From Nurturing the Nation to Purifying the Volk

Erscheinungsjahr 2014
ISBN: 978-0-521-14574-9
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 310 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 534 g

Reihe: Publications of the German Historical Institute

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.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Mouton, Michelle

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Europäische Länder
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein Demographie, Demoskopie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

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.

Über Autor(innen)

Mouton, Michelle
Michelle Mouton is associate professor of history at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1997. She is the recipient of the Fritz Stern Prize awarded by the German Historical Institute for the best dissertation in German History upon which this book is based. She has published articles in Central European History Journal, the Journal of Women's History, and the History Workshop Journal.