I will post information about the League of
German Girls from Wikipedia and other links.
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German Girls' League poster
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BDM Untergauwimpel, Deutsches Reich 1934-1945
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League
of German Girls
Bund Deutscher Mädel |
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Formation
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1930
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Extinction
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1945
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Type
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Female Youth organization
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Legal
status
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Defunct, Illegal
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Region served
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Nazi Germany
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Leader
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Baldur von Schirach, Trude Mohr
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Parent organization
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Nazi Party
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The
League of German Girls or (cognate) Band of German Maidens (German:
Bund Deutscher Mädel, BDM) was the girls' wing of
the Nazi Party youth movement, the Hitler Youth. It was the only female youth
organization in Nazi Germany.
At
first, the League consisted of two sections: the Jungmädel, or Young Girls'
League, for girls ages 10 to 14, and the League proper for girls ages 14 to 18.
In 1938, a third section was introduced, the Faith and Beauty Society (BDM-Werk
Glaube und Schönheit), which was voluntary and open to girls between the ages
of 17 and 21.
With
the surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945, the organization de facto ceased
to exist. On 10 October 1945, it was outlawed by the Allied Control
Council along with other Nazi Party organizations. Under Section 86
of the German Criminal Code,
the Hitler Youth is an "unconstitutional organisation" and the
distribution or public use of its symbols, except for educational or research
purposes, are not permitted.
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Members of the BDM, 1935
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Hitler Youth and League of German Girls in
China, 1935
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History
The
Bund Deutscher Mädel had its origins as early as the 1920s, in the first Mädchenschaften
or Mädchengruppen, also known as Schwesternschaften der
Hitler-Jugend (Sisterhood of the Hitler Youth). In 1930 it was founded
as the female branch of the Hitler Youth movement. Its full title was Bund
Deutscher Mädel in der Hitler-Jugend (League of German Girls in the
Hitler Youth). In the final electioneering campaigns of 1932, Hitler
inaugurated it with a mass meeting featuring the League; on election eve, the
League and Hitler Youth staged "evening of entertainment." It did not
attract a mass following until the Nazis
came to power in January 1933.
Soon
after taking office as 'Reichsjugendführer' on 17 June 1933, Baldur von
Schirach issued regulations that suspended or forbid existing youth
organizations ('concurrence'). Those youth groups were compulsorily integrated
into the BDM, which was declared to be the only legally permitted organization
for girls in Germany. Many of the existing organizations closed down to avoid
this. These Nazi activities were a part of the Gleichschaltung
starting in 1933. The Reichskonkordat between the Catholic Church and Nazi
Germany, signed on July 20, 1933, gave a certain shelter to the Catholic youth
ministry, but they were the object of much bullying.
The
"Gesetz über die Hitlerjugend" (law concerning the Hitler Youth) dated
1 December 1936, forced all eligible juveniles to be a member of HJ or BDM.
They had to be ethnic Germans, German citizens and free of hereditary diseases.
Girls had to be 10 years of age to enter this League.
The
BDM was run directly by Schirach until 1934, when Trude Mohr, a former postal worker, was
appointed to the position of BDM-Reichsreferentin, or National Speaker of the
BDM, reporting directly to Schirach. After Mohr married in 1937, she was
required to resign her position (the BDM required members to be unmarried and
without children in order to remain in leadership positions), and was succeeded
by Dr. Jutta Rüdiger,
a doctor of psychology from Düsseldorf, who was a more assertive leader
than Mohr but nevertheless a close ally of Schirach, and also of his successor
from 1940 as HJ leader, Artur Axmann.
She joined Schirach in resisting efforts by the head of the NS-Frauenschaft (Nazi Woman's League), Gertrud
Scholtz-Klink, to gain control of the BDM. Rüdiger led the BDM until
its dissolution in 1945.
As
in the HJ, separate sections of the BDM existed, according to the age of
participants. Girls between the ages of 10 and 14 years old were members of the
Young Girl's League (Jungmädelbund,
JM), and girls between the ages of 14 and 18 were members of the Bund Deutscher
Mädel (BDM) proper. In 1938, a third section was added, known as Faith and
Beauty (Glaube und Schönheit), which was voluntary and open to girls
between 17 and 21 and was intended to groom them for marriage, domestic life,
and future career goals. Ideally, girls were to be married and have children
once they were of age, but importance was also placed on job training and
education.
At
the beginning of World War II, the Reichsarbeitsdienst
became compulsory also for young women. It lasted half a year. Many young women
became 'Blitzmädel' (Wehrmachthelferin or female combat soldiers) during World
War II.
While
these ages are general guidelines, there were exceptions for members holding
higher (salaried) leadership positions, starting at the organizational level of
"Untergau". As regards lower (honorary) positions, even members of
the JM could apply for them after two years of membership and would then obtain
such a position typically at the age of 13. The higher leadership, however, was
recruited from members over 18 and was expected to maintain salaried office for
no more than 10 years, and to leave the BDM at the age of 30 by the latest. As
a general rule, members had to leave when they married and especially when they
had children.
The
BDM uniform was a full blue skirt, middy blouse and heavy marching shoes.
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BDM Untergauwimpel, Deutsches Reich 1934-1945
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Leaders
Trude Mohr
was appointed the first Reichsreferentin in June 1934. Her main initiative was
to nourish a new way of living for the German youth, stating
Our volk need a generation of girls which is healthy in body and mind, sure and decisive, proudly and confidently going forward, one which assumes its place in everyday life with poise and discernment, one free of sentimental and rapturous emotions, and which, for precisely this reason, in sharply defined feminity, would be the comrade of a man, because she does not regard him as some sort of idol but rather as a companion! Such girls will then, by necessity, carry the values of National Socialism into the next generation as the mental bulwark of our people.
In
1937 after marrying Obersturmführer
Wolf Bürkner, she became pregnant and resigned her duties.
Jutta
Rüdiger (1910 - 2001) was a special case. She joined the BDM only in 1933, at
the age of 23 and after having finished her doctorate in psychology. She
obtained honorary positions instantly in 1933 and early 1934, was promoted to
her first salaried position (leader of Untergau Ruhr-Lower Rhine) in June 1935
and was appointed Reichsreferentin for the BDM (head of the BDM) in November
1937 (aged 27), succeeding Trude Mohr, who had vacated the position on her
marriage, as Nazi policy required. She kept this position even until the German
defeat, when she had reached the age of 34.
Clementine zu Castell-Rüdenhausen (b.
1912), a countess and member of the higher Franconian aristocracy, was appointed
leader of Gau Unterfranken in 1933, at the age of 21, which also seems to have
been the age when she joined the BDM, as no earlier date of membership nor any
previous lower positions are recorded in her case. She was appointed head of
"Faith and Beauty" in January 1938, a few days before her 26th
birthday, and was discharged in September 1939 because of her marriage with Wilhelm
"Utz" Utermann in October 1939. She was followed by an
Austrian member, Annemarie Kaspar (b. 1917), who had been appointed
Untergauführerin at the age of 20 in March 1938 and became head of B&B two
weeks before her 22nd birthday. She too married and was discharged in May 1941,
to be replaced in June 1941 by Martha Middendorf (b. 1914), who was 27 at the
time of her appointment and was discharged already in February 1942, as she too
had married. From this time on, Jutta Rüdiger, who was no candidate for
marriage but living in lifelong partnership with her comrade Hedy Böhmer, took
over to lead the B&B directly, thus holding both leadership positions until
1945.
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Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM) Abzeichen: 1.
Reichsreferentin; 2. Obergauführerin; 3. Gauführerin; 4. Untergauführerin; 5.
Gauführerin; 6. Untergaufüherin; 7. Ringführerin; 8. Gruppenführerin
In 1939, a new uniform was introduced for
regional and national leaders within the League of German Girls, and along with
the new uniforms came new rank insignia for leaders. These new rank insignia
took the form of a silver, and for higher ranks, gold bullion embroidered
open-winged eagle on a black (white, on the summer tunic) shield with various
types of borders to indicate grade. They were worn on the left chest of the
tunic.
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Berlin girls of the BDM, haymaking, 1939
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Training
and activities
The
BDM used campfire romanticism, summer camps, folklorism, tradition, and sports
to indoctrinate girls within the National Socialist belief system, and to train
them for their roles in German society: wife, mother, and homemaker. Their Home
Evenings revolved around domestic training, but Saturdays involved strenuous
outdoor exercise and physical training. The purpose of these activities was to
promote good health, which would enable them to serve their people and their
country. The "home evenings"—ideally to be conducted in specially
built homes—also included world view training, with instruction in history.
This instruction would include learning the Horst
Wessel song, the Nazi holidays, stories about Hitler Youth martyrs, and
facts about their locality and Germans culture and history. Physical education
included track and field sports like running and the long jump, gymnastics
(e.g. somersaulting and tightrope walking), route-marching, and swimming. The
importance of self-sacrifice for Germany was heavily emphasized; a Jewish
woman, reflecting on her longing to join the League of German Girls, concluded
that it had been the admonishment for self-sacrifice that had drawn her most.
The League was particularly regarded as instructing girls to avoid Rassenschande
or racial defilement, which was treated with particular importance for young
females.
Holiday
trips offered by HJ and BDM - i.e. skiing in winter and tent camps in summer -
were affordable; children from poor families got subsidies. These offers were
popular.
The
League encouraged rebellion against parents. Der
Giftpilz presented the propaganda of a German girl being ordered to
visit a Jewish doctor by her mother; the girl protested on the grounds of what
she had learned at BDM meetings, and while at the office, remembered the
warnings in time to escape being molested by the doctor. This caused her mother
to agree that the BDM had clearly been in the right.
Ilsa
McKee noted that the lectures of Hitler Youth and the BDM on the need to
produce more children produced several illegitimate children, which neither the
mothers nor the possible fathers regarded as problematic. These and other
behaviors taught led parents to complain that their authority was being
undermined. In 1944, a group of parents complained to the court that the
leaders of the League were openly telling their daughters to have illegitimate
children. Public opinion attributed a great deal of sexual laxity to the
members.
The
preparation camps for the Landdienst of girls and boys often lay nearby. 900 of
the girls participating in the 1936 Reichsparteitag
in Nürnberg came back pregnant. In 1937, a prohibition came out saying that
camping was forbidden to the BDM.
Jungmadel
were only taught, the BDM was involved in community service, political
activities and other activities being considered as useful at that time.
Before
entering any occupation or advanced studies, the girls, like the boys in Hitler
Youth, had to complete a year of land service ("Landfrauenjahr").
Although working on a farm was not the only approved form of service, it was a
common one; the aim was to bring young people back from the cities, in the hope
that they would then stay "on the land" in service of Nazi blood
and soil beliefs. Another form of service was as a domestic work in a
family with many children.
The
'Faith and Beauty' organizations offered groups where girls could receive
further education and training in fields that interested them. Some of the
works groups that were available were arts and sculpture, clothing design and
sewing, general home economics, and music.
Das deutsche Mädel was the Nazi magazine directed at
these girls.
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BDM Girls march by during a gymnastics exercise – 1941
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Wartime
service
The
outbreak of war altered the role of the BDM, though not as radically as it did
the role of the boys in the HJ, who were to be fed into the German Wehrmacht
(armed forces) or the National Labor Service (Reichsarbeitsdienst, RAD, six months) as soon as
they turned 18. The BDM helped the war effort in many ways. Younger girls
collected donations of money, as well as goods such as clothing or old
newspapers for the Winter Relief and other Nazi charitable
organizations. Many groups, particularly BDM choirs and musical groups, visited
wounded soldiers at hospitals or sent care packages to the front. Girls knitted
socks, grew gardens, and engaged in similar tasks.
Girls
also helped stage the celebrations after the de facto capitulation of France
(see Second Armistice at Compiègne, 22
June 1940).
The
older girls volunteered as nurses' aides at hospitals, or to help at train stations
where wounded soldiers or refugees needed a hand. After 1943, as Allied air
attacks on German cities increased, many BDM girls went into paramilitary and
military services ("Wehrmachtshelferin"),
where they served as Flak
Helpers, signals auxiliaries, searchlight
operators, and office staff. Unlike male HJs, BDM girls took little part in the
actual fighting or operation of weaponry, although some Flak Helferinnen
operated anti-aircraft guns.
Many
older girls, with Hitler Youth were sent to Poland as part of the Germanisation
efforts. These girls, along with Hitler Youth, were first to oversee the
eviction of Poles to make room for new settlers and ensure they did not take
much from their homes, as furniture and the like were to be left there for the
settlers. Their task were then to educate ethnic
Germans, either living in Poland or resettled there from the Baltic
states, according to German ways. This included instruction in the German
language, as many spoke only Polish or Russian. They also had to organize the
younger ones into the League. Because many Hitler Youth leaders were drafted
into the military, the task of organizing the boys into Hitler Youth also fell
heavily on the League. They were also to provide help on the farm and in the
household. As the only contact with German authorities, they were often
requested to help with the occupation authorities, and they put on various
entertainments such as songfests to encourage the down-spirited new settlers.
Some members were sent to the colony of Hegewald for such efforts even when they had to
receive gas masks and soldier escorts.
Conversely,
the young Polish girls who were selected for "racially valuable
traits" and sent to Germany for Germanization
were made to join the League as part of the Germanization.
By
1944, the drafting of boys resulted in most of the "land service"
help with the harvest was performed by girls.
In
the last days of the war, some BDM girls, just like some boys of the male
Hitler Youth (although not nearly as many), joined with the Volkssturm
(the last-ditch defense) in Berlin and other cities in fighting the invading
Allied armies, especially the Russians. Officially, this was not sanctioned by
the BDM's leadership which opposed an armed use of its girls even though some
BDM leaders had received training in the use of hand-held weapons (about 200
leaders went on a shooting course which was to be used for self-defense
purposes). After the war, Dr. Jutta Rüdiger denied that she had approved BDM
girls using weapons, and this appears to have been the truth.
Some
BDM girls were recruited into the Werwolf groups
which were intended to wage guerrilla war in Allied-occupied areas.
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BDM Girls put up a recruitment poster, it
says “Girls join us, you belong to us” in 1933
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BDM Girls and boys from the Hitler Jugend
(Hitler Youth) celebrate Midsummer in 1933.
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Decomposition
The
'Kontrollratsgesetz Nr. 2' (enacted 10 October 1945) by the Allied Control Council forbade the NSDAP and
all its sub-organizations, including the BDM. Their properties were confiscated.
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