Christoph Lorke is a historian and a researcher at the Institute for Westphalian Regional History in Münster. He is also a lecturer at the University of Münster. In his study "Liebe verwalten," published by Schöningh/Brill in 2020, he looked at foreign marriages in Germany for the period from 1870 to 1945. Recent publications: Binationale Paarbeziehungen und Eheschließungen im geteilten Deutschland: Praktiken, Deutungen und Agency, Geschichte und Gesellschaft 48 (2022), S. 394–427; „Ist es ein Verbrechen, einen Ausländer zu lieben?“ Binationale Paarbeziehungen in den Bezirken Halle und Magdeburg der DDR, Jahrbuch Sachsen und Anhalt 36 (2024), S. 291–311.

Constructions, Imaginations and the Questioning of Borders: Binational Marriages in Institutions, the Public Sphere and Self-Perceptions (1870s to 1930s)

Abstract: Nowadays, being married to a partner with different national or cultural references is no longer a rarity in Germany and many other European countries. However, during the period of the study, this form of crossing borders was by no means a matter of course and was often associated with consequences for those affected (scepticism, rejection, legal restrictions).

The paper aims to discuss some of the connections between the various debates on national cross-border relationships and, building on this, negotiations about the role of women and mothers. The paper deals with contemporary diagnoses of the "act of violating borders" in relation to social, racial and gender inequalities. The starting point for the considerations are the private and civil law frameworks in the German Empire and the Weimar Republic.

The German registry office system, established in the early 1870s, had become much more professionalised by the turn of the century, and standardised official decision-making – not least in dealing with "desired" and "less desired" relationships. This also prepared the ground for later racially and politically motivated restrictions and prohibitions on marriage. My focus is on Germany, but the topic is transnational in any case. Therefore, overarching private law and media knowledge systems of the period of interest are included in the analysis – and I also would like to look at how those affected (the fiancés) dealt with the restrictions.