Source: J. Noakes & G. Pridham, Documents on Nazism 1919-1945 (London 1974), pp. 349-374.
Poets for a Hitler Youth ceremony in 1941
Such ceremonies took on an almost religious character. New members had to recite set poems, which expressed dedication to the Fuehrer. The following may serve as an example of the sort of kitsch which typified them: background. But although she could hardly pronounce a single foreign word correctly, it would not have occurred to anyone to make fun of her. She brought us to the point at which we each recognized one another's particular value, after having come to know one another's weak and strong points, and everyone strove to be willing and reliable. The knowledge that this model of a National Community had afforded me such intense happiness gave birth to an optimism to which I clung obstinately until 1945. Upheld by this experience, I believed, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that the pattern of our camp would one day be magnified on an infinite scale- if not in the next, then in future generations. The feeling of comradeship based on common membership of tile German nation was largely a state of mind and did not reflect the real nature of German society, only an attitude towards it. It was based on a belief about Nazi society-that people were first of all Germans rather than Catholics or Protestants, workers or members of the bourgeoisie. It was superficial to the extent that it usually produced an outward conformity. Students were warned not to get out of touch with the ordinary man in the street because of any feeling of intellectual superiority. Hitler himself, as 'the People's Chancellor', made concessions to this attitude by sitting on the front seat (of his Mercedes) beside his chauffeur and by officially refusing an honorary doctorate (symbol of bourgeois class status).
Melita Maschmann's criticisms of the Hitler Youth
Melita Maschmann later contrasted the Hitler Youth with other youth organizations and referred in particular to its regimentation and its being transformed into an institution, the culmination of which she saw in the organized mass extermination of people by the Nazis : Apart from its beginnings during the 'years of struggle', the Hitler Youth was not a youth movement at all: it became more and more the (State youth organization', that is to say, it became more and more institutionalized, and finally became the instrument used by the National Socialist regime to run its ideological training of young people and the war work for certain age groups. The reasons for this development can be found in the external pressure of events, since the increased membership which the Hitler Youth had to absorb after 1935 was such that any healthy growth was impossible. . . . And yet the Hitler Youth was a youth organization. Its members may have allowed themselves to be dressed in uniforms and regimented, but they were still young people and they behaved like young people. Their characteristic surplus of energy and thirst for action found great scope in their program of activities, which constantly required great feats to be performed. It was part of the method of the National Socialist Youth leadership to arrange almost everything in the form of competitions. It was not only in sport and one's profession that one competed. Every unit wanted to have the best group 'home', the most interesting expedition log, the biggest collection for the Winter Relief Fund, and so forth-or at least they were supposed to want it. In the musical competitions Hitler Youth choirs, fife and drum bands, chamber orchestras and amateur theatrical groups competed as did young singers, instrumentalists, sculptors, painters and poets for the glory of the most brilliant performance. There were even story-telling competitions to see which boys and girls out of all their contemporaries were best at telling folk stories. This constant competition introduced an element of unrest and forced activity into the life of the groups even in peacetime. It did not merely channel young people's drive for action; it also inflamed it, where it would have been wiser and better to give the individual within the group and the group as a whole periods when they could mature and develop in tranquillity. There was certainly a great deal of good and ambitious education in the Hitler Youth. There were groups who learned to act in a masterly way. People told stories, danced and practiced handicrafts, and in these fields the regimentation was fortunately often less strict. But the idea of a competition (behind which lay the glorification of the fighter and the heroic) often enough banished the element of meditation even from musical activities, and the playful development of the creative imagination, free of any purpose, was sadly stunted. The leaders of a youth movement so drilled to activity and performance gradually created a style of their own as 'managers'. They were themselves driven from one activity to the next, and so they drove their charges on in the same manner. Even the young men and women in the Reich Youth Leadership who initiated all this activity were subject to the same restless compulsive drive. The constantly turning wheel of incessant activity continually created a fresh momentum and carried along everyone who came within its sphere of influence. . . .
Women
Hitler's views on the role of women
Nazi ideology was solidly conservative on the question of the role of women and attacked female emancipation as part of its more general attack on liberal democracy-the Weimar Constitution had both given women the vote and proclaimed their equality of rights with men. The Nazis held up a certain ideal of womanhood, according to which women should confine themselves to their allotted functions in society-as the familiar saying had it, to bear children, go to church and work in the kitchen-and above all to be submissive to men, who were by nature superior. In the words of Goebbels, 'The mission of woman is to be beautiful and to bring children into the world . . . the female prettifies herself for her mate and hatches the eggs for him.' Politics was, in the Nazis' view, a male preserve, confirmed by the fact that before 1933 women formed a minimal proportion of the membership of the NSDAP (about 6 per cent of the total membership in January 1933) and women were excluded from high positions in the Party (all NSDAP Reichstag deputies were male, despitthe fact that during the 1920s Germany had for a western country a record number of femparliamentary deputies). Hitler, speaking to the National Socialist Women's Organization in September 1934, elaborated the official attitude towards women: . . . The slogan, 'Emancipation of women' was invented by Jewish intellectuals and its content was formed by the same spirit. In the really good times of German life the German woman had no need to emancipate herself. She possessed exactly what nature had necessarily given her to administer and preserve; just as the man in his good times had no need to fear that he would be ousted from his position in relation to the woman. In fact the woman was least likely to challenge his position. Only when he was not absolutely certain in his knowledge of his task did the eternal instinct of self-and race-preservation begin to rebel in woman. There then grew from this rebellion a state of affairs which was unnatural and which lasted until both sexes returned to the respective spheres which an eternally wise providence has preordained for them. If the man's world is said to be the State, his struggle, his readiness to devote his powers to the service of the community, then it may perhaps be said that the woman's is a smaller world. For her world is her husband, her family, her children, and her home. But what would become of the greater world if there were no one to tend and care for the smaller one ? How could the greater world survive if there were no one to make the cares of the smaller world the content of their lives ? No, the greater world is built on the foundation of this smaller world. This great world cannot survive if smaller world is not stable. Providence has entrusted to the woman the cares of that world which is her very own, and only on the basis of this smaller world can the man's world be formed and built up. The two worlds are not antagonistic. They complement each other, they belong together just as man and woman belong together. We do not consider it correct for the woman to interfere in the world of the man, in his main sphere. We consider it natural if these two worlds remain distinct. To the one belongs the strength of feeling, the strength of the soul. To the other belongs the strength of vision, of toughness, of decision, and of the willingness to act. In the one case this strength demands the willingness of the woman to risk her life to preserve this important cell and to multiply it, and in the other case it demands from the man the readiness to safeguard life. The sacrifices which the man makes in the struggle of his nation, the woman makes in the preservation of that nation in individual cases. What the man gives in courage on the battlefield, the woman gives in eternal self-sacrifice, in eternal pain and suffering. Every child that a woman brings into the world is a battle, a battle waged for the existence of her people. And both must therefore mutually value and respect each other when they see that each performs the task that Nature and Providence have ordained. And this mutual respect will necessarily result from this separation of the functions of each. It is not true, as Jewish intellectuals assert, that respect depends on the overlapping of the spheres of activity of the sexes; this respect demands that neither sex should try to do that which belongs to the sphere of the other. It lies in the last resort in the fact that each knows that the other is doing everything necessary to maintain the whole community. . . . So our women's movement is for us not something which inscribes on its banner as its program the fight against man, but something which has as its program the common fight together with man. For the new National Socialist national community acquires a firm basis precisely because we have gained the trust of millions of women as fanatical fellow-combatants, women who have fought for the common life in the service of the common task of preserving life, who in that combat did not set their sights on the rights which a Jewish intellectualism put before their eyes, but rather on the duties imposed by nature on all of us in common. Whereas previously the programs of the liberal, intellectualist women's movements contained many points, the program of our National Socialist Women's movement has in reality but one single point, and that point is the child, that tiny creature which must be born and grow strong and which alone gives meaning to the whole life-struggle. . . .
Official encouragement of marriage
The Weimar Republic had in fact not seen the expected improvements in openings for the employment of women because of the reluctance of the authorities to encourage rapid change, the increased competition for jobs and the restricted labor market following the Depression. In 1933, the Nazis used the need for dealing with the question of unemployment to discriminate, firstly against women in positions of political importance, and then more generally against married women in paid jobs. The idea had been favored in Weimar days, but the Nazi Government made it official with the law of 30 June 1933, which decreed that only unmarried women over 35 (who were not Jews or married to Jews) could be appointed to permanent posts in the public service. By way of encouragement, women who gave up their jobs on marriage were entitled to apply for a marriage loan according to section 5 of the Law for the Reduction of Unemployment (I June 1933): The Reich encourages marriages in accordance with the following regulations.
Carriage Loans, section I I.
People of German nationality who marry one another after this law has come into force can on application be granted a marriage loan of up to 1000 Reichsmarks. The application for the marriage loan can be made before marriage. The amount is paid only after the conclusion of the marriage. The conditions which must be fulfilled before the grant of a marriage loan are as follows: (a) That the future wife has spent at least six months in employment in Germany between 11 June 1931 and 31 May 1933. (b) That a banns has been issued by the Registry Office and that the future wife gives up her job at the latest at the time of the wedding or has already given it up at the time the application is made. (c) That the future wife pledges herself not to take up employment so long as her future husband receives an income (within the meaning of the Income Tax Law) of more than 125 Reichsmarks a month and so long as the marriage loan has not been fully paid off. . . . The marriage loan is paid in the form of vouchers. These entitle one to purchase furniture and household equipment in retail shops which are prepared to accept vouchers. The vouchers will be redeemed by the Finance Offices in cash. . . .
Fritz Reinhardt on the economic recovery, 29 January 1935
The program expressed an ideological tenet of the Nazis, the principle that women should stay at home. By offering marriage loans on this condition and by making the provision that one quarter of the loan should be cancelled on the birth of each child, it was hoped to withdraw females from employment and replace them by males and also to increase the birth rate. Two years later Reinhardt, State Secretary in the Reich Finance Ministry, claimed substantial success for this aspect of the program, though as far as female employment was concerned the success was to be merely temporary : -.. 5. The granting of 365,591 marriage loans making a total amount of 200 million Reichsmarks up to 31 December 1934 on the basis of the Law for the Promotion of Marriages of 1 June 1934. The effect of this measure alone: Reduction in the unemployment figure of at least 500,000 and reduction in the financial requirement of unemployment benefits by approximately 250 million Reichsmarks. Significant increase in the number of marriages and births. The number of marriages for 1933 was already 27.3 per cent higher than that of 1932- For the first six months of 1934 there is the following picture: First six months 1933 1934 Marriages 252,592 334,567 Births 490,340 576,843 Significant increase in number of households and in the demand for furniture, household equipment and small apartments. . - .
Frick's guidelines on the employment of women civil servants and teachers
Protests were made from 1933 even by pro-Nazi women's associations concerned at the prospect of discrimination against all employed women, such as the Ring of National Women which wrote to Hitler in April 1933 approving of the removal of women civil servants for political reasons but complaining that 'the position of these women are not filled by other women, but men take over their posts'. In response to further complaints, Flick, Minister of the Interior, wrote in October 1933 to local authorities that there was no general law against women in official positions, although he admitted that, other things being equal, there existed a preference for a male applicant: As I understand from numerous petitions, a strong sense of disquiet prevails among women civil servants, teachers and employees about the way in which they have been affected by measures of retrenchment carried out by different Reich, state and municipal authorities- It must be pointed out that different authorities evidently take action on the assumption that in the National Socialist State female officials and employees are on principle to be removed from the public service or to be forced from the posts they have held up to now into posts of lower rank and income or into employee status. I must emphatically point out that the legal position governing such general action against women civil servants and teachers does not cover the handling of the question in this way. In particular, the stipulations of the Law for the Restoration of the ProfessioCivil Service, which according to the needs of the service make possible the transfer of officials to a lower rank or the retirement of officials who are not yet incapable of service, cannot be used in a general way against women civil servants as mentioned at the beginning. I consider it fundamentally right that, in the event of males and females being equally qualified for employment in the public service, the male applicant should be given preference. On the other hand, I must point out that in certain fields, namely in the sphere of youth welfare and the care of youth, also to some extent in that of tuition, the needs of the service require the employment of female labor as civil servants and as employees. A succession of complaints prompts me to call attention to married female civil servants and teachers, who according to the Law on the Legal Status of Female Civil Servants of 30 May 1932 in the form set out on 30 June 1933 (Reioehs-gesetzblatt Pt. I, p. 435), can be discharged only if their economic maintenance seems permanently secured. The relevant stipulations indicate a regulation with exceptions for women civil servants. These provisions must therefore be taken into consideration.
Hitler forbids the admission of women to the practice of law
In April 1934, the Prussian Government specifically decreed that high positions in the Civil Service should be reserved to men. One way of restricting the number of qualified females seeking employment in the professions was to put a limit on girl students at universities-this also reflected the Nazi belief that women were not suited to academic work-but in fact the proportion of female students was already relatively low. Few women had been appointed to university posts, but they were very numerous among schoolteachers. Official attempts to reduce their number and the pressure applied through the Nazi professional organizations brought no dramatic changes simply because their services were needed. The law was regarded like politics as an occupation only for men, so that Hitler decided in August 1936 that women should no longer act as lawyers and judges, although those qualified in law could continue in administrative work: Following the conference in your Ministry on 5.viii.1936 concerning the admission of women as lawyers, I have put the matter to the Fuehrer, since, as the course of the meeting showed, the Party has a special interest in these things. He has decided that women cannot become either judges or lawyers. Women trained in law can therefore be employed only in the public service. I particularly request that trouble should be taken to find places there, where possible, for the existing female probationary lawyers.
Hitler's decision creates practical difficulties
Hitler's measure created problems of re-employment. In January 1937 Roland Freisler wrote to national and local authorities on behalf of the Ministry of Justice, pointing out that women had made an important contribution to the practice of law and that their skills should be employed in suitable positions: The Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor has decreed that women in future should not be employed as judges or lawyers or admitted as solicitors. A fairly large number of female probationary judges, probationary lawyers and junior barristers will be affected by this decision. These women have spent considerable sums on their training and in the overwhelming majority of cases have brought it to a successful conclusion (sometimes at very considerable sacrifice) by hard work and application. Following upon the decision of the Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor, these women lawyers can find employment in the public service only as administrators. The Deputy Fuehrer has expressly desired that existing female probationary lawyers should be found a place there where possible. Accordingly, I have already accommodated a number of female probationary judges in positions suitable to their training outside judicial work in the administration of the Reich Chamber of Lawyers and the Reich Chamber of Notaries. I have been in touch over the matter of selection with the Reich Leadership of the Frauenwerk (1) , which looks after these women. The Reich Women's Leader has considered employing a number of female probationary lawyers herself in the administration of her organization. Considering the limited possibilities of employment available to women in the administration of justice, I would be particularly grateful if a number of suitable women with the ability to become judges or junior barristers can be found employment appropriate to their training in their field of work. Suitable permanent employment would be particularly desirable. For especially severe cases of social hardship, employment for one or two years would be welcome. From experience, the applicants are qualified not only for consideration as employees in administration proper but also in such work as the press, periodicals and library matters. In view of the position of female lawyers immediate help seems desirable as soon as possible. I request therefore that existing requirements should be ascertained quickly in your field of occupation and that the result of these findings be communicated to me. In fact, although as a result of Government measures, 800,000 women were removed from the labor market in 1933-35, by 1936 owing to the boom there were more women employed than when Hitler came to power.
