9. Nazi Policies towards Women

What were the Nazi aims towards women?

• The Nazis were very worried about Germany’s declining birth-rate – in 1900 there had been over two million births per year in Germany, but this had dropped to one million by 1933. Families were getting smaller because of the economic situation and because women wanted paid work and because of contraception.

• If Germany went to war, then more and more German men would be required to replace losses at the battlefront and work in the war and there had to be enough members of the master race to occupy defeated territories and populate new colonies and conquests, which meant they needed more babies

• The Nazi saw women as having a central role in producing the genetically pure Aryan race and the future Nazi warriors

• Hitler genuinely believed that women should have had a traditional role as wives and mothers

• The Nazis were also keen to removing women from the job market, both because this would allow them to focus on their roles as wives and mothers and because it would reduce the problem of male unemployment (men could take their jobs)

What were Nazi policies towards women that aimed to promote motherhood and ensure that women behaved as they should?

• In jobs directly controlled by the Nazis, they began to get rid of women. For example, there were 100,000 women teachers in 1933, and 15% of them were sacked. All women doctors (3000) and civil servants were sacked

• A massive propaganda campaign was launched to promote motherhood and large families, with Aryan features, a traditional mindset and a loyalty to the Fuhrer. The Nazi slogan ‘Kinder, Kirche, Kuche’ (‘Children, Church, Cooking’) summed by Nazi priorities for women

• Gertrud Sholtz-Klink was appointed Head of the Women’s Bureau. She was a propaganda tool who travelled around urging women to behave in the tradition German way, and care for their families.

• Young women, especially those who were newly married could attend mothercraft and

  homecraft classes

What were Nazi policies towards women that aimed to make sure that women behaved as they should?

• As loyal Nazis, women were encouraged to bring their children up to worship the Fuhrer and join the Hitler Youth

• Women were encouraged to always use up left-overs when cooking. Once a month on a Sunday they had to prepare a one-dish meal, a sort of stew made of cheap meat and left-overs that everyone was meant to eat. The SA could come round to their homes and check whether this was being observed

• There was public pressure to stop women smoking. In many cities police chiefs put up posters in restaurants forbidding women to smoke. One police chief told people to stop women who were smoking and remind them of their duty as German women and mothers

What were Nazi policies towards women that aimed towards promoting motherhood?

• abortion and contraception were made illegal

• to improve women’s fertility, they were encouraged to stop smoking, stop slimming and do sport

• Marriage loans were introduced in 1933 – they were offered to newlywed couples in the form of vouchers for household goods and were worth 1000 marks, offered on the condition that women stopped working. 800, 000 women took these up.

• The ‘Honour Cross of the German Mother’ was introduced – this was a sort of medal women could receive if they had lots of children. Women would receive bronze for having four children, silver for six and gold for eight.

• Couples got to keep a quarter of their marriage loan for each child they had up to 4 children.

What happened to women in 1937?

after 4 years of encouraging women back into the home - marriage loans were abolished, and a compulsory ‘duty year’ was introduced for women entering the workforce (helping on a farm or in a family home for board but no pay)

What happened to women in 1938?

the Nazis changed the divorce law so a husband and wife could divorce if they could not have children. Even if a wife was infertile because her husband had given her a venereal disease (means STI) he was allowed to divorce her.

What was the Lebensborn programme?

• a programme was set up by Himmler which provided maternity homes and financial assistance to the wives of SS members, to encourage them to have as many children as possible

• unmarried mothers were also taken to the maternity centres to give birth away from home and give their children up. They were encouraged to ‘donate a baby to the Fuhrer’ and often to become pregnant by members of the SS.

What were successful parts of the Nazi policy towards women?

• The German Women’s Enterprise Organisation, which organised ‘Mother’s Schools’ and ran course and lectures on household topics, had 6 million members

• For many women these were good times. Those who had been hardest hit by the depression were much better off by 1935. Women who DID find employment found that their wages were riding faster than prices (although women’s wages on average were only 2/3 of men’s). Many employers actually preferred female employees because they were cheaper than men.

What were unsuccessful parts of the Nazi policy towards women?

• In 1936 there were 30% more births than there had been in 1933 but family size remained much the same with most families opting for 2 children

• The number of marriages increased from 500, 000 in 1932 to 750, 000 in 1934 but the divorce rate was actually higher in 1939 than it had been in 1933.

• After 1937 the Nazis attempted to encourage women back to work. In 1939 there were 7.14 million women in work –up from 4.85 million in 1933. However, in 1939 there were still fewer women employed in Germany than there had been 10 years previously. This was because women resisted returning to work given the low wages and poor working conditions, but also because employers often preferred foreign labour and resented having to provide facilities for female employees.

• After 1939, the policy toward women was increasingly confused as the regime tried to increase the birth-rate (which required women to be at home) and keep the war economy going (which meant they were needed on the factory floor). Perhaps the best example of this confused policy is that women were even employed in the armed forces (for the Nazi regime the ultimate symbol of German masculinity) – by 1945 there were approaching 500,000 women auxiliaries in the armed forces performing tasks such as administration, nursing and other non-combat roles.