Aspects of life in Germany and West Germany: 1989-1989

Question 1

What was the status of women in the years 1918-1932?

Answer 1

• Liberal in theory but traditional in practise
• New government gave women the vote
• 90% turnout in the first vote
• Assumed that women would give up their jobs to returning soldiers
• Idea of a single woman working more acceptable than a married woman working
• Women could qualify as lawyers
• Women did face discrimination from male coworkers
• The idea of the “New Woman”
• Woman enjoyed sexual freedom who sought independence

Question 2

What was the status of women in the years 1933-1945?

Answer 2

• Adopted the slogan “Kinder, Kuche, Kirche”
• Viewed them as the moral compass at home
• Encouraged “pure” German couples to breed
• Marriage loans
• Lebensborn programme aimed to produce healthy aryan children
• Mother’s cross

Question 3

What was the impact of the second world war on women?

Answer 3

• Many women were reluctant to work, telling volunteers that they had children to tend to
• Germany had the use of “guest workers” so the need for women in the workplace was far less

Question 4

What was the status of women in FRG?

Answer 4

• Although Adenauer made speeches about the importance of making jobs available to women, the government did not make many changes
• Article 3 under the basic law guaranteed “equality under the law”
• In theory women and men were equal
• Women permitted to work if it did not interfere with their domestic duties

Question 5

What was the nature of education in the Weimar Republic?

Answer 5

• Realschule had a focus on business or industrial work
• Gymnasium had a focus on students going to university
• Child’s career determined from very young
• Influential movements included Bauhaus, focusing on the experimental culture and design of the Weimar period

Question 6

What was the nature of education in the Nazi period?

Answer 6

• Nazi teacher league set up, purging “undesirable” teachers
• 97% of teachers held memberships, it was almost impossible to find work in education without being a member
• Prioritised loyalty to Hitler and Germany
• Significant curriculum changes
• Focus on race studies and physical education
• Hitler youth movement for outside school

Question 7

What was the nature of education in FRG?

Answer 7

• Allies aimed to remove Nazi influence
• Policy of de-Nazification
• Introduction of comprehensive schools
• Increased need in help for the disadvantaged
• Number of children in Gymnasium increased rapidly

Question 8

What were the attitudes towards minorities in the years 1918-1932?

Answer 8

• Minorities mostly accepted
• Article 113 of the constitution stated that groups that spoke different languages could not be stopped from preserving their national identity
• Jewish population was about 1%
• Some anti-Semites called Berlin “Jew Berlin”
• Many Jews however were respected for fighting in the war (12000)
• Gypsies discriminated against

Question 9

What were the Nazi racial policies?

Answer 9

• Pursuit of racial purity included getting rid of the elderly and disabled
• Sterilisation laws introduced in 1934, included Jews, Gypsies, black and mixed race people
• Worked towards the “final solution”, even though their actions were not immediately anti-Semitic, their propaganda was consistently racist
• Nuremberg race laws of 1935 extended what would make someone considered “Jewish”
• Yellow stars displayed in shop windows encouraged violence
• Many outbursts of violence including Kristallnacht in 1938

Question 10

How did the war change policies on minorities?

Answer 10

• After Germany invaded Poland in 1939, special SS units called Einsatzgruppen were set up to carry out mass executions, rounding up Jews and even forcing them to dig their own graves
• Many minorities who were not shot were rounded up into ghettos such as Warsaw
• Electricity and water were only available for limited time
• An increase in people sent to concentration camps
• Full of “undesirables”
• Final solution finalised at the Wannsee conference, leading to death camps being set up at Treblinka, Sobibor and Belzec

Question 11

What was the attitudes towards racial minorities in the FRG?

Answer 11

• People initially viewed as an issue, became apparent that they were important for rebuilding the economy
• Economic boom in the 1950s creates a need for more workers
• New workers became known as “guest workers”
• Due to economic crises, there was still significant hostility towards workers
• Serious issue with managing housing and education for the families of foreign workers