Speech by Joeseph Goebbels regarding women.

[chknltl]

I recently began researching the radio broadcasts of nazi propaganda minister, Joesep Goebbels in order to compare his works with right wing propagandists today. One of the first items that caught my attention was this speech goebbels gave on 18 March 1933, just six weeks after Hitler took power.

Considering the ongoing gop war on women I thought this would make for an interesting read here in the DU. I'll quote the opening of his speech, there is a link below that for the rest of it, grab a cup of coffee and a comfy chair.

The occasion was the opening of a women’s exhibition in Berlin.

(The source: “Deutsches Frauentum,” Signale der neuen Zeit. 25 ausgewählte Reden von Dr. Joseph Goebbels (Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP., 1934), pp. 118-126.)


" It is a happy accident that my first speech since taking charge of the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda is to German women. Although I agree with Treitschke that men make history, I do not forget that women raise boys to manhood. You know that the National Socialist movement is the only party that keeps women out of daily politics. This arouses bitter criticism and hostility, all of it very unjustified. We have kept women out of the parliamentary-democratic intrigues of the past fourteen years in Germany not because we do not respect them, but because we respect them too much. We do not see the woman as inferior, but rather as having a different mission, a different value, than that of the man. Therefore we believed that the German woman, who more than any other in the world is a woman in the best sense of the word, should use her strength and abilities in other areas than the man."

more at:
http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/goeb55.htm

[enlightenment]

1. So, was he behind the 'Mother's Medal'?

My dad (who was part of the occupying force in Germany after the war) got hold of one and gave it to my mother. Not sure if it was a joke . . .

Interesting read. Thank you for posting the link.

[chknltl]

2. Couldn't tell you, (don't know) but i did see them.

As an army brat kid, I spent three tours in Germany and added another year over the as a soldier. As a kid, I used to frequent a German coin shop where I was more interested in their nazi coins but they also had an assortement of medals. They had quite a few of those mother medals in the collection, not sure about the details but if memory serves they were an iron cross made of brass with white enamel on the face. I always figured they were passed out to mothers who lost their sons in the war but truth be told, I really have no clue what they were about.

[enlightenment]

3. Okay

I know what they were for (should have said that, I guess - sorry!); I just wasn't sure if Goebbels was behind them. The tone of the speech makes it sound as if it was one of his ideas.

The idea was that they were handed out to the best breeders - they came in bronze, silver, and gold. I'm not sure how many kids a woman had to pop out to qualify for each level.

Sort of goes along with what you're studying - the push to turn women back into baby producing machines.

[chknltl]

4. From your description it would not surprise me.

Fwiw, I kept thinking of michelle bachmann while reading that. She would have made a fine nazi mother. I wonder if she could read that speech and realize that her personal views on women align up in many ways with the wishes of the nazi party. I further wonder if it would have any affect on her....one would hope that as an American citizen, she could have a 'come to Jesus' moment after reading it.

[enlightenment]

5. Doubtful.

I honestly believe that most of the women like Bachmann (and they are, unfortunately, legion) suffer from some kind of selective blindness. It prevents them from seeing their image reflecting back from examples of this kind.

[chknltl]

6. yeah, read a study that agreed with what you say.

I wish I still had the link, (it came from a fellow DUer actually), basically the study dealt with how progressive and conservatives handled factual information and how it was allowed to alter their personal paradigms.

Interestingly, we progressives had our issues too in that study but it was judged that we were indeed open-minded enough to accept change where the conservative mind was far less flexible.