1. Shaping Society Topic K – Part Three - Women in Nazi Society

2. First quarter of 1900s O Population Size O Growth had decelerated (not population size) O 1900 – over 2 million live births per annum O 56 million O 1933 – less than 1 million live births per annum O 67 million O Female employment O Expanded by at least a third. (far more than population growth)

3. Why? O Population size O Use of contraception could improve living standards and give women chance to have vocation and children O WW1 O 1.8 million extra marriageable women O Many wives with invalid husbands

4. Why? O Female employment O Contraception O WW1 O Inflation (post war), women kept working – need O Non-manual labour demanded – changin balance of economy O Mass-production – unskilled workers O women cheaper in these jobs than men

6. 1916 – in Berlin work on saccharine because of sugar shortages

7. Nazi aims for women O To have more children and take responsibility for bringing them up O To care for the house and their husband O To stop paid employment except for very specialised vocations such as midwifery

8. Hitler’s views on women O Hitler believed that the two sexes were different but equal. They should each fulfil entirely different roles. ‘A woman’s place was in the home’. As the Nazi slogan presented it, they were responsible for the 3 Ks – ‘Kinder, Kirche and Küche’. A Party regulation from 1921 excluded women from senior positions in the Nazi structure, and by 1933 there were no female Nazi deputies in the Reichstag

9. Why did the Nazis want more children? O Growing population O Sign of national strength and status O Look like international power O Justification for expanding east O If number of Germans levelling out, why need more space?

10. 1933 – 1936. Encourage women to leave jobs O Debarred from jobs in medicine, law, high ranks of civil service O Female teachers and univsersity students – reduced O Only 10% at uni - female O Huge effect on professional, middle-class women (but very small demographic) O Loans of 600RM if withdrew from labour market and got married

11. 1933 – 1936. Encourage women to leave jobs O Depression O Reduced female workers O Justified campaigns to help unemployed men O Labour exchanges and employers advised to discriminate positively in favour of men

12. Were they successful in reducing number of women in workforce? O 1932 – 37% of women in employment O 1937 – 31% of women in employment

13. Nazi women’s organisations O National Socialist Womanhood (NSF, National Sozialistische Frauenschaft) O German Women’s Enterprise (DFW, Deutsches Frauenwerk) O NSF - When started campaign for better oppurtunities – organisers discredited O Led by Gertrud Schlotz-Klink O Both tools to proprogate anti- feminist ideology using cultural, educational and social programmes

14. Gertrud Schlotz-Klink

15. Gertrud Schlotz-Klink with Hitler

16. Membership pin

17. Excerpt from Schlotz-Klink’s 1936, New Year speech "... Women, I wish to try briefly to make clear what the deepest calling we women have is: motherhood. In the bad fourteen years between 1918 and 1933, motherhood was often robbed of its deepest meaning and reduced to something superficial, something that was even held in contempt. Instead of a child being seen as the deepest affirmation of the woman and of life, it was seen as a burden, as a sacrifice on the part of the woman. A child was often seen not as a great link to God as the creator of all life, before whom we must bow with folded hands and trembling hearts, but rather very often as the result of a weak mind and as an escape from the great events of life...."

18. Schlotz-Klink’s view on women in politics Despite her own position, Scholtz-Klink spoke against the participation of women in politics, and took the female politicians in Germany of the Weimar Republic as a bad example: "Anyone who has seen the Communist and Social Democratic women scream on the street and in the parliament, will realize that such an activity is not something which is done by a true woman".She claimed that for a woman to become involved in politics, she would have to “become like a man” to achieve something, which would “shame her sex” – or “behave like a woman”. Which would prevent her from achieving anything: either way, therefore, nothing was gained from women acting as politicians.

19. Increase in female workforce between 1937 and 1939 O 1937 O 5.7 million women employed O 31% of workforce O 7.1 million women employed in 1939 O 33% of workforce

20. Why did it increase? O Shortage of labour O conscription and rearmament O Ended ‘marriage loan scheme’

21. Why women underemployed until end of war? O Poor economic mobilisation O Badly organised O No conscription of women to workforce O 1943 – Speer tried to mobilise women to workforce O Opposition from Bormann, Saukel and Hitler O Not want to ruin morale O Not appealing O Long hours, plus responsibility of home and children O Benefits to having more children (from gov.)

22. Why women underemployed until end of war? O Farming responsibilities O Played role in running farm (not considered traditional employment) O Shortage of labour – they worked on farm O By 1944 – 65% of farm workers - women

23. Last 2 years of Nazi Germany O More worked O Government would not fully denounce anti- feminist stance

24. Measures to increase population O Marriage loans O Introduced in June 1933. Reduced from 1937 O Loan of half a year’s earnings. Quarter converted to gift for each child born O Family allowances O Improved – especially for low income families O Income tax O Reduced in proportion to number of children O 6 children – no tax

25. Measures to increase population O Maternity benefits O Improved O Anti-abortion law O Introduced in Weimar but more enforced O Contraceptive and advice and facilities O restricted

26. Measures to increase population O Propaganda campaign O Glorified motherhood and large families O Honour Cross of the German Mother O Bronze – 4 children, silver – 6 children, gold – 8 children O Nazi slogan O ‘I have donated a child to the Führer’

33. Did the Nazis succeed? O Birth rate O 1933 – increased significantly O 14.7 per 1000 inhabitants O 1939 – peak O 20.3 per 1000 inhabitants O Marriages O Consistent – blips in 1934 and 1939 (improving economy and war) O 1933 – 9.7 per thousand, 1936 – 9.1 per thousand, 1939 - 11.1 per thousand

34. Did the Nazis succeed? O Divorces O Increased O 1933 – 29.7 per 1000 O 1936 – 32.6 per 1000 O 1939 – 38.3 per 1000 O 1938 – Marriage Law – increased grounds for divorce

35. Were the Nazis responsible for the changes? O Difficult to know O Social, economic and psychological factors also at play O Hard to assess ‘relative’ significance of Nazi policy compared to WW2 and Depression etc.

36. Lebensborn O Improve ‘racial standards’ O Set up by Himmler and the SS O Initially O Homes for unmarried mothers of illegitimate racially correct children O Later O Girls ‘impregnated’ by SS men in organised brothels O About 11,000 children born in this way by 1945

42. Success? O Yes O Many accepted view of women being different rather than inferior – non-feminist historians O Improved welfare services – life easier (especially women in isolated areas) O More women’s organisations and youth groups O Women protected O From combining paid work with bringing up family and running household

43. Success? O Yes O Mason O Regime more popular among women than men O Women preferred to stay home than work in factories O Many ideas were just more extreme than widespread O Eg. Catholic Church – separate spheres view of women’s role – stressed value of procreation

44. Success O No O Feminist historians O Reduced status of women O Gisela Bock (1980s) O Nazi thinking ‘secondary racism’ O Women were victims of a sexist-racist regime O Women’s status reduced to mere objects O Not in line with social realities of 20th Century O Idealistic but impractical O Contradictory and incoherent

45. Success O No O Contradictory O Marriage and family O Promoted. But HJ takes children away and encourages them to challenge parents O Divorce and sterilisation O Encouraged for ‘unworthy’ people. Contradicts ideologies of marriage and procreation (angered Catholic Church) O Procreation O Was encouraged even outside marriage (Lebensborn homes)

46. Success O No O Attempts to drive women back into home O Women in jobs increased O Ideology conflicted with economic need O Fear even in war of drafting women in case husbands lose morale O Middle-class women – unenthusiastic O Many thought the regime was horrific (both sexes)

47. Success O No O Nazis were cautious of alienating groups O Women rarely forcced out of jobs O Even from 1939 – cautious as afraid of reaction