See old Australian ads for menstrual pads and belts and a 1959 Midol pain-pill booklet recommending douching.
See also Australian douche ad (ca. 1900) - Fresca douche powder (U.S.A.) (date ?) - Kotique douche liquid ad, 1974 (U.S.A.) - Liasan (1) genital wash ad, 1980s (Germany) - Liasan (2) genital wash ad, 1980s (Germany) - Lysol douche liquid ad, 1928 (U.S.A.) - Lysol douche liquid ad, 1948 (U.S.A.) - Marvel douche liquid ad, 1928 (U.S.A.) - Midol menstrual pain pill ad, 1938 (U.S.A.) - Midol booklet (selections), 1959 (U.S.A.) - Mum deodorant cream ad, 1926 (U.S.A.) - Pristeen genital spray ad, 1969 (U.S.A.) - Spalt pain tablets, 1936 (Germany) - Sterizol douche liquid ad, 1926 (U.S.A.) - Vionell genital spray ad, 1970, with Cheryl Tiegs (Germany) - Zonite douche liquid ad, 1928 (U.S.A.)
The Perils of Vaginal Douching (essay by Luci Capo Rome) - the odor page
See also the booklets How shall I tell my daughter? (Modess, various dates), Growing up and liking it (Modess, various dates), and Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday (Kotex, 1928).
And read Lynn Peril's series about these and similar booklets!
See more Kotex items: First ad (1921) - ad 1928 (Sears and Roebuck catalog) - Lee Miller ads (first real person in amenstrual hygiene ad, 1928) - Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday (booklet for girls, 1928, Australian edition; there are many links here to Kotex items) - Preparing for Womanhood (1920s, booklet for girls; Australian edition) - 1920s booklet in Spanish showing disposal method - box from about 1969 - "Are you in the know?" ads (Kotex) (1949)(1953)(1964)(booklet, 1956) - See more ads on the Ads for Teenagers main page
CONTRIBUTE to Humor, Words and expressions about menstruation and Would you stop menstruating if you could?
Some MUM site links:
homepageMUM address & What does MUM mean? | e-mail the museum | privacy on this site | who runs this museum?? |
Amazing women! | the art of menstruation | artists (non-menstrual) | asbestos | belts | bidets | founder bio | Bly, Nellie | MUM board | books: menstruation and menopause (and reviews) | cats | company booklets for girls (mostly) directory | contraception and religion | costumes | menstrual cups | cup usage | dispensers | douches, pain, sprays | essay directory | extraction | facts-of-life booklets for girls | famous women in menstrual hygiene ads | FAQ | founder/director biography | gynecological topics by Dr. Soucasaux | humor | huts | links | masturbation | media coverage of MUM | menarche booklets for girls and parents | miscellaneous | museum future | Norwegian menstruation exhibit | odor | olor | pad directory | patent medicine | poetry directory | products, current | puberty booklets for girls and parents | religion | Religión y menstruación | your remedies for menstrual discomfort | menstrual products safety | science | Seguridad de productos para la menstruación | shame | slapping, menstrual | sponges | synchrony | tampon directory | early tampons | teen ads directory | tour of the former museum (video) | underpants & panties directory | videos, films directory | Words and expressions about menstruation | Would you stop menstruating if you could? | What did women do about menstruation in the past? | washable pads
Leer la versión en español de los siguientes temas: Anticoncepción y religión, Breve reseña - Olor - Religión y menstruación - Seguridad de productos para la menstruación.

Spalt menstrual-pain tablets ad (1936, Germany, in Frauen Warte magazine)

Women experience menstrual pain in many cultures, maybe all; we know it at least from the time of fifth-century B.C.E. Greece, when the disappearance of pain coinciding with the appearance of bleeding amazed Hippocrates, who then thought that taking blood from men might cure their ills.

Nazi Germany was no exception, as the ad below shows. Compare a Midol menstrual-pain relief ad from almost the same time in America.

Both illustrations come from the book Die unpäßliche Frau, by Sabine Hering and Gudrun Maierhof (Pfaffenweiler, Germany, 1991).

 
"Spalt" in German means "slot" or "split," maybe referring to the prominently shown feature that allows the tablet to be easily broken in half. Or it might be be someone's name. Or . . . .
The woman probably is wearing a nurse's cap (which has disappeared in the U.S.A.) thus making a medical endorsement in the reader's mind, something that Kotex, Modess and probably many other brands in many countries tried to create. Note the calendar with a crossed-off day.
Here's my translation:
(slanted words at top): Days that you fear
(small words under the top picture): These days are disagreeable enough. You at least try to battle the pain. The well-known "Spalt tablets" are designed just for headaches and other pains in critical days [code words for the days of menstruation; see other words for menstruation]. Spalt tablets are made so they fight the cramp origins of headache. For your convenience, each pack of twenty comes with an extra little tin, enabling you to carry a few tablets with you. [Neat! Americans used to be able to buy aspirin in tins.]
Price: ten for 62 Pfennigs, 20 for one Reichs Mark and 16 Pfennigs and 60 for two Reichs Marks and 85 Pfennigs. Available in all pharmacies.
[In Germany, people buy drugs in pharmacies and buy many of the other things that Americans find in their drugstores in a Drogerie, which does not sell prescription drugs. There'll be a quiz tomorrow.]

 
The Spalt ad appeared in a 1936 issue of the magazine above; this is a later front cover.
Frauen Warte means "Women's Watch Tower," or, figuratively perhaps, "Women's Viewpoint." The Nazis idealized these strapping German women with their blonde bouncing Bubs and Mädels - a Bub, pronounced "boob," probably to your astonishment, is colloquial German for "boy, " and a Mädel is a - Yes! You've got it! - girl.
The "NS," below the swastika (upper left), stands for "Nazionalsozialismus," National Socialism, which most people shorten to Nazis, the political group that ran Germany from the early 1930s to 1945. The peculiar style of the letters reflects the Nazis' attempt to bring German origins to peoples' consciousness, because the letters imitate the runes, a writing system of very early Germans and Scandinavians (runes supposedly have been found in the U.S.A.).
Underneath Frauen Warte we read, "The only official party magazine for women," party meaning, of course, the Nazi party, not Martha-Stewart-like advice on how to throw one.
Then, below, it reads, "the 23rd issue of the seventh volume, 1 May 1939. Mothers Day, 1939." The Germans would start World War II in Europe in a little over four months.
See also ads (in German) from the catalog of the German company Thalysia, showing douche and menstruation supplies, 1933.

NEXT: Vionell genital spray ad (Germany)

© 2000 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce or distribute
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See also Australian douche ad (ca. 1900) - Fresca douche powder (U.S.A.) (date ?) - Kotique douche liquid ad, 1974 (U.S.A.) - Liasan (1) genital wash ad, 1980s (Germany) - Liasan (2) genital wash ad, 1980s (Germany) - Lysol douche liquid ad, 1928 (U.S.A.) - Lysol douche liquid ad, 1948 (U.S.A.) - Marvel douche liquid ad, 1928 (U.S.A.) - Midol menstrual pain pill ad, 1938 (U.S.A.) - Midol booklet (selections), 1959 (U.S.A.) - Mum deodorant cream ad, 1926 (U.S.A.) - Pristeen genital spray ad, 1969 (U.S.A.) - Spalt pain tablets, 1936 (Germany) - Sterizol douche liquid ad, 1926 (U.S.A.) - Vionell genital spray ad, 1970, with Cheryl Tiegs (Germany) - Zonite douche liquid ad, 1928 (U.S.A.)
The Perils of Vaginal Douching (essay by Luci Capo Rome) - the odor page