The Nazi Bride Schools

"A sinister set of rules for would-be wives of Nazis in the Third Reich has been discovered three quarters of a century later.
Several ‘bride schools’ were set up with the aim of providing the perfect partners for Adolf Hitler’s henchmen.
Regulations dictated that young women would be taught ‘washing, cooking, childcare and home design’ before they could walk up the aisle with the men who would staff death camps and rule conquered lands with an iron fist.
They were also instructed in social niceties – such as how to hold conversations at cocktail parties – and how to bring up their children worshipping not God or Jesus Christ, but Hitler.
‘This is participation in the resurrection path of our people,’ said Gertrud Scholtz-Klink, chief of the Nazi bride schools which began 75 years ago when the first was established on the island of Schwanenwerder in the Wannsee lake outside of Berlin.
Along with the rulebook found in the Federal Archive were certificates adorned with the Germanic ‘Tree of Life’ which were presented to young girls who passed the six-week course to marry their sweethearts in the SS, Hitler’s paramilitary defence force.
The bride schools were a collaboration between Scholtz-Klink and SS chief Heinrich Himmler, who was obsessed with German superiority over all races and the need for a ‘strong family life to create a strong, pure nation’.


Not only would they learn how to become ‘good wives’, but they would also ‘acquire special knowledge of race and genetics’. Himmler signed a decree in 1936 ordering all women who wanted to marry a member of the SS to participate in the special training courses.

Failure to comply meant refusal of the marriage certificate.
The documents show that the Nazis regarded women, above all else, as breeding machines and ‘sustainers of the race’, in the language of the schools.
Scholtz-Klink praised motherhood under the Nazis as ‘divine’ and in a speech to senior party leaders in 1935 ranted: ‘You need us, you depend on us.
'We are into something good, we participate in the resurrection way of our people. Women must be the spiritual caregivers and the secret queens of our people, called upon by fate for this special task!’
But the doctrine of the bridal schools began to falter the bigger the toll the war took on the home front. With slave labour imports still not enough to plug the manpower gap left by men sent to fight Hitler’s war, Scholtz-Klink had to dream up a new ideal of womanhood – one less involved with babies and more about turning lathes and operating steel furnaces to turn out the material needed for the fighting man."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2390238/How-perfect-Nazi-bride-The-sinister-regulations-women-learn-breed-cook-sew-iron--worship-Hitler.html#ixzz2bnuTVNF6

 

That's very interesting. Thanks for sharing!

 

"‘washing, cooking, childcare and home design’" I would not mention this to my daughter if she has her Sig 239 in her hand !! LOL

Gaines

 

While by our modern, western, standards this seems to be a very sexist and controlling policy... it really isn't that different from American and European bride schools at the time. There were even public school courses in many countries that tried to prepare women for child bearing, and taught them the virtues of being a housewife. For an extreme example of this, one need look no further that Canadian residential schools, or American "industrial" schools where young aboriginal women were taught "civilization". This almost always neglected and even punished, traditional tribal gender roles and parental roles. There was a very established and well recognized view of gender in the early 20th century, and this almost always involved stay at home mothers. These bride schools only differed in racial theory and education. But it's also very important to understand that these racist points of view were not unique to Germany. Aboriginals could not vote in the United States until the 1970's, blacks were subjected to institutional racism in many states as well.

Although unrelated, even the ideas of "lebensraum" and racial segregation in Nazi Germany were not unique. Most people refuse to acknowledge America's own quest for lebensraum in the 19th century. Hitler himself made several references to American expansion, and British expansionism, as excellent example of lebensraum. Most minorities in the western world were segregated, and there was a very strong pseudo-scientific "justification" in the western world for white supremacist immigration policy.

I'm not saying I support these ideas... but I often wonder why people don't look in the mirror first before judging others.

 

Aside from the Nazi indoctrination this housekeeping education for women and girls really isn't out of the ordinary for the time. Just as the existing scouting movement for boys was taken over, so were these feminine virtues of looking after home, spouse and children.

As mentioned above, the expectation of gender roles was well established and not unique to the Third Reich, but to some extent they survive in Germany still despite a modern blurring, eg German women do 'stay at home with the children' more than their UK counterparts.

(I went to school in the UK in the 1980s. In first year was told in no uncertain terms by my Domestic Science teacher that only boys were to be instructed in metal and woodwork. By fifth year we girls were allowed to assemble one wooden pot stand. Progress.)

 

That's a good point dbf. I've never been to Europe, but many of my close friends and relatives come from continental Europe. They have told me the same thing about gender role differences between North American culture and continental European culture. I don't want to be the guy to lead the discussion astray, but I wonder what factors influence this difference of gender roles between continental Europe and elsewhere in the "western" world. Interesting food for thought.

 

I remember at primary school in the early '70s, our progressive headmaster insisted on boys being taught to knit and sew as well as the girls. It caused one hell of a stooshie at the time, but I've always been grateful for learning how to use a needle.

 

Re differences between Germany and the Allies attitudes - I would suggest that the seed was sown in the days of industrialisation and reinforced during both WWs.






Haven't read this, but looks interesting
http://www.amazon.com/Women-Nazis-Universities-University-Contributions/dp/0313242038


Some quotes in wiki article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Nazi_Germany

Even later in the war when the need for 'manpower' perhaps might have overridden the ideal, the notion of women in the workplace seems to have been still resisted / resented.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women's_roles_in_the_World_Wars

 

I was in juinor high during the early and mid 60's. Boys normally took shop (woodworking from what I remember) and girls "home economics". I think there were provisions for switching though. In high school the shop classes were open to all but males predominated. My own kids are 20, 18, and 16 now. Before they dropped some of the classes due to budget constraints both males and females were encouraged (required?) to take both types of classes.

 

I finished High School in 1980 and during this period there was the ability to "switch" Home Ec. and Shop but it was rarely done and usually led to speculation about the person who did not conform to expected norms.

 

I started college in 1958 at the University of Alabama, admittedly not a progressive place, but as a male I could live wherever I wished and could come and go at will. Young woman had to live in a dorm or sorority house and had a 9 PM curfew on weekdays, increasing to 11 on weekends, In their sophomore years they were given extended hours but never later that 12:30, Girls had to wear slacks or skirts on campus unless they were going to a PE class then they could wear gym shorts but only with a raincoat covering themselves and only directly to PE and back. Most women studied humanities, education, home economics, etc.

When I retired from Auburn University in 2001 The School of Architecture had changed from 15% women to just over 50. Chemical Engineering was 62% women , The Vet school changed it's admission from grades and a faculty interview to just grades and an entry exam, women went from less that 20% to over 90 !!! It has settled down a bit but not that much. Research has shown entry scores and grades are similar but women are more focused and work harder in many cases. Of course they can live where they want and wear what they want with the exception that the university is building new coed dorms and making it mandatory for freshman.....to make money , of course.

I taught in a small Italian hilltown for several summers. Young Italian women would not appear on the street unless "properly dressed", no shorts, etc. But our kids wore rather brief, no pun intended, attire. It was popular , when I taught, for a young woman to wear her boy friends boxer shorts to class. On the other hand young Italian women thought nothing, nor did their male friends, of going swimming in the bottom half of a bikini. American guys would hoop and hollow to the bafflement of the Italians who thought it perfectly normal.

Studying cultures requires time and diligence to truly understand differences. I feel I learned much about life and human behavior living in Italy. . I discovered many Italians work very hard then enjoy life. I could never separate work and life very well . But they helped me expand my view of the world in a very positive way. I do not think any school is a good way to learn about life, a side walk café is far better.

TiredOldSoldier, it is why I like your corner of Rome above all others !! I wish I were there right now!

 

Nice bit...Have always wondered- we know the roles women played for us here abouts...Didn't Japan also utilize their feminine powers? Not much heard about those ladies. Even today, I doubt women have achieved the same status there as our ladies in NA, Europe, even Russia...Hello Japan, SM seeks SF.

 

Interesting point Poppy


Article on JSTOR, Women and War in Japan 1937-1945, Havens
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1867444?uid=3738032&uid=2134&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=21102551109091

http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Japanese_Women_and_the_Japanese_War_Effort


http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/infocus/ww2_13/w03_09301111.jpg

 

Drove past a bride school in Birmingham this week...They are quite numerous in certain areas.

 

Hi everyone -
do you know that women in US got right to vote later than women in several states in europe? In US it was 28th of august 1920 - in Germany for example on 19th of january 1919.

There are several reasons for differences of female labour participations for example in the US or UK and Germany. In the eastern parts of Germany for example you have a traditional much higher labour participation than in the western regions.

 

I should take this opportunity to point out, that, of currently existing independent countries, New Zealand was the first to acknowledge women's right to vote in 1893 when it was a self-governing British colony. Unrestricted women's suffrage (including Maori women) in terms of voting rights (women were not permitted to stand for election until 1919) was adopted in New Zealand in 1893. Following a successful movement led by Kate Sheppard, the women's suffrage bill was adopted mere weeks before the general election of that year. The women of the British protectorate of Cook Islands obtained the same right soon after and beat New Zealand's women to the polls in 1893.

The first European country to introduce women's suffrage was the Grand Duchy of Finland. Amidst administrative reforms following the 1905 uprising, Finnish women's demand for both the right to vote (universal and equal suffrage) and the right to stand for election were met in 1906. The world's first female members of parliament were also Finnish, when in 1907, 19 women took up their places in the Parliament of Finland as a result of the 1907 parliamentary elections.

It's also important to consider in many countries, that the right vote was often connected to other "qualifications", such as land ownership, military service, marriage, tax payment, employment, etc, so it becomes rather hazardous and tiresome when reviewing history, as it gets quite murky these days, when so many try to prove how forward-thinking "their" country was.

Sweden for instance, was still denying unemployed men with no landholdings the right to vote in the 1930's.

 

And France granted the right to vote for women after WW2 ( granted in 1944 but elections in 1946)

 

Wow...that is something I did not know.
"You" tend to think of France as such a progressive country.
And in many ways it was...I guess we all have our dirty laundry.