Konzepte für eine »Neue Generation«: Liebe und Liebesleben im Werk Helene Stöckers

Helene Stöcker was one of the best-known women’s rights activists of the first third of the 20th century. She saw herself as a representative of a »new generation« who wanted to establish new sexual morals and reshape and modernise gender relations. The article focuses on her ideal of love and shows the concepts of love and love life (Liebesleben) she developed. In relation to her entire oeuvre, these expressions are evaluated as key words. It becomes apparent that Stöcker attempts to redefine and reinterpret traditional terms, especially ethical and moral ones, and to establish new semantic networks that are intended to influence future speech and writing about gender identity, heterosexual relationships and sexuality. The article links diachronic gender linguistics with cultural, socio- and discourse linguistics and takes into account the fact that the redefinition of love is associated with new concepts of identity and relationships, which in turn represent an alternative to the gender orders conveyed in traditional discourses and are formative for the social network of sexual and life reform. The concept of love is linked to the desire for a cultural renewal that extends beyond the organisation of individuals’ lives and includes ideas of the »ennoblement of the race«. It is argued that despite the use of such terms as selection or breeding for superiority (Höherzüchtung), her approach to population policy issues cannot be understood as nationalistic.