National Socialist Women's League

The National Socialist Women's League (German: Nationalsozialistische Frauenschaft, abbreviated NS-Frauenschaft) was the women's wing of the Nazi Party. It was founded in October 1931 as a fusion of several nationalist and Nazi women's associations, such as the German Women's Order (German: Deutscher Frauenorden or DFO) which had been founded in 1926. From then on, women were subordinate to the NSDAP Reich leadership. Girls and young women fell under the jurisdiction of the Association of German Girls (BDM). Guida Diehl was its first speaker (Kulturreferenotin).

National Socialist Women's League
Nationalsozialistische Frauenschaft
Emblem of the NS-Frauenschaft
PredecessorGerman Women's Order (DFO)
Formation1933
Dissolved1945
TypeWomen's wing
Legal statusDefunct, Illegal
Location
Membership
2 Million (1938)
Official language
German
LeaderGertrud Scholtz-Klink
Main organ
NS-Frauen-Warte
Parent organization
Nazi Party
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The Frauenschaft was subordinated to the national party leadership (Reichsleitung); girls and young women were the purview of the Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM). From February 1934 to the end of World War II in 1945, the NS-Frauenschaft was led by Reich's Women's Leader (Reichsfrauenführerin) Gertrud Scholtz-Klink (1902–1999). It put out a biweekly magazine, the NS-Frauen-Warte.[1]

Its activities included instruction in the use of German-manufactured products, such as butter and rayon, in place of imported ones, as part of the self-sufficiency program, and classes for brides and schoolgirls.[2] During wartime, it also provided refreshments at train stations, collected scrap metal and other materials, ran cookery and other classes, and allocated the domestic servants conscripted in the east to large families.[2] Propaganda organizations depended on it as the primary spreader of propaganda to women.[3]

The NS-Frauenschaft reached a total membership of 2 million by 1938, the equivalent of 40% of the total party membership.[4]

The German National Socialist Women's League Children's Group was known as "Kinderschar".

NS Frauenschaft Lapel Pin

References
  1. "NS-Frauenwarte: Paper of the National Socialist Women's League"
  2. Richard Grunberger, The 12-Year Reich, p 258, ISBN 0-03-076435-1
  3. Leila J. Rupp, Mobilizing Women for War, p 105, ISBN 0-691-04649-2, OCLC 3379930
  4. Payne, Stanley G. 1995 A History of Fascism 1914-1945 University of Wisconsin Press, Madison p. 184
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