For the National Socialists, establishing a pure and thriving volksgemeinschaft was crucial to the survival of Germany and subsequently, the German people, therefore, the National Socialists saw themselves responsible for ensuring that the Germanic Aryan race flourished.
In order to achieve their racial ambitions, the National Socialists introduced a number of reforms that redefined Germany's existing social structures.
These reforms also drastically limited personal freedoms of both Jewish and non-Jewish German citizens.
Moreover, due to the authoritarian nature of Nazism, the regime sought to control the behaviour of people both in and out of the public sphere.
During the Third Reich a person's body was no longer considered their own.
Instead, the body was recognized as a public site.
As a result, established social conceptions on gender and sexuality became susceptible to Völkisch influence.
To achieve their ideological objectives, the Third Reich instituted a number of policies regarding gender and sexuality.
Ultimately, these policies had a significant impact on German society.
For the National Socialists, existing social and behavioural norms that delineated gender roles in Germany were not conducive to their ideological ambitions.
During their time in power, the National Socialists worked to establish their own conceptions regarding gender in German society.
In promoting the concept of creating a 'new man', the National Socialists redefined existing notions on manliness and masculinity.
According to Völkisch ideology, manliness could not be ascertained through “virtues that could be expressed in ordinary life.”
Instead, a man could only achieve true manliness by engaging in heroic activities.
Moreover, the National Socialists believed that manliness was determined by a man's willingness to sacrifice himself for the greater good of the state.
For the National Socialists the soldier embodied all the ideal characteristics associated with the 'new man'.
Men were expected to embrace the soldier mentality and join male dominated organizations, such as the SS (Schutzstaffel).
In the family unit, men were expected to act as patriarchs, charged with instilling proper Völkisch values into their children.
Thus it is apparent that Völkisch attitudes towards masculinity and the role of the man subscribed to a Germanic ideal.
Völkisch views on the role of women also revolved around traditionalist ideals.
Essentially, it was the responsibility of the 'hereditarily fit' woman to birth and raise racially pure children.
As a result, femininity became synonymous with motherhood and fertility in the Third Reich. Furthermore, a high level of intelligence in a woman was no longer considered desirable trait.
For the National Socialists, “fertility, not intellectual abilities, was the key.”
It was also thought that women should remain inside the home or private sphere because the public realm strictly belonged men.
In penetrating the public sphere, it was understood that a woman would not be able to accomplish her stately duties of birthing and raising pure Aryan children.
In the home, women's activities were regulated to “Kinder,” “Küche,” and “Kirche” (children, kitchen, and church).
By focusing primarily on the family and the home, the National Socialists believed a woman could simultaneously fulfill her own natural maternal instincts and serve the state to the best of her abilities. In National Socialist society, mothers were also to be accorded with the same honourable status as the soldier in the German Volk community.
For the National Socialists, in becoming a mother, a woman sacrificed her body and life for the good of the Fatherland, much like the soldier.
Motherhood was also compared to soldiering in that by brining a child into the world, a mother was thought to be fighting her own battle for the nation, therefore, in embracing motherhood, women were afforded due prestige in the Third Reich.
Origins of National Socialist Ideology on Gender
National Socialist attitudes towards gender and gender roles primarily stemmed from existing right-wing ideology and nineteenth century philosophy.
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| Friedrich Nietzsche |
One such philosopher that was fundamental in influencing the Völkisch view on gender, and the overall National Socialist rhetoric on the establishment of a 'new man' was Friedrich Nietzsche.
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philologist, philosopher, cultural critic, poet, and composer. He wrote critical texts on religion, morality, contemporary culture, philosophy, and science, displaying a fondness for metaphor, irony, and aphorism.
Nietzsche's key ideas include the Apollonian/Dionysian dichotomy, perspectivism, the 'Will to Power', the "death of God", the 'Übermensch', and eternal recurrence. Central to his philosophy is the idea of "life-affirmation", which involves questioning of any doctrine that drains one's expansive energies, however socially prevalent those ideas might be. His radical questioning of the value and objectivity of truth has been the focus of extensive commentary and his influence remains substantial, particularly in the continental philosophical tradition comprising existentialism, postmodernism, and post-structuralism.
Friedrich Nietzsche's views on women have attracted controversy, beginning during his life, and continuing to the present.
After his father died when he was only five, Nietzsche was left to be raised in a household solely occupied by women (his mother, his sister, and two maiden aunts).
How much of an affect this had on developing the young man’s lifelong attitudes towards women is impossible to tell, but it would be disingenuous to dismiss it as a triviality.
Throughout his life, Nietzsche had few companions (of either gender), and virtually no real romantic relationships
He frequently made remarks in his writing that may be viewed as misogynistic.
Nietzsche's quote on women include:
'The sexes deceive themselves about each other - because at bottom they honor and love only themselves (or their own ideals, to put it more pleasantly).
Thus man likes woman peaceful - but woman is essentially un-peaceful, like a cat, however well she may have trained herself to seem peaceable.'
'Woman's love involves injustice and blindness against everything that she does not love... Woman is not yet capable of friendship: women are still cats and birds. Or at best cows...'
'Thus Spoke Zarathustra' - On the Friend
'Everything in woman is a riddle, and everything about woman has one solution - it is called pregnancy.'
Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Old and Young Women, Friedrich Nietzsche
Nietzsche says much the same of love in general in 'The Joyful Science'
Finally:
'Woman! One-half of mankind is weak, typically sick, changeable, inconstant... she needs a religion of weakness that glorifies being weak, loving, and being humble as divine: or better, she makes the strong weak--she rules when she succeeds in overcoming the strong... Woman has always conspired with the types of decadence, the priests, against the "powerful", the "strong", the men.'
'The Will to Power' - 864
However, Nietzsche's apparent misogyny is part of his overall strategy to demonstrate that our attitudes toward sex-gender are thoroughly cultural, are often destructive of our own potential as individuals and as a species, and may be changed.
What looks like misogyny may be understood as part of a larger strategy whereby "woman-as-such" (the universal essence of woman with timeless character traits) is shown to be a product of male desire, a construct
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| Lou Andreas-Salomé |
Луиза Густавовна Саломе - (Lou Andreas-Salomé), who knew Nietzsche very well, and claimed that he had proposed to her (according to her, she refused him) claimed there was something
feminine in Nietzsche's "
spiritual nature", and that he had considered genius to be a
feminine genius.
Elizabeth Förster-Nietzsche was two years younger than her brother.
Both were children of a Lutheran pastor in the German village of Röcken bei Lützen.
The two children were close during their childhood and early adult years.
There has been speculation that the relationship between Elizabeth and Fritz was so close that it was almost 'incestuous'.
Nietzsche himself only ever had one romantic relationship with a woman - Lou Andreas Salomé (see above), and it is significant that Elizabeth did everything in her power to bring the relationship to an end.
Nietzsche's only other intense relationship (apart from that with Richard Wagner) - even to the extent of being described as 'homoerotic', was with 'Peter Gast' - Johann Heinrich Köselitz (10 January 1854–15 August 1918) was a German author and composer. He is known for his long-time friendship with Friedrich Nietzsche, who gave him the pseudonym 'Peter Gast'.
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| Peter Gast |
In Basel, a friendship developed between Gast and Nietzsche.
Gast read for Nietzsche during the latter's intermittent spells of near blindness, and also took dictation. Gast was instrumental in the preparation of all of Nietzsche's works after 1876, reviewing the printer's manuscript and sometimes intervening to finalize the text formatting.
Nietzsche's break with Wagner and his search for a 'southern' aesthetic with which he could immunize himself from the gloomy German north led him to over-appreciate Gast as a musician.
Nietzsche states that a woman’s
true source of power lies in her ability to
bear children (essentially the power to grant life - which resonates with Völkisch and National Socialist theories), and that this trait serves as her underlying motivation for dealing with men (who are dependent on women for the propagation of their bloodline - their physical immortality, so to speak).
Because of man’s dependence on woman in this regard, the masculine gender will readily deify womanhood (i.e. motherhood), to a higher realm of existence, a sentiment women will shrewdly use to “
raise themselves higher,” to a plane of virtue that is beyond reproach.
In the more general sphere, according to Nietzsche, willpower and healthy emotions should dominate over repression - even sexual repression.
In mastering his emotions, a man could then become 'Übermensch' or the “overman,” which is a type of superior human being that has achieved self-mastery and has balanced thoughts and feelings.
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| Italian Futurism |
The idea of the 'new man' was first introduced in Italy by nationalists who wanted to establish a new Italy.
The 'Futurists', who had a significant role in the institution of fascism in Italy, also embraced the notion of creating a 'new man'.
To the Futurists, the new Italian man was not weighed down by history “but could take off into uncharted spaces proclaiming Italy's glory through his personal drive.
Furthermore, the Futurists believed that the 'new man' was to be disciplined, combative, and perceive the world in a way that accepted the new speed of time.
Therefore, in taking power, Mussolini adapted many of the existing theories on the 'new man' into fascist ideology.
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| Giovanni Papini |
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| Benito Mussolini |
In creating a 'Uomo Nuovo Fascista' (fascist 'new man'), Mussolini was also influenced by the work of Italian publicist Giovanni Papini who stated that men were to rid themselves of bourgeois icons such as family and love.
Giovanni Papini (January 9, 1881 – July 8, 1956) was an Italian journalist, essayist, literary critic, poet, and novelist.
Papini also emphasised that men must be forceful and energetic and approach life in a sober, unromantic manner.
Thus, when Mussolini came to power in Italy, establishing a fascist 'new man' was fundamental to his political agenda.
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 1883 – 28 April 1945) was an Italian politician, journalist and leader of the National Fascist Party, ruling the country from 1922 to his ousting in 1943. In 1926 Mussolini seized total power as dictator and ruled Italy as Il Duce ("the leader") from 1930 to 1943. Mussolini was one of the key figures in the creation of fascism.
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| Uomo Nuovo Fascista |
Consequently, the concept of the 'new man' became a significant aspect of fascist ideology as a whole.
The glorification of the war also had a considerable impact on Völkisch gender ideals.
After the Great War, there was an extensive effort to redefine masculinity in Germany, and other various countries.
Ultimately, the National Socialists saw themselves as the “inheritors of the war experience.”
As a result, war became a significant factor in determining masculinity in the Third Reich.
According to the National Socialist, the soldier represented true manhood, because he was not afraid to face death, and was willing to sacrifice himself for the good of the nation.
It was also thought that a man who survived the war knew how to truly live because he defied death, resulting in the idolization of veterans in the Third Reich.
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| Männerbund |
The wartime camaraderie felt between men also appealed to the National Socialists.
To the regime, male bonding was considered to be the foundation of the state.
As a result, the idea of the 'Männerbund' (Männerbund – bond of men; it was a distinctly masculine mystique which became an essential part of SA ideology) was heavily promoted in the Third Reich.
Many of the National Socialists' concepts on war and masculinity were also garnered from the writings of
Ernst Jünger.
For Jünger, war represented the end of the bourgeois era.
Correspondingly, much of Jüngers writings glorified that act of war and emphasised its masculine qualities.
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| Kameradschaft - Arno Breker |
In In 'Stahlgewittern' (Storm of Steel), Jünger describes man as being “a compulsive sexual being who proves himself in war.”
Jünger also states that “for war, viewed from its centre...there is only one standpoint.
It is the most masculine one.”
Therefore, combined with the glorification of the war experience, Jünger's writing had a significant influence on Völkisch ideals regarding manhood and masculinity.
Ernst Jünger (29 March 1895 – 17 February 1998) was a German writer and philosopher. In addition to his political essays, novels and diaries, he is well known for 'Storm of Steel', an account of his experience during World War I.
The ontology of war depicted in Storm of Steel could be interpreted as a model for a new, hierarchically ordered society beyond democracy, beyond the security of bourgeois society and ennui.
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Wappen Deutsches Reich
Weimarer Republik |
National Socialist attitudes toward gender and gender roles were also affected by the Weimar Republic.
For the National Socialists, the Weimar Republic represented the cultural decay of German society.
In order to prevent further cultural decomposition, the regime rejected all things associated with the Weimar period, including the new freedoms experienced by women.
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| Women Munitions Workers |
During the Great War, women were allowed leave the confines of the private sphere and seek employment in war-related industries.
Following the war, women achieved a number of political gains including the establishment of female suffrage during the national election in November 1918, which led to the popularization of the women's emancipation movement.
The new political empowerment of women at the beginning of the Weimar years led to dynamic changes in their conduct and behaviour throughout the 1920s.
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| The Threepenny Opera |
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| Goldene Zwanziger |
During the Weimar period, women were allowed to smoke, drink, and dance provocatively in public. Women also started to use cosmetics more regularly, cut their hair into styles such as the pageboy and the bob, and adopted male clothing into their wardrobes.
Since the National Socialists believed that racial purity would solve all of Germany's problems, they saw the 'masculinisation' of women as a significant threat.
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| 1920s Fashion |
Consequently, the National Socialists promoted the idea that
feminism would destroy the German race, and lead to the introduction of Bolshevism.
The National Socialists also denounced the women's emancipation movement as being a construct of the Jewish intellect, furthermore, with the onset of the depression, the National Socialists endorsed the notion that in order for the nation to recover economically, the family must be stabilized, which meant that women must return to the private sphere, therefore, National Socialist ideals on the role of women in society were developed in reaction to the freedoms experienced by women during the Weimar period.
Ideology and Sexuality
Sexuality was also a significant aspect of Völkisch racial ideology.
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| 1920s Mercedes benz |
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| German Birth Rate |
During the Weimar era, there was a considerable drop in birthrates, from 36 births per thousand inhabitants to 14.7 births per thousand.
The National Socialists attributed this decline to the extravagant lifestyles of Germans during the Weimar period, which encouraged the promotion of the individual over the collective.
For the National Socialists, the low birthrate among the German population endangered the continued survival of the Germanic Aryan race.
In order to promote a higher birthrate, the National Socialists worked to control people's sexual behaviours.
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'Du und Ich' - Arno Breker |
Under National Socialist rule, the
politicization of the body was incorporated in German societal discourses.
According the National Socialists, an individual's body is a public site “whose purpose was to further the larger social organism.”
As a result, private human activities were given public significance.
To ensure the perseverance of the Germanic Aryan race, the National Socialists embraced conservative sexual values, which emphasised heterosexuality and chastity.
When it came to the actual act of sex, the National Socialists believed that people should approach sex with the purpose of fulfilling national goals rather than pursuing their own pleasure.
Ultimately, 'supposedly' immoral sexual practices, such as passive homosexuality, were blamed on the Jews.
To the National Socialists, the Jews sought “to strike the Nordic race at its most vulnerable point: sexual life.”
The National Socialists also argued that the Jews disregarded spirituality in exchange for sensuality and physical contact.
Thus, the National Socialists advocated the idea that proper sexual behaviours were devoid of Jewish influences.
Sexuality for the National Socialists also represented an area in which the regime could further consolidate its power.
For the National Socialists, regulating public discourse on acceptable sexual practices allowed the regime to be associated with sexual gratification.
By enforcing the idea that sex was a public service, the individual would then recognize their sexual satisfaction as being a part of their patriotic duty in supporting the State and its endeavours.
As a result, sex was considered to be a reward for the regime to grant to its supporters.
The National Socialists also worked to eliminate the existing taboos associated with sexuality.
They claimed that sexual taboos associated with the body were introduced into German society by the Jews, in an effort to disturb the natural order and undermine institutions such as marriage and the family.
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| Karl Truppe |
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| Karl Truppe |
The goal of the National Socialists was to
restore notions of beauty and nobility back to the body.
In order to accomplish this task, the regime instituted specific standards about how the body, particularly the female body, should be portrayed in paintings and other artistic creations.
To the National Socialists artists were to strive to represent the purity of the body in its natural form in their work.
Karl Truppe (* February 9 1887 in Ebenthal,
† February 22 1959 in Viktring ) was an Austrian painter and university professor. He portrayed among others , Emperor Charles I of Austria and Adolf Hitler.
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| 'Dianas Ruhe' - Ivo Saliger |
Thus many state-commissioned paintings feature psychically attractive women lying naked in the sun, or in the sea, such as in 'Dianas Ruhe' - Ivo Saliger
Ivo Saliger was known both for his original etchings and paintings. He moved to Vienna in 1908 at the same time as Adolf Hitler but unlike Hitler he was admiited and studied painting and etching techniques at the Academy of Vienna, under some of Austria's finest artists such as Ferdinand Schmutzer. Saliger completed his studies at the Academie Moderne, in Paris. He returned to Vienna in 1920 to assume the post of professor of art at the Academy. During the 1920's and 1930's, Ivo Saliger developed strong Art Deco elements within his art.
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| Entartete Kunst |
All forms of artwork that did not fulfil the standards set in place by National Socialism were classified as 'Entartete Kunst' (degenerate art), because of its supposed advocacy of sexual deviance, pornography, and nakedness, therefore, by imposing their own ideals on sexuality onto society, the National Socialists presented themselves as the protectors of sexual morality and good taste.
Degenerate art is the English translation of the German entartete Kunst, a term adopted by the National Socialist regime in Germany to describe virtually all modern art. Such art was banned on the grounds that it was un-German, or Jewish-Bolshevist in nature, and those identified as degenerate artists were subjected to sanctions. These included being dismissed from teaching positions, being forbidden to exhibit or to sell their art, and in some cases being forbidden to produce art entirely.
While modern styles of art were prohibited, the National Socialists promoted paintings and sculptures that were traditional in manner and that exalted the 'Blut und Boden' (blood and soil) values of racial purity, militarism, and obedience.
Although the National Socialist stance on sexuality appeared to be regressive and rigid, there were a number of contradictions between what the Nazis outwardly promoted and what was actually practised.
In order to achieve their racial ambitions, the regime encouraged premarital sex and extra-marital affairs.
+-+Third+Reich+-+Sexuality+and+Gender+-+Deutschland+-+Peter+Crawford.png) |
Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM)
© Copyright Peter Crawford 2013 |
While the National Socialists heavily advocated the idea of chastity, by 1934, members of the Bund Deutscher Mädel (Federation of German Girls) were instructed to engage in premarital relations
The Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM) or the League of German Maidens was the girl’s wing of the overall Nazi party youth movement, the Hitler Youth. It was the only female youth organization in Nazi Germany.
The League consisted of:
- Jungmädelbund ages 10 to 14
- Jungmädelbund ages 14 to 18
- Werk Glaube und Schönheit (added in 1938) ages 17 to 21
Although this directive was originally classified as “top secret,” by 1935 the population was well aware of what went on during meetings between the BDM and the Hitlerjugend (HJ) or Hitler Youth.
As a result of these illicit affairs, hospitals became overcrowded with adolescent girls, some as young as fifteen, who were pregnant.
Due to the influx of un-wed mothers during the mid to late 1930s, the National Socialists also worked to eliminate the stigma associated with single mothers and illegitimate children.
According to National Socialist Family Policy, “the National Socialist state no longer sees in the single mother the „degenerate'...It places the single mother who has given a child a life higher than the „lady,' who has avoided having children in her marriage on egotistical grounds.”
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| Heinrich Himmler Reich führer SS |
Moreover, during the war years, SS leader Heinrich Himmler even went as far as to
endorse polygamy.
For Himmler, traditional marriages would not produce the amount of children needed to cement the future of the Germanic Aryan race.
Himmler believed that with having multiple wives, a man would be less tempted to stray because each wife would vie for his affections.
Therefore, it is evident that there was a specific duality between what the National Socialists preached and what they practised in terms of sexuality.
This duality also existed when it came to National Socialist attitudes regarding prostitution.
During the Third Reich, there was a wide-spread campaign to eliminate venereal disease (VD), which was deemed hazardous to the foundation of the state.
+2+-+Third+Reich+-+Sexuality+and+Gender+-+Deutschland+-+Peter+Crawford.jpg) |
| Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM) |
In May 1933, revisions were made to the VD law, which was included in the 'Decree for the Protection of the Volk and State', and Clause 361 of the criminal code that allowed the State to punish those “
who publicly and conspicuously or in a manner likely to annoy the public incites immoral acts or offers immoral services.”
Those who were considered promiscuous or engaged in sexually deviant activities, such as prostitutes, were categorized as 'asocial', or people unwilling to integrate themselves into society.
The National Socialist ideology outwardly idealized chastity and moral sexual practices, but did not ban prostitution entirely.
While the National Socialist imposed heavy penalties on prostitutes who did not comply with health regulations, the regime was much more lax in enforcing laws against the establishment of brothels and red light districts.
Although health care experts argued that brothels and red light districts raised the risk of spreading VD among the population, the National Socialists condemned these reports.
Instead, the regime insisted that brothels and controlled prostitution protected public health because it ensured that soldiers were strengthened through their encounters with prostitutes because it enabled them to fight with more vigour.
Consequently, in 1936 the Supreme Command of the Wehrmacht declared military brothels to be a necessity and a state run brothel system was introduced.
Enforcement
In order to indoctrinate their ideals on gender and sexuality into society, the National Socialists used a number of different methods.
One such method was the institution of laws and policies aimed towards achieving National Socialist racial ambitions.
Between the period of September to October 1935, the regime introduced several laws that effectively eliminated the freedoms associated with marriage in Germany.
Under the “Marriage Health Law,” couples who wished to be wed were forced to provide evidence that proved their hereditary fitness in order to demonstrate that their marriage would produce racially pure children.
Furthermore, during the war, military marriage regulations were instituted and brides were subjected to additional physical examinations, however, men who were qualified to serve in the military were declared fit for marriage and were not required to submit to further testing.
In 1941, the National Socialists also introduced the “Marriage Clearance Certificate,” which was specifically aimed towards women.
Since men in the military were considered 'hereditarily fit', this directive was enacted to prevent marriage fraud by women whose offspring would be regarded as undesirable.
Laws and policies were also set in place in an effort to remove women from the workplace.
Under National Socialist rule, the policy against Doppelverdiener or 'double earners', which was first established during the Weimar period, continued to be enforced.
According to the National Socialists, married women who were employed in heavy industry limited available job opportunities for men and as a result, those unemployed men would not be able to provide for their own families.
Although women were not entirely banned from working in the industrial sector, they were encouraged to work in areas more suited to their 'biology', or to participate in tasks that would not distract them from their family duties, such as working in assembly lines.
The National Socialists also heavily employed propaganda in the form of images, films, and other media-based sources in an effort to instil their ideals in the German population.
Like other authoritarian or totalitarian regimes, the National Socialists understood the potential of propaganda to have a significant influence on the private lives of citizens.
In their propaganda campaign, the National Socialists idealized their ideology regarding gender and sexuality.
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| Mutter und Kind |
In order to induce women to
embrace motherhood and domestic life, propaganda materials, such as posters, often depicted women as mothers, basking in the joys of raising a family.
Women were frequently pictured breast-feeding a baby or surrounded by children in a traditional rural setting, which was meant to represent the National Socialist idea of ideal family life.
Men, on the other hand, were primarily depicted as soldiers prepared to go to war for the Fatherland, which emphasized the values of heroism and self sacrifice that the National Socialists associated with masculinity.
To symbolize the importance of family and racial purity, men with obvious Aryan characteristics were also included in pictures of the 'kinderreich' family looking happy and healthy.
The National Socialists also published various kinds of propaganda literature in order to further indoctrinate the population.
Specialized women's magazines that informed the reader about the joys of motherhood, gave marriage advice, and offered tips on how to manage the household were widely circulated.
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Bauernfamilie
Adolf Wissel |
These magazines also included articles geared towards men, such as “The Happy SS Father.”
The National Socialists also distributed pamphlets, created travelling art exhibits, and made radio broadcasts and public speeches to further promote their ideology on gender and sexuality, therefore, one can see that the National Socialists employed a number of different mediums as tools in their propaganda efforts.
Adolf Wissel (19 April 1894 – 17 November 1973) was a German painter.
Wissel, who was born in Velber, was a painter in the genre of Völkisch Folk Art, the idea being that these paintings should show the simple, natural life of a farming family. The phrase 'union with the soil' best describes the subject of his art. Wissel idealised farming life for predominantly urban viewers. Exhibitions of paintings of this genre were meant to show the peasants and working class that they were just as good as the wealthy, and that they too deserved a pleasant life. These paintings were part of the Third Reich 'Blut und Boden' (Blood and Soil) campaign, designed to associate the ideas of health, family and motherhood with the country.
'Blut und Boden' refers to an ideology that focuses on ethnicity based on two factors, descent (blood) from the volk, and homeland/Heimat (Boeden). It celebrates the relationship of a people to the land they occupy and cultivate, and it places a high value on the virtues of rural living.
Wissel painted many pictures such as these, but his work contains subtle distortions and accentuations influenced by expressionism. He died in Velber in 1973.
The National Socialists also worked to indoctrinate German citizens through the use of educational programs.
According to Adolf Hitler, the main goal of education was to teach girls and boys about becoming mothers and leaders.
As a result, the National Socialists established the HJ and BDM as institutions in which young Germans could be instructed on Völkisch ideology and moulded into proper citizens of the Volksgemeinschaft.
In both organizations, girls and boys were instructed on their obligations to the Volk, and taught about health and racial purity, moreover, in the HJ and BDM, physical activity was emphasized with boys and girls being trained to endure a certain amount of physical activity.
Thus, members of the HJ and BDM were strictly disciplined into complying with organizational principles and National Socialist standards.
Educational programs were also directed towards adults, especially women.
Through the establishment of the NS-Frauenschaft, a Völkisch women's organization, a “Mother Schooling Program” was introduced.
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Nationalsozialistische Frauenschaft
Emblem
© Copyright Peter Crawford 2013 |
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Gertrud Scholtz-Klink
Reichsfrauenführerin
Nationalsozialistische Frauenschaft |
The Nationalsozialistische Frauenschaft, abbreviated "NS-Frauenschaft" (National Socialist Women's League) was the women's wing of the NSDAP. It was founded in October 1931 as a fusion of several nationalist and National Socialist women's associations.
The Frauenschaft was subordinated to the national party leadership (Reichsleitung); girls and young women were the purview of the Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM). From February 1934 to the end of World War II in 1945, the NS-Frauenschaft was led by Reich's Women's Leader (Reichsfrauenführerin) Gertrud Scholtz-Klink (1902–1999). It put out a biweekly magazine, the NS-Frauen-Warte.
Its activities included instruction in the use of German-manufactured products, such as butter and rayon, in place of imported ones, as part of the self-sufficiency program, and classes for brides and schoolgirls. During wartime, it also provided refreshments at train stations, collected scrap metal and other materials, ran cookery and other classes, and allocated the domestics conscripted in the east to large families. Propaganda organizations depended on it as the primary spreader of propaganda to women.
The NS-Frauenschaft reached a total membership of 2 million by 1938, the equivalent of 40% of total party membership.
The German National Socialist Women's League Children's Group was known as "Kinderschar".
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| NS-Frauen-Warte |
In enrolling in this program, women over the age eighteen were taught about their duties as a wife and mother, as well as instructed on how to properly care for their home and family.
By the end of 1936, over 150 schools were instituted, which eventually rose to 270, with 673 000 women attending.
The Reichsfrauenführung (National Women's Leadership) also developed a new a branch within the Deutsche Frauenwerk (German Women's Work) that worked to educate women about the regime's autarky program.
Autarky is the quality of being self-sufficient. Usually the term is applied to political states or their economic systems. The latter are called closed economies. Autarky exists whenever an entity can survive or continue its activities without external assistance or international trade. Autarky is not necessarily economic. Autarky can be said to be the policy of a state or other entity when it seeks to be self-sufficient as a whole.
In lectures hosted by this new department, National Economics/Home Economics (Vw/Hw), women were instructed on purchasing products that would contribute to the national good, such as refraining from buying goods from Jewish shops.
Women were also told to purchase only locally grown produce, such as apples, instead of imported fruits, as well as encouraged to recycle old clothes and household products.
Thus, it is evident that educational programs were an important source for imposing
Völkisch ideals onto the German population.
Impact
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| Adolf Hitler and Child |
Völkisch ideology regarding gender and sexuality had a number of effects on the German population.
Although the National Socialists considered the family the
foundation of the nation, Völkisch attitudes towards gender and sexuality worked in some ways to
undermine the family unit.
Racial standards are ubiquitous in film industries around the world, whose actors are selected, not solely by acting ability (which can be learned), but significantly, by physical appearance (which is mostly inherited).
This is not a bad thing in itself, as fans want to aesthetically idealize the leading characters, and it is the actors’ job to portray characters convincingly, so it is a necessity that leading actors look the part, additional to their ability to play the part.
On the issue of height, neotenous faces are rarer among taller people, due to more overall bone growth during puberty leading to a heavier brow ridge, nose, jaw and chin.
Aryan racial ideal of beauty is considered to be exalted in Völkisch philosophy not because it should be fixated on, to the extent of forgetting about nobility, but because it is important to realize the potentials that Aryanization offers.
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