Law, love and the limits of liberalism: marital norms and monogamy in the German Empire

The creation of Imperial Germany in 1871 sparked a nationwide debate about the nature of marriage and the family. Behind these discussions was a common assumption: families were anchored in monogamous marriage. The assumption was so widely held that it was, with few exceptions, unspoken. It was revealed only in exceptional instances, for example, in confrontation with colonial others, bigamists who were deemed criminals or life reformers living on the fringes of mainstream society. By tapping into a discourse about civilization and human progress, it also linked discussions about the homeland and its overseas Empire. Drawing on a matrix of jurisprudence, social-scientific writings, tracts by social reformers, missionaries and government discussions, this article suggests that Germans embraced monogamy as the tacit rule of marital life within the boundaries of the metropole. Nonetheless, monogamy as a marital standard did not apply consistently within Germany’s overseas colonies. Instead, understandings of racial and religious difference, couched in a specific logic of imperial liberalism, predominated and meant that indigenous people were of ten left to continue their own family practices.