The wife as family physician: Making and moving a modern health epistemology for women

This article investigates the early history of the best-selling German health manual The Wife as Family Physician, written by Dr Anna Fischer-Dückelmann in 1901. The manual built on an older tradition of medical enlightenment, yet broke with its conventions by discussing sexuality openly, emphasising self-help, and mixing the professional knowledge of physicians with the practical knowledge of irregular healers. The result was an 'embodied health epistemology' for women and proved so successful that it went through six major German editions by century's end and appeared almost immediately in translation in 13 other languages. After tracing the manual's roots in hygienic discourse, the article explores Fischer-Dückelmann's distinctive approach to bodily knowledge and then discusses the underlying forces that turned it so quickly into a mass-market success, both at home and abroad. The Wife as Family Physician is a case study in making and moving modern health epistemologies.