School of brides in the Third Reich: What are the requirements for the wives of the SS

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The desire to streamline and control everything, even the personal life of the Nazis, was one of the priority directions of the policy of Nazi Germany. After all, this is the only way to achieve the so-called "racial hygiene" and the demographic growth of true Aryans. If it was easier with men and their purity was checked for admission to the German workers' party or to the "SS", then a special "School of Brides" was organized for women, only those who graduated from it could become the wives of the German elite.

Despite the fact that such a school was a very peculiar place, there were many who wanted to get there, because the certificate of graduation guaranteed a successful and wealthy husband and a comfortable life in the role of wife and mother. However, in addition to purebredness, external requirements were also imposed on girls wishing to receive such a certificate (how it is in the Nazi way!), Given that there was no talk of any education in such schools, it resembles a conveyor belt of incubators of future Aryans. Everything was done to ensure that the only true goal was present in the life of a woman - a husband, family and children.

Who could go to school for brides?

The decree, which spoke about the creation of a special training course for girls who want to become the wives of the Nazis, was signed back in 1936, a year later the first was already opened. The Reichsfuehrer SS also approved the program for the brides. The number of schools increased day by day, by the end of the war there were already 32 of them.

All "Schools for Brides" were subordinate to the National Socialist Organization of German Women and Gertrude Scholz-Klink, who personally headed it. The organization, which was led by an imposing lady with hair styled in the Ukrainian style, was very popular, in 1943 it consisted of more than 7 million German women. Around the same time, the duration of schooling for brides reached 2 months.

Education, by the way, was not free, for one and a half to two months of training, the girl's parents had to pay 135 Reichsmarks (in current currency, about 6 thousand rubles). Of course, the main requirement was Aryan origin, although very rarely they could make an exception and admit to school and even issue a certificate to girls in whom Jewish blood flowed, but not more than one-eighth.

The purity of the blood had to be expressed in external qualities. The Aryan bride had to be tall (about 180 cm), fair-haired (maximum brown hair), with blue or green eyes, and white-skinned. At the same time, have excellent physical and mental health. The latter was given a huge role, so if one of the parents was sick with mental illness, then she had no right to study in such a school.

What did the future wives of the fascists teach?

However, these courses could hardly be called a school in the generally accepted sense of the word, because there was no question of any fundamental teaching. It is not surprising, the last unzipped documents of the fascists also testify to the fact that fascism was saturated not only with anti-Semitism, anti-communism, but also with anti-feminism. Schools for brides and the requirements for life partners, an attempt to shield them from knowledge and limit their horizons, forcing them to exist in an exclusively home space and see their purpose in serving their spouse.

The basis of the curriculum of such schools was the principle of three "K" "Kinder, Kirche, Küche" - translated as "Children. Church. Kitchen". Moreover, this ideological principle was introduced even before Hitler and the image of a woman-mother was seen by the Germans in this very format. In 1917, there was a school of mothers in Germany, in which similar principles of devotion were preached, not only to the family and the church, but also to the state.

So, the program included lessons in needlework, home economics, rhetoric, as well as agriculture, secular manners and parenting. Every day there was physical culture, because the state needs healthy Aryans. The maximum that the girls could count on was a small excursion into history, the principle of the formation of the state and religion. It is much more useful for the future wives of the Nazis to be able to embroider, carefully clean the house and be able to behave correctly in society.

It was Hitler who introduced the practice of allocating land plots to families for orchards and vegetable gardens, which is why agricultural work was considered an excellent occupation for respectable women-mothers of the family. This experience in providing gardens was adopted, including by the USSR.

If the girl, after receiving the certificate, the girl married a true Aryan, then they were given an interest-free loan, from which a quarter was debited for the birth of each child.

Children are a priority

The state strongly encouraged large families and encouraged families with a large number of children. There were benefits for medicine, schools for expectant mothers, a monthly allowance for each child. In society, the authority of women mothers has grown significantly, it was believed that the more healthy children a woman gave birth to, the more she took place in life. Those who gave birth to eight or more children were awarded a golden cross and received a very impressive monthly allowance.

It is worth noting that this approach bore fruit, Germany increased the birth rate by one and a half times in five years.

However, what did the German women pay for this? Indeed, in order for them to tirelessly give birth, they were forbidden to study at universities, work, and when women were fired, they were even supposed to be encouraged. At the same time, in every possible way demonstrating the absurdity of women's attempts to participate in political or scientific activities, hard physical labor was encouraged.

For young girls, compulsory labor service was introduced, if a girl is not married and has not reached the age of 25, then she must benefit her country, albeit with unskilled labor. In the so-called labor camps, they worked 20 hours a week, wore a special uniform and a swastika armband. Girls in this category could be sent to work as a nanny or au pair in large families.

Positions in the service sector were considered typically female; German women were not forced to resign from such positions, on the contrary, they strongly encouraged work in this area. Any attempt by a woman to take place in a career was perceived by the Nazis as something abnormal, contrary to nature, because true female happiness can only be at home next to her husband.

By the way, in Germany, already in 1921, a decree was signed stating that women should not be allowed to high government posts. In the 1930s, the dismissal of women from their posts was in full swing. It even reached doctors, this specialty was considered too responsible to be entrusted to a woman. They fired judges, lawyers, teachers. If the woman was married, then the main argument was that her husband could support. In two years, the number of female students in universities decreased by 30 thousand, and the majority of women deputies fled the country, were under house arrest, ended up in a concentration camp and even committed suicide.

The position of women in the country has deteriorated sharply. Even their wages were one third lower than those of men. Thus, a highly qualified female specialist received about the same amount as a male working profession. However, for most German women this did not pose any particular problems; they willingly married and worked wherever possible.

Woman and politics

At the very beginning of his political career, Hitler announced that he did not represent women in politics in any positions, since 99% of political issues were not their business. In the society that the Fuhrer built, the role of a woman was only in motherhood and she began to represent value only after she became a mother (and many times). Not only the personality of the Fuhrer was cultivated, but also his postulates: "The birth of a child is a personal gift to the Fuhrer" - this idea was actively promoted, turning marriage not into an end in itself, but only a step in the growth of demography. The relationship between men and women was deprived of all romance, giving way to physiology and a high goal.

In no other country have social organizations exerted such a strong influence on marital relations. There were a huge number of organizations for girls, women, in others they entered together with men, and still others were created specifically for men.

To summarize the above, the ideal German woman in Nazi Germany had to meet the following requirements: • must know her place, not interfere in men's affairs, not meddle in politics and science; • must be an excellent wife and mother; • take sacrifice for granted in the name of your nation; • be modest and restrained in showing emotions; • Frau's clothes should be modest and tasteful, not defiant; • in everyday life, she should actively support traditions and inculcate them in children; • should not talk a lot; • do not abuse cosmetics; • should value her name and honor of her family, simply not “wash dirty linen in public;” • should strive for the maximum number of children from her husband, while at the same time should help increase offspring from her husband, even if they are not her children; • should not be jealous; • must be prudent and thrifty; • be attentive to others and not allow communication compromising towards his race;

It is not known how this practice would have ended for German women, which by the time the war began had only just begun to gain momentum. One thing is clear that for Hitler, the lives of those whose territories he sought to conquer, and his Aryan citizens, in whom he saw only a mechanism for the embodiment of his ambitious plans, had no special value. The lack of education and career opportunities put women throughout the country in a dependent position, while their men, even in the war, did not deny themselves love affairs, for example, in the occupation territories.