The purpose of this research is to examine various issues surrounding the fact that fascist ideology in Third-Reich Germany honored mothers in a particular way. The plan of the research will be to set forth the context in which Nazi ideology penetrated the social and cultural position of women in Germany when Hitler came to power, and then to discuss how the policies that flowed from such ideology actually affected women's status in the Third Reich.
Koonz and Bridenthal (1977) note a gradual ideological shift in Nazi Germany's treatment of the idea of motherhood. They say that Nazi ideologues saw women as the anchor of highly traditional family values from the beginning of their quest for political power in Germany, but that official policy toward women in general and mothers in particular changed to fit political fashion and expediency. Their review of government sources and histories of women's organizations in Europe shows that, before 1933, the Nazis admitted women inside the struggle for power, and gave them organizational and ideological autonomy, particularly when organizing other women into the party. But when Hitler finally came to power, the Nazi leaders replaced the autonomous organization women with others who followed the highly traditional family-virtue party line. Marriage and childbirth were emphasized at the expense of intellectual contributions, although as Germany moved toward war, large numbers of women were allowed to have civil service and factory jobs. By 1943, all women were required to register with state employment offices; throughout the war, there was no concept of equal pay for equal work or anything like women in meaningful management positions.
Koonz (1988) further develops the uses to which women were put by the Nazis, focusing on the fact that the majority of women in the Reich internalized Nazi values. Accordingly, they, like typical German men, essentially participated in a process tha...