Transcript Women in Nazi Germany

Women in Nazi Germany
Kinder, Kuche, Kirche
Children, kitchen and church
“Her world is her husband, her
family, her children and her home”
The Nazis tried to limit women to their primary task of
childbearing.
Before 1929 it looked as though the numbers of women in
industry and the professions would continue to increase but
the Depression put paid to that.
The Nazis used this to persuade or drive women back into
the home.
Professional women were hardest hit.
Married women in the civil service and medicine were
dismissed. In 1936 women were barred from the legal
profession and politics.
However by 1937 a shortage of labour meant that women
were needed to work to meet the Four year plan.
“The mission of women is to be beautiful and
bring children into the world”
The Nazis promoted motherhood by
offering
Birth grants
Family allowances
Interest free loans to newly married
couples provided that the woman did
not go out to work.
The Honour Cross of German
Motherhood
“Marriage and childbirth became
racial obligations rather than personal
decisions” Lisa Pine.
Four children were the ideal.
Prolific mothers were given a medal
Bronze awarded for 4 or 5 children
Silver awarded for 6 or 7
Gold awarded for 8 or more.
At the same time there were restrictions on
contraception
Abortion was more difficult to obtain
Childless couples had to pay higher taxes
Divorce was easier for the simple reason
that unproductive marriages were
worthless to the national community
There were forced sterilisations of
“undesirables”
Lebensborn
During the war in their quest for a
larger genetically pure German
population led to the encouragement
of procreation outwith marriage.
The Lebensborn or Life Springs
programme.
Essentially these were state run
brothels where “Aryan” women had
babies by SS men
Effects
From 1933 to 39 the birth rate did
rise.
Marriages rose from 516,000 in 1932
to 740,000 in 1934.
Divorces increased after 1938
The increases may be due more to
economic prosperity rather than Nazi
policies.
Education
To prepare women for their proper
role.
University enrolment of women was
restricted to only 10%
However restrictions were relaxed as
the demand for well educated workers
increased.
Assessment of Nazi Policies and
Women
The Nazis encouraged marriage and
childbirth
The Nazis encouraged divorce and
sterilisation
Although Hitler refused to conscript
women into industry during the war
more women went into work under
the Nazis
Advantages
Some women were happy to stay at
home with their families than have to
work long hours in a factory
Social services improved
Women were given milk, food and
linen parcels for their babies, there
were rest homes to recuperate in after
giving birth and there were
kindergartens to help mothers.
Middle class women probably suffered
more from the restrictions
The Nazis were quite cautious and relied
on moral and social pressures to keep
women at home.
Many of the Nazi ideas were more extreme
versions of views held by conservative
organisations and the Catholic church
before the Nazis came to power.
Historians’ Views
“ the vast majority did not perceive the
Third Reich as a women’s hell. Much of
what it introduced was doubtless
appealing, the rest one learned to accept.”
Uve Frevert.
“The anti feminist policies of the regime
after 1933 were at least partially
successful, in that they secured the
approval, perhaps gratitude of many
German people, men and women alike”
Tim Mason