“Toxic Torture Is Not the Smallest Twin Sister of Torture!”: Friederike Kempner’s Fight Against Solitary Confinement in 19th–Century Prussia

Abstract

In the second half of the 19^th century, the Silesian social reformer and writer Friederike Kempner (1828–1904) repeatedly advocated the abolition of solitary confinement in prisons. She described the isolation of prisoners as “torture” contrary to the enlightened state. In this context, she pointed to a violation of the “sense of justice”. The arguments she used against solitary confinement can be compared with the justifications used in the 21^st century.