The League of German Girls – Bund Deutscher Mädel

[TidiousTed]

I don’t post much about WWII on my blog but sometimes something tickles your fantasy enough to make you check it out a little more thoroughly. This is what happened to me when I found a picture of and a few lines about “Bund Deutscher Mädel”, the Nazi girl organization before and during WWII.

The result was a short intro and three longer articles on my blog (all articles are in English)

Article 1: Bund Deutscher Mädel
Article 2: Jungmädelbund
Article 3: Werk Glaube und Schönheit

 

[Dennis Young]

Yeah, the League of German girls was the girl's wing of the Hitler Youth. The importance of self-sacrifice for Germany was heavily emphasized. They were very active for the war effort, collecting money, old newspapers and clothing. They visited wounded soldiers, participated in plays and sent care packages. Older girls volunteered as nurse's aids in hospitals.

They did other things as well. Many of them were sent to Poland with the Hitler Youth to oversee the eviction of Poles to make room for new settlers. They then "educated" ethnic Germans in the German ways.

I have also heard they were encouraged to rebel against their parents and served to produce Aryan babies for the state.

 

[thecardigankid]

I have also heard they were encouraged to rebel against their parents and served to produce Aryan babies for the state.

That two part documentary The Third Reich that is shown on TV from time to time (great documentary) talks about this. Every year before the war started all the girls would go to like a summer camp, and I think it was either in 38 or 39 some 300 of the girls that left the summer camp were pregnant.

 

[Dennis Young]

Yep. I think I saw it on the military channel on Directv. Seems like I recall part of the documentary talking about one girl who got pregnant. Her mom came to the camp and threw a fit and the daughter told her to shut up or she'd tell (whoever) and get her mom in trouble.

Young people in Germany back then became pretty much brainwashed by the state. Well...a lot of people were. I like to watch the documentaries where former Hitler Youth recall their feelings of the time and what they thought about Hitler and the Nazis. Its both appalling and yet fascinating to learn about that era in German history. Sort of like seeing a horrific train wreck.

 

[Marzena]

One very peculiar thing about BDM was clashing of contradictory ideologies. When BDM was looked at as "youth" the appropriate upbringing for them was designed as physical fitness, and military style toughness. To that end they did a lot of sports, hikes and camps, as well as typical boys' affairs like marches and parades. (Those things apparently made BDM a very attractive organisation for the girls because it proveded escape from domestic work under parental eye). That, however, was completely at odds with the official ideology of women as mostly childbearers and homemakers. Himmler is reported to say once: "Whenever I look at those BDM girls with their smartly packed rucksacks I want to puke!".
In actual fact, for all the three K nostalgia, Hitler's Germany contributed a lot to the modern ideas on emancipation of women. Paradoxes of history!!!!

 

[Dennis Young]

I have only read about and seen documentaries about this era, and so never had to make the sacrifices that my parents and grandparents made. So I'm speculating on some of this. But I cant help but see some similarities between the German youth groups and the Boy/Girl Scouts in America. For example, the hiking, camps and volunteering all are similar.

What do you folks think about youth organizations today? Should we have them? Do they benefit society? What similarities and differences do you see between the BDM and these modern groups?

 

[Bluebird Marsha]

Since the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts were both formed in the early 1900's (1908 & 1912) I'd hesitate at calling them modern. That being said, I'd assert that that the BDM and similar organizations were a perversion of the concepts that are behind the Girl and Boy Scouts.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Yeah, the nazis just stole the idea and tried to make it into some uber-patriotic service to the fatherland thing. U.S. scouting was never that political, but more about learning.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Yeah, the nazis just stole the idea and tried to make it into some uber-patriotic service to the fatherland thing. U.S. scouting was never that political, but more about learning.

It seems that the Hitler Youth and BDM were modeled more on the lines of the Young Pioneers in the Soviet Union which was founded in 1922 and at one time was called the Lenin Spartak Young Pioneers.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Then both regimes stole the concept and used it for political means. It's pretty scary how these ostensibly innocent youth groups can affect societies. Let's hope history does not repeat itself. Although I fear it might be in places like Iran.

 

[Marzena]

Authoritarian regimes are always tempted to capitalise on enthusiasm, ambition and energy found in the young people. Democracies are simply not equipped for monopolising social effort in this single minded way. Personally I do not believe there is any chance of youth organisations like Komsomol or HitlerJugend re emerging. Even countries like Iran or China are now "infected" with the spirit of individualism, at least on the personal level .

 

[Hereward]

My mother-in-law who is 86 now was a member in Austria and I believe it was compulsary.

 

[Flat Foot Floey]

My mother-in-law who is 86 now was a member in Austria and I believe it was compulsary.

Yes, it was since 1936. I did interviews with 2 nice old ladies and the told me some stories about it. One of them just went there for a short time. She was told she wouldn't find a job if she refused. So she went there and did quit as soon as she found a apprenticeship.
The other lady had some tricks to stay away from the meetings. She often pretended to be sick or visit some relatives. It worked. She never had big trouble. Both of them were very honest. They didn't pretend they were anywhere near the real "resistance". They just didn't want to go because they found it rather dull. The interviews were part of my research for the topic "Swing in Germany" . SO maybe this had an influence in their attitude towards the BDM. But again they didn't see themselves as victims or even heros. They were more naive and just cared for typical teenager things. Music, dancing, boys...

 

[Marzena]

Y They were more naive and just cared for typical teenager things. Music, dancing, boys...

That seemed to be a problem with this sort of mass organisation always - the high fever ideological pitch could only be maintained with some and not forever.
As a teenager in 1970s Poland I witnessed the death throbs of what used to be quite a scary, Komsomol style youth organisation. The organisation had by then completely lost their teeth, it was just empty gesturing boring beyond words and considered totally uncool by the smart teenagers of the era who were all into mini skirts, jeans, the Beatles, chewing gum, etc. The only students in my school who ever joined were those who knew they would need every help they could get with making it into uni.
I often wondered if that would have been the natural end of the Pioneer or Hitler Youth if history had notput an end to them sooner.

 

[Stearmen]

I meant quite a few Germans who moved to the states after the war, most of them hatted Hitler for wasting their childhood with the youth groups and squandering the lives of so many of their friends!

 

[Mario]

I knew quite a lot of people who were boy scouts in the 70's and 80's and many of the German scout organisations in that time assumed a mildly leftish stance, taking a lot of their songs from the (failed) 1848 revoultions.

With it's quasi-paramilitary structure I found even Baden-Powell's original concept of the boy scouts somewhat suspicious in many ways.

 

[Rocky Montana]

Are you talking about the 1848 revolutionary songs?

 

[Spitfire]

In the late 30's in Denmark, the government made a law forbidding all uniforms.
The reason for this was that the Danish National Socialist Party (the Nazis), The Communists and the Right Wing Youth movement all wore some kind of uniforms and when they were rallying in the streets it very often ended in fights.
So this law came - which also meant that ordinary and peaceful girl- and boy scouts were forbidden to wear uniforms. All though they had nothing to do with the political situation. I think the law lasted till the German occupation started. My father - who was a boy scout back then - told me they "sidestepped" the law by wearing their scarfs anyway.

 

[Mario]

Are you talking about the 1848 revolutionary songs?

Oh my...of course I do. 1848. Thanks...

 

[Two Types]

I used to work with a woman who had been a member of the BDM as a teenager. Her main recollections were not about the sports or the physical training: for her it was more like a youth club. It was where she and her friends would go to flaunt themselves to the local teenage boys (i.e. the Hitler Youth). In many ways that is a typical teenage reaction - damn the politics when you have a mind filled with earthier matters!