women in nazi germany

• Nazi ideas about men and women

  Men and women were equal, but different
• Men's destiny


  1. Life in the army

  2. Male youth groups like the Hitler Youth prepared boys for life in the military
• Women's destiny


  1. Raise large families

  2. Female youth groups like the League of German Maidens prepared girls for a domestic life
• Weimar Germany (if rich)


  • Expensive, fashionable clothes
  • Make up
  • Smoking in public
  • Working in order to be independent
  • Dieting and aiming to be slim
• Nazi ideal women


  • Has a large family
  • Does not work
  • Does not smoke
  • Does not wear make up
  • Does not diet
  • Makes and mend own clothes
  • Has traditional, peasant haircut
• Slogan

  • kinder
  • küche
  • kirche (children, kitchen, church)
• Most German people in the 1930s agreed with this idea
• Lebensborn (fount of life)


  20000 children were born as part of the Lebensborn program. This was where SS men would impregnate 'Aryan women'. In occupied countries, such as Norway, it was often against their will.
• The birth rate in 1933 was 1.98
• The Nazis were scared that eventually there would not be enough Germans
• To encourage more births


  • The Mother's Cross (4= bronze, 6 = silver, 8 = gold)
  • The Law for the Encouragement of Marriage 1933: it gave a married couple a 1000RM loan which was reduced by 250RM for every child they had
  • The Marriage Law 1938: made it easier for men to divorce if his wife could not have children
  • Single men were taxed more heavily
• There were 200000 more marriages in 1939 compared to 1933
• Work


  • 15% of all teachers were sacked in 1933 as they were women
  • 19000 female civil servants were sacked in 1933
  • Women were banned from being Reichstag Deputies
• The number of working class women working increased

  The number of women working rose by 2.4 million between 1933-39. This was because of the armament drive.
• In January 1943, 3 million women between 17-45 were mobilised for war work. Only 900000 were actually used.
• There were 500000 women working for the military as auxiliaries in 1945.