How can you tell if a society has changed? One obvious way is by observing the women walking down the streets. An excellent example is the case of the Weimar Republic (1918–1933). The Weimar women or the “new woman”, as they were referred to, was a new breed of working women that emerged after World War I. They would flock the streets in their cloche, medium-length skirts, bobbed hair, and makeup. Along with their pay checks, androgynous attire, and boyish figure, emerged a new lifestyle: enjoying the single life, driving a car, dancing in jazz clubs, hanging out in the cafes unchaperoned, smoking, and courting men. The new woman was the face of women’s journal and magazine ads. She was a sexual being, constantly transforming femininity and womanhood. However, politics quickly changed this. When the Nazi regime came into power, the cities’ dancing and café culture also changed. The Weimar women were quickly replaced by the “mothers of the nation”, ending an era greatly represented by a female icon.
The Weimar Republic saw an era of cultural renaissance influenced by the cultural movement in Europe and America. Although the republic was struggling with hyperinflation, coffeehouses, clubs, and pubs, and the intellectual community flourished. Against this backdrop, the new woman was more than just the face of an era’s popular culture.
First of all, she was a political being. In 1919, women in Germany had won the right to vote and made it to parliament. As many as 111 women were elected in the Reichstag, and between 1919 and 1933, women made up almost eight percent of the national legislature. Article 109 of the constitution gave women equality in marriage and in the professions.
She was a wage earner. Many worked in the factories, some were journalists, photographers, and artists. But her economic participation and financial independence shook stability. Not that it was uncommon for women to work before this period, but with the economic independence gained, these women had broken many conventions and continued to challenge more; consequently they became a symbol of revolt.
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| German flapper magazine (1927) |
When the republic fell and the Nazis took power, the “mother of the nation” replaced the new woman. If women’s sexualized image was what the media was obsessed with during the liberal Weimar era, women’s reproductive capacity was what fascist Germany was obsessed with. Women were considered as mating objects and reproducers of pure Aryans. In contrast to the Weimar women, the mothers of the nation were stripped of sensuality.
The ideal of women as mothers of the nation became important Nazi policies. This ideal easily gained the support of middle-class conservative women who felt the need to reaffirm traditional roles and reinsert their self-worth amidst the gender role ambiguity that the republic was experiencing. However, the Nazis’ idea of a separate sphere for women was not founded by the same Victorian middle-class ideals that consider women gentle and weak. In contrast, ideal Nazi women were strong like farmers in the fields and could take any kind of task the country needed them to take. They were perhaps a confused fusion of mother and saviour, of rural women and urban bourgeois housewives.
To support the ideal of the mother of the nation and young girls’ primary task of producing the next generation of healthy Aryans, a new ideal female physical image was created: athletic and broad-hipped. Dieting to stay slim was discouraged because thinness in women was considered to create health problems for women who will give birth. Here again, the changes in society were visible on women and young girls. The mother of the nation wore no makeup, her long hair was always in braids or in a bun, embracing the farm girl ideal image.
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| Girls in Nazi youth organization |
In the beginning of the Third Reich, not all Nazi women submitted to the gender ideology of the Third Reich. A few militant Nazi women were advocates of women’s rights and rejected the idea of women staying totally in the home as housewives. Even though the new government claimed to support women with careers, this was subordinated to women’s sacred duty, that of serving the nation by producing healthy Aryans.
To build an Aryan nation, various policies or restrictions to uphold purity and reproductive health were also introduced. Controlling the youth was important for achieving the goals of the Third Reich. Policies related to health and culture targeted the youth or affected them. Some policies, however, did not go unchallenged.
In Nazi Germany, obsession with purity and the production of healthy Aryans was reflected in government policies related to food and beverages. These policies also targeted the youth as Hitler wanted to ensure the good health of the new generation.
Through youth organizations, young girls were prepared for having children. While both girls and boys were encouraged to practice healthy eating habits, anti-tobacco and anti-alcohol campaigns mostly targeted young girls (and women) because of their reproductive capacity. The Germans were discouraged from using stimulants as they were deemed hazardous for the health. Aside from nicotine and alcohol, this included caffeine; thus coffee was considered bad for the health. Coincidentally, Germany invented decaf years ago.
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| Kaffee HAG advertisement (1920s) |
In 1905, a Bremen native, Ludwig Roselius discovered decaffeinated coffee accidentally when coffee beans shipped to him were soaked in sea water, which stripped the caffeine from the beans. In 1906, Roselius launched his company Kaffee HAG, but the decaf craze in Germany began when the Nazis were in power. Roselius’ decaf was widely available in the Third Reich as it became part of the campaign against caffeine.
If coffee lovers today would joke about decaf, for the Nazi regime, it was no laughing matter. The 1941 Hitler Youth Handbook, declared caffeine as dangerous and poisonous. Kaffee HAG decaf was the official Nazi drink, distributed in youth activities for boys and girls who would produce the next generation of healthy Aryans.
Not all youngsters happily joined Nazi youth groups. In fact, resistance particularly emerged from teen jazz goers, coined the Swing Kids. They would ridicule Nazi youth groups and mock their dress code. They had their own fashion signature, copying and combining the swing fashion fads of America and England. Swing girls wore short dresses and let their hair loose, instead of keeping them in braids. They also wore makeup and smoked, defying the ideal image of the Nazi woman. The swing boys styled themselves in double chested suits, baggy trousers or a zoot suit, a homburg hat, and umbrella.
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| The swing craze |
The jazz and swing craze emerged in Weimar throughout the 1920s and ‘30s. The Nazis associated jazz with African-American culture, which they considered degenerated because of its racial impurity. For the Nazis, the preservation of the German culture was part of maintaining purity. Despite this, restriction of jazz started late into Nazi rule. It was not until 1938 that various Nazi districts began banning jazz and swing clubs.
Stronger restrictions led to an underground movement of jazz and swing clubs and the SwingJugend (Swing Youth) counterculture. These youths favored the freedom offered by liberalism. Their resistance was not political, nonetheless, it challenged the authority the Nazis wanted to impose over the youths. Interestingly, the Swing Youth and not the Weimar women became the symbol of revolt against fascism.
Despite the political and economic visibility of the Weimar women, they were not the face of resistance against fascism. In fact, as the republic faced unresolved economic and political crises, the Weimar women appeared to have voluntarily given up what they had gained to the Nazi regime. This was due to, first, the ongoing economic discrimination working women faced in the republic. Second, there was no f real political role women were able to play. Because of this, Weimar women leaders supported the Nazi regime with the belief that they would be politically rewarded in return.
The life of the new modern woman was quite different to the image promoted by the media. The image of middle-class women promoted by the media did not represent the majority of working women who were menial workers. Many of these women had replaced men who went to war and left their jobs when the war ended. Returning from the First World War, men were given the first opportunity for re-employment. So after supporting the country during war, women were left with low-paid menial jobs, and on top of that, the primary responsibility for housework and childcare. This situation resulted in the resentment of working women towards the government.
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| The new woman |
Having the obligation to pay war reparations, Germany faced hyperinflation which led to the collapse of the economy in 1923. The economic turmoil was tough on women and men; however, women were used as cheap labor. The economic hardship of working-class women and their double burden meant that there was no time for political participation. In any case women only had access to aspects of the political sphere related to the home and family, such as health, education, and religion. The long battle for equality was getting nowhere. Meanwhile, the economic instability, later worsened by the Depression, brought on a wave of nostalgia for pre-war traditional gender roles—better times. The new woman became a shaky character, always negotiating her womanhood in a society hostile towards equality.
The new woman was praised as much as detested. She was considered “Americanized”, thus loathed by nationalists and conservatives, but she was the sign of the time for the liberals. With the rise of new technology and the industries, she played an important role as a worker and consumer for the state, while male workers saw her as competition.
"Today, the Weimar new woman is a somewhat glamourized image representing a mythical era of equality."
The Weimar modern woman was in a sense culturally hybrid, as a result of always having to accommodate the different values which existed in the republic. In reality, the equality she experienced was only superficial. As the years passed, the pursuit for equal rights and significant political participation headed to a dead end. The Weimar women began to lose faith in the republic. In the brink of economic and political despair, Weimar women leaders gave their support to the Nazi party, thinking it would secure their political presence.
The weak economy, coupled with a weak government, created so much uncertainty and anxiety that the people, including women, were turning to new avenues for change. This critical period opened the way for the rising fascist German party, which many saw as offering the only hope for rebuilding the country. Finally, the Weimar women turned away from the empty promises of the republic to be reconciled with her other sisters; embracing the notion of women as mothers of the nation.
Today, the Weimar new woman is a somewhat glamourized image representing a mythical era of equality. Nevertheless, her important economic, political, and cultural contribution to this period should not go unrecognized.
Updated April 2021
Silvia, Marie (2018) ‘The Rise and Fall of the Weimar Woman.’ The Compass: Vol. 1: Issue 5, Article 5. Southern Oregon University [online] <https://scholarworks.arcadia.edu/thecompass/vol1/iss5/5> [23 February 2020].
Great read really. Always interesting to read about Nazi Germany era stories. It's not about writing a post as you did but I could really sense the work and effort put behind this article. That is simply outstanding.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you enjoyed the article. It did take me a while to write it, but I love writing so all the time and effort always pays off!
DeleteWell I must say that your article is extremely well researched and beautiful looking forward to more such pieces
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for your kind words.
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