The Other Half in a Frantic Era: Women in Nazi Germany and Their Relationship with The Second Wave of Feminism

(Annie) Chen Fu

 

Introduction

Since the Second World War ended in the year 1945, Nazi Germany, as the strongest Axis power, became one of the most popular focuses of academia. Historians, political scientists, economists, psychologists, natural scientists, and engineers – all of them have participated in the investigation of that frantic era, trying to understand what the Nazis did in that time, what caused their failures, and the story of the “Fuhrer” of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler.

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As one-half of the German population, the female existence should not be overlooked. From 1933 to 1945, women actively participated in different sectors of society, contributing to their fatherland using their own power. Despite many works focusing on women’s lives in that specific period, few connected their experiences to past or future generations, examining their situations on a greater time scale. Therefore, this paper will construct a dynamic history of German women from the Imperial period to the peak of the Cold War (i.e. the early 1960s), when the Second Wave of Feminism occurred. 

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I suggest that the experiences of these female pioneers, despite having occurred prior to the movement, foreshadowed certain values promoted by the Second Wave of Feminism that occurred afterward. Their life stories influenced young girls at the time, sowing a seed of independence and realization in their hearts. However, immediately after the war’s end, economic realities obliged them to devote the majority of their time and energy to survival, denying them the opportunity to realize their goals. Yet this tiny seed did not vanish; once the economic climate provided an optimum environment for girls and women to follow their own ideals, the efforts of numerous generations culminated in the Second Wave of Feminism.

  

German Women in the Imperial Period

The contemporary history of Germany can be marked by one specific event – the German Unification in 1871. This event linked Germany’s rich past with its unsettled future, impacting the country from mainly three aspects – politics, economy, and science.

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The political scene can be summarized with the word Sonderweg,[1] indicating special German cultural features that distinguished Germany from the “West”.[2] Throughout history, German people were proud of having a strong statist belief and an effective civil service system; they were also used to having reformations from the above[3] – from the elites and aristocrats of the nation, but not from the bottom, like those that happened in France and the United States.[4]

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Statism, aristocracy, and absolute obedience to ensure efficiency – those ideologies were deeply embedded in German culture, and knitted tightly into the new political system designed by Otto von Bismarck, the first and the most famous Chancellor of the German Empire. This system is based on a constitution that was described by Carl Schmitt as a “dilatory compromise between monarchism and parliamentarian,”[5] handing power to citizens while still firmly defending the superior status of conservative elites. The long legacy of rule from the above left Germany unready for comprehensive democratization during the Weimar Period, which contributed to the republic’s failure to consolidate itself in the face of serious economic crises. The skepticism from the old aristocrats and the disappointment of the lower middle class eventually drove the country into the grasp of the Nazis.[6]

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Economically speaking, due to the Unification, customs barriers that previously existed between different kingdoms were eliminated, and different currencies in various regions became the same, bringing necessary precondition to the industrial development of the Empire.[7] Under the background of rapid economic development, the stock market of the new Empire flourished. Because of the increasing railroad track length, railroad companies were able to pay huge dividends to the buyers.[8] Besides those relatively traditional industries, the newly emerging fields mentioned above also attracted many investors. Before World War I, the Berlin stock exchange acted as an effective market for innovative firms to obtain equity funds to conduct risky Research & Development projects, contributing to technological advancement to a great extent.[9]

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The fast economic development attracted many women who lived in rural regions, and they came to cities, mainly taking the job of domestic servants. Over time, more and more women were attracted to factories and commercial offices due to factors such as higher salaries,[10] and taking a step forward into the public sphere of social life. Employers also soon discovered that female fingers were more flexible and suitable for using new inventions like typewriters; women also proved that they were better at repetitive and detailed work.[11] Women gained unprecedented life experiences as they actively participated in the workplace during the rapid process of industrialization.

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While the economy needed more women to participate in the workforce, during the process of constructing a new social structure and nation, the relationship between the two sexes did not achieve much progress. Women, no matter which social class they belonged to, were still considered inferior to men in both political rights and economic status.[12] In society, there was a mismatch between economic development and ideological stagnation, like the meetings of waters in the Amazon, cutting apart from one another.

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The development of industries facilitated breakthroughs in science, technology, and medical knowledge. Apart from various revolutionary breakthroughs achieved by Heinrich Hertz, Albert Einstein, and other scientific elites, infant mortality, and perinatal maternal mortality rates dropped dramatically starting from the early twentieth century. Having more control over their family sizes, many women were able to pursue their own careers outside the home.[13] Consequently, a positive cycle that encouraged women to continue stepping outside their traditional domestic domain had formed. 

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It is important to recognize that the Unification of Germany had a significant impact on eugenics, a new territory of science. Industrialization and urbanization not only brought profound advantages to the nation’s development, but also various social problems. Criminal activities, prostitution, suicides, alcohol consumption, and alcoholism increased, and a large group of so-called mental defectives started to be noticed by the public.[14] Holding the responsibility of safeguarding the health of the country, German medical professionals sought solutions actively[15]. They claimed that the prosperity of those populations would harm the future of the “German race” because all of the social “unfitness” was inherited from biological and medical factors.[16] Therefore, the only way to break the ice was to gradually reduce the number of the “unfit” group through a policy called “racial selection” or racial hygiene. Unconsciously, the knowledge of eugenics provided the theoretical basis for future Nazi racial policies.[17] 

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Imperial Germany was like an old building undergoing exterior renovation: one of the new decorations to this architecture was the seeming advancement in women’s social roles. However, although women had gradually stepped outside their homes and embraced a new way of living during the social upheavals from political, economic, and social aspects, society still regarded the main roles of women to be in the family, sticking with their husbands and children.

 

Weimar’s New Women

After the end of the First World War, Germany entered its era of the Weimar Republic. Gender perceptions changed according to the shift in politics: the image of the “Weimar new woman” emerged, who was portrayed in leftist party magazines as a lady with a nice fortune, rich knowledge, independent financial resources, and a liberal lifestyle.[18]

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Tempo newspaper was one of the major promoters of the phenomenon, which existed between 1928 and 1933. Starting from the beginning, Tempo defined itself as “the embodiment of a new idea” and served the “special needs of the present day.”[19] Holding such commitment, Tempo made several remarkable attempts to break the traditional gender perception in German society:

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As a mainstream newspaper, it didn’t address female readers separately. Instead, Tempo treated women as equal citizens of the Republic as men in politics, society, and economy.[20] In order to promote Women’s independence, Tempo printed photos of accomplished working women around the world, such as senior female post officers in America and British female inventors.[21] The newspaper also organized a contest called “The Beauty of Working Women” in which it collected photographs and stories from women in various occupations around the country to show the younger generation the varied possibilities in a woman’s life.[22] Providing women with various “choices” and letting them see a broader world that was awaiting them – what a coincidence with the thoughts of the feminists thirty years later!

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The newspaper also created an area called “The woman’s complaint book” for women to release their discontent and communicate with each other. A successful businesswoman once wrote that she still needed the permission of her husband to open a bank account. Responding to this confession, a female reader pointed directly that the law in an “age of female equality” was still made by men.[23] This space was very similar to the “conscious-raising groups” that appeared during the Second Wave of Feminism, establishing a support network among women themselves. The power against the systematic patriarchy could therefore be much stronger and more united. 

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Tempo, a loud whistle at the dawn of the next awakening, provided an advanced ideology that was similar in spirit to publications that would ultimately arise decades later. The creation of the image of the “Weimar new woman” was a collaborative effort between male and female writers, with active participation from the readers. This cooperation highlighted the fresh societal expectation for women in the Republic, marking a huge step forward from the Imperial past.

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However, although the image of the “Weimar new woman” was a construction created by both the audience, artists, and media, the income of many working-class women could not afford them to get closer to the ideal image of social expectation; in fact, fashion and house-keeping magazines were more popular than those progressive publications like Tempo.

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When there was not enough material foundation, the realization of any grand ideal was just talk. The predicament of the “Weimar new women” was the true portraiture of this line: they were like a young tree that had successfully sprouted green leaves, a clear sign of its potential, but unfortunately, the tree seemed to be lacking sufficient nutrients to support itself against harsh winds.

 

Nazi Ideology of Women

The rise of the Nazis was a huge shift for women, as Hitler and his fellows wanted to push “Weimar new women” back to the sitting room, nursery, and kitchen. What the National Socialists wanted to do was to clean and strengthen the iron frame of patriarchy, which was just starting to rust. 

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Generally, life for individuals can be divided into two distinct spheres: public and private.[24] According to the traditional perception of a patriarchal society, men should unquestionably occupy the territory of the public sphere, acting as the breadwinner of the family, while women should be responsible for housework and childbearing, instead of being involved in employment, politics, or social affairs.

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Hitler, as the principal designer of the Nazi ideology, agreed with this kind of value to a great extent. From the very beginning, Hitler promised to eliminate the Jews from ‘Aryan’ society and expel women from public influence.[25] In Hitler’s view, women should have no place in public or political life, since men and women have completely different natures: not only physiologically and biologically, but also psychologically and emotionally.[26] He stated in a speech given at the 1934 Nuremberg Party Rally, “Women’s world is a smaller one. For her world is her husband, her family, her children, and her home.” “We do not feel that is right when a woman forces her way into man’s world, onto what is essentially his territory. Rather, we feel it is natural when these two worlds remain separate from each other.”[27] Therefore, only men served in the German parliament, Reichstag, and the paramilitary branch, the SA, as they generally did not welcome women as candidates in political elections.[28]

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It is worth pointing out that the Nazis actually acknowledged the equal status between men and women, although there were fundamental differences between the two sexes.[29] Still, it also needs to be clarified that the so-called ‘equal status’ stayed only on the ideological level, in reality, women were subordinate to their spouses or male relatives. The same inferior position could be reflected in the workplace. Even though women were not completely excluded from employment, their advancement in traditionally male-dominated jobs with high rank and payment was strictly restricted.[30] During WWII, numerous vocations that had previously been monopolized by men required women to fill them; nonetheless, the Nazi leadership only treated women as temporary replacements for men. When men returned from the battlefield, they had to promptly relinquish their position.[31]

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The Nazis applied ‘precautionary measures’ even in girls’ education: female students were not allowed to study science in the final three years of their senior schools; as a result, the number of women studying science, law, and economics reduced significantly in the 1930s.[32] Instead, their education was centered around preparing to be good mothers. Clara Bohm-Schuch, the editor of a Social Democratic Party’s women’s newspaper, once stated: “Women had a duty as ‘protectors and rearers’ of the species and that education should instill the ‘will to maternity’ in the younger generation.”[33]

 

Nazi Ideology of Men and Women: Marriage, Racism, and Sexism

If today a woman lawyer achieves great things and nearby there lives a mother with five, six, seven children, all of them healthy and well-brought up, then I would say: from the point of view of the eternal benefit to our people, the woman who has borne and brought up children and who has therefore given our nation life in the future, has achieved more and done more![34]

 

These were the words from Hitler’s 1936 Nuremberg Party Rally speech. It is clear that to Hitler, “being a mother”, and at best being a mother of several children, was the greatest achievement women could accomplish in their life, which was in line with the Nazi ideology: women should be a mother, first, foremost, and always.[35]

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To save the country from a steadily declining birth rate, the Nazis implemented harsher and more direct family policies than their predecessor, the Weimar Republic, and other countries that only cautiously encouraged family policy.[36] Defining marriage as a “long-termed relationship” between “two genetically healthy” and “racially identical” people “of the opposite gender”, and its purpose was to raise “able-bodied national comrades,”[37] the Nazis identified four necessities a favorable marriage should possess: good physical health, ‘pure’ racial heritage, conventionally ‘natural’ relationship, and child-raising.

The Nazis classified the German population into two distinct categories: “valuable” and “worthless.”[38] The ‘Aryan’ race and the ‘Nordic’ people were referred to as “valuable” people, while “worthless” people included the Jews, the Slavs, other colored races, and the disabled. Only healthy “valuable” people had the right to marry and reproduce, while the “worthless” population would undergo cruel sterilization[39] or be prosecuted in the concentration camps to make them disappear from the world.[40]

 

The Nazis wanted German mothers to be “inferior” and “superior” at the same time.[41] They should be inferior, and subordinate to their husbands, but they should have “superior” racial heritage, to give birth to more “superior Aryan” babies. In order to ensure the integrity of marriages, the Nazi regime gave the responsibility of preventing an “unhealthy” marriage to several parties: doctors, the non-physician health department, and the civil registry. The couples were encouraged to visit doctors to get to know their family ancestry; the other two would identify “reservations concerning marriage.”[42] The approval of the final marriage certificate would even refer to the past history of the individual, such as physical appearance and rumors about him or her.[43] The execution of the entire system was dependent on numerous groups in society from the top to the bottom, proving that “marriage” in the Nazi German context was a critical national policy that had penetrated the domain of people's private sphere.

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As Gisela Bock points out, “racism” and “sexism” were the two pillars that built up Nazi Germany’s female identity.[44] Race could determine whether or not a woman was able or not to have a regular life experience, while women’s social roles were reduced to a sole sexual aspect through marriages – being spouses and mothers. If a woman belonged to a ‘worthless’ race, as the enemy of the Third Reich, she wasn’t entitled to have her own family and offspring. Yet if she belonged to the “Aryan” race, not being able to marry and reproduce would be a shame. For German women, racism and sexism were like two tests that were complementary – failing either one would have fatal consequences for their entire life.

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As indicated above, having children and raising them properly were the two most important purposes of promoting marriages. In Nazi propaganda, an ideal German ‘Aryan’ woman was portrayed as a happy mother surrounded by children.[45] At that time, as more and more women started to have their own careers and realized that having fewer or even no children could let them have a life with more freedom and better quality, returning to the traditional domestic positions of a tender wife and a tireless mother was not an attractive option. The Nazis took the effort from two sides: material and spiritual. They issued subsidies to families with several children and awarded mothers who gave birth to multiple children with the award ‘The Honorary Cross’, which imitated the famous German military honor system ‘The Iron Cross.”[46] Propaganda tools like posters and speeches given by the leaders also frequently appeared in the nation’s public life.[47]

 

Case Study 1: The Life of Melitta Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg

Despite the reality that women's social expectations had turned negative, there was still hope. The light left on the advancing road of German women was illuminated by a few female pioneers who used their own power to establish themselves in this hostile culture. Melitta von Stauffenberg was one among them. 

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Melitta was born into a middle-class German-Polish family with strong patriotism for their motherland. When she was still a student at school, Melitta showed more interest in studying than in making friends.[48] Unlike other girls who were often poor at sciences and mathematics, Melitta was a quite well-rounded student. She showed great enthusiasm in scientific fields: people would rarely see her without two physics books by her side; philosophy also attracted Melitta, who once said: “If it is not possible to live a happy life, then the only way is to love a heroic life.”[49]

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In the last year of Melitta’s high school, she participated in the sport of Gliding and became the only girl who took up the Gilder. According to Clare Mulley, the author of The Women Who Flew for Hitler: The True Story of Hitler’s Valkyries, said in the book: “She always enjoyed testing the limits of what was possible, whether through the exhilaration of skiing and diving, or the intellectual pleasure she gained from amateur scientific inquiry.”

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Melitta attended the Technical University of Munich and joined the aerodynamics department of the prestigious German Research Institute for Aeronautics (DVL) as a flight mechanic and mathematician after graduation. DVL gathered the brightest graduates nationwide, aiming to restore Germany’s international reputation in technology.[50] Life at DVL was not ideal: few colleagues gave Melitta the recognition she deserved. Consequently, Melitta closed herself off and paid almost all attention to her work. As a result of accomplishing some notable feats, she started to be consulted by much older colleagues and gained her place in the workplace.[51]

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Due to financial constraints, Melitta was unable to pursue her interest in flying when she was an undergraduate. Melitta eventually started her flying career in 1929 after enrolling at a flight school. Being one of the few female pilots at that time, Melitta and her fellows formed a close-connected community to support each other: they were seen as a modern new type of human, defined by their flying ability rather than their gender, just as Mulley states in the book.[52] 

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In the years that followed, Melitta combined her flying talent with her professional work of mechanics. In order to evaluate and improve important weapons like dive-bombers, she came out with technical and scientific evaluations that could not be attained by means other than flying.[53] Because of her outstanding contributions, Melitta was awarded the Second-Class Iron Cross at the beginning of 1943.

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Melitta married Alexander von Stauffenberg, a classics scholar, in the year 1937, at the age of thirty-four. After marriage, she balanced the roles of being a housewife, a competent assistant to her husband, and an excellent engineer by cooking meals, writing up Alexander’s academic notes, and dealing with her own papers in between.[54] According to their sister-in-law, Nina, Alexander provided ‘constant and understanding encouragement’ for Melitta's work; and while Melitta took charge of their private family life, she willingly stood behind her husband in public as an obedient wife.[55]

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Melitta did not treat marriage as the most important thing in life or the only way to continue surviving in society. Instead, she married at the age of thirty-four – very late according to the standard at that time – after a few failed relationships. The primary standard for Melitta to choose her husband was not wealth or social status, but whether both of them could improve together to become better people. Despite her individuality, Melitta nonetheless upheld the customary values of being a “good wife”, doing housework and assisting her husband between her own busy work schedule. 

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Melitta and her family had strong misgivings about the Nazi government despite the fact that they worked for it. Berthold and Claus von Stauffenberg, her two in-laws, were in charge of the famous Operation Valkyrie, an attempt to assassinate Hitler in 1944, near the end of the war. Melitta took part in the event as well; she planned to fake an emergency landing in order to fly Claus to Hitler's headquarters.[56] Sadly, the operation ultimately failed. Melitta was detained, as were the other Stauffenberg members. After being released due to “war necessity,”[57] Melitta managed to visit family members who were imprisoned in various locations, giving them food, books, and other supplies. However, just three weeks before the end of the war, Melitta died in an air crash while flying a plane to find the prison where her family was being held.[58]

 

Case Study II: The Story of Hanna Reitsch

Melitta wasn’t alone in the sky of Nazi Germany. Another prominent female pilot, Hanna Reitsch, also acted as an inheritor of the Weimar spirit, proving to that conservative society how much energy and determination a woman could possess. 

Hanna was a girl who was born in a typical middle-class “Aryan” family, with a strict father and a devout mother: both parents were the followers of traditional gender perceptions. Hanna wrote after she grew up: “In our family, it was accepted a principle that a girl could only have one task in life, namely to marry and become a good mother to her children.” However, Hanna was an ambitious child who always wanted to explore something outside her little world, showing an interest in flying starting from a young age. Overcoming the scorns from the surrounding male peers, and with a heart full of passion and determination, Hanna achieved many “firsts”: the first woman to fly a helicopter, and the first female receiver of the Iron Cross during the War – as she flight-tested many of Germany’s prototype aircraft.[59]

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Unlike most women, Hanna never married. The single life enabled her to continue the liberal lifestyle and continued to pursue an excellent career in flying. In comparison to Melitta, Hanna was on the other side of the political spectrum: she was a frantic follower of Hitler and the Nazi regime. When the war reached an impasse, Hanna lost her previous absolute confidence in the Third Reich’s victory, in order to save the Fatherland from possible ruin, she initiated and led the “Operation of Self-Sacrifice” from 1943 to 1944.[60] She wanted pilots, potentially including herself, to steer their missiles all the way down to the point of impact without pulling themselves out.[61] This act would kill pilots instantaneously, but Hanna regarded this as a worthy sacrifice to make to ensure the precision of the attacks.

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Still wearing the Iron Cross Hitler gave to her decades before,[62] she died at the age of 67, in the year 1979.

 

The Cold War & The Second Wave of Feminism

After the end of the Second World War, when men returned from the war to reenter civil life, women withdrew from the workforce and went back to caring for their families. Germany suffered tremendous losses after World War II. Most of the country’s industrial infrastructure was destroyed, over 10% of the population died, and food production was reduced by 50%.[63] Additionally, the division of Germany split the country into two sides of the Iron Curtain, Berlin citizens particularly, would face the block of life necessities from the opposite camp. Under such severe conditions, the burden of living was extremely heavy. Women, as housewives, needed to take care of all the housework and be responsible for the children’s education and the daily life of the whole family. Their life was restricted within this small circle, as in Germany only until 1977 could they work without their husband's permission.[64] Such an enigma faced by German women was not a lonely case: women in other countries also confronted a similar issue. The retreat from workplaces to private homes let those women reexamine their position in society and further consider the future of the whole gender group. During that period, The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir and Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique emerged, as the two brightest kindling that blazed the new realization to the world.

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The Second Sex is a ground-breaking feminist work that was published in 1949, immediately after the end of World War II. The book centered around the question “What is a woman,” and discusses women’s subordinate position in society from biological, psychological, mythological, and historical perspectives. Women and men indeed have differences in their physical bodies, however, de Beauvoir argues that instead of being simply defined by biology, a woman is created “within a society.”[65] Therefore, “One is not born, but rather becomes, woman.”[66] Under the long-time discipline of civilization, a woman is “determined and differentiated in relation to man, while he is not in relation to her;” when men are the “subject” and the “absolute”, women have become the “other” in society.[67]

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In a 1960 interview with Alice Schwarzer, de Beauvoir stated that working is a fundamental necessity and an essential factor for women to achieve independence in life.[68] This notion has foreshadowed the key idea raised by American feminist writer Betty Friedan in her work, The Feminine Mystique, which was published in 1963.

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The mysterious and strong force known as "the feminine mystique" was in charge of women both before and after World War II, pressuring them into early marriage and persuading them that the key to happiness lay in accepting the “feminine” position of wife and mother.[69] Instead, Friedan conveys the idea that women should discover a life purpose other than giving in to those traditional roles. Women should pursue high-quality careers that are “the lifelong commitment to an art of science, to politics or profession,”[70] according to her, this is the only way for women to break free of their confinement, realize the “full possibilities of their existence,” and be the “builder and designer of the world.”[71] 

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The ideal woman Friedan depicted in her book had already begun to take shape in the Weimar Republic. The Nazi regime’s interference caused a significant number of “Weimar new women” to return back to the private sphere. Despite this, a select few, including Melitta and Hanna, made valiant attempts to preserve the Weimar spirit during this bleak period. They, unlike most women at the time, found purpose in their careers and passions for flying. Their happiness did not depend on others. Instead, they were self-sufficient in creating their own fulfillment. 

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Rather than being defined by the fact that she was a countess, Melitta made a name for herself as a great engineer and pilot via her knowledge, abilities, dedication, and bravery, demonstrating an equal or even superior level of competence to that of her male coworkers. Additionally, Melitta did not blindly follow the guidance of public opinion, doing the “right things” according to her belief – participating in the dangerous assassination without hesitation. From this standpoint, Melitta was the epitome of the independent and intelligent woman Friedan envisioned. The autonomy presented by Melitta was not limited to financial matters but also extended to the spiritual realm.

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With a successful career and a traditional perception of domestic life, Melitta demonstrated the importance of granting women the autonomy to make their own “choices” regarding the path they wish to pursue, rather than solely limiting them to the roles of wives and mothers. Friedan and other Second Wave Feminists aimed to seek precisely this.[72]

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Despite the fact that she was a firm Nazi supporter, Hanna also showed certain gender perceptions which were ahead of the time. Rather than being impeded by external judgments, Hanna followed her inner voice bravely – which might provide successors a nice example of fighting against the stereotypes. During the war, when she noticed the approaching of defeat, Hanna stood out actively and took the responsibility to save the Fatherland she loved deeply, demonstrating her strong ability for leadership. 

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The life stories of women like Melitta and Hanna inspired the young generation of women who grew up during the war. Many of them had attended college.[73] However, as solely wives and mothers who needed to take care of a household under the hard-hit economy, this generation had no opportunity to display their talents on a broader stage. In the 1960s and 1970s, when the economy in Europe had recovered to a great extent, these women, who were little girls during World War II, came to the front lines of the movement. In fact, many leaders of the Second Wave of Feminism were born before the start of the war. Meanwhile, witnessing the frustrations and regret of their mothers, the daughters also headed toward a new direction, flaming the rebellion in the 1960s and 70s.[74] Therefore, mothers and daughters worked together to make the wokeness a reality.

 

Conclusion

“History is a cyclic poem written by time upon the memories of men,” Percy Shelly once wrote. The Second Wave of Feminism can be traced back to the time before the Nazi period, earlier than the starting point we previously thought about. The “new women” who emerged in the Weimar Republic were ahead of their time, representing a wholly different point of view than anyone before them: they were no longer the “other” half of society, but the half with their own autonomy and sovereignty. Although this change was as brief as a shooting star, several women pioneers still carried the kindling of the Weimar spirit under the Nazi regime. They proved that women could also shine brightly in arenas outside the home, and keep impressing the young generation to break the confinements placed by society – the seeds of new liberation were already planted during that time. Once the environment reached its optimum, the seeds revealed the full flower of new life, and that is the Second Wave of Feminism.

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The route of the Second Wave of Feminism was like an arch, twisted but never broken. Generation and generation, countless women fought for freedom and against malevolence under the limitations of their times. The success of a relay race relied on the involvement of all individuals. Great advancements are often made through small progress taken in both the past and present. Every step forward, no matter how minor, will make a difference.

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Endnotes

[1] This concept, at the same time, is the key to a crucial question in German and even global history: “Why Germany, unlike other (Western) countries during the crisis of the interwar period, transformed into a radical, fascist dictatorship?” wrote Jürgen Kocka in his essay “Looking Back on the Sonderweg.”

[2] Countries in the West refer to the United States and Great Britain.

[3] The Unification of Germany is exactly the perfect example of this kind of revolution, transforming Germany from a land made up of several tiny kingdoms into a vast empire with unified power.

[4] Jürgen Kocka, “German History before Hitler: The Debate about the German Sonderweg,” Journal of Contemporary History 23, no. 1 (January 1, 1988): 3–16, https://doi.org/10.1177/002200948802300101.

[5] Sheri E. Berman, “Modernization in Historical Perspective: The Case of Imperial Germany,” World Politics 53, no. 3 (April 2001): 431–62, https://doi.org/10.1353/wp.2001.0007.

[6] Jürgen Kocka, “German History before Hitler: The Debate about the German Sonderweg,” Journal of Contemporary History 23, no. 1 (January 1, 1988): 3–16, https://doi.org/10.1177/002200948802300101.

[7] According to Volker Rolf Berghahn’s book Imperial Germany: 1971-1918: Economy, Society, Culture and Politics, in 1913, just forty years after the Unification, Germany was already in third place in coal production with an annual amount of 191 million, just behind Britain and the United States. In the field of iron and steel, Germany even surpassed Britain, becoming the world’s second-largest iron producer. Machines, electrical engineering, chemicals, and other new industries that emerged after ‘the Second Industrial Revolution” also increased at a stunning speed: in 1860, only 8,647 machines had been produced in Prussia, but in 1875, the number became 36,000.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Sibylle Lehmann-Hasemeyer and Jochen Streb mentioned in their paper “The Berlin Stock Exchange in Imperial Germany: A Market for New Technology?” that the dividend of Berlin Magdeburg Railroad Company’s stock could be reached to 20 percent.

[10] James N. Retallack, Imperial Germany 1871-1918 (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2008).

[11] Jill Stephenson, Women in Nazi Society (London: Routledge, 2014).

[12] James N. Retallack, Imperial Germany 1871-1918 (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2008).

[13] Ibid.

[14] Mark B. Adams, ed., “The Origins of German Eugenics, 1890-1903,” essay, in The Wellborn Science: Eugenics in Germany, France, Brazil and Russia (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), 11–21.

[15] Ibid.

[16] Ibid.

[17] Ibid.

[18] Hafife Montgomery, “Socialist Ideals of the New Woman in Weimar Germany” (thesis, The University of Memphis ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2023).

[19] Jochen Hung, “The Modernized Gretchen: Transformations of the ‘New Woman’ in the Late Weimar Republic,” German History 33, no. 1 (2015): 52–79, https://doi.org/10.1093/gerhis/ghu113.

[20] Ibid.

[21] Jochen Hung, “The Modernized Gretchen: Transformations of the ‘New Woman’ in the Late Weimar Republic,” German History 33, no. 1 (2015): 52–79, https://doi.org/10.1093/gerhis/ghu113.

[22] Ibid.

[23] Ibid.

[24] Ibid.

[25] Claudia Koonz, Mothers in the Fatherland: Women, the Family, and Nazi Politics (London; New York: Routledge, 2014).

[26] Jill Stephenson, Women in Nazi Germany (London: Routledge, 2015).

[27] Adolf Hitler and Max Domarus, essay, in Hitler Reden Und Proklamationen 1932 - 1945 (Neustadt a. d. Aisch: Schmidt, 1962), 449–51.

[28] I Jill Stephenson, Women in Nazi Germany (London: Routledge, 2015).

[29] Ibid.

[30] Ibid.

[31] Ibid.

[32] Ibid.

[33] Cornelie Usborne, The Politics of the Body in Weimar Germany (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1992).

[34] Jill Stephenson, Women in Nazi Germany (London: Routledge, 2015).

[35] Ibid.

[36] Claudia Koonz, Mothers in the Fatherland: Women, the Family, and Nazi Politics (London; New York: Routledge, 2013).

[37] Atina Grossmann, Reforming Sex: The German Movement for Birth Control and Abortion Reform, 1920-1950 (New York, NY: Oxford Univ. Press, 1998).

[38] Jill Stephenson, Women in Nazi Germany (London: Routledge, 2015).

[39] Ibid.

[40] Jill Stephenson, Women in Nazi Society (London: Routledge, 2014).

[41] Gisela Bock, “Racism and Sexism in Nazi Germany: Motherhood, Compulsory Sterilization, and the State,” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 8, no. 3 (Spring 1983): 400–421, https://doi.org/10.1086/493983.

[42] Michelle Mouton, “Marriage Policy in Turmoil: Stabilizing Society, Reordering Gender Roles, and Guaranteeing the Future,” essay, in From Nurturing the Nation to Purifying the Volk: Weimar and Nazi Family Policy, 1918–1945 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 200734), 34–68.

[43] Ibid.

[44] Gisela Bock, “Racism and Sexism in Nazi Germany: Motherhood, Compulsory Sterilization, and the State,” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 8, no. 3 (Spring 1983): 400–421, https://doi.org/10.1086/493983.

[45] Karin Brashler, “Mothers for Germany: A Look at the Ideal Woman in Nazi Propaganda” (thesis, Iowa State University Digital Repository, 2015).

[46] Jill Stephenson, Women in Nazi Germany (London: Routledge, 2015).

[47] Karin Brashler, “Mothers for Germany: A Look at the Ideal Woman in Nazi Propaganda” (thesis, Iowa State University Digital Repository, 2015). According to the attached document in Jill Stephenson’s book Women in Nazi Germany, Hitler and other Nazi leaders addressed in their several speeches that women should understand their important roles in the household and their divine responsibility as mothers; they also emphasized the “eternal polarity of the sexes.”

[48] Clare Mulley, The Women Who Flew for Hitler: The True Story of Hitler’s Valkyries (London: Pan Macmillan, 2017).

[49] Ibid.

[50] Ibid.

[51] Ibid.

[52] Ibid.

[53] Ibid. Melitta tested these targeting devices herself. In the book, Clarie Mulley confessed that testing dive-bombers required “not only patience, precision, and considerable physical strength, but also great courage;” and “Melitta might complete fifteen such test dive in one day: a performance unmatched by any pilot in history.”

[54] Ibid.

[55] Ibid.

[56] Ibid.

[57] Ibid.

[58] Melitta managed to make an emergency landing at the end, which proved her “great personal determination and skill as a pilot,” wrote Mulley.

[59] Ibid.

[60] Ibid.

[61] Ibid.

[62] Hanna said in an interview with American photojournalist Ron Laytner: “I am not ashamed to say I believe in National Socialism. I still wear the Iron Cross with diamonds Hitler gave me……Many Germans feel guilty about the war. But they don’t explain the real guilt we share – that we lost.”

[63] Wirtschaftswunder: The Post-WWII Rise of Germany (Megaprojects, 2022), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1n2H9LjbR4.

[64] Viola Stefanello, “Germany Celebrates 100 Years of Women’s Suffrage,” Euronews, January 17, 2019, https://www.euronews.com/2019/01/17/germany-celebrates-100-years-of-women-s-suffrage.

[65] Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, trans. Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier (New York: Vintage Books, 2011), 48.

[66] Ibid, 283.

[67] Ibid, 6.

[68] Alice Schwarzer, After the Second Sex: Conversations with Simone de Beauvoir (New York: Pantheon Books, 1984).

[69] Elizabeth Fraterrigo, “‘The Happy Housewife Heroine’ and ‘The Sexual Sell’ Legacies of Betty Friedan’s Critique of the Image of Women,” Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 36, no. 2 (November 2, 2015): 33–46, https://doi.org/10.1353/fro.2015.a589411.

[70] Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique, ed. Kirsten Fermaglich and Lisa M. Fine (New York: Norton, 2013). 

[71] Ibid.

[72] Elizabeth Covington, “Intersectional Lives: Literary and Sociological Approaches,” Pioneer Academics, (lecture, August 14, 2023).

[73] Jill Stephenson mentioned in the book Women in Nazi Germany that the number of female college students rose steadily during wartime, and in 1943/44, female students occupied 49.5% of university admissions.

[74] Laura Brunell, Elinor Burkett, and The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Feminism,” Encyclopædia Britannica, June 26, 2023, https://www.britannica.com/topic/feminism.