History - Life in Nazi Germany, 1933-1939 - Policies Towards Women

Nazi views on women

1. Hitler’s views

2. Women’s organisations

3. Nazi influence on women’s organisations

4. Impact of some Nazi policies

1. Described their role as equally important to German men

2. 1934, Nazis appointed a Reich Women’s Leader, Gertrud Scholtz-Klink. She forced all women’s organisations to merge with the new Nazi German Women’s Enterprise (DFW) and banned any that refused

3. DFW had six million members. 1939, 1.7 million women had attended Nazi courses on childcare, cooking, sewing

4. Minor or temporary. End of 1930s, German industry was expanding so fast that some policies were reversed. Women with marriage loans allowed to work, 2 million more employed in 1939 than 1933

Marriage and Family

1. New laws were introduced since

2. Law (marriage)

3. Law (divorce)

4. Awards for mothers

5. Children of SS men

1. Germanys birth rate had fallen by one million 1900-1933. Meant fewer future workers and soldiers

2. Law for the Encouragement of Marriage, 1933. Loans up to 1,000 marks (eight months’ wages) provided if a wife stopped work. For each child born into a family, a quarter of the loan written off

3. Divorce Laws, 1938. If a wife would/could not have children or had an abortion, these were grounds for divorce by the husband

4. Mother’s Cross. Women received medals for the number of their children (bronze 4/5, silver 6/7, gold 8). Hitler Youth ordered to salute gold medals, the tenth child in families had Hitler as a godfather and were named Adolf if male

5. Lebensborn programme, 1935, Heinrich Himmler. Provided nurseries and financial aid for women who bred with SS men. 1938-1941, one Lebensborn home helped over 540 mothers give birth

Employment

1. Nazi aim

2. Propaganda

3. Policies (work)

4. Policies (school)

1. To reduce the number of women in work. Believed a woman’s place was in the home

2. Persuaded women to behave differently. Nazi posters showed wives and mothers. Speeches encouraged women to leave work and focus on the ‘three K’s’ (Kinder, Kuche, Kirche)

3. 1933, women banned from being teachers, doctors, civil servants. End of 1934, 360,000 women gave up work

   1936, women banned from being judges, lawyers or doing jury service

4. Schoolgirls trained for motherhood. Taught housework and domestic tasks.

   1937, girls’ grammar schools preparing them for university were banned. Female students starting higher education fell by 11,000 in 1932-1939

Appearance

1. Nazi encouragement

2. Nazi discouragement

1. Propaganda idealised modest clothes with hair tied back in plaits or in a bun

2. Dyeing hair, wearing makeup and smoking