Women under Nazi Germany (4) Flashcards
What was the ideal Nazi Women?
Blonde hair, blue eyes, broad hips and athletic for child bearing, humble (clothes made from home-produced substitutes).
What slogan did women adopt that describes their role?
Kinder, Kuche, Kirche (Children, Kitchen and Church)
- Raise as many racially-pure children (Aryans)
- Stressed women being a homemaker (virtues of family).
- Against Church membership as it competed with their influence.
What was the ideal Nazi Man?
Tall, athletic and blonde.
What was the role of men?
To engage in politics, war, and work
Were men and women considered of equal status under Nazi Germany?
- Both considered equally vital to the Volksgemeinschaft but their roles physically were different (women in the domestic and men in the public sphere).
- Both had to be selfless, healthy, of pureblood and fanatic followers of Hitler.
Ways and why lives changed:
What happened to women in jobs?
- Many (especially married) lost their jobs.
- Single women still found work but were excluded from higher levels of work.
- Offered loans to new brides to not take up jobs.
+ Highly skilled doctors excepted to work in ‘suitable jobs’ like clinics/GPs.
+ Teachers (largely females) could only work at the lowest levels in schools.
+ Civil servants had to work in a women’s section of gov. offices.
+ Unable to work in political positions within the NSDAP.
Ways and why lives changed:
Contraception criminalised
- Revoked women’s bodily autonomy and discourages sex for pleasure.
- Instead, sex is for Germans to continue their duty of reproduction and continuing the Aryan Race for the state.
Ways and why lives changed:
Appearance of women
- Prohibited wearing of make up, smoking and were encouraged to eat well and participate in sports.
- In 1933, NSBO (the women’s section of the German Workers’ Front) stated that women who were ‘painted’ and ‘smoked in public’ would be ‘forbidden from all meeting’.
Ways and why lives changed:
What incentives did Nazi Germany introduce to encourage women to give marry and give birth.
- Gave couples marriage loans to encourage marriage once they had a license to declare them fit and racially acceptable.
- Helped with school fees and transport fares for families, but only after an interview eliminated the ‘unsuitable’. Suitable poor families were given 100 RM for each child.
- In 1939, introduced the Mother’s Cross depending on the number of children birthed, e.g 8+ for gold. Awarded on Mother’s Day, Hitler’s mother’s birthday in August where 3M mothers were decorated.
Ways and why lives changed:
Changes to divorce law
- 1938 = divorce was possible, if the couple cannot have children - even if the male made the female infertile due to the STD.
- Potentially gave further freedom to women, so they aren’t stuck in a marriage that doesn’t benefit the State as there aren’t any births of future Aryans.
The Lebensborn Programme (1936)
- Selected men (usually SS members) were encouraged to mate with as many ‘racially-pure’ young women as possible to produce health Aryan children.
- Had its own hospitals, clinics and homes for the children to be adopted by ‘fit’ Germans who had trouble conceiving.
- Once the Reich expanded - took ‘suitable’ children from families in the lands they took over + placed them into the homes.
Contraditions of the role of women to the Nazi state
In 1937, they abolished marriage loans and introduced a compulsory duty year for women entering the labour market.
How did the Nazi State saw family units?
Appeared too individualistic - wanted family members to work for the greater good of Germany - not to support the family.
What formed when the Reichstag was emptied of women?
- The NSF (Nationalist Socialist Womanhood).
- German Women’s Enterprise had organised activities for non-party members.
What activities were allowed for women and what was banned?
- Recommended limited activities: music, manual labour, gymnastics.
- Banned sexuality - unless for reproductivity.
- Liberated young women were considered ‘depraved’ and ‘antisocial’.
