Learning Objective: To understand
Nazi attitudes and policies towards women and how successful these were

Starter:
• Look at this image, what does this suggest about what the Nazi’s believed was the ideal woman?
Think about
• Role in life suggested
• Appearance of the woman
• Setting/background to the image http://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=zvCZQXQsj
5M&feature=related

What do you think is meant by…

Children, Church, Kitchen
This phrase was often used by the Nazis to describe their vision of what life for women should be like.
As the lesson progresses, see how far they succeeded in creating this vision of a virtuous, domestic and family orientated lifestyle for women within Germany.
Virtuous - Having good qualities. Being morally good.
Domestic - Spending a lot of time living and working in the home

Women….
 Were wives and mothers- had large families, four plus children
 Did not go to work
 Aryan-blonde hair, heavy hipped, athletic, full skirt, flat heels, no make up
 Domesticated- thrifty (cook using leftovers)
 Dressed with home produced clothes
 Behaved in a ‘womanly and motherly’ way- no smoking, dying hair, fashion clothes, make up etc.
 Good Nazi mothers- raised their children as loyal
Nazis

Women, as a distinct social group, had a clearly defined place in the Nazi world. In a rally at Nuremberg in 1934
Hitler said that ‘man’s world is the State’, while the
‘world of woman is a smaller world. For her world is her
husband, her family, her children and her house.’
Stephen Lee, The European Dictatorships 1918-1945 (Routledge, 1987)
According to the Nazis how were the roles of men and women different?

Why do you think that Goebbels refers to the animal world?
In 1929, Goebbels stated:
The mission of women is to be beautiful and to bring children into the world. This is not at all as.........un-modern as it sounds. The female bird preens herself for her mate and hatches eggs for him. In exchange, the male takes care of gathering food, and stands
guard and wards off the enemy.’
What is woman’s role within society (the ‘mission of women’) according to Goebbels?

A speech made by Hitler in 1935
The granting of equal rights to women, which Marxism demands, in reality does not grant equal rights … it instead constitutes a deprivation of rights, since it draws women into realms of society where they are inferior. The woman has her own battlefield. With every child that she brings into the world, she fights her battle for the nation
What is woman’s role within society according to Hitler?

An advertisement in a German newspaper, 1936.
52 year old doctor. Fought in Great War. Wishes to settle down. Wants a male child through marriage to a young, healthy, virgin, Aryan woman. She should be undemanding, used to heavy work, not a spender, with
flat heels, without earrings, if possible without money.
Why do you think that he wanted to get married?
Can you think of a reason why the doctor would prefer a woman ‘without money’?
Do you think the Nazis would approve or disapprove of this advert?
Do you think you would be allowed to place this advert in a newspaper today?

How did the Nazis try to ‘ease’ women out of the workplace?
The initial policy was to ease women out of the top levels of the civil service, law, medicine and politics.
Women were induced to stay at home by new ‘marriage credits’ and child bonuses. Loans were given out to newly married couples – the equivalent of a years wages – to encourage them to have children. On the birth of a first child, they could keep a quarter of the money. By the fourth, the loan was paid off.
Stephen Lee, The European Dictatorships 1918-1945 (Routledge, 1987)
How did the Nazis encourage women to obey his aims?
Do you think he would have been successful?

The Lebensborn Flag
This flag was displayed above homes known as
Lebensborn – the
Spring of Life. Some called them maternity homes – others called them brothels!
Unmarried women could visit and stay there with the aim of becoming pregnant by one of
Hitler’s ‘racially pure’ soldiers.

What was life like for women in Nazi
Germany?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZHM4EksW14&list=PL8DC9688AFAEDC4D8

Nazi’s believed in the traditional role of women- that they should be wives and mothers. They intended that women’s role
(Aryan women) was to have children and stay at home to look after them
Women who had jobs like Doctors, lawyers and judges were sacked.
Women were discouraged from getting qualifications and professional jobs
Women were banned from wearing make up and smoking because it was considered unladylike. wearing make up, trousers and high heels was discouraged
However, in 1937 the Nazi’s had to rethink some of their policies towards women. As men were joining the army and Germany re-armed women were needed in the factories and labour market- so some women went back to
Work after all
What was life like for women in Nazi
Germany?
They introduced the
Honour cross of German
Mothers on the celebration of Hitler’s mother. these women were awarded medals. Women with
8 children got the gold cross
Contraception and abortion was banned.
Women were encouraged and bribed with offers of money to have children. Loans were given to the newly married couples to persuade them to have
Children and women to leave their jobs especially middle class professional women
They set up the Nazi Women’s
Bureau headed by Gertrude
Scholtz Klink- it helped women
To be better mothers and support
The Nazis i.e winter aid.

What is the message of this poster?
Think about the meaning of these areas

The National Socialist
German Workers Party safeguards the National
Community
The Party ensures togetherness of the people in the Community.

The eagle represents the Nazi Party.
Notice that its wings are wrapped around the family suggesting the family are being protected.
The eagle looks very powerful.

The father is shown as the head of the family.
He rises above his family with his shirt sleeves rolled up. He is the worker protecting the family.
His arms are wrapped around the family, further suggesting he is looking after them.

The mother is shown with a scarf holding her hair back – as if she has been carrying out domestic chores.
She is gently cradling her baby and looks both healthy and happy to be surrounded by her family.

The baby provides the central focus of the poster.
All of the children conform to the Aryan ideal (blonde hair and fresh complexion, etc). The little girl is close to the mother, and the boy next to his father. They are portrayed as a happy family, with the baby illustrating that this is a growing family.

Comrades, if you need help and assistance ask your local branch of the NSDAP

Nazi policy towards women was successful
Nazi policy towards women was a failure
Was Nazi policy towards women confused?

Nazi policy towards women was successful
Nazi policy towards women was a failure
• Lots of women in Germany were already traditional- they accepted Nazi ideas about women.
Many women were keen supporters- life was good for some Aryan women (safer, money, husbands had jobs)
• Some women fully embraced the idea and were role models to others like Gertrude Scholtz
Klink
• All other women groups were dissolved and absorbed by the
Nazi women’s equivalents.
• In 1936 there were 30% more births than there were in 1933
(successful policies?)
• 800,000 newly married women took up the Nazi offer to return to the home in favour of money
• Professional women resented their exclusion and they didn’t manage to get rid of all women from the professions- there were still women teachers, nurses and doctors
• They didn’t manage to get all women to return to the home, in fact more women were needed to work- it was claimed they just did less skilled work than before.
• More women went to work as the
1930s progressed. 11million in 1933 to 12.7million in 1939
• Not all women were supporters- in
1938 they set up a concentration camp for women called Ravensbruk
• Despite trying to get women to stay at home, statistics show that around 20,000 women went to university in 1934.

How successful were Nazi policies towards women? (10) (June 2010)

• Introduction - make a judgement and answer the
Q- how successful were policies towards women?
• Point one : Explain one way that policy was successful
• Point two (and three) explain two other ways that
Nazi women policy was successful
• On the other hand, the Nazi’s were not completely successful………… Explain a way they were not successful
• Now explain two other reasons
• Conclusion with a judgement- answer the Q

• Level 1 General answer lacking specific contextual knowledge (1-2 marks)
• Level 2 Identifies AND/OR describes reasons about treatment (2-
4 marks)
• Level 3 Explains success OR failure (4-6) (Developed explanation to be given two marks within L3 and L4)
The Nazi’s were successful in encouraging women to return to the home. In 1933 the Nazi’s introduced the Law for the Reduction of
Unemployment. This encouraged young married women to leave their jobs, in return for cheap loans that would be paid off when they had children. This was successful because 800,000 women took up this offer and returned to the home.
• Level 4 Explains success AND failure(6-9) (both sides)
• Level 5 Conclusion at the end that answers ‘how far’ (9-10)

Loans given to encourage women to leave work. These did not have to be paid back after 4 children.
Propaganda
Medals were given to women with at least 4 children
Contraception and abortion was made illegal.