Attitudes towards Women and Ethnic Minorities in the Weimar Republic Flashcards

1
Q

List 3 aspects of what life was like for women in Germany before WW1.

A
  • They couldn’t vote
  • Single women could study, but could not take exams to qualify in a profession
  • Married women had no legal status at all; a man had to do their legal business for them
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2
Q

What were 2 impacts war had on women’s lives?

A
  • They took men’s places on farms and in factories; by the end of the war, 75% of women of working age worked
  • 1.6 million men had been killed, so many women who would not be able to find husbands were now part of the population
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3
Q

List 7 aspects of the Weimar Constitution that gave women more rights.

A
  • They had the same rights as men
  • They could vote
  • They could stand for office
  • Marriage was an equal union
  • They would have the same access to education as men did
  • They would have equal opportunities as men to be appointed as civil servants
  • They would be paid equally in professions
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4
Q

How popular were these reforms amongst women? Give 2 examples.

A
  • Very popular, as:
  • female voter turnout was 90% at the first elections
  • In total, there were 112 elected to the Reichstag between 1919 and 1932
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5
Q

What issue did the Weimar Constitution not address?

A
  • The legal status of women from the Civil Code hadn’t changed
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6
Q

Which parties supported the extension of women’s rights, and what limitation was there to their support?

A
  • The SPD and KPD
  • They still assumed that women would play domestic roles, and so helped them by, for example, improving maternity benefits
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7
Q

How did right-wing groups view the increase in women’s rights?

A
  • As a form of cultural decay
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8
Q

What 3 changes were there for women in relation to work after WW1?

A
  • There were more jobs, so the numbers of women working increased (although the proportion of women who were working was the same as before the war)
  • There were many more ‘white blouse’ jobs available after the war; jobs that were traditionally done by men, such as in shops
  • More had professional jobs: as women could qualify as lawyers, there were 36 of them by 1933, and in 1925 there were 2,500 female doctors, and this almost doubled by 1933
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9
Q

List 6 reasons why it was still difficult for women to work during the Weimar Era.

A
  • The government’s policy was that women should give up their jobs to men after the war
  • Women were paid, on average, one third less than their male counterparts in sectors such as office work
  • Trade unions opposed female workers and for them to have equal pay
  • Professional women faced discrimination and hostility at their workplace
  • Married women had to either find childcare or work part-time as the school day ended at lunchtime
  • Married women were discriminated against in particular as they were ‘double earners’ while men fought hard to be paid enough to support their family on their own
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10
Q

What were ‘New Women’, and what was different about them?

A
  • They were young, educated and unmarried women who wanted independence, and typically worked in ‘white blouse’ jobs in cities
  • They chose to abandon traditional female behaviour, and therefore wore short skirts, had short hair, smoked, drank and used contraception to have sexual freedom
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11
Q

How were ‘New Women’ presented in the media?

A
  • Both positively and negatively
  • They were sometimes the focus of magazine articles and films, and presented as confident and emancipated
  • However, they were also seen as immoral and their behaviour was presented as a source of ruin
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12
Q

What were 3 common reactions to the ‘New Woman’?

A
  • Politicians and the press criticised them, and urged them to marry and settle down
  • Conservatives saw their behaviour as completely unsuited to motherhood
  • Traditionalists saw this as part of the destruction of Germany, along with the 1918 surrender, abolition of the monarchy, and the Treaty of Versailles
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13
Q

What else did women campaign for during the Weimar Era?

A
  • Sexual reform
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14
Q

List 4 aspects of sexual reform women were campaigning for.

A
  • Sexual freedom
  • More accessible divorce
  • Easy access to contraception
  • The right to abortion under certain circumstances, such as rape
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15
Q

What were 2 reasons why many believed women should return to being wives and mothers? Give figures.

A
  • The birth rate was falling, and the divorce rate was increasing
  • 128 live births per 1000 women in 1911, compared to 59 in 1933
  • 27 divorces per 100,000 inhabitants in 1913, compared to 65 in 1932
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16
Q

What was life like for working women during the Depression? Give 4 details.

A
  • The rise in unemployment led to more hostility against working women
  • Fewer women were unemployed as they were cheaper to employ (although the relative surplus of employed women were part-time workers)
  • In May 1932, Chancellor Brüning passed a decree that allowed married women in government to be dismissed if their husbands were employed
  • The same thing was happening in private industries
17
Q

After the war, what were the main ethnic minorities in Germany?

A
  • Jews
  • Poles
  • Gypsies
18
Q

How were ethnic minorities generally viewed in Germany?

A
  • They weren’t always seen as equal, specifically by elite groups such as landowners and the army, but other groups such as city-based liberals were more welcoming
19
Q

Using 2 examples, describe how integrated ethnic minorities were in Germany.

A
  • Different groups had their own exclusive clubs and associations
  • However, there was partial integration such as intermarriage (in 1915, one-third of all married Jews were married to non-Jews)
20
Q

How were ethnic minorities generally treated in Germany?

A
  • They were mostly accepted
  • However, there were some forms of discrimination such as being paid lower wages and being less likely to be hired
21
Q

What legislation existed that concerned ethnic minorities, and what was the problem with it?

A
  • Article 113 of the Weimar Constitution said that groups that spoke a different language couldn’t be stopped from using it or preserving their national identity in other ways, such as how they ran schools
  • It was not always implemented and did not control the other laws Länder made against ethnic minorities
22
Q

What percentage of the German population was Jewish, and where did they tend to live?

A
  • 1%
  • Two-thirds of them lived in cities and one-third lived in Berlin
23
Q

What types of jobs did Jewish people tend to have? Give 4 figures on this.

A
  • Middle-class jobs
  • 75% of Jewish men had professional jobs, compared to 25% of the rest of the population
  • 80% of department stores were ran by Jewish businesses
  • However they were sometimes overrepresented by the media, as although only 1% of senior bankers were Jewish, some of them received a lot of media attention
  • 20% of Jewish people were impoverished
24
Q

In what 2 ways did the economic status of Jewish people change during the 1920s and 30s?

A
  • Middle-class Jews lost their savings during hyperinflation in 1923
  • As unemployment rose, Jews were less likely to be hired and more likely to be laid off
25
Q

What was the legal status of Jews in Germany? Give 2 details.

A
  • Since 1871, Jews had had the same rights as Christians in theory
  • According to the constitution, they had the full rights of citizenship
26
Q

In what 3 ways did Jews continue to be discriminated against?

A
  • Jewish people were completely excluded from the judiciary before 1914
  • Judges tended to be traditional nationalists, and many of them were antisemitic, so they did not always uphold the rights of Jews
  • The appointment of 5 Jews to cabinet positions (including Walther Rathenau) in the Weimar Republic led to criticism
27
Q

What happened to Walther Rathenau, and how did the government respond?

A
  • He was assassinated in 1922, shortly after his appointment as Foreign Minister
  • The government banned some antisemitic organisations as a result since he was Jewish
28
Q

Name and give 4 details about one group that was banned in 1922.

A
  • The League of German Defence and Defiance was one of the most influential racist groups
  • It argued that Jewish people were working hard to destroy Germany, firstly through betraying them in the war, then by forcing Germany to accept democracy and a very different style of government
  • It used the stereotype that Jews were radicals that wanted to destroy Germany with a communist revolution that had been popular in the 19th century as senior members of the Spartacists and SPD were Jewish, and Karl Marx’s family had been as well
  • It had more than 200,000 members before it was banned
  • After it was banned, many of its members joined the Nazis
29
Q

What impact did the Depression have on antisemitism?

A
  • More people turned to extreme parties, a lot of which were antisemitic
30
Q

What did some Jews do in response to the Depression and the blame they received for it?

A
  • They set up organisations such as the Reich Federation of Jewish Front Soldiers to fight antisemitism
  • This group in particular stressed how Jews had fought for Germany in the war- 85,000 had, and 12,000 of them had died
31
Q

How popular was the constitution among Jews, and why?

A
  • Most of them supported it
  • This is because despite the ongoing antisemitism, a democratic government was much more likely to protect them than a traditional nationalist regime
32
Q

How and why were Gypsies discriminated against? Give 2 examples.

A
  • They moved around, and therefore didn’t contribute to the country by working or paying taxes
  • States such as Bavaria passed laws to try to control them, for example:
  • In 1926, Bavaria passed laws trying to get adults from Gypsy communities into work and their children into school, and these laws were adopted by other states as well
  • In 1927, Bavaria said all Gypsies should carry identification cards
33
Q

How many Poles lived in Germany, why, and why were they discriminated against? What happened as a result?

A
  • In 1925 there were 700,000
  • After the war the border between Germany and Poland had been redrawn, leaving many people on the wrong side
  • Germans were hostile towards Poles as they had fought against each other in the war
  • Between 1925 and 1930, 30,000 Poles left the country
34
Q

How many black people lived in Germany during the Weimar period?

A
  • 3000
  • Most of them had come to Germany from former German colonies in Africa
35
Q

Why were black people seen in an increasingly negative light during the Weimar Republic?

A
  • The French army that occupied the Ruhr in 1923 had units from Madagascar and Senegal
  • The German press claimed that France had done this intentionally to humiliate Germany
  • Due to the arrival of these troops, 500 mixed race children were born and were denounced as ‘Germany’s shame’
36
Q

In what ways were black people seen positively in the Weimar Republic? What limitation was there to this?

A
  • From 1924 there was a big demand for black musicians, singers and dancers in jazz clubs
  • Black musicians found moving to Germany attractive as there was no racial segregation, and they could earn 4 times as much as they could in the USA
  • However, nationalists were against jazz as they claimed it was primitive