onceptions is much higher than
in Berlin. The conditions in rural Germany have been especially
investigated by a committee of Lutheran pastors, and were set
forth a few years ago in two volumes, _Die Geschlecht-sittlich
Verhaeltnisse im Deutschen Reiche_, which are full of instruction
concerning German sexual morality. In Hanover, it is said in this
work, the majority of authorities state that intercourse before
marriage is the rule. At the very least, a _probe_, or trial, is
regarded as a matter-of-course preliminary to a marriage, since
no one wishes "to buy a pig in a poke." In Saxony, likewise, we
are told, it is seldom that a girl fails to have intercourse
before marriage, or that her first child is not born, or at all
events conceived, outside marriage. This is justified as a proper
proving of a bride before taking her for good. "One does not buy
even a penny pipe without trying it," a German pastor was
informed. Around Stettin, in twelve districts (nearly half the
whole), sexual intercourse before marriage is a recognized
custom, and in the remainder, if not exactly a custom, it is very
common, and is not severely or even at all condemned by public
opinion. In some districts marriage immediately follows
pregnancy. In the Dantzig neighborhood, again, according to the
Lutheran Committee, intercourse before marriage occurs in more
than half the cases, but marriage by no means always follows
pregnancy. Nearly all the girls who go as servants have lovers,
and country people in engaging servants sometimes tell them that
at evening and night they may do as they like. This state of
things is found to be favorable to conjugal fidelity. The German
peasant girl, as another authority remarks (E.H. Meyer, _Deutsche
Volkskunde_, 1898, pp. 154, 164), has her own room; she may
receive her lover; it is no great shame if she gives herself to
him. The number of women who enter legal marriage still virgins
is not large (this refers more especially to Baden), but public
opinion protects them, and such opinion is unfavorable to the
disregard of the responsibilities involved by sexual
relationships. The German woman is less chaste before marriage
than her French or Italian sister. But, Meyer adds, she is
probably more faithful after marriage than they are.

It is assumed by many that this