by: Erin Kruml
The story of the German feminist movement is one of great advances and
public involvement, until a Nazi government destroyed feminist aspirations
and left women powerless and silent. With lies, propaganda, and fear,
National Socialism deadened the voices of what once was a resounding, organized
women’s movement in Germany. German feminism, strong during the Weimar
Republic of the 1920’s, was suppressed by the new government headed by
Adolf Hitler. By seducing a generation of young women away from feminist
views and into the Nazi party (NSDAP) that promoted the image of the mother
and the obedient wife, all that German feminists strived for and attained
was lost. What was once a powerful force dissipated into Nazi regulated
women’s organizations, female involvement in resistance groups, or, mostly,
a mix of complacency and anticipation. Although the Third Reich collapsed
in 1945 with the end of World War II, its policies concerning women succeeded
in dismantling the German women’s movement for years after its implementation.
Prior to the rise of Hitler in 1933, German women had organized
themselves to fight for rights and equality. The German feminist
movement of the late nineteenth century was lead by a bourgeois women’s
organization, specifically the Bund Deutsches Frauenvereine (BDF).1
Despite the middle-class leadership, German feminism was clearly connected
with the Socialist movement through the radical Social Democratic Party
(SPD), which was among the first political parties to advocate women’s
voting rights. Feminism was also boosted through external conditions,
such as the invention of new appliances, which increased leisure time for
middle-class women in the home, influencing them to look into education,
social services, or other forms of public involvement. Besides unleashing
themselves from a domestic environment, girls received a better education
and tried to move into the male-dominated work world. Another shift
towards involvement in the public sphere began with the onset of World
War I. Women were temporarily recruited in the male dominated work
force and became involved in worker’s unions. A cry for citizenship
with equal rights naturally developed. The cry was heard in 1918
when the creation of the new Weimar Republic granted voting rights to all
citizens, female as well as male.2 These events marked the
first time in German history that women were given a significant part,
through suffrage and governmental positions, in political life and therefore
public life.
The pro-feminist mood quickly altered in Germany in 1933 when
Hitler and the Nazi Party gained power, dominating politics and interfering
in both private and public spheres. Wanting to control Germany, the
Nazis also wanted to control each individual’s life within it. In
retrospect the fact that women were the primary attendees of Nazi meetings
seems contradictory to what is typically understood about Nazism, a macho
ideology. However, moods were changing which clashed with the Weimar
government and what many saw as the deteriorating value system. The
Weimar Republic struggled against post-war. economic hardships generating
political instability. People felt insecure due to the chaos around
them economically and politically, blaming ‘new’ social movements such
as socialism and feminism. Many Germans were disgusted by what they
viewed as the weakness of the Weimar democracy. These ideas led to
apathy and a mass feeling that the vote (and the rights previously won)
was useless. Women, retreating from feminist goals, began seeking
an organization that would respect the biological or stereotypical distinctions
between men and women, emphasizing traditional values.3
The National Socialist party was a catalyst for creating this
atmosphere, but also manipulated it to win over a population. Nazi
propaganda is arguably one of the largest and most successful political
campaigns in modern history. National Socialists engineered specific
propaganda for women because they feared women would not follow Nazism,
especially with the strength of the feminist and pacifist movements during
the Weimar Republic.4 The headlines of female directed propaganda
spoke of the “cult of motherhood” which emphasized women as mothers and
wives, not only to their individual families, but more importantly to the
nation: “motherly devotion equals devotion to the state.”5
Specifically, a woman’s ‘duty’ was the domestic realm through three main
practices: forming racially healthy marriages (anyone of Jewish descent
was considered racially impure), to care for their families, and to be
patriotic, which included the promotion of Nazi ideas in their households.
Nazi women’s organizations were in charge of the specific propaganda designed
for women. The array of pamphlets, magazines, and exhibitions lacked
the popularity, permeation and coercive ability of radio. Radio successfully
connected the private sphere with the public sphere by allowing Nazi propaganda
to infiltrate every German family at once.6 Excluding political
news, radio shows were either cooking programs or concentrated on household
concerns, such as chores.7 One popular wartime radio show’s
topic was: “discussion on the morality of eating cake at a time of national
need.”8 The words and manipulation of the Third Reich were
inescapable.
This type of propaganda blocked women from involvement in the
public sphere, and therefore excluded them from high positions in society.
Although all Nazi propaganda took a traditional stance reflecting ‘family
values,’ pre-1933 Nazi pronouncements envisioned women as the “backbone”
of the new government. After Hitler was elected, however, the superiority
of men was emphasized in campaigns.9 Joseph Geobbels, Minister
of Propaganda, stated that the National Socialism was “an entirely masculine
affair befitting a masculine age” governed “by men, for men, and about
men.”10 The effect of this propaganda was clear when, in 1933,
37 seats in the Parliament were available to women, but women refused to
succeed these positions.11 Party disdain focused upon policies
restricting women from work and economic equality. Flowing from this
rhetoric was great incentive for women to quit their positions in the work
force to focus on the home. Many women disagreed with the attempts
to push them out of the work force, yet public protests were rarely recorded.
In addition to the hostile work environment for women, in 1933 all married
women were dismissed from civil and public service jobs. Although
National Socialist policies continued to discourage women from the work
force, they never completely eliminated their participation. Women
became essential workers in the factory when Hitler began drafting troops
in 1936 in preparation for a new war.12 The great irony of
Nazi policy was that women were desperately necessary to a system that
alienated them by law.13
Despite the need for female labor in the factories, Nazi propaganda
focused upon specific and horrifying list of population policies to increase
the German birthrate. Bonuses and loans were given for couples that
were promoting the Aryan race through ‘good’ breeding.14
All birth control clinics and contraceptive sales were outlawed.
This included any conversation held or advice given about birth control
methods. Then began a heavy campaign against sexual diseases and
the banning of abortion.15 Propaganda advocating reproduction
was aimed at men as well as women, leading to a high divorce rate among
older women. New divorce laws encouraged the acceptability of a man
abandoning his wife if she reached menopause to marry a young, virile woman.16
If a woman could not reproduce she was no longer a valuable citizen as
stated by a main Nazi policy: “women who have passed child-bearing age
are no further interest to the Nazi State”17 Alimony was rare, for
if a women could find work she could theoretically support herself without
assistance from her ex-husband. The new divorce laws forced divorced
women into the Nazi factory, another ploy to support the Third Reich.18
The value of a woman through her reproductive capabilities was exemplified
in the Mother’s Day celebration of 1939. Women were awarded medals
according to the number of children they produced. The orator, Dr.
Wilhelm Fricks, thanked Hitler for instilling the future of Germany not
“on the material success of the individual . . . but on the wealth of healthy
children.” Fricks labeled those who did not reproduce profusely (four
children were considered merely respectable) “anti-social.”19
However, only certain members of the populous were legally allowed
to reproduce. This was based on Hitler’s definitions of the Aryan
race and viciously excluded those of Jewish descent. The Third Reich
spoke often of the “suitable” section of the population who was deemed
worthy to be involved in the Nazi family and those who were not, or “unsuitable,”
and were sterilized. Of all sterilized, 2/3 were females. The
fact that 90 percent of those sterilized died from complications demonstrates
the power of bigotry. Women were also very active in these policies,
as will be discussed later. These included female prison guards,
female advisors who chose those to be sterilized, and activists in the
Nazi party.20 It is important to understand that the women
were not free from racism and many were active members in the Nazi organizations.
Nazis quickly realized that to gain the support of women policies
must be designed to make women feel active and important in the movement.
The National Socialist Women’s League (NSF) was formed soon after the establishment
of the Nazi government. Gertrude Scholtz-Klink, a leader of the NSF,
merged local National Socialist women’s groups and made it the goal of
the organization to educate women in national and political tasks.21
This was in accordance with the new policy of Gleichgeschaltet, originating
from the German word Gleichschaltung, meaning “coordinated,” forcing
all women’s organizations, ranging from radical to moderate feminist groups,
into the NSF.22 By 1938, all 320,000 women that had joined
were active members of the Nazi party.23 The question arises
to the specific implications of Gleichgeschaltet. The rest of this
paper will elaborate on the women who did support the Nazi government through
NSF and its organizations, how the feminist movement was specifically exiled,
and the women who found avenues of resistance.
The rule for feminists and activist women became conform or vanish.
There existed many offsprings of the larger entity of the NSF, each constructed
for a specific purpose to manipulate the conversion of all German women
to Nazism. The goals of some groups included spying on possible rebellious
women and exposing them to the Reich.24 Some feminists supported
National Socialism from its onset because it was anti-liberal (as detailed
later with the BDF) but also because of its racist and severe nationalistic
views. Nazi organizations opened up new venues for women to explore.
At first, women joined as assistants to their husbands, sons, or fathers.
They sewed, cooked, made uniforms, and other types of stereotypical women’s
work.25 With the formation of the NSF women were allowed some
leeway in interpretation of policies and creation of NSF regulations.
They demonstrated their economic significance by raising funds. The
power of discourse through marches in rallies, in organization meetings,
on the soapbox, and through propaganda gained women access to the public
sphere.26 These ideas attracted women from all classes, but
despite the rhetoric otherwise, most female members were middle class because
they had the time to dedicate to the NSF.27 Also, even with
the initial female support for the Third Reich, paranoia ran rampant.
The strength of feminism in the Weimar Republic was not forgotten, and
feminism was therefore seen not only as contrary to Nazi patriarchal values
but also as a threat to the regime.28
The conception of women as more rebellious than men influenced
the formation of the power structure of the NSF. Therefore, Nazi
women’s groups possessed minimal power, even when they exhibited extreme
loyalty. The first Nazi women organizations formed on July 6, 1931,
even before Hitler was appointed Chancellor. At first, Nazis tried
to utilize such women’s leagues, such as the German Women’s Order (DFO).
DFO head, Elizabeth Zander, petitioned Hitler in January 1928 to become
a part of NSDAP. Zander believed women had a distinct role in education
against Jewish influence and overall social welfare of the German nation.
After the DFO was adopted into the NSDAP, it was dissolved in 1931 to create
the NSF out of disillusionment with Zander. The NSF began under male
domination through the power of Gregor Stasser. Hand picked from
the NSDAP, he co-organized and was the first leader of the NSF.29
In this early period (1931-33), the NSF members spoke frequently against
the male-dominated political structure. These early female leaders
below Stasser advocated for the spread of the cult of motherhood and for
it to be more than “merely lip service.”30 NSF’s openness to
radical ideas ended with Stasser’s resignation. Replaced by Scholtz-Klink,
she was ordered to rid the NSF of its internal, mainly feminist conflicts
in 1933-34.31 Scholtz-Klink instituted a powerful sub-group,
the German Worker’s Enterprise (DFW), which contained a plethora of smaller
women’s groups, under direct control of the NSF from 1934-1945.32
As the leader of the NSF and the most powerful woman with a political
position in Nazi society, Scholtz-Klink directly affected the Nazi women’s
organizations and their goals. She promoted woman’s education and
even encouraged female universities. Much of the DFW concerned itself
with working women and their education.33 The perfect summarization
of Scholtz-Klink’s, and the NSF’s, ideology roots itself in National Socialist
politics: “Germans First, Women Second.”34 One example of a
NSF produced organization is the Reichsimutterdienst (RMD; National Mother’s
Service). Created in 1934, the RMD promoted racial awareness for
women when choosing a husband. It offered educational classes on
raising children and handling housework.35 However, Scholtz-Klink’s
popularity declined with the implementation of the BDM in July 1932.
The Third Reich wanted to secure the next generation of women. The
organization aimed to teach girls to be good future mothers and educated
them on Nazi policies. The BDM allowed girls to organize and lead
groups of their peers. When a girl finished schooling, she was immediately
sent as a duty-girl to a family with three or more children. She
learned domestic skills through six months of application.
Young mothers liked the BDM because they did ease the workload,
but much resistance also came from women who saw the organization as a
violation of their traditional right to educate their daughters.36
Backlash was aimed towards Scholtz-Klink with a gradual loss of authority
due to her loss in popularity in 1934.37 When the NSF was disbanded,
Scholtz-Klink was discredited and disappeared from public life, just like
radical feminists were forced to do under Gleichgeschaltet.38
After the German defeat in World War II in May 1945, the NSDAP ended, and
Scholtz-Klink hid herself in France. When found, she was deemed insignificant
in the Nazi political structure even though she was head of organizing
half the population. Her only punishment was to be banned from public
office and involvement in politics. Scholtz-Klink, disappointed with
the woman’s organizations, believed them ineffectual because men commanded
them.39
The NSF lacked political power compared to other Nazi organizations.
First of all male leaders from the NSDAP constantly controlled it.
Scholtz-Klink, merely a figurehead to the Nazi leadership, had to report
to them. However, the NSF has never been directly linked to the mass
genocide or concentration camps. Rather, the NSF focused on spreading
the ideas of racial purity, not enacting them. Secondly, the Third
Reich promoted policies that the NSF objected to by principle, but refused
to intervene in their creation. For example, from 1935-36 child allowances
were distributed, not to mothers, but to fathers. The NSF was ineffective
in establishing ‘wives’ into the policy.40 Thirdly, most members
of the NSF were inactive, paying dues but not actively participating in
the organizations programs to educate mothers and wives. This was
largely due to the fact that few favored the idea of a women organization.
Another reason women did not join the NSF was their attachment to religion
over nationalistic concerns. Nazism was in direct opposition to Catholic
and Protestant beliefs, asking members of those churches to devote themselves
to Hitler over god.41 With low membership and an even lower
rate of activism, the NSF proved to be less valuable to the Nazi schema
than first hoped.
If women were not involved in the NSF, what happened to the profound
feminist activism that existed before Nazism? National Socialism
manipulated women’s movements and, after gaining control over them, dismantled
them during Gleichgeschaltet. Nazism ushered in an era specifying
the “criminalization” of women’s movements.42 To eliminate
the enemy and to promote the idea of a superior race, women’s emancipation
was denounced as a Jewish influence and, therefore, corruptive. 43
The dissolution of the BDF, a German feminist organization, serves as a
good illustration for the disappearances of the active, organized, feminist
movement after 1933. At its height during the Weimar Republic, the
BDF was involved in schooling for girls, admission into universities for
females, national suffrage, and a small percent of women were in positions
of power politically.44 Gertrude Baumer, the president of the
BDF, was an example of a politically active woman. She was a delegate
to the League of Nations during the Weimar Republic and in 1919 she was
elected to the National Assembly.45 In 1933 Baumer was dismissed
from office along with other women in high positions. From 1935 to
1937 her writings were censored. Her only outlet for her feminist
ideas was suffocated, as were the women’s movements in general. Following
the German coordination, Nazi groups infiltrated the BDF’s subsidiaries.
By May 1934, the BDF lost its power and influence, voluntarily dissolving
itself. This was the only way in which Baumer could save her organization
from becoming a puppet of the Nazi Regime. Baumer gained no important
positions and disappeared completely from the public eye.46
The BDF’s extinction symbolizes the “anti-climatic end” that
Nazis brought upon the organized feminist movement in Germany in the mid
1930’s.47 Complacency was the theme for most women and women’s
groups who had no choice but to disband or to be consumed into the National
Socialist party during Gleichgeschaltet. When Hitler first appeared
on the political scene, feminists, especially Gertrude Baumer, viewed him
as no threat to their organizations. Though the Third Reich’s policies
laid the final blow to the movements, the task was easier than expected
because of the fierce competition and disagreement between the radical
groups, such as Marxist and Socialist groups like the SPD, and the moderate
groups, the relational feminists such as the BDF. This type of competition
flows throughout feminist history, but was particularly damaging in the
case of Germany in the early twentieth century. The radical feminists
believed the moderate feminists were conceding to the Weimar Republic and
losing touch with the goals of feminism because they focused on education,
not full equality. The BDF’s membership was also exclusive to professionals
and women workers, in other words, women already involved in the public
sphere.48 Another problem with the BDF specifically was their lack
of connection to the younger generations. Young feminists chose to
be in the radical movements or supported National Socialism.
All of these internal and external clashes made it easier for
the National Socialists to crush the feminist movement, especially the
moderate feminists who were estranged from the radical generation that
the National Socialists were attracting into their framework. Nazi
propaganda manipulated rumors against the feminist organizations, turning
them on each other. They accused the BDF of selfishness because of
their membership policies and ideological focus on education and workingwomen.
They ridiculed their exclusive membership for ignoring the plight of all
classes. They also used the problems between sects to promote their
destruction. Nazis first categorized radical feminists less dangerous
than moderate feminists because of their deficiency in organization and
their lack of association with a specific party. Even in light of
this, radical movements were banned to suppress future rebellions and condemned
through propaganda and speeches. The NSDAP soon realized how feminism
bred with politics, making the KPD (Marxist) and SPD (socialist) the first
groups, due to their involvement with feminism, terminated. The moderate
feminists, uplifted by this occurrence, wrote to Hitler thanking him for
disbanding the radicals and ensuring their support.49 Many
feminist groups perceived Hitler as harmless (even helpful) because he
first attacked their enemies.
With no organizations that were not Nazi related, and without
strong leaders, the organized feminist movement that was such a force in
the Weimar Republic dissipated. Most women were occupied with work and
home responsibilities that the only option of involvement in the public
sphere remained the NSF. There did exist, however, a minority who
refused to join the NSF or NSDAP or listen to its propaganda. Female
involvement was just as important in the rebellions against Nazism as it
was in the establishment of Nazism through women’s initial support of Hitler.
In addition to this active resistance, women were arrested or killed as
vengeance against their husband or father who perpetrated crimes against
the Third Reich. The most effective tool, specifically for women,
lay in the power of speech or gossip. For example, on December 12,
1934 Munich, Germany instituted the Heimtuck Egesetz or Law Against Malicious
Gossip. Violating censorship laws became the dominant infraction
by women. Also, women were the usual violators of gossip laws.50
Violation of laws carried a heavy price from death to imprisonment.
Anyone even suspected of subverting the Nazi Regime, especially educators
or their students, were subsequently fired or dismissed from school.51
Since there are few written documents about group resistance,
historians usually equate female participation to that of male. No
specific female resistance group existed; women partook in male-formed
groups. These resistances contained little structure and less organization
than previous women’s movements.52 These small instances of
insubordination were either unorganized or organized. Most were unorganized,
sneaking and hiding Jews or the refusal by many housewives to teach their
children Nazi ideas. The organized usually transmitted Communist
ideas or were underground remnants of the KPD. The tragedy and continual
losses in World War II prompted upper class and military members to form
organized resistance groups in July 1944.53 Before 1944, strict
policies against rebellion shaped an underground, non-active resistance
based on an exchange of anti-nazi ideas or the “underground front,” referencing
the fronts of W.W.II.54 The breeding ground for rebellion was
the university; places valuing knowledge promoted an environment that questioned
authority. These groups grew of disenchantment with the new Nazi
Regime, but most were a form of youth rebellion.55 However,
a six-month period of hard labor was required before anyone could enter
a university. This caused many women to reject higher education and
choose motherhood.56 Nevertheless, women who entered universities
often attained and spread anti-Nazi ideas. Though these resistance
groups cannot be characterized as feminists specifically, they contain
many women who spoke out against Hitler and his fascism with lingering
notions of women’s rights.
One of the bravest, yet most tragic, groups was the White Rose
Student Group in Munich. Started by Sophia Scholl and her brother
Hans in 1942, the group was short-lived but influential. The group
rooted itself in pamphlet distribution and public vandalism. Members
degraded swastikas and painted anti-Hitler rhetoric such as “Hitler the
Mass Murderer” or “Down with Hitler.” 57 The White Rose pamphlets
trickled through universities, holding the readers responsible to spread
their ideas. In the third of four of the “Leaflets of White Rose”
encourage passive forms of resistance against all things National Socialist.
White Rose advocated various types of sabotage against property, propaganda,
and the refusal of support to Nazi organization either by participation
or economic support. Men and women are equated as citizens who have
the right to freedom and a moral, just government: “Every individual human
being has a claim to a useful and just state, a state which secures freedom
of the individual . . . but our present ‘state’ is a dictatorship of evil.”58
White Rose focuses on all German people, because at this time women were
not the only members of society being oppressed. White Rose saw a
need for all people to be equal, women included, and though resistance
groups like White Rose were not specifically feminist, they used universal
rhetoric including freedom and equality. Women were seen as a natural
part of humankind and were accepted by White Rose as needing the freedoms
to which they believed humanity was entitled to.
The White Rose society, and universities in general, were known
as hot spots for subversive activity. To prevent a much-feared woman’s
rebellion, all girls who exhibited “bluestocking” values were immediately
and unquestionably removed from university life.59 Many people,
like Paul Giesler, believed that a woman with an education was inherently
rebellious. Giesler, a Nazi official and propagandist, toured universities
speaking against the high educational environment for women. As a
result of his opinions many male and female students walked out during
his speech.60 Occurrences like this proved students’ dedication
to education and their overall solidarity. This sense of community
frightened the Nazi regime. Therefore university education, including
female education, was allowed but not encouraged. After hearing of
the strident walkouts, White Rose leaders believed a great revolution was
at hand. Unfortunately, walkouts became the high point of university
resistance only to be followed by a sharp downfall. White Rose members
handed out pamphlets during the day, destroying their safety that was found
through their secrecy. Without the power of secrecy, the Nazi government
quickly disposed of the group. As a rule, punishment came fast and
cruel for those who dared to fight against Hitler. On February 22,
1943 all of the White Rose members were imprisoned or expelled. Sophia
and Hans Scholl were quietly executed while most of the other active members
served one year in jail.61
Even after her death, Scholl’s work sent waves throughout Germany.
Resistance continued in Munich when ‘action Scholl’ began in April 1943.
The White Rose writings were distributed and eventually spread to Frankfurt
by November 1943. University groups all over Germany received their
pamphlets. University students in Hamburg also incorporated the Scholl’s
ideas into their underground discussion forum. They discussed a range
of political topics from Marxism to literature. Greta Rothe, a radical
member of the Hamburg Group, became known for her “Against Hitler and the
War” pamphlet. Rothe exemplifies one of many women who were involved
in spreading revolutionary ideas and anti-propagandist writings.
Another resistance group involving women were the Edelweiss Pirates.
More confrontational and actively resistant, the group harassed the Gestapo,
vandalized Nazi buildings, and broke laws.62 Possibly misinterpreted
as a youth rebellion, the Pirates lacked organization, but were one of
the rare groups that were openly defiant against the Nazis. From
White Rose to the Edelweiss Pirates, most resistance groups incorporated
a rebellious youth and the transferring of ideas either through property
violence, discussion, or pamphlets.
Resistance among the older generations of women lacked the desire
and passion of these younger groups. Most women decided to wait for
the Nazi Regime to end rather than trying to overthrow it. Some old
liberal feminists worked with international organizations, especially pacifistic
groups, such as the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom
(WILPF) when World War II began.63 Others, like Helen Stocker,
an advocate of women’s reproductive rights, left the country soon after
Hitler came to power so as not to live under the oppressive nature of Nazism.
Lida Gustava Heymann and Anita Augspurg refused to come back to Germany
from vacationing in Italy in 1933. They decided to wait until the
Nazis fell, expecting, like most feminists in the Weimar Republic, that
Hitler’s rule would be a short, ineffectual phase. Socialist and
Communist feminists had no outlet for their political views. They
optimistically assumed a revolution would occur against Hitler, leading
most to wait in silence.64
If not joining the youth rebellion, leaving Germany, or playing
the waiting game, women activists had no choice but cooperate within the
Nazi organizations. Not all of these women mindlessly followed propaganda;
a few women subverted the rules through cooperation. The experience
of Kathe Kollwitz, a talented German artist, was a great example of this
form of resistance. Kollwitz joined the National Socialist Writer’s
and Artist’s Union. This guild became the only way in which German
artists could display their work during the 1930’s to 1940’s. In
1942, critics throughout Europe praised Kollwitz’s art. However,
German officials called her work a “refusal to adapt to Nazism” because
she did not promote Nazi images, such as the swastika or domesticated women.
She lost government approval, but painted the subjects she wanted to, without
the political considerations which other artists felt necessary to emulate
in their work.65
One member of the German women’s movement found corruption in
National Socialism from its introduction. Katherine Thomas published
a book in 1943 depicting the woman’s side of Nazi government. She
focused on the changes in the women’s movements, the lies behind the propaganda,
and the devastating effects of the war on women. The war represented
the lie of security and peace Nazism initially promoted, disenchanting
some from its ranks. Thomas continually advocated an acceptance of
responsibility by German women of their role in the Third Reich.
She argued that without the support of women, Nazism would fail.
For this reason, Thomas saw revolution as possible only by those who knew
and once supported Hitler. Playing on Nazi paranoia, she hoped for
another female-headed revolution, like the one in 1918. She published
her book in America to ask the assistance of the Allies to instigate this
upheaval. To her, the only way for women to defeat Nazism was to
inform them of political and war news through pamphlets and Allied radio
broadcasts.66 Katherine Thomas’s ideas contained validity,
for when the war ended so did the National Socialist government.
Unfortunately women were not leaders in the end, nor was he underground
resistance enough.
The effect of women on Nazism is best categorized as a paradox.
Women were a vital part to the resistance that occurred in Germany, but
the resistance itself lacked the influence of the earlier revolution.
This was most likely due to the war, which lowered morale and exhausted
the physical, mental, and emotional capacities of the population.
Without confidence and lacking strength, women chose not to choose.
Women who sided against fascism anticipated rather than acted for revolution.
Valued for their courage, resistant women were unusual. The norm
in Nazi society was a non-activist female, involved neither in the resistance
nor in the NSF. Their lack of support of National Socialism hurt
Hitler, being one of the many factors leading to his demise. Ironically,
women were essential to the initial party’s success. The war, started
to make the world Hitler’s playground, drained the whole country of Germany,
women and men, Nazi and anti-Nazi, of vitality. Despite all of this,
women did have a place in 1930’s and 1940’s Germany, but feminism did not.
Feminism as defined before 1933 ceased to exist. Instead, women’s
concerns were shoved behind the legacy of Nazism for decades. The
exclusion of feminist activist after the Third Reich fell provides a disturbing
realization of the endurance of Hitler’s ideas, even after his death.
The greatest paradox of all is though the Nazi regime failed as a government,
it succeeded for generations in silencing German women and, therefore,
putting a permanent hole into the feminist movement.
Notes
1Lynn Abrams and Elizabeth Harvey, ed., Gender Relations in Germany
(Durham: Duke University Press, 1997), p. 191.
2Eva Kolinsky, Women in Contemporary Germany: Life, Work, and
Politics (Oxford:Berg, 1989), pp. 8-10.
3Kolinsky, p. 11.
4Georges Duby and Michelle Perrot, ed., A History of Women: in
the West (Cambridge: The Belknap Press, 1994), p. 154.
5Abrams and Harvey, p. 203.
6Abrams and Harvey, pp. 190-191, 196, 198, 193.
7Abrams and Harvey, p. 198, 194.
8Abrams and Harvey, p. 200.
9 Katherine Thomas, Women in Nazi Germany (AMS Press: New York,
1943), p.30.
10Abrams and Harvey, pp. 190,189.
11Thomas, p. 29.
12Kolinsky, p. 20.
13Abrams and Harvey, p. 199.
14Kolinsky, p. 20.
15Thomas, p. 59.
16Tony Christen, “Women Without Hope,” The Nation vol. 149 (2
Dec. 1939), p. 600
17Thomas, p. 35.
18Christen, p. 600.
19 “Mothers’ Day in Hitler’s Reich,” Christian Century vol. 201
(31 May 1939), pp. 692-693.
20Duby and Harvey, pp. 150, 154, 157.
21Duby and Perrot, p. 170.
22Abrams and Harvey, p. 191.
23Duby and Perrot, p. 171.
24Thomas, p. 40.
25Jill Stephenson, The Nazi Organization of Women (London: Barnes
&Noble 1981), p. 13, 14.
26Claudia Koonz, Mothers in the Fatherland: Women, The Family,
and Nazi Politics (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1987), p. 5.
27Stephenson, The Nazi Organization of Women, p. 171.
28Stephenson, The Nazi Organization of Women, pp. 13,32.
29Stephenson, The Nazi Organization of Women, pp. 50, 29, 31,
39, 97.
30Duby and Perrot, pp. 171-172.
31Stephenson, The Nazi Organization of Women, pp. 67, 97.
32Stephenson, The Nazi Organization of Women, pp. 170, 226.
33Duby and Perrot, p. 171.
34Duby and Perrot, p. 172.
35Abrams and Harvey, p. 192.
36Christen, pp. 598-599.
37Stephenson, The Nazi Organization of Women, p. 15.
38Jill Stephenson, Women in Nazi Society (Great Britain: Barnes
& Noble, 1975), p. 194.
39Stephenson, The Nazi Organization of Women, pp. 214-215.
40Duby and Perrot, p. 175.
41Stephenson, The Nazi Organization of Women, p.18.
42Kolinsky, p. 11.
43Duby and Perrot, p. 150.
44Stephenson, Women in Nazi Society, pp. 25-26.
45Kolinsky, pp. 9-10.
46Stephenson, Women in Nazi Society, pp. 23, 30, 194.
47Stephenson, The Nazi Organization of Women, p. 133.
48Stephenson, Women in Nazi Society, pp. 27, 21, 25-26.
49Stephenson, Women in Nazi Society, pp. 25, 28-29.
50Koonz, p. 313.
51Stephenson, Women in Nazi Society, p. 156.
52Duby and Perrot, p. 175.
53Renate Bridenthal, Atina Grossmann, and Marion Kaplan, ed,
When Biology Became Destiny: Women in Weimer and Nazi Germany. (New York:
Monthly Review Press, 1984), p. 349.
54Thomas, p. 98.
55Koonz, pp. 316, 311.
56Christen, p. 598.
57 Lisa Di Caprio and Merry E. Wiesner, Lives and Voices (New
York: Houghton Mifflin Comp., 2000), p. 527.
58Di Caprio and Wiesner, pp. 528-529.
59Stephenson, Women in Nazi Society, p. 143.
60Jacques R. Pauwels, Women, Nazis, and Universities: Female
University Students in the Third Reich 1933-1945 (Westport: Greenwood Press,
1984), p. 127.
61Pauwels, pp. 127-128.
62Koonz, pp. 129, 128, 311.
63Stephenson, The Nazi Organization of Women, p. 171.
64Koonz, pp. 317-318, 314.
65Koonz, p. 317.
66Thomas, pp. 98-101.