Date of Award

5-2009

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Departmental Honors

Department

History

Abstract

The Third Reich is one of the most notorious government regimes the world has ever encountered and created problems that humanity had never anticipated in the modern world. Yet many aspects of the government policy before WWII are left unexplored, including the role of women in the Nazi take-over of Germany. Why were women important? What role did they play in the National Socialist policy and German life? In fact women were one of the most important intended audiences of Hitler’s plans. It was women that would give him the vote into the government of the Weimar Republic, support his perspective of traditional housewife, and most importantly the continuation of his ideas through a genetically pure generation of offspring. Because of these plans several propaganda campaigns would be conducted through a myriad of outlets, presenting a perspective of a pure nationalist state supported by the strong women of the Reich. It was these plans, from the campaign posters of 1933 to the personalized Nazi Women magazines that present a clear picture of Nazi policy towards women and their importance in the plan of Lebensraum and Germany supremacy.

Included in

History Commons

Share

COinS
 

Faculty Mentor

Charles Cole