German girls attended school until the age of fourteen. Although they went to school Monday through Saturday, they had no textbooks and no homework. Their education was minimal except in matters relating to childbirth. After a visit to a girls’ school, Gregor Ziemer wrote: According to the teacher there was no such thing as a problem of morals in Hitler’s Germany. The Fuehrer wanted every woman, every girl to bear children because those children would grow to be soldiers. (Women) were willing to have children even if they were not married. The State (Germany) would raise and educate it. Hitler and his school authorities urged women to have babies. But they did not permit girls to be educated in the same schools with boys. Girls did not require the same sort of education that was essential for boys. The schools for boys taught military science, military geography, and military ideology. One of Minister Rust’s officials, Herr Geheimrat Becker, discussed the problem of co-education (with Ziemer). He knew something about American schools. It was his contention that the system of trying to put women on the same plan with men, even in matters of the mind, was a wasted of time. He admitted there were women who could think as well as men in their field. But the German schools had one aim-prepare women for motherhood. Youth Organizations The Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls were the primary tools that the Nazis used to shape the beliefs, thinking and actions of German youth. Youth leaders used tightly controlled group activities and staged propaganda events such as mass rallies full of ritual and spectacle to create the illusion of one national community reaching across class and religious divisions that characterized Germany before 1933.
German girls attended school until the age of fourteen. Although they went to school Monday through Saturday, they had no textbooks and no homework. Their education was minimal except in matters relating to childbirth. After a visit to a girls’ school, Gregor Ziemer wrote: According to the teacher there was no such thing as a problem of morals in Hitler’s Germany. The Fuehrer wanted every woman, every girl to bear children because those children would grow to be soldiers. (Women) were willing to have children even if they were not married. The State (Germany) would raise and educate it. Hitler and his school authorities urged women to have babies. But they did not permit girls to be educated in the same schools with boys. Girls did not require the same sort of education that was essential for boys. The schools for boys taught military science, military geography, and military ideology. One of Minister Rust’s officials, Herr Geheimrat Becker, discussed the problem of co-education (with Ziemer). He knew something about American schools. It was his contention that the system of trying to put women on the same plan with men, even in matters of the mind, was a wasted of time. He admitted there were women who could think as well as men in their field. But the German schools had one aim-prepare women for motherhood. Youth Organizations The Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls were the primary tools that the Nazis used to shape the beliefs, thinking and actions of German youth. Youth leaders used tightly controlled group activities and staged propaganda events such as mass rallies full of ritual and spectacle to create the illusion of one national community reaching across class and religious divisions that characterized Germany before 1933.
propaganda_and_education.docx