Women in Nazi Germany

The nazis believed in traditional family values such as marriage, the raising of children within marriage and the central role of women as wives and mothers.

The Nazi’s believed in the family values partly because it gave stability to society, but most importantly, because it provided the best prospect of raising the birth rate. Since 1900, the German birth rate had been falling as many women concentrated on pursuing jobs and careers during the years of the Weimar Republic, something the Nazi’s were determined to put into reverse.

Women were acquired new freedoms including the right to vote,and stand for reichstag elections, as well as equal pay with men and the right to enter the professions such as law and medicine.

The Nazi’s were determined to boost the birth rate because if Germany went to war, then more and more German men would be required to replace losses at the battlefront and work in the war-supporting industries. There had to be enough members of the ‘master race’ to occupy defeated territories and populate new colonies and conquests. Hence why the majority of policies that the Nazis adopted towards the family were designed to encourage marriage and childbearing.

Women were deprived of the vote and prevented from sitting in the Reichstag. Women were also either forced out of professions or had their numbers substantially reduced. Women were also requested to stick to the ‘three K’s’. “Kinder, Kirche und Küche” which means “Children, Church and Kitchen”.

Marriage loans, worth about six months worth of wages, were offered to newly wed couples; the loan was then gradually reduced as children were born. Fertility medals were awarded to women: bronze for 5 children, silver for 6 and gold for 8 or more. Also, family allowances were introduced. families received a weekly welfare payment for each child and maternity benefits were also increased. Classes in home-craft and parenting skills were also provided by the Nazi organisation for women called the German Women’s Enterprise which also extended to teaching the youth.

Under the Lebensborn programme, selected unmarried women were encouraged to get themselves impregnated by racially pure SS mean and donate the child to the Füher to be reared in a state institution.

These policies did increase the birth rate, which went up from 15-per thousand in 1933 to 20- per person in 1939. Additionally, the number of marriages also increased from half a million in 1932 to three-quarters of a million in 1934. However, the family size remained the same with most couples opting for a maximum of two children.

After 1937. This is because of the increasing labour demands of German industry, especially those firms involved in rearmament which could no longer be met from the pool of unemployed men which was becoming exhausted. Women were needed back in work and many were having to cope with the competing demands of children, husbands and employers.

After 1939 the Nazi regime became increasingly confused in its attitude toward women as it tried to purse two contradictory objectives: the increase in the birth-rate which required women’s presence at home, and the wellbeing of the war economy which required women’s presence on the factory floor.