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Contributed by

BBC Scotland

People in story:

Unknown

Location of story:

Bad Orb, Germany

Background to story:

Civilian Force

Article ID:

A4456451

Contributed on:

14 July 2005

A girl member of the Hitler Youth. The League of German Maidens (BDM), Bad Orb 1937/38.

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Kevin Morrison of Glasgow Caledonian University.

The League of German Maidens (the Bund Deutscher Madel or BDM) was the girls branch of the Hitler Youth. Girls were initiated into the BDM from the 'Young Girls' organisation at the age of 14. This took place on Hitler's birthday, April 20th. Membership became compulsory in late 1936. Girls between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one were taught that their role was to be 'mothers of Hitler's future soldiers'. BDM members undertook a wide range of activities including a compulsory land year, domestic science courses,field exercises, physical exercise, parades and marches. This photograph is taken from a photograph album that is housed in the Kevin Morrison Collection (a special collection in Research Collections at Glasgow Caledonian University) the activities of the BDM are well represented in this unique album of photographs. The owner attended a BDM School in Bad Orb between 1937-1938. She attended local Party rally's, undertook farming, gardening and domestic work, attended parades and camps alongside the Hitler Youth and visited Munich the capital of the 'Movement' and also Nuremberg home to the annual Nazi Party rally.

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League of German Maidens (Bund Deutscher Madel)

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Contributed by BBC Scotland People in story: Unknown Location of story: Bad Orb, Germany Background to story: Civilian Force Article ID: A4456451 Contributed on: 14 July 2005 A girl member of the Hitler Youth. The League of German Maidens (BDM), Bad Orb 1937/38.

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Citation: C N Trueman "Young Girls League"
historylearningsite.co.uk. The History Learning Site, . .

The Young Girls League (Jungmädelbund or JM) was part of the League of German Girls (Bund Deutscher Mädel) but catered for young girls aged from ten years to fourteen years. Once girls in the Young Girls League had reached fourteen they moved to the League of German Girls the BDM. The Jungmädel organisation was all part of the umbrella Hitler Youth movement that was separated into boys and girls sections. The girls who acted as leaders in the Young Girls League were from the League of German Girls (the BDM) - older girls who had done their time in the Young Girls League.

The Young Girls League (JM) was all part of the policy of Gleichshaltung - coordination - introduced by Hitler. This was a policy where everyone, as the title suggested, did what everyone else did and what the state wanted. Within Nazi Germany girls had a very specific role to play. Girls were seen very simply as the future mothers of Germany and part of the grand plan for the Reich to exist for 1000 years. If boys were educated to be warlike, girls were trained for a future of domesticity.

Membership of the Young Girls League became compulsory in 1936 when the First Hitler Youth Law made it so.

However, as with all youth organisations that existed in Nazi Germany, there were strict criteria as to membership. Young girls who joined the JM ( Jung m ädelbund) had to be racially pure, free of hereditary diseases and hold German citizenship.

An 'entrance exam' was also held which consisted of attending a lecture about what the JM stood for and the satisfactory completion of a bravery test.

All new members of the JM joined on the same day of the year - April 20 th, Hitler's birthday.

"One day, fittingly enough on Hitler's birthday, my age group was called up and I took the oath: "I promise always to do my duty in the Hitler Youth, in love and loyalty to the Führer." (Marianne Gartner in 'The Naked Years: Growing up in Nazi Germany')

Over the next six months girls were also expected to participate in the 'JM Challenge'. The successful completion of this, which was essentially oriented around success in sport and the creation of a fit and healthy Nazi youth, meant that girls became full members of the JM until they were old enough to transfer to the Bund Deutscher Mädel - the League of German Girls (sometimes referred to as the League of German Maidens).

"(I participated) in games, sports, hiking, singing, camping and other exciting activities...ballgames and competitions and weekend hikes." (Marianne Gartner in 'The Naked Years: Growing up in Nazi Germany')

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Young Girls League - History Learning Site

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The Young Girls League (Jungmädelbund or JM) was part of the League of German Girls (Bund Deutscher Mädel) but catered for young girls aged from ten years to fourteen years. Once girls in the Young Girls League had reached fourteen they moved to the League of German Girls the BDM.

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Task 1: A typical German boys school timetable 1934

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Young people were very important to Hitler and the Nazis. Hitler spoke of his Third Reich lasting for a thousand years and to achieve this he would have to ensure German children were thoroughly indoctrinated in Nazi ideology.

To this end, from the age of 10 boys and girls were encouraged to join the Nazis' youth organisation, the Hitler Youth (the girls' wing of which was called the League of German Maidens). Membership from age 10 was made compulsory in 1936 and by 1939, 90 per cent of German boys aged 14 and over were members.

The Hitler Youth

The League of German Maidens

Its aim was to prepare German boys to be future soldiers

Its aim was to prepare German girls for future motherhood

Boys wore military-style uniforms

Girls wore a uniform of blue skirt, white blouse and heavy marching shoes

Activities centred on physical exercise and rifle practice, as well as political indoctrination

Girls undertook physical exercise, but activities mainly centred on developing domestic skills such as sewing and cooking

Nazi control of the young through education

As well as influencing the beliefs of young Germans through the Hitler Youth, schools indoctrinated young people in the political and racial ideas of Nazism.

All teachers had to join the Nazi Teachers' Association, which vetted them for political and racial suitability. Every lesson started with Heil Hitler!

The curriculum was altered to reflect Nazi ideology and priorities.

History - lessons included a course on the rise of the Nazi Party.

Biology - lessons were used to teach Nazi racial theories of evolution in eugenics .

Race study and ideology - this became a new subject, dealing with the Aryan ideas and anti-Semitism.

Physical Education - German school children had five one-hour sports lessons every week.

Geography - used to show hostile or racially inferior neighbours and where resources lay that were necessary for Germany's living space, Lebensraum .

Again, the aim was to brainwash children so that they would grow up accepting Nazi ideas without question.

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"I swear to God this sacred oath that to the Leader of the German Empire and people, Adolf Hitler, supreme commander of the armed forces, I shall render unconditional obedience and that as a brave soldier I shall at all times be prepared to give my life for this oath."

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The Nazis and their youth wings placed great importance on the division between the sexes. Boys were raised as political soldiers and girls were taught to be wives and mothers, breeding the next generation. Girls were not encouraged to have ambitions beyond the home. In the girls' League they were taught cooking, cleaning and childcare. Their clothes and hair were based on very traditional peasant styles. Summer camps were a highlight of the youth wings' calendar. They brought children of different backgrounds together, introduced city children to the countryside and gave some the first holidays they had ever had. However, their main function was military training.

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