Women in Nazi Germany

1) How did life change for women in Germany under Nazi rule?

Life changed significantly for German women in the 1930’s when The Nazi Party came to power. During the 1920’s, women had had few restrictions in their lives and were able to both work and vote. Yet after the rise of Adolf Hitler in 1933, women in Nazi Germany were to have a very specific role. Outside of certain specialist fields, saw no reason why a woman should continue to work. In there had been 100,000 female teachers, 13,000 female musicians, and 3000 female doctors. Within months of Hitler coming to power, many female doctors and civil servants were sacked, closely followed by female lawyers and teachers. By the start of the , very few German women were in fulltime work. For the independent and career-minded women who had lost their jobs, the rise of the Nazi party would have had both a dramatic and negative affect on their life. Not only were they no longer expected to work, but after having been fully independent beforehand, they were now expected to stay at home and rely on their husbands and the government for support.

Education taught girls that there was a certain lifestyle that they should admire and pursue from an early age, and girls were taught that all ideal German women should marry at a young age. They were also taught that their duty as a wife would be to keep a clean and tidy home for her working husband and to have lots of children. To encourage this, Hitler passed the ‘Law for the Encouragement of Marriage’ just after he came to power. This law stated that all newly married couples would get a government loan of one thousand marks, and 800,000 newly weds took up this offer. The birth of one child meant that 25% of the loan did not have to be paid back. Having two children meant that 50% of the loan need not be paid back, and having four children meant that the entire loan was cleared. For many women, this law would have been highly beneficial. It was an easy way of receiving extra money for doing something that they saw as their primary duty- to be the ideal German woman who cared for her husband, home, and children.

German women were fully controlled and were discouraged from wearing make up and trousers, and were encouraged to wear their hair in a certain style and dress in a specific way. Only flat shoes were expected to be worn and women were discouraged from slimming, as this was considered bad for childbirth. They were actively encouraged to have a well-built figure as it was taught that slim women would have problems in pregnancy.

For many German women under the Nazi rule, these dramatic changes to their previous lifestyle would have been seen as negative and unnecessary. These were the women who in the 1920’s, had power, good jobs, and were self-reliant. The sudden loss of their jobs and their independence would have caused a great deal of anger and frustration amongst these women. However, not all women had been in that position and some welcomed the changes. Many women had been educated to believe that it was their duty to stay at home and bring up a family, and now saw the added ...

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2) Explain the part played by the different agencies in support of the Nazi ideology.

In the period of 1933-43 the Nazi party could be said to have had almost total control of Germany. There were no attempts to overthrow the Government, few incidents of public opposition to Nazi policy and little in the way of political pressure groups opposing policies. The Nazi’s power was largely based around the various groups who supported their ideologies. Adherents of the Nazi ideology held that the Aryan race was superior to other races, and they promoted racial supremacy and a strong, centrally governed state. Hitler developed his political theories during a short stay in prison and he outlined his views based on a racial, religious, and cultural hierarchy.

The SS was a large and complex political and military organisation made up of three separate and distinct branches, all related but equally unique in their functions and all principal components of the . The Nazis regarded the SS as an elite unit, with all selected on racial and ideological grounds. By the time the gained power in 1933 Himmler's SS had grown to a strength of 52,000 and as a result of this, the SS was now the principal instrument of internal rule in Germany. In 1936 the also came under Himmler's control.

The was the official of . The role of the Gestapo was to investigate and combat all tendencies dangerous to the State. It had the authority to investigate , and cases, and cases of criminal attacks on the and on .

The functioned as a of the party and it played a key role in 's rise to power in the .

The SA was a paramilitary organisation created to protect the Nazi meetings and disrupt the other parties. It grew in importance within the Nazi structure, and eventually claimed thousands of members. The SA carried out numerous acts of violence against groups throughout the , typically in minor street-fights.

The SS in particular had tremendous power and control, and one that the Nazi’s knew would help them to stay in power. Hitler was aware that power and control could be easily gained by creating fear amongst people, and there were many ways in which this could happen. The Gestapo investigated the potential slander of both Hitler and the Nazi party, and people therefore were aware that any negative opinions of either of these were best kept to themselves. These parties were several of the most successful in increasing the Nazi’s power in Germany. Their effectiveness was based around the fear and violence that they created amongst society, and all three of the organisations used extreme violence in order to create intense fear amongst German citizens.

The Hitler Youth was a organisation of the that existed from to and had the basic motivation of training future who would serve the faithfully. Training took precedence over and scientific education in Hitler Youth organisations learned to use weapons, built up their physical strength, learned war strategies, and were indoctrinated in . Membership to Nazi Youth Movements was soon made compulsory. To reinforce the Nazi ideology from an early age, all school curriculum’s were changed to contain what the Nazi’s saw as the main needs. Hitler realised very quickly that an easy way to gain support and therefore further increase his power would be by educating Germany’s youth with Nazi policies. Children were given anti-Semitic propaganda in order to completely indoctrinate them. These clever tactics meant that The Hitler Youth was a highly effective agency that increased both the power and the popularity of the Nazi party.

The Church in was subjected to as much pressure as any other organisation in Germany. Any perceived threat to could not be tolerated, and Hitler believed that the churches of Germany potentially presented the Nazis with numerous threats. In 1936, the Nazi’s created the Reich Church and all Nazi’s were encouraged to go. The symbol representing the church was not the Christian cross, but instead a swastika. In the altar, a copy of Hitler’s book ‘Mein Kampf’ replaced the Bible. The Reich Church did not have a strong impact on German people due to its low popularity, as many saw no need to leave the church they were familiar with and join another church.

KDF was a large state controlled leisure organisation in , a part of the . From it provided affordable leisure activities such as concerts, day-trips and holidays and large ships were also built specifically for KDF cruises. The production of an affordable car was also set up by KDF in order to encourage more people, particularly young couples, to join. The Nazi’s set up KDF in order to control every aspect within a German citizen’s life. The more control the Nazi’s had over people, the likelier they were to succeed in achieving their aims. However, the KDF was also unsuccessful in comparison to the other agencies set up by the Nazi’s as it failed to make a strong impact on German citizens.

To ‘protect’ those in work, the German Labour Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfront) was set up, and it took the role of trade unions, which had been banned. It was ordered that workers could not be sacked on the spot, and that a worker was also unable to leave their job without the government’s permission. Only government labour exchanges could arrange for a new job if someone did leave his employment. However, the DAF increased the number of hours worked from 60 to 72 per week by 1939 and strikes were outlawed. The Nazi’s supposedly set up the DAF to protect workers and give them better opportunities. Yet it appears that by outlawing strikes, and only allowing people to leave their jobs with Government permission, the DAF was simply another way in which for the Nazi’s to have greater control over people.

3) To what extent was Nazi rule a negative experience for women of Germany?

Nazi rule undoubtedly changed life dramatically for German women in many ways. However it is debatable as to whether these changes were predominantly negative or positive. There are two groups of women living at this time who would have viewed the changes differently. Those who would have viewed the changes negatively would have included Jewish women, independent and career minded women, strong willed and naturally rebellious women, and women who had lost their jobs when the Nazis came to power. The women who viewed the changes as positive however, would be the those who agreed with the Nazi ideology that women should be good mothers and wives, rather than focusing on having a career.

For many women, the Nazi rule imposed many restrictions in their lives and these dramatic disruptions to their previous ways of living would have been seen as incredibly negative changes. Hitler had strong views on the role of German women, and regardless of whether these women contributed greatly towards society, Hitler began to impose laws and regulations that restricted the freedom of women. Hitler wanted the population of Germany to increase in order to heighten the country’s power and there were several ways in which this could be achieved. Women were forced to give up work and instead have children, whilst Hitler reduced women's social activity to a purely biological purpose. It was a woman’s duty to assure the future of the German race, and to encourage this policy, he offered incentives to women such as marriage loans, tax allowances, and health services. He even praised the women for their services to the state publicly, which created a more positive outlook on the policies that he had enforced. As a result, women were often more willing to comply with such a programme, and those that were unwilling had no choice but to adhere to the Nazi policies.

Interestingly, many women supported the Nazi Party simply because it urged returning to the traditional family values of the past when women were encouraged to stay at home and concern themselves with taking care of the household. There were many women in Germany who felt burdened by their new social responsibilities and had the desire to return to this simpler way of life.

At the time, many women would have believed these changes to be positive. They had been taught from an early age that their role in life was to be a mother, and therefore many women would have been perfectly happy fulfilling what they believed to be their duty in life. Not only were they accomplishing their duties, but were being rewarded for doing so. After the Wall Street Crash occurred in 1929, poverty levels increased rapidly in Germany, and the German mark became worthless. When the Nazis came to power, unemployment levels decreased, and monetary incentives were given to families for having children. For people that had been previously despairing over the economic problems, the Nazis gave hope for many people, and to certain women these changes could be nothing other than positive.

Although it can be argued that the Nazis created some positive changes in for women in Germany, it is evident that that their policies overall had a negative affect on the lives of women. Hitler dismissed and ignored all of the achievements that women had accomplished during the Weimar Republic, and instead manipulated people in order to increase his own power. Women were unable to oppose the Nazi policies, and simply had to accept their new roles as a housewife and mother. Every aspect of their lives were restricted and controlled, and any freedom and power that women had once had quickly diminished. Some women were never even given the chance to comply with these policies, and instead faced the Nazis sinister anti-Semitic ideologies, as an estimated three million Jewish females were murdered by the Nazis.