FRG: Aspects of life 1.4 Flashcards
What was the new period of struggle for women in Germany?
1948 7.3 million more women in Germany than men
- people were brought into light about Nazi atrocities
- divorce rate rose sharply in late 1940s as couples realised their marriage could not work (80% higher than 1946 in 1948)
status of women under FRG?
Women worked on many committees and fewer were involved with politics
- Ideal woman was still a wife and mother
Article 3 of Basic law states that there was ‘equality under the Law’ for all citizens ( in theory yet not put into practise 100%, not until 1958)
Women and work in FRG?
Not until 1977 that Marriage and Family law was revised (gave women equal rights in marriage + overturned civil code law)
- Womens liberation movements were constantly battling this ingrained thinking
Women’s liberation movements?
Active during 1960s and 70s: movements were popular amongst students and radicals (city based)
- Jan 1968: Action Council for Women’s Liberation was set up in West Berlin (feminist organisations began with practical action, setting up day-care centres and organising campaigns to change the way schools were run)
What was paragraph 218?
218 of German Penal code made it a crime for women to seek abortions
–> more radical and woman-focused groups targeted this paragraph and abortion rights
Women’s role and status by 1989
clear demarcation in thinknig between mothers and working women
–> in DRG women were more likely to work full time as state creches provided childcare
–> FRG, married women were still seen in terms of family gave motherhood a higher status than in other countries
ONLY 50% of married women with a child under 15 living at home had a paid job
Main aim of Education in the FRG?
denazification of school and educating children for a democratic society
- nazi teachers and textbooks were removed yet typical skills such as numeracy still needed to be taught.
- curriculum was heavily based on the Lander associated with the school
Education in the FRG 1960S?
Concerns over failing university systems
- facilities like lecture theatres and student accommodations were inadequate
-old fashioned curriculum teaching neither economics or technology
Economic boom of 1950s/60s and foreign workers?
economic boom created a need for more workers
1961-73 3 million german workers switched from industrial and agricultural work to white-collar jobs
1961-71 870K germans left jobs in mining and 1.1 million guest workers took those jobs
What were foreign workers known as?
Guest workers: underlined German opinion of these people
–> guests who only had temporary stay (did not receive rights of German people)
–> contracts were on a year-by-year basis
Some bought families hoping to settle in
Why was recession of 1966 significant for hostility towards foreign workers?
hostility to guest workers, especially those who couldn’t speak german and didn’t want to integrate
-many landlords refused to take guest workers as tenants (confined them to living amongst other guest workers in poorest areas)
Challenges in 1970s and 1980s: oil crisis
Due to oil crisis and rise in unemployment, guest workers were again under pressure to leave
Nov 1973, govt put a stop on hiring and banned permits for families of workers (no of guest workers fell to under 2 million)
1975: Guest workers children received same benefits as other children
1977: ban removed and workers started coming again
Challenges in 1970s and 1980s: education of guest worker children
govt polciy under basic law to provide ‘democratic education’, thus tried to convince Länder to provide mixe-culture learning groups
–> no of foreign children rose from 165k in 1976 to 200K in 1983 (60% were muslim)
Most kids started school at 6 with no education or language help as catholic schools
Cultural tensions of the FRG
People found it easier to adopt cultural offerings that Allies flooded their zones with like Hollywood MOVIES AND Shakespeare
–> they re-established the ‘degenerate’ culture Nazis had banned
1950s: growing o of social movements that drew in people of all ages, anti-nuclear movement and various ecological/ alternative lifestyle movements
–> shared a rejection of consumerism and desired a peaceful and more equal society/ desired to change established society
Generational tensions in FRG
Old wanted 1945 as year zero whilst the youth pushed to confron the past
–> Old wanted familiar traditional German culture with a comfortable consumerist lifestyle
–> youth esp students wanted less consumerist lifestyle and a culture that faced oth past and present rather than embracing american culture
