Mothers of the Nation: Right-Wing Women in Weimar Germany

by Raffael Scheck

What role did right-wing women play in the Nazi rise to power?Mothers of the Nation analyzes the work of women in the German Peoples Party and the German National Peoples Party - parties that covered the range from the moderate to the radical right. Looking at politics on both the local and national level, the author discusses issues ranging from social welfare to foreign policy. He shows that right-wing women, in keeping with the tradition of the German bourgeois womens movement, refused to stand up primarily for womens interests and instead invoked the Volksgemeinschaft (community of the people), a vision of harmony and cooperation of the groups involved in production.These right-wing campaigners believed that German women should use their newly won political rights to strengthen the Volksgemeinschaft by reconciling the divided nation and by infusing it with a higher morality. This stance proved to be both a liability and an asset. The emphasis on the Volksgemeinschaft made it difficult for female conservatives to fight for specific womens rights. Yet it also allowed them to paste over the conflicts between interest groups that tore apart Germanys bourgeois parties prior to 1933 and that divided politically active women as well. The ways in which women sought to contain the fragmentation that ultimately rendered their parties defenceless against the Nazis sheds new light on Weimar politics.Bringing the controversial story of right-wing women to life, this book offers a compelling account of gender and politics during a crucial period in German history.

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Nic · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book confidently takes on the question of what motivated right wing women in Weimar Germany. It considers their ideas, goals and opinions rather than parroting decades old, obsolete theories about frustrated sexuality. The arguments are well thought out and based on solid research and a variety of sources. For anyone with an interest in Weimar Germany, this book is a must-read.