Women in the Nazi Party

by SweetHermitress

I heard somewhere that women were not permitted to join the Nazi Party because politics was considered men's work, but I saw somewhere else that women were permitted to join. Which is correct?

Assuming women were allowed to join the Nazi Party, what sorts of actions would they do to support the cause? I'm imagining them handing out flyers about the upcoming elections, organizing metal drives, that sort of thing. Am I way off?

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The view that was still prevalent at the time was that women were supposed to stay at home and care for the family. From the beginning of the third Reich on, it was clear that women weren't gonna be in top positions or given much political power anywhere. Hitler said that the men's task was the big world, while the women's task was the small world revolving around husband and children. Women were supposed to find back to their meaning, being a female. Hitler viewed the emancipation of the female as a "Jewish thing".

Nonetheless, the NSDAP had many female supporters early on. But since the party did not organize them, they created local movements that were close to the party, but not exactly a part of it. The first and only adult female organization of the party was founded in October 1931 - the NS-Frauenschaft.

In 1939, 12 million women were members in one of the NS organizations, which was a third of the total population. 1.7 million of those were organized in the NS-Frauenschaft. It was seen as the elite organization since it was the only one that officially belonged to the NSDAP. About 4 million were organized in Das Deutsche Frauenwerk, which was a combination of smaller, non-governmental associations. They had strong ties to the NSDAP of course.

The head of all the work regarding women was Gertrud Scholtz-Klink. She governed the two aforementioned organizations as well as female departments of others. Her rank, the Reichsfrauenführerin, was the highest rank a Nazi women ever achieved. The party broke with their policies, as this woman had extensive political influence and power.

The only organization she did not lead was the female youth organization (BDM). Inside of the BDM, many women pursued careers and once they had led the association, they often gained positions in other institutions.

In the newly annexed territories to the east of the Reich, many young and adventurous women attained positions as assistants for the German settlers. Thus, their social status was higher than that of the German male civilians, which was rare. One of their tasks was to prepare the homes of eastern Europeans for German families. They also acted as consultants within these communities.

Generally, the system employed many women as nurses and doctors, but also as wardens of concentration camps. They were by no means to be seen as just innocent victims of the NS patriarchy, they pillaged the eastern territories and engaged in discriminatory acts against the local population.

In the western territories, women were given administrative positions to save the men for combat activities.

Back in Germany, women took the traditionally male tasks of leading civilians to the bunkers through megaphones.

While the Wehrmacht refused to arm women for years, the need for fighting power let the political leaders give in. In July 1943, women operated flaks for the first time and female weapon training kicked off.  With the total war policy, women replaced 100.000 men in the Luftwaffe. In February 1945 the first female battalion was formed, but it never fought due to the end of the war.

While there were rarely any female officers during the war, there were numerous female assistants in different positions. They had to act upon Wehrmacht laws, but were still regarded as civilians and not combatants. They helped convey information, assisted the flaks and the Luftwaffe. One of their tasks was to operate the spotlights to detect hostile aircraft for the flaks.

To answer your question directly: yes, women were part of the NSDAP and worked for it in huge numbers. Their tasks were mostly of administrative origin, but they could attain positions that let them govern men, thus contradicting the Nazi policies.

Source is the essay Frauen im Führerstaat by Sybille Steinbacher in Das Dritte Reich - Eine Einführung.

Sorry for clumsy/inaccurate expressions, I'm not a native speaker.