German Women’s Work (DFW)

The DFW was formed in October 1933 as part of the ‘Gleichschaltung’ (‘forced coordination’) to bring together members of the middle class women’s associations. It was subsequently expanded to become the umbrella organization for all women’s organizations in the Nazi state. As a registered association, the DFW was formally independent, but affiliated to the Nazi Party as a ‘supervised association‘ and closely intertwined with the National Socialist Women’s League (NSF) in terms of personnel, especially in management positions. Its leader Gertrud Scholtz-Klink was also at the helm of the DFW. While the National Socialist Women’s League (NSF) concentrated more on cultivating a female leadership class from 1936 onwards, the German Women’s Work (DFW) established itself as a mass organization of women with almost two million individual members and a further four million members in the corporately affiliated associations.

During the Nazi regime, women were predominantly assigned the role of mother and homemaker. They were supposed to give birth to lots of ‘genetically healthy‘ children and raise them to be good National Socialists and valuable members of the ‘people’s community‘. At the beginning of Nazi rule, the employment of wives was therefore severely restricted. However, these barriers were loosened again with the boom in the arms industry and by 1939 the employment rate for women had risen above the level of 1933 level.

In keeping with the Nazi image of women, the DFW’s field of activity was primarily in the social and welfare sectors, which were already traditionally reserved for women. For example, it organized the ‘Reich Mothers’ Service‘, which ran over 200 ‘mothers’ schools‘ (one of the schools was located at Hildegardstraße 16 in Munich) which by 1939 had been attended by more than 1.7 million women. The women were not only instructed in practical matters, but were also taught the ideological and ‘racial-biological‘ foundations of the Nazi ‘people’s community‘. Since the outbreak of the war, the women’s ‘auxiliary service‘, set up in 1936, had gained significant importance. The DFW played an important role in the mobilization of women on the ‘home front‘. Its members were deployed as nurses, mended soldiers’ uniforms and laundry, helped women who worked in the armaments industry with housework, assisted with collection campaigns, helped with the accommodation of evacuees or with air raid protection.