4.1 Nazi policies towards women

Question 1

What were the Nazi views on women?

Answer 1

• women should have a natural appearance, with long hair tied back and no make-up
• believed that women should adopt the traditional role of mother and housewives instead of going to work or uni: men were the breadwinners and women working could be a man’s job
• women should marry and have as many children as possible to increase birth rates and create a bigger and stronger Germany
• should be sturdily built for childbearing

Question 2

Who was the Reich Women’s leader?

Answer 2

Gertrud Scholtz -Klink

Question 3

When was Gertrud Scholtz -Klink appointed to oversee all policies relating to women?

Answer 3

1934

Question 4

What was Gertrud Scholtz -Klink aim?

Answer 4

to make German women servants of the German state and Hitler

Question 5

What Nazi organisation were all women’s organisations forced to merge with?

Answer 5

German Women’s Enterprise / DFW

Question 6

What happened if women organisations refused to join the DFW?

Answer 6

they were banned

Question 7

How many members did the DFW have?

and what is the significance of this?

Answer 7

6 million

suggests many women welcomed Nazi policies

Question 8

What did the DFW do?

Answer 8

Conduct activities which spread Nazi ideologies

ie. Nazi courses on childcare, cooking and sewing

Question 9

How many women had attended Nazi courses by 1937?

Answer 9

1.7 million

Question 10

Whats was the birth rate in Germany in 1900 and 1933

Answer 10

1900: 2 million per year

1933 - 1 million per year

Question 11

Why did the Nazis make several changes to the law to encourage marriage, motherhood and childbirth?

Answer 11

because the Nazis were concerned that few children meant fewer workers and soldiers later on

Question 12

When was the Law for the Encouragement of Marriage introduced?

Answer 12

1933

Question 13

What was the Law for the Encouragement of Marriage?

Answer 13

• Provided up to 1,000 mark loans to encourage young couples to marry
• loans were only available if women stopped work and stayed at home, so women were encouraged to do so
• For each child born by the couple, a quarter of the loan was written off in order to encourage childbirth

Question 14

What were the effects of the Law for the Encouragement of Marriage?

Answer 14

• birth rate did increase as well as the number of marriages

- however, this could be due to a stronger economy, rather than Nazi policy

Question 15

When were the divorce laws changed?

Answer 15

1938

Question 16

What did the change to the divorce laws mean?

Answer 16

If a woman could not or would not have children or had an abortion, this was grounds for divorce by the husband

Question 17

How did the Mother’s cross encourage childbirth?

Answer 17

gave awards given to women dependent on the number of children they had:
Bronze: 4 -5
Silver: 6-7
Gold: 8

the Hitler Youth were ordered to salute wearers of Gold medals

Question 18

What was the fountain of life program called?

Answer 18

Lebensborn

Question 19

When were the Lebensborn camps introduced and who by?

Answer 19

1935

Heinrich Himmler

Question 20

What was the Lesbenborn programme?

Answer 20

encouraged single women to breed with SS men to create “genetically pure” children for worthy German families

Question 21

How many mothers gave birth due to one Lesbenborn home?

Answer 21

540

between 1938-41

Question 22

In what ways did the Nazis try to reduce the number of women in work?

Answer 22

Propaganda- tried to persuade women to behave differently

• posters showed women as wives and mothers
• Speeches encouraged women to leave work and become housewives

Question 23

What were the three ‘ks’ that women were told to focus on?

Answer 23

Kinder, Kuche, Kirche

Question 24

What were the new policies introduced to reduce women employment?

Answer 24

• 1933: women were banned from professional posts as teachers, doctors and civil servants.
• 1936: women were banned from being a judge or a lawyer or even jury service
• schoolgirls were trained for motherhood, not work and were taught domestic tasks
• 1937 - grammar schools, which prepared girls for university were banned

Question 25

By 1934 how many women gave up work?

Answer 25

360,000

Question 26

What happened as a result of grammar schools, which prepared girls for university being banned?

Answer 26

number of female students starting higher education fell from 17,000 in 1932 to 6,000 in 1939

Question 27

How effective were Nazisd policies towards women?

Answer 27

• some German women were persuaded by Nazi views and were content to accept
• Fewer women went to uni, the birth rate increased and unemployment amongst German men fell

However:
- Many women didn’t support Nazi ideas about womanhood: some believed that Nazi ideas harmed the family and degraded women

• some found the domestic status demeaning and didn’t like the leader Gertrud Scholtz-Klink
• some policies were temporary: by the end of the 1930s, Germany industry was expanding so fast, the Nazis needed women to return to work