German conservatism and female political activism in the early Weimar Republic

German History

Volumn 15, Issue 1, 1997, Pages 34-55

  Scheck, Raffael ^a  

^a Health Services and Department of Biology

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 61249531393     PISSN: 02663554     EISSN: 1477089X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/gh/15.1.34     Document Type: Review

References (80)

1. Initially the two parties appeared so similar in their anti-democratic and nationalist stands that they considered merging. See Larry E. Jones, German Liberalism and the Dissolution of the Weimar Party System, 1918-1933 (Chapel Hill and London, 1988), pp. 52-3
2. I generally use the terms 'right-wing' and 'conservative' without great differentiation although there is a distinction between the more religious (conservative) women's movement and a new group of women who were motivated by a more radical nationalism and anti-Semitism. During the early Weimar Republic, however, this difference mattered little both in self-definition and political practice. For a good analysis of developments in the German right, see Geoff Eley, 'Conservatives and Radical Nationalists in Germany: The Production of Fascist Potentials, 1912-28', in Martin Blinkhorn, ed., Fascists and Conservatives: The Radical Right and the Establishment in Twentieth-Century Europe (London, 1990), pp. 50-70
3. and Larry E. Jones, 'Nazis, Conservatives, and the Establishment of the Third Reich, 1932-1934', Tel Aviver Jahrbuch für deutsche Geschichte, 28 (1994), 41-3
4. Richard J. Evans, The Feminist Movement in Germany 1894-1933 (London and Beverly Hills, 1976), p. 87
5. and Werner Thönnessen, The Emancipation of Women. The Rise and Decline of the Women's Movement in German Social Democracy 1863-1933, translated by Joris de Bres (Frankfurt/Main, 1969), chs. 1-4
6. Kuno Graf von Westarp, Konservative Politik im letzten Jahrzehnt des Kaiserreichs (Berlin, 1935), vol. I, p. 398
7. Evans, Feminist Movement in Germany, pp. 180-1 and 193-4
8. Westarp, Konservative Politik im letzten Jahrzehnt, vol. I, pp. 398-9
9. Daniel Fryman [Heinrich Claß], Wenn ich der Kaiser war (Leipzig, 1912), p. 118
10. For the 'Anti-League', see Roger Chickering, '"Casting Their Gaze More Broadly": Women's Patriotic Activism in Imperial Germany', Past and Present, 118 (1988), 156-8
11. Ilka Riemann, '"Er mit der Waffe, sie mit Herz und Hand". Die Rolle der Frauenvereine in der Sozialpolitik, insbesondere der Vaterländischen Frauenvereine', in Jutta Dalhoff, Uschi Frey, and Ingrid Scholl, eds., Frauenmacht in der Geschichte (Düsseldorf, 1986), pp. 347-53
12. Jean Quataert, 'Mobilizing Philanthropy in the Service of War: The Female Rituals of Care in the New Germany, 1871-1914', conference paper at the eighteenth annual conference of the German Studies Association in Dallas, Texas, 29 September to 2 October 1994
13. For the Naval League of German Women, see Geoff Eley, "The German Navy League in German Politics, 1898-1914', Ph. D. Dissertation, Sussex University, 1974, pp. 351-3
14. Doris Kaufmann, 'Die Ehre des Vaterlandes und die Ehre der Frauen oder der Kampf an der äusseren und inneren Front. Der Deutsch-Evangelische Frauenbund im Übergang vom Kaiserreich zur Weimarer Republik', Evangelische Theologie, 46 (1986), 277-92
15. Kaufmann, 'Die Begründung und Politik einer evangelischen Frauenbewegung in der Weimarer Republik', in Dalhoff et al., eds., Frauenmacht in der Geschichte, pp. 380-9
16. Kaufmann, Frauen zwischen Aufbruch und Reaktion. Protestantische Frauenbewegung in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts (Munich, 1988), pp. 26-31
17. Jochen-Christian Kaiser, Frauen in der Kirche. Evangelische Frauenarbeit im Spannungsfeld von Kirche und Gesellschaft 1890-1945 (Düsseldorf, 1985)
18. For Mueller's reasons for adding a name from her mother's side of the family, see N. Reagin, A German Women's Movement: Class and Gender in Hanover, 1880-1933 (Chapel Hill and London, 1995), pp. 204 and 290-i. The Deutsch-Evangelischer Frauenbund today is called Deutscher Evangelischer Frauenbund
19. Kaufmann, 'Ehre des Vaterlandes', p. 288; 'An die Vorstands-Mitglieder des Deutsch-evangelischen Frauenvereins', 3 September 1908, Archiv des Deutschen Evangelischen Frauenbundes, Hanover (henceforth ADEF), vol. B 1
20. Reagin, A German Women's Movement, pp. 187 and 190-201
21. 'Die Stellung der Frau in der politisch-sozialen Neugestaltung Deutschlands. Eine Denkschrift des Bundes Deutscher Frauenvereine an Regierung und Parlament im Reich und in den Bundesstaaten', Helene-Lange-Archiv at the Landesarchiv Berlin (henceforth HLA), film 13-44 [undated; 1917?]; compare the DNVP's declaration of 27 December 1918: 'Through her admirable performance during the war the German woman has earned a full right to participate in the shaping of our public life.' Werner Liebe, Die Deutschnationale Volkspartei, 1918-1924 (Düsseldorf, 1956), p. 110
22. For the SPD's attitude, see Friedhelm Boll, 'Die deutsche Sozialdemokratie zwischen Resignation und Revolution. Zur Friedensstrategie 1890-1919', in Wolfgang Huber and Johannes Schwerdtfeger, eds., Frieden, Gewalt, Sozialismus: Studien zur Geschichte der sozialistischen Arbeiterbewegung. Forschungen und Berichte der Evangelischen Studiengemeinschaft, 32 (Stuttgart, 1976), pp. 228-30
23. Karl Dietrich Erdmann, Der Erste Weltkrieg, 9th edn, Gebhardt Handbuch der deutschen Geschichte, 18 (Munich, 1980), p. 185
24. Kaufmann, 'Begründung', pp. 382-3
25. Evangelische Frauenzeitung, vol. 18, no. 13/14, April 1918
26. Ernst R. Huber, ed., Dokumente zur deutschen Verfassungsgeschichte, vol. III, Dokumente der Novemberrevolution und der Weimarer Republik 1918-1933 (Stuttgart, Berlin, Cologne, and Mainz, 1966), pp. 6-7 and 32
27. Liebe, Deutschnationale Volkspartei, p. 108
28. Dennis Paul Walker, 'The German Nationalist People's Party: The Conservative Dilemma in the Weimar Republic', Journal of Contemporary History, 14 (1979), 627-47
29. Lewis Hertzman, 'The Founding of the German National People's Party (DNVP), November 1918-January 1919', Journal of Modern History, 30 (1958), 24-36
30. Annagrete Lehmann, 'Ziel und Entwicklung der deutschnationalen Frauenarbeit', in Max Weiß, ed., Der nationale Wille. Werden und Wirken der Deutschnationalen Volkspartei 1918-1928 (Essen, 1928), p. 321
31. Quataert, Reluctant Feminists, p. 95
32. Thönnessen, Emancipation of Women, pp. 64-6
33. Renate Pore, A Conflict of Interest: Women in German Social Democracy, 1919-1933, Contributions in Women's Studies (Westport, 1981), pp. 9-23
34. Karl Dietrich Erdmann, Die Weimarer Republik, 9th edn, Gebhardt Handbuch der deutschen Geschichte, 19 (Munich, 1989), pp. 120-1
35. Cornelie Usborne, The Politics of the Body in Weimar Germany (Ann Arbor, 1992), p. 81
36. Barbara Greven-Aschoff, Die Bürgerliche Frauenbewegung, pp. 161 and 264
37. Ann T. Allen, Feminism and Motherhood in Germany, 1890-1914 (New Brunswick, 1991), pp. 215-18. The party adopted a definitive programme and structure only at its first national meeting in July 1919, but most initial decisions regarding the National Women's Committee were confirmed
38. For the leagues of urban and rural housewives represented by Behm and Boehm, see Renate Bridenthal, '"Professional" Housewives: Stepsisters of the Women's Movement', in Renate Bridenthal, Atina Grossmann, and Marion Kaplan, eds., When Biology Became Destiny: Women and Nazi Germany. (New York, 1984), pp. 153-73
39. and Bridenthal, 'Organized Rural Women and the Conservative Mobilization of the German Countryside in the Weimar Republic', in Larry E. Jones and James Retallack, eds., Between Reform, Reaction, and Resistance: Studies in the History of German Conservatism from 1789 to 1945. (Providence and Oxford, 1993), pp. 375-405
40. See also Kaufmann, Frauen zwischen Aufbruch und Reaktion, pp. 48 and 52-4
41. Lehmann, 'Ziel und Entwicklung der deutschnationalen Frauenarbeit', p. 321
42. For the argument that women voting for right-wing parties did not necessarily endorse these parties' anti-feminism, see Helen Boak, '"Our Last Hope:" Women's Votes for Hitler: A Reappraisal', German Studies Review, 12 (1989), 289-310
43. For the electoral statistics, see Bremme, Politische Rolle der Frau, pp. 68-71 and 243-52
44. and Jürgen Falter, Thomas Lindenberger, and Siegfried Schumann, Wahlen und Abstimmungen in der Weimarer Republik: Materialien zum Wahlverhalten 1919-1933. Statistische Arbeitsbücher zur neueren deutschen Geschichte (Munich, 1986), pp. 81-5
45. Hanna Krüger, Die unbequeme Frau. Käthe Schirmacher im Kampf um die Freiheit der Frau und die Freiheit der Nation 1865-1930 (Berlin, 1936)
46. Regine Deutsch, Die politische Tat der Frau. Aus der Nationalversammlung (Gotha, 1920), pp. 16-17 and 22-5
47. Usborne, The Politics of the Body in Weimar Germany, pp. 76-81
48. For the drafts about the structure and functions of the party's women's committees, see BA Potsdam, 60 Vo DNVP, vol. 1 (film 45121)
49. These efforts did not find universal support within the party. Some members argued that right-wing women should rather join the BDF and pull it over to the right than found a rival organization. See the contributions of Gustav Roesicke and Elisabeth Boehm in the agrarian newspaper Die Gutsfrau, vol. 8, no. 9, in ADEF, O 12
50. Extensive correspondence and minutes of meetings are available in ADEF, vols. A 6c, O 9b, and particularly O 12. For later attempts to unite the right, see Raffael Scheck, 'Intrigue and Illusion: Alfred von Tirpitz as a Right-Wing Politician, 1914-1930', Ph. D. Dissertation, Brandeis University, 1993, pp. 166-77
51. 'Rundschreiben des Reichsfrauenausschusses', 8 June 1925, ibid., part 2, p. 9
52. Reagin, German Women's Movement, pp. 223-4
53. On the 'Schwarze Schmach' see also Gisela Lebzelter, 'Die "Schwarze Schmach": Vorurteile - Propaganda - Mythos', Geschichte und Gesellschaft, 11 (1985), 37-58
54. Marc Michel, 'Colonisation et défense nationale. Le Général Mangin et la force noire', Guerres mondiales et conflits contemporains, 37 (1987), 27-44
55. Th. J. Hooning, 'De "Zwarte Smaad" en zijn gevolgen', Spiegel Historiael, 17 (1982), 8-12
56. Rainer Pommerin, Sterilisierung der Rheinlandsbastarde. Das Schicksal einer farbigen Minderheit 1918-1937 (Düsseldorf, 1979)
57. and Sally Marks, 'Black Watch on the Rhine: A Study in Propaganda, Prejudice and Prurience', European Studies Review, 13 (1983), 297-334
58. BA Potsdam, 60 Vo DNVP, vol. 53, pp. 161-2
59. Richard Bessel, Germany After the First World War (Oxford, 1993), pp. 220-39
60. BA Potsdam, Reichslandbund Pressearchiv, 7973, sheets 87-91
61. Greven-Aschoff, Bürgerliche Frauenbewegung, pp. 161 and 264
62. Hertzman, DNVP, pp. 129-30
63. Jan Striesow, Die Deutschnationale Volkspartei und die Völkisch-Radikalen 1918-1922 (Frankfurt/Main, 1981), p. 62
64. 'Rundschreiben des Völkischen Reichsausschusses', 17 February 1925, NStA Osnabrück, Erw. C 1, vol. 17, part 2, pp. 23-5. When the most outspoken anti-Semites left the DNVP to found their own party in October 1922, Schirmacher and Lehmann remained in the DNVP, which continued to have an anti-Semitic wing
65. Krüger, Unbequeme Frau, p. 184 (Krüger misdates the party split, which happened in 1922, not in 1924)
66. Striesow, Die Deutschnationale Volkspartei und die Völkisch- Radikalen, pp. 409-10
67. Quataert, 'Mobilizing Philanthropy in the Service of War'
68. Amy Hackett, 'The German Women's Movement and Suffrage, 1890-1914: A Study of National Feminism', in Robert Bezucha, ed., Modern European Social History (Lexington, Toronto, and London, 1972), p. 365
69. and Frauen zwischen Aufbruch und Reaktion, pp. 36-8
70. Kaufmann does not consider this point; nor does Reagin (see A German Women's Movement, p. 223)
71. On the DNVP's denial of the defeat, see Annelise Thimme, Flucht in den Mythos: Die Deutschnationale Volkspartei und die Niederlage von 1918 (Göttingen, 1969)
72. L. von Oertzen to Mueller, 13 November 1918, ADEF, Q 1
73. For an example of this feeling in the mainstream women's movement, see Frances Magnus-Hausen, 'Zehn Jahre deutsche Staatsbürgerin', Sonderabdruck der Monatsschrift Die Frau (Berlin, 1929), in HLA, film 52-238
74. Die Frau, vol. 26, no. 6, March 1919, pp. 194-5
75. See Hackett, 'German Women's Movement and Suffrage', pp. 362-4
76. and Allen, Feminism and Motherhood in Germany
77. See Fryman [Claß], Wenn ich der Kaiser wär, pp. 118-21. Hitler argued along the same lines
78. See Benjamin C. Sax and Dieter Kuntz, eds., Inside Hitler's Germany: A Documentary History of Life in the Third Reich, Sources in Modern History (Lexington, 1992), p. 263
79. See Kaufmann, 'Die Ehre des Vaterlandes', p. 283
80. The strong influence of the churches on women probably gave this extension of female roles added credibility and legitimation. Hugh McLeod, Religion and the People of Western Europe, 1789-1970 (Oxford, 1981), pp. 29-34 and 122