Life for Women

• Women were vital in the traditional role of mother and housewife in Nazi Germany
• Hitler believed a woman's main role was to have children to grow the Aryan race
• The Nazis' policies towards women aimed at encouraging marriage, childbirth, and specific appearances
• Changes for women in Nazi Germany

  • Marriage and children
  • Work
  • Women's appearance
• The Nazis used propaganda and menace to convince women to conform to a certain appearance
• Women who did not conform to the ideal appearance came under suspicion of being anti-Nazi
• The birth rate in Germany had fallen sharply in the 1920s
• By 1933, the birth rate in Germany had fallen to 1 million
• The Nazis were concerned about the low birth rate as they feared a shortage of soldiers and workers
• In 1934, Hitler appointed Gertrude Schultz Clink as the right women's leader
• All existing women's clubs and organizations were forced to become part of the German Women's Enterprise (Deutsches Frauenvir)
• By 1939, the German Women's Enterprise had 6 million members
• Activities organized by the German Women's Enterprise


  Courses on domestic activities such as childcare, cooking, and needlework
• In 1933, the Nazis introduced the law for the encouragement of marriage
• Loans of up to 1,000 marks were available to newly married couples if the wife stopped working
• 25% of the loan was written off for every child born to the couple
• A man could divorce his wife if she could not have children or had an abortion
• In 1938, the Nazis introduced the Mother's Cross to reward women for giving birth to children
• The Mother's Cross had different medals for giving birth to four, six, and eight children
• Bearers of the Mother's Cross were treated to ceremonies and saluted by members of the Hitler Youth
• If a woman had 10 or more children, Hitler himself should be invited to be the godfather of the 10th child
• If the 10th child were a boy, it should be named Adolf
• Financial support was available to mothers
• Expectations for women

  • If a woman has 10 or more children, Hitler should be invited to be the godfather of the 10th child
  • If the 10th child is a boy, he should be named Adolf
• Financial support available to mothers from 1936
• Financial support available to mothers

  • 10 marks a month for the third and fourth child
  • 20 marks a month for each subsequent child
• Some women could earn more from having children than their husbands did in work
• Policy of Laban Spawn


  1. Started in 1935 by Himmler

  2. Provided nurseries and financial support for the children of SS men

  3. After 1936, deliberate policy of breeding single women with SS soldiers
• Some of the 8,000 children born in the German Labor Spawn homes were raised by their single mothers, while others were adopted by childless couples
• The Nazis wanted to encourage the birth of genetically pure children


  Started the policy of Laban Spawn in 1935
• The Nazis encouraged women to leave their jobs


  Through propaganda and laws that reduced the number of women in work
• Ways the Nazis encouraged women to leave their jobs

  • Propaganda focusing on Kinder, Kooka, Kirsha (children, kitchen, church)
  • Laws banning women from professional jobs such as teachers, doctors, lawyers, judges, and sitting on a jury
• Education of girls under the Nazis

  1. Focused on making them strong and healthy for childbearing

  2. Encouraged the idea of becoming good wives and mothers

  3. Taught domestic skills
• By 1939, the number of girls attending university had fallen from 17,000 to 6,000
• The Nazis were partially successful in their aims for women
• By the end of the 1930s, there were actually three million more women in work than in 1933