the existence of a God and recognizes a hierarchy that extends from the Most High to the smallest baby.

There is also a clear hierarchy on earth. The priest is at the top and mediates between God and people. The man is responsible for his family and rules over them. The woman is his helper, who is subject to him and has a duty to obey him. The children are at the bottom and have to obey both father and mother. Everything has its place and anyone who steps out of line is punished.

Christians are convinced that it was their God who created the sacred institution of marriage. It is said to have been Jesus who decreed that a man may only have one wife, thereby abolishing the long-standing practice of polygamy. Since then, this has distinguished Christians from Muslims, who refer to their god Allah and still adhere to polygamy today. There is no right or wrong here. It is all a question of faith and each group insists on having the only correct faith.

However, the God of the Christians probably originally had no problem with polygamy. And he also seems to be the one who once laid down the rules and determined how things should be done with husband, wife and children. The decisive aspect here was that the man was the absolute ruler and the woman was basically not granted the right to decide for herself. Although she enjoyed some privileges over a slave, she was still property, a serf and ultimately a slave to her master.

Emancipation was a foreign concept in the time of God's people and in early Christian times. Whether a slave or a wife, a woman was a man's personal property throughout her life. Always. Without exception. As a child, she belonged to her father, whom she had to obey without ifs and buts. His word was law for her and any rebellion was nipped in the bud. Depending on how the head of the family saw fit, this was done either with a cane, a leather strap or a whip.

A girl was considered ready for marriage at the time of her first menstruation. So sometime between 12 and 16, just like the Muslims, some of whom still see it that way today. It is a disgrace for a man if his daughter menstruates under his roof, it says somewhere in the Bible. That's why every father tried to get the girl married as early as possible and offer her to the highest bidder on the marriage market.

There was no love between teenagers back then. Father decided who the future husband was and no one would question father's decision. As a result, damn young girls were sold, without being asked, to the man who was prepared to pay the bride price that father had in mind. And it could certainly be described as a sale, because as with any business, supply and demand determined the price. If she was pretty, the demand was high and the price correspondingly high. If she wasn't, she was cheap and became the wife of a man who couldn't afford anything better. Or she was destined to become the second or third wife of a man who was looking for an inexpensive substitute wife when his two main wives were pregnant.

A no is not planned

She was the prettiest of his seven daughters. Having just turned sixteen, she was at the perfect age to be married off. At sixteen, a girl has already lost her childishness and taken on unmistakably womanly features. She not only aroused the desire of all the young men in the area. She was also fully prepared to serve one of them as was expected of a woman.

But there wouldn't be too many alternatives for her. Not because there weren't enough people interested in making the very young beauty their wife. But because her father expected a bride price that was far beyond the means of most of them. Aaran had lost an unusually large number of sheep last year, the victims of a sudden illness. He therefore urgently needed replacements to make up for the loss. His daughter Bathia was therefore his great hope and he didn't really care who got their hands on her. The only thing that mattered was that he received as much value for her as possible.

And that brought Nathaniel into play. Nathanial was a good twice as old as Bathia. But he was the most successful breeder in the area and so far the only one who had signaled his willingness to meet Aaran's extraordinarily high demands. Nathanael already had six wives, but Bathia's truly extraordinary beauty had obviously aroused his desires to such an extent that he was prepared to do something really unreasonable and part with far more sheep than any man had ever spent on a woman.

Aarons was aware that his daughter warranted a high bride price. But for him, a man who spent more than the bare necessities on a woman was simply a fool. Possessions should be accumulated, he believed, and not pointlessly spent on the brief pleasure of a woman who you would tire of after just a few months. But he went ahead anyway and his daughter's wedding was a foregone conclusion.

Bathia had always been an unruly girl. But so far her mother had always been quite successful in keeping her rebellious spirit in check and making her dance under the lashes of the whip whenever her body demanded it. In the kitchen, where the girl was introduced at an early age, there was always a thin, supple cane ready to be used when necessary to give each of the six daughters the strokes that had never failed to have an educational effect.

In those days, young girls wore relatively short wrap-around dresses that could be lifted up with a flick of the wrist to expose the parts of the body underneath. Two or three strokes on the bottom and thighs were usually enough to bring the girl to her senses and turn her into an obedient girl who did as she was told.

There was also a spreading tree directly in front of the family's main house, which not only provided a shady place to rest after work. It also had a sufficiently strong and almost horizontal branch at a suitable height, making it ideal for punishing a rebellious woman. It was not only the master of the house who chastised lazy and negligent female slaves here. His own family members were also subjected to the necessary chastisement. For in those days, every man knew that he was the absolute ruler in his house and had to act with the utmost severity in order to be respected and feared, especially by the women under his charge.

The tree was already equipped with the necessary ropes for the unavoidable chastisements. Two ropes hung down from the horizontal branch and allowed a woman to be bound by both wrists without much trouble. The ropes were then pulled upwards until the sinner could only stand on tiptoe and barely touch the ground. The dress, which was only loosely wrapped around her body, was removed and her fully exposed body was ready for the whip.

A brassiere was unknown at that time. No woman wore panties in those days either. She was simply naked under her wrap dress. Only during her period did she wear a cloth between her thighs to catch the blood so that it didn't run down her legs uncontrollably. On these days, she was considered unclean and had to keep away from the whole family. During this time, she could also be sure that she would not be punished.

A whip is a serious means of punishment. In ancient times, it was mostly used as a flogger. It consisted of at least seven individual straps that ran together at the rear end on a firm wooden handle, which was often elaborately wrapped in leather. The straps burned like fire. But it was an unspecific fire that spread over a wide region of the body. And it usually left no permanent marks. This made the flogger ideal for chastising a woman who needed to be taught a lesson without leaving any lasting marks.

Once a father had reached an agreement with another man and agreed to marry off his daughter, there was no way of reversing this agreement. He would take the daughter's protests even less seriously, no matter how much she objected to the marriage. She was his property and he could dispose of her as he pleased. Bathia's protests therefore went unheard and Aaran was rather angry that she dared to speak out against his decision at all.

There was no question that she would marry Nathanael. But she had to be humiliated. She had to learn that she was a young woman who had to obey her father, her mother and soon her new master and husband. It would be a disgrace to her father if his daughter's acquirer was displeased with her. He would consider it bad parenting if he felt compelled to chastise his newly acquired wife harshly right from the start. So she had to be roughly chastised before her wedding in order to realize that it was not she who decided about her body, but only her father. It was not her will that was decisive, but that of the man who had fathered her.

In a few days, the pretty girl would become a woman whose job it was to serve her husband. So it was high time to set an example and complete her education.

Aaran therefore summoned them to him to chastise them. He also had his other children come to witness the event. The girls were to learn what would happen to each of them if they rebelled against the master of the house. The boys were to be given a demonstration of how they too would later have to treat their wives and daughters in order to prove themselves worthy heads of the family.

Bathia knew what would happen to her and she was afraid. She fought tooth and nail to escape her punishment, which was sure to be severe. But she was only a very young woman and had no chance. Her two older brothers recognized their task. They put the shackles on her to prevent her from running away and tied her to the ropes hanging from the tree in front of the house, ready for her task. She was prepared for her punishment.

Father tightened the two ropes until she only had the tips of her feet in contact with the ground. The determined look on his face told her that she could expect no leniency from him. And the nine-tailed whip at the ready was more than a signal of what was about to happen to her.

Mother proceeded to expertly remove her daughter's precious dress, which had been made especially for her upcoming feast day. Bathia was naked as she had been created. A beautiful girl who, not without reason, had prompted her future husband to go to extraordinary expense. But also a rebellious girl who had refused to acknowledge her father's will and marry the man he had chosen for her.

Nathanael was perhaps not the man a young girl like Bathia had dreamed of. He was more than twice her age and therefore a husband who could well be her father. But it wasn't her who decided that. But it was she who had earned a lesson that would forever be a warning to her.

She had tears in her eyes and hatred filled her heart. Hatred for her father, who wanted to marry her off to an old man, even though she was the most beautiful girl far and wide and actually deserved a handsome young man. Hatred also for her mother, who knew her daughter's deep aversion to her future lord and husband and yet had done nothing to dissuade her husband from his plan. Hatred of the whole world, which had conspired against her. And also hatred of God, the Lord, whose laws allowed such injustice.

Her two brothers grinned dirty at the sight of their naked sister. Her younger sisters lowered their eyes and trembled. Their mother watched, petrified, as their father finally picked up the infamous seven-strider and stood in front of Bathia to give her a sermon. He spoke of the duties of a daughter, repeatedly used the word "obedience" and finally gave her a spanking that she more than deserved.

Bathia's gaze was humbly lowered as she listened to him. She was naked and felt more vulnerable than ever before. Her plump breasts rose and fell with every breath. Her blonde pubic hair did little to cover the area between her legs that symbolized her femininity. She could literally feel the eyes of her brothers wandering back and forth between her breasts and her pubic area. She knew she would receive the whip. This was her first time and she knew it would be one hell of an experience.

For the first time, she felt remorse. Why had she rebelled against her father's decision? Why hadn't she simply accepted her fate like all the other marriageable girls before her? There was nothing she could do to change her father's decision anyway. She knew she would have to marry this Nathanael, whether she wanted to or not. A girl had no right to make wishes. She would become the wife of the man her father had chosen for her. She would give herself to him and serve him for a lifetime. He would teach her to love. He would impregnate her and she would bear his children. He would love and desire her because she was beautiful. And he would chastise her if she resisted him. It was a man's world and women only played an insignificant supporting role in it.

Father stepped behind her. He took up a position to the side behind her. His gaze swept around and a certain pride filled him. He was the master of six women and a whole host of children of different ages. For the boys, he was the absolute hero and a role model they emulated. For the girls, he was the greatest man on earth. But he was also someone to be wary of. For his wives, he was their master, who ruled over them and disposed of them as he pleased. A master who gave them his love today only to punish them mercilessly tomorrow.

But he was also a just man. A man who got his way, but who always kept himself under control and never struck unrestrainedly when he encountered resistance.

Bathia deserved to feel the whip. She had known all too well that this was exactly what she would suffer if she openly defied her father. She was a beauty and he would be careful not to hurt her. Besides, she was already betrothed and he would not give her future owner a woman whose skin still bore the marks of her last chastisement. After all, that was not a good sign, because it said that she was not the obedient girl her father had described her as. And once you are rebellious, you have to be put in your place again and again.

The very first blow revealed an experienced master of the house who knew how to use a whip. Seven leather straps at arm's length whizzed through the air and landed exactly where the master had provided the woman with particularly pronounced curves that were perfect for punishment. The blow ended with a resounding sound, which was immediately followed by a shrill scream with which Bathia made it unmistakably clear that her punishment had begun. She danced on her toes and violently tossed her struck bottom back and forth.

Aaran calmly watched the spectacle before him and took another swing. The flogger is a very advantageous instrument of chastisement for a young woman, he thought. It doesn't have to be wielded with precision because it covers a wide area with one blow. In addition, the full force of the blow is spread over several leather straps, so that the pain is multiplied, while the welts produced are very moderate and are no longer visible after just a few days.

The center of the second blow was more in the thigh area, but individual straps also haunted the girl's beautifully shaped buttocks again and crossed with the already existing and clearly visible welts. Bathia shrieked again and gave her viewers a memorable demonstration of what happens to a girl who rebels against her father. She whimpered and hung helplessly in the ropes as she kicked her legs wildly. A whip like this was something else than the short, thin cane she had felt so far.

The third blow emphasized the effect of the punishment and reignited the writhing, shrieking and whimpering of the girl, who could not help but simply endure her punishment. It proved once again that no woman could go through such a chastisement without feeling it was hell on earth and fearing a repetition for the rest of her life. Aaron did not wait long and immediately followed up with three more blows to his daughter's defencelessly exposed flesh, which was already marked by an uneven network of brightly flashing welts.

Even if she proved unruly as Nathanael's wife, she would probably have this or a similar experience more often. The man, who was held in high esteem far beyond the community, was known for his relentless severity, which not only affected his servants, but also his wives and children. Aaron knew from his conversations with the man who would marry his daughter that Nathaniel did not shy away from bloody wounds when it came to maintaining discipline.

A woman must be naked when she is punished, the two men agreed, making no distinction between a daughter, a slave or a wife. The only difference was that the wife was reprimanded in the privacy of the marital bedroom, while all other chastisements were administered in public.

By now Bathia had taken two dozen well-dosed blows, the last of which she only endured whimpering softly as her body hung passively in the ropes. It was the moment when Aaron usually stopped, because if a woman fell into complete passivity, she had learned her lesson and would fervently thank her educator afterwards that he had punished her and thus atoned for her misbehavior. Women are like little dogs, Aaron repeatedly observed. If you hit them, they whimper pathetically and then come crawling back to their tormentor to beg for forgiveness.

He instructed the two boys to untie their sister and watched as Bathia's mother wrapped her daughter in her dress again and led her into the house. That was the end of another chastisement in his house. The remaining spectators dispersed. The master of the house had once again demonstrated his power and in a week's time Bathia would be the center of a grand wedding celebration that would herald a new phase in her life. Her welts would have healed by then and Aaron was sure that she would not cause any more trouble.

Authority: The man as master of the house

Equality between men and women is not provided for in nature. There are males and females. The one fertilizes. The others are fertilized. There is nothing in between, because the reproduction of one's own species is considered the true meaning of life in nature. The major world religions also only recognize this one principle. However, they go one step further and supplement the irrevocable rules and unmissable principles of nature with specific instructions that men and women must follow.

Christians, for example, find numerous statements in the Bible that are unambiguous. This begins with the story of creation, which only mentions a man named Adam and a woman named Eve: "And God created man in his own image ... male and female." (Genesis 1:27).

Right at the beginning, the woman is described as man's "helpmate". "And the Lord God said, 'It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helpmate. So there is no mention of equality here. Just as we read elsewhere that the woman is there for the sake of the man and not vice versa (1 Corinthians 11:8). A certain apostle Paul expresses this even more clearly and is quoted as saying: "But I let you know that Christ is the head of every man, but the man is the head of the woman, and God is the head of Christ." (1 Corinthians 11:3)

Similar statements can be found in the Koran, and since Muslims take their holy book very literally, the hierarchy between men and women in Islam is not a question, but a law.

Sura 4, for example, speaks of men being "above women", which many scholars understand to mean that men are allowed to rule over women. And in the same sura, men are also permitted to admonish "unruly women", to avoid them in the marriage bed and also to beat them. Verse 34 of Sura 4 -Nisa (the women) reads in the original: "And if you fear that your wives will rebel, then admonish them, avoid them in the marriage bed and beat them"! This verse is often relativized in Western theological literature. But it is actually so clear that it cannot be disputed.

In order to ensure their virginity, millions of Muslim women are placed under house arrest from an early age. They are "condemned to domestic chores and eternal boredom", writes Islam critic and women's rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali in her book "I Accuse". Such restrictions do not apply to boys and men.

The Domestic Discipline movement, which emerged in largely Christian America, is also closely aligned with the old scriptures. It assumes as a matter of course that the man is the master of the house and that his wife is there to be his helpmate, to serve him and fulfill his needs. And since male domination - like all domination - only works if he has the means of power to enforce it, physical punishment is seen as the logical consequence. And exclusively the punishment of the woman and not vice versa.

Today, we live in a permissive world characterized by feminism. There is no longer a clear and socially accepted division of tasks between men and women in our society. What does exist are laws that insist on equality. What also exists is the right to the integrity of the body. In many countries, parental authority has also been abolished and there is an outright ban on chastising children and young people. Chastisement, regardless of whether it concerns children or a spouse, generally falls under the concept of violence. A wife who has been beaten can therefore call the police and have her husband convicted.

This is a consequence of the secularization of our society. Religious value concepts are meaningless here and divine laws only apply among people who have expressly professed them. Or they provide the irrefutable principles for believers who live within a strictly religious community. They are convinced that God's laws are higher than any human law. And they are prepared to live out this conviction.

Within such religious circles, the man can feel like the master of the house and insist that his word is virtually the law within the walls of this house. But he cannot ultimately enforce this law. At least not with a stick in his hand.

He needs his wife's express consent for this, and he should not waive this, even if it is ultimately not legally binding. A Domestic Discipline relationship therefore begins with a joint contract, which should be urgently recorded in writing and signed. Otherwise, even a simple slap in the face is considered assault and thick welts on the buttocks are regarded as grievous bodily harm and, in extreme cases, can result in several years in prison.

However, there is a distinction here between the wording of the law and its practical application that few couples are likely to be aware of. The overburdened courts do not like to interfere in domestic disputes as long as they have not taken an extreme form. Many a wife who has been reprimanded with a few good blows will therefore rub her eyes in amazement when she has reported her husband for assault and cannot see any reaction: No report, no fine, no arrest and certainly no court hearing and conviction.

For the public prosecutor's office, this kind of thing is now considered a "domestic dispute" and no one seems to want to go to court for this. The reality is that the vast majority of domestic assault charges are withdrawn after a short time because the parties involved have reconciled and do not want to jeopardize the new-found peace. In other words, a wife with hematomas all over her body is met with pity by the hospital staff. The police officers who take her complaint are also usually deeply concerned. But nothing happens as a result. Simply nothing. Unless she asks and expressly insists on her accusation.

But, as I said, this is extremely unlikely. Most women know that they were not entirely innocent in their husband's reaction. They usually love him precisely because he is a real man and won't put up with anything from a rebellious woman. All it usually takes is a really hard reconciliation fuck and all traces on the body are forgotten. In a few days you won't see any more of it anyway.

A domestic discipline relationship is therefore not only regarded by lawyers as the norm and not as a criminal act that must be prosecuted with the utmost consistency. It is also widely understood among the general population. Especially when the woman being reprimanded is known to be notoriously quarrelsome and everyone secretly thinks that a good spanking was long overdue. Domestic discipline is therefore perfectly acceptable among most people, even if no one will say so openly. A woman should be more interested in making peace and smoothing things over instead of provoking her husband and crying afterwards when he has hit her.

Domestic Discipline therefore largely corresponds to the idea of a functioning relationship that everyone actually carries within them. An idea that has not changed since the cave age and still sees the man as the master of the house. Men who allow themselves to be patronized by their wives are therefore held in low esteem. Anyone who makes himself small in front of a woman is somehow not a real man. In the English-speaking world, he sometimes has to put up with the question: "Are you a man or a mouse?" (Are you a man or a mouse?) This explains why emancipated women usually live alone or are lesbians. And if there is a man, then it is usually a rather pale figure who has nothing to say and is only sneered at by those around him.

A Domestic Discipline relationship does not have to be a male dictatorship. But it should set clear rules and the couple should be clear from the outset about how far the head of the household is allowed to go and where his limits are. There are couples who want every detail of their relationship to be precisely regulated. For others, it is enough to agree in principle on what constitutes their particular relationship and the associated power structure. There are men who formulate the law that applies in their home in writing, discuss its content with their wife and then demand a signature. This gives them binding consent and the woman knows in advance what to expect if a rule is broken.

In the 1950s and before, Central Europe was a region strongly influenced by the Protestant and Catholic churches. Back then, the general consensus was that disobedient children were caned, both at home and at school. A few welts didn't upset anyone in those days. A screaming girl in the neighboring apartment didn't call the police, but rather caused the neighbors to nod their heads in agreement. The general opinion was that if you don't want to hear, you have to feel.

Maids in the city and servants in the country were also subject to the discipline of their landlord. Children loved their father, but they also had great respect for him. The mother took care of the upbringing of the little ones and was herself chastised if the master of the house saw fit. Strictness was seen as a Christian virtue and compliance was equated with weakness. The man was the master of the house as a matter of course and nobody had ever heard of the word equality in this context. After all, it didn't appear anywhere in the Bible and the Bible was generally regarded as the measure of all things at the time.

Public morale was correspondingly good and could not be compared with today's chaos. A young person stood up politely when an older woman entered the streetcar. If you didn't know how to behave, you risked getting a few slaps in the face from a complete stranger. Teenagers who were caught smoking on the street were immediately taken to their parents, where they were given a good beating. Female teenagers wore calf-length skirts and no girl thought of cutting her hair short and wearing pants in public. The first man in a girl's life was her father, and he would flip up her skirt and pull her panties down to her knees as a matter of course if she deserved punishment. A disobedient girl deserved no shame and it was her own fault if she was exposed for punishment.

Marriages in those days were in the Lord. This meant that Catholics and Protestants kept to themselves, as a "mixed marriage" was considered problematic. If a young man wanted to marry a young girl, he had to ask her father for her hand in marriage, because nothing worked without father's blessing. Rebelling against this automatically brought the cane, the rod or the leather strap into play. In general, men only got married at an age when they were financially able to afford a wife and the children that would automatically follow sooner or later. The age difference was correspondingly large and many a man had to deal with a wife who could well be his daughter. Of course, he still had a lot to teach her and, as always, when it came to teaching and learning, the leather strap was at the ready.

The Domestic Discipline movement of our time did not emerge in a vacuum, but has a long history. Its beginnings go back to the time when children were taught absolute obedience and fathers still decided who their daughters were to marry. The result can be found in any history book. With few exceptions, they only mention men who ruled their homes, cities, lands and entire regions with an iron hand. Women only appear in history as a means to an end. They were deliberately married off in order to strengthen relations between peoples and extend their fathers' sphere of influence. And if they didn't play ball, then the whip was used, which has so far made every recalcitrant woman change her mind.

Education needs power and strictness

The family belonged to the well-heeled circles where money was no object. They lived in a prestigious villa in the better part of the city. The family name was on products that everyone used and was therefore known far beyond the region. In fact, they only socialized in their own circles and were hardly ever seen in public. Even their own staff never had to leave the estate with its extensive park. The hard-working hands worked in the main house and lived in a separate servants' quarters so that they were available to the family at all times.

The butler was the master of a whole army of kitchen helpers and maids who tirelessly ensured that the gentlemen did not have to worry about any menial tasks. The chauffeur was on constant standby to chauffeur the master of the house to his company or to his gentlemen's club and to take the lady of the house to her numerous social appointments in a manner befitting her status.

She was the mother of two daughters, but you couldn't really feel much of that. Once a week, she met with the governess who had been responsible for them since birth and received reports on the girls' development, which she otherwise only got to see in passing. The wife of a factory owner had better things to do than look after the upbringing of two teenagers. She merely laid down the principles of education and these included values such as politeness, discipline and ladylike behavior.

People lived in the dawning industrial age. Schools were still dominated by the cane, which was used extensively by strict teachers. The sexes were taught separately, but the educational methods were the same on both sides. Only the thickness of the cane differed, without any plausible explanation. However, the girls were fundamentally disadvantaged, because while the boys only had their trousers pulled tight, their dress or skirt was lifted up and they received their strokes on the completely naked one, because the young girls of the lower classes in particular were still naked and unprotected under their dresses at the time.

Mrs. Herrmann, as the governess of the house was called, was also a staunch advocate of a strict and unyielding upbringing. She believed that a woman must show discipline and be able to adapt to her husband. A quality that she had to be taught with a whip in her hand if necessary. Which she meant quite literally, because contrary to the trend at the time, she was not an advocate of the cane, at least for girls.

A short whipping was extremely effective in educating girls, she used to emphasize again and again, and had a plausible explanation for this: a cane leaves thick welts that only disappear after days, sometimes even weeks. During this time, the girl is injured to a certain extent and physically only partially able to receive another punishment of the same kind. A whip, on the other hand, is at least as memorable. But its bite has largely subsided by the next day and the usually only slightly reddened skin is ready for further reprimanding welts within a very short time.

Mrs. Herrmann was an impressive figure. Even her first impression conveyed an aura of discipline and strictness, which impressed her pupils just as much as it impressed their parents. You could even say that the two girls had more respect for her than for their own parents. Mother showed only a minimum of interest in her daughters' development anyway. Father, on the other hand, was far too busy to think about the proper upbringing of two rebellious teenagers. Mrs. Herrmann therefore had a largely free hand with their upbringing and nobody prevented her from enforcing her strict regime as she saw fit.

She knew that as an educator, she was measured solely by the results of her efforts. So she did everything she could to produce exactly this result. And the most important quality of a daughter was obedience, which had to be taught with a whip if necessary. The two girls were therefore subjected to the rigid regiment of their governess, who made high demands and immediately punished any budding resistance.

The second teacher in the house was the teacher who arrived at eight o'clock every morning and expected the girls to be sitting in the classroom waiting for lessons to start. Mr. Ullrich had been teaching the two girls since the first grade. He was a strict man, just as you would expect from a schoolmaster, and practiced age-appropriate teaching based on the principle of encouraging and challenging.

As the age difference between the two was only two years, he decided, in consultation with their parents, to teach them both together. In retrospect, this proved to be exactly the right decision. After all, age is a very relative criterion for assessing a child's development. Although Irene was the older of the two, her sister Gudrun seemed to be way ahead of her time and found it much easier to learn. On the other hand, Irene was much better behaved and more docile, while Gudrun needed constant encouragement from the stick to stay focused.

The classroom was a sparse room on the first floor of an outbuilding, which also housed Mrs. Herrmann's official apartment. There was only a large table with two chairs for the girls, a desk for the teacher, a cupboard for the teaching materials and a slate board to illustrate the subjects being taught.

But where there is learning, there must of course also be a cane. At least that was the general understanding of pedagogy in those years. That's why there was an impressive wall panel on one wall of the small classroom, on which hung a whole collection of canes of different thicknesses and lengths. In front of it stood a leather-covered punishment cane, which had only one purpose, namely to put a girl in exactly the position that was best suited for an efficient treatment of her bottom.

In contrast to Mrs. Herrmann, Mr. Ullrich was a staunch advocate of the cane. In his opinion, it was particularly suitable for pubescent girls to wield the supple bamboo with a firm hand and to provide the buttocks, which became more pronounced from year to year, with thick, swelling welts. Because where there are clear welts, he was convinced, deep-seated memories also arise in the consciousness of the sinner.