From Nurturing the Nation to Purifying the Volk
Weimar and Nazi Family Policy, 1918–1945

This book explores Weimar and Nazi family policy to highlight the disparity between national policy design and its implementation at the local level.

Michelle Mouton (Author)

9780521861847, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 8 January 2007

326 pages
23.5 x 16.3 x 2.6 cm, 0.576 kg

'It is one of very few books which explore aspects of social policy in both the Weimar and Nazi periods and the author is, therefore, able to contribute to wider historiographical debates about continuities in German history as well as the nature of the Nazi state and women's agency within it.' European History Quarterly

Fearing that the future of the nation was at stake following the First World War, German policymakers vastly expanded social welfare programs to shore up women and families. Just over a decade later, the Nazis seized control of the state and created a radically different, racially driven gender and family policy. This book explores Weimar and Nazi policy to highlight the fundamental, far-reaching change wrought by the Nazis and the disparity between national family policy design and its implementation at the local level. Relying on a broad range of sources - including court records, sterilization files, church accounts, and women's oral histories - it demonstrates how local officials balanced the benefits of marriage, divorce, and adoption against budgetary concerns, church influence, and their own personal beliefs. Throughout both eras individual Germans collaborated with, rebelled against, and evaded state mandates, in the process fundamentally altering the impact of national policy.

1. Marriage policy in turmoil: stabilizing society, re-ordering gender roles, and guaranteeing the future
2. Divorce: balancing individual freedom and the 'public good'
3. From Mother's Day to forced sterilization: motherhood as antidote to national health
4. Alleviating the burdens of motherhood
5. Morality versus mortality: negotiating policy toward single mothers and illegitimate children
6. Forming families beyond blood ties: foster care
7. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], European history [HBJD]