Women in Nazi Germany
In Nazi Germany, women were subject to doctrines of Nazism by the Nazi Party, which promoted exclusion of women from the political and academic life of Germany as well as its executive body and executive committees. On the other hand, whether through sheer numbers, lack of local organization, or both, many German women did indeed become Nazi Party members. In spite of this, the Nazi regime officially encouraged and pressured women to fill the roles of mother and wife only. Women were excluded from all other positions of responsibility, including political and academic spheres. Nazism rejected feminism as "anti-German".
The policies contrasted starkly with the evolution of women's rights and gender equality under the Weimar Republic, but is also distinguishable from the conservative attitude under the German Empire. The regimentation of women at the heart of satellite organizations of the Nazi Party, as the Bund Deutscher Mädel or the NS-Frauenschaft, had the ultimate goal of encouraging the cohesion of the "people's community".
The ideal woman in Nazi Germany did not have a career outside her home. Instead, she was a good wife, a careful and conscientious mother, and skilled at doing all domestic chores such as cleaning and cooking. Women had a limited right to training of any kind; such training usually revolved around domestic tasks. Over time, Nazi-era German women were restricted from teaching in universities, working as medical professionals, and serving in political positions within the NSDAP. With the exception of Reichsführerin Gertrud Scholtz-Klink, women were not permitted to carry out official functions. However, there were some notable exceptions, either through their proximity to Adolf Hitler, such as Magda Goebbels, or by excelling in particular fields, such as filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl or aviator Hanna Reitsch. Many restrictions on women were lifted once wartime necessity required policy changes later in the regime.
The historiography of "ordinary" German women in Nazi Germany has changed significantly over time; studies done just after World War II tended to see them as additional victims of Nazi oppression. However, during the late 20th century, historians began to argue that German women were able to influence the course of the regime and even the war. In addition, these studies found women's experiences during the Nazi regime varied by class, age and religion.
While many women played an influential role at the heart of the Nazi system or filled official posts at the heart of the Nazi concentration camps, a few were engaged in the German resistance and paid with their lives, such as Libertas Schulze-Boysen and Sophie Scholl.
Background
Under the Weimar Republic, the status of women was one of the most progressive in Europe. The Weimar Constitution of January 19, 1919 proclaimed their right to vote, equality of the sexes in civic matters, non-discrimination against female bureaucrats., maternity rights and spousal equality within marriage. Clara Zetkin, a prominent leader of the German feminist movement, was a Member of Parliament in the Reichstag from 1920 to 1933 and even presided over the assembly in the role of Dean. But Weimar did not represent a huge leap forward for women's liberation. Women remained under-represented in the parliament; motherhood continued to be promoted as women's most important social function; abortion was still prosecutable ; and female workers did not achieve substantial economic progress such as equal salaries. With the emergence of consumerism, businesses and government had an increasing need for labour; although work became a route to emancipation for women, they were often restricted to clerical work as secretaries or sales staff, where they were generally paid 10 to 20% less than male employees, under various pretexts, such as the claim that their understanding of domestic tasks freed them from certain household expenses.While most of the other parties under the Weimar Republic ran female candidates during elections, the Nazi party did not. In 1933, Joseph Goebbels justified this position by explaining that "it is necessary to leave to men that which belongs to men ". Germany went from having 37 female Members of Parliament out of 577, to none, after the election of November 1933.
Beginning of the Nazi regime
's attaining power as Chancellor marked the end of numerous women's rights, even though Hitler had succeeded in his social rise in part thanks to the protection of influential women and female voters. Hitler's socializing within affluent circles, and with socialites such as Princess Elsa Bruckmann, wife of the editor Hugo Bruckmann, and Helene Bechstein, wife of industrialist Edwin Bechstein, early on brought the Nazi party significant new sources of financing. For example, Gertrud von Seidlitz, a widow of a noble family, donated 30,000 marks to the party in 1923; and Helene Bechstein, who had an estate on the Obersalzberg, facilitated Hitler's acquisition of the property Wachenfeld.In regards to the role played by women voters in Hitler's rise to power, Helen Boak notes that the "NSDAP had been gaining proportionately more support from women than from men from 1928 onwards, not because of any concerted effort on its part nor because of its leader's charisma nor because of one specific element of its propaganda. Women chose to vote NSDAP for the same reasons men voted for the party – out of self-interest, out of a belief that the party best represented their own idea of what German society should be, even if they may have disagreed with the party's stand on individual issues. The larger increase in the share of women's votes than in that of men's votes cast for the NSDAP from 1928 owes much to the party's growing prominence and respectability, as the party's dynamism, the contrast of its young leadership with the elder statesmen of the other parties, its growing strength, the disintegration of the liberal and local, conservative parties and the general disillusionment and dissatisfaction with what the Republic had brought or failed to bring all contributed to the reasons why German men and women turned to the NSDAP...Because of the preponderance of women in the electorate, the NSDAP received more votes from women than from men in some areas before 1932 and throughout the Reich in 1932. Claims that Hitler and his party held no attraction for women voters and that the NSDAP benefitted little from female suffrage cannot, therefore, be maintained. Historian Wendy Lower makes it clear that while "Women were not a majority of those who voted for Hitler...In the presidential election of March 1932...26.5% for Hitler. In the 1931 September elections, 3 million women voted for NSDAP candidates, almost half of the total of 6.5 million votes cast for the NSDAP." In terms of voting patterns however, a higher proportion of male voters supported the Nazi party compared to female voters.
In 1934, speaking at a conference of the National Socialist Women's Organization in Nuremberg, Hitler dencounced the "women's liberation movement" and blamed Jews for it. He went on to say "In the truly good times of German life the German woman never had to liberate herself" and that Germany needed women "...who look at the duties with which nature burdens all of us."
In 1935, during a speech to the National-Socialist Women's Congress, Hitler declared, with regard to women's rights: The fact that Hitler was unmarried and that he represented a masculine ideal for many Germans led to his erotisation in the public imagination. In April 1923, an article appeared in the Münchener Post stating "women adore Hitler "; he was described as adapting his speeches to "the tastes of women who, since the beginning, count among his most fervent admirers". Women were also sometimes instrumental in bringing their husbands into the Nazi political fold, thus contributing to the recruitment of new NSDAP members.
Heinrich Himmler declared as much to the SS-Gruppenführer, on February 18, 1937:
Himmler also stated a balance was needed between and the "excessive military and male orientation of German life and German youth" and chivalry towards women, "as knights and cavaliers who treated women respectfully", as he believed too much of the former would lead to homosexuality, and too much of the latter would lead to Germany becoming like "the Anglo-Saxon nations, especially America" where he claimed men were "in slavery to their womenfolk, the best example of a female tyranny!" He even went as far as to claim men had to pay damages or marry a girl in America just for looking at her and that this lead to men embracing homosexuality; concluding that the women were "battle-axes" hacking away at the males.
Officially, the status of women changed from "equal rights" to an "equivalence" between men and women. Historian points out that "this offensive offered the double advantage of pleasing their male colleagues worried by this competition, and returned to private life more than 100,000 people proud of their success, the majority of whom were voters who supported the political left". This policy created worry among the militants in the NSDAP, who were concerned that it would harm the number of female graduates, a reservoir needed for future party ranks.
Withdrawal from higher education
In 1933, school programmes for girls were changed, notably with the goal of discouraging them from pursuing university studies. The five years of Latin classes and three years of science were replaced by courses in German language and domestic skills training. This did not bear productive results; on the one hand, a significant number of girls enrolled in boys' schools, while on the other hand, the "enrollment restrictions" of 10% at the university level were generally ignored. Thus, the measures only decreased the enrollment in medical schools from 20% to 17%.Some women's associations, notably communist and socialist groups were banned, and in some rare cases members were arrested or assassinated. All associations were requested to turn in Jewish members, such as the Union of Protestant Women, the Association of Household and Countryside, the Women's German Colonial Society Union and the Union of Queen Louise. But rapidly, the majority of the associations disbanded or chose among themselves to disappear, such as the BDF, established in 1894 and which disbanded in 1933 to avoid being controlled. Only one women's association persisted under the regime, until 1944, but placed under the guardianship of the Reich Minister of People's Education and of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels. Rudolf Hess established the Deutsches Frauenwerk which, with the women's branch of the Nazi party, the NS-Frauenschaft, had the purpose of becoming a mass organization for the regime.
In 1936, a law was passed banning certain high-level positions in the judicial system to women ; she then left for the Netherlands, and then Sweden. In the scientific field, there were almost no nominations of women; in 1942, a woman was not permitted to direct a scientific institute, despite the fact that no male candidate had applied. The exile of women from political life was total: they could not sit in either the Reichstag, the regional parliaments or municipal councils.
There was no substantial resistance to this control. The bourgeois women's associations reasoned, as did many others, that the Nazi government was a vulgar phenomenon that would soon fade, and that through their participation they could still exert some influence. They thus deluded themselves into believing that they were obtaining an "acceptable arrangement". With respect to the widespread tendency to underestimate the threat that the regime presented, the historian Claudia Koonz highlights the popular proverb of the era: "The soup is never eaten as hot as it is cooked". Women who were the most resolute in their opposition either set their sights on emigration, or, if they took an active stance, risked being arrested and interned, and possibly executed, the same as male opponents of the regime.