League of German Girls

At the beginning of World War II, the

While these ages are general guidelines, there were some exceptions for members holding higher (salaried) leadership positions, starting at the organizational level of "Untergau". As regards lower (honorary) positions, even members of the JM could apply for them after two years of membership and would then obtain such a position typically at the age of 13. The higher leadership was recruited from members over 18 and was expected to maintain salaried office for no more than 10 years, and to leave the BDM by the age of 30.^[10] As a general rule, members had to leave when they were married and especially when they had children.

The BDM uniform was a full blue skirt, middy blouse and very heavy marching shoes.^[11] In 1939, a new uniform was introduced for regional and national leaders within the League of German Girls, and along with the new uniforms came new rank insignia for leaders. These new rank insignia took the form of a silver, and for higher ranks, gold bullion embroidered open-winged eagle on a black (white, on the summer tunic) shield with various types of borders to indicate grade. They were worn on the left chest of the tunic.^[12]

League of German Girls & Jungmädelbund [13]
		Reichsreferentin	Gebietsmädel­führerin	Gau­führerin	Untergau­führerin	Hauptmädel­führerin	Bannmädelführerin	Ringführerin	Hauptgruppenführerin	Gruppenführerin

Trude Mohr was appointed the first Reichsreferentin in June 1934.^[14] Her main initiative was to nourish a new way of living for the German youth, stating:^[15]

Our people need a generation of girls which is healthy in body and mind, sure and decisive, proudly and confidently going forward, one which assumes its place in everyday life with poise and discernment, one free of sentimental and rapturous emotions, and which, for precisely this reason, in sharply defined feminity, would be the comrade of a man, because she does not regard him as some sort of idol but rather as a companion! Such girls will then, by necessity, carry the values of National Socialism into the next generation as the mental bulwark of our people.

In 1937, after marrying Obersturmführer Wolf Bürkner,^[16] she became pregnant and resigned her duties.^[15]

Jutta Rüdiger (1910–2001) was a special case.^[17] She joined the BDM only in 1933, at the age of 23 and after having finished her doctorate in psychology. She obtained honorary positions instantly in 1933 and early 1934, was promoted to her first salaried position (leader of Untergau Ruhr-Lower Rhine) in June 1935 and was appointed Reichsreferentin for the BDM (head of the BDM) in November 1937 (aged 27),^[18] succeeding Mohr, who had vacated the position on her marriage, as Nazi policy required. She kept this position even until the German defeat, when she reached the age of 34.

Clementine zu Castell-Rüdenhausen [de] (1912–2008), a countess and member of the higher Franconian aristocracy, was appointed leader of Gau Unterfranken in 1933, at the age of 21, which also seems to have been the age when she joined the BDM, as no earlier date of membership nor any previous lower positions are recorded in her case. She was appointed head of "Faith and Beauty" in January 1938, a few days before her 26th birthday, and was discharged in September 1939 because of her marriage with Wilhelm "Utz" Utermann in October 1939. She was followed by an Austrian member, Annemarie Kaspar (b. 1917), who had been appointed Untergauführerin at the age of 20 in March 1938 and became head of B&B two weeks before her 22nd birthday. She too married and was discharged in May 1941, to be replaced in June 1941 by Martha Middendorf (b. 1914), who was 27 at the time of her appointment and was discharged already in February 1942, as she too had married. From this time on, Jutta Rüdiger, who was a lesbian in lifelong partnership with Hedy Böhmer, a fellow Nazi traveller, and thus uninterested in marriage, took over to lead the BDM directly, thus holding both leadership positions until 1945.^[19]

The BDM used campfire romanticism, summer camps, folklorism, tradition, and sports to indoctrinate girls within the Nazi belief system, and to train them for their roles in German society: wife, mother, and homemaker.^[20][21] Their home evenings revolved around domestic training, but Saturdays involved strenuous outdoor exercise and physical training.^[22] The purpose of these activities was to promote good health, which would enable them to serve their people and their country.^[23] The "home evenings"—ideally to be conducted in specially built homes—also included world view training, with instruction in history.^[24] This instruction would include learning the Horst Wessel song, the Nazi holidays, stories about Hitler Youth martyrs, and facts about their locality and German culture and history.^[25] Physical education included track and field sports like running and the long jump, gymnastics (e.g. somersaulting and tightrope walking), route-marching, and swimming.^[25] The importance of self-sacrifice for Germany was heavily emphasized; a Jewish woman, reflecting on her longing to join the League of German Girls, concluded that it had been the admonishment for self-sacrifice that had drawn her most.^[26] Members were also taught the Nazi Party's racial ideas.^[27] The League was particularly regarded as instructing girls to avoid Rassenschande or racial defilement, which was treated with particular importance for young females.^[28]

Holiday trips offered by HJ and BDM – for example, skiing in winter and tent camps in summer – were affordable; children from poor families got subsidies. These offers were popular.^[29]

The League encouraged rebellion against parents.^[30] Der Giftpilz presented the propaganda of a German girl being ordered to visit a Jewish doctor by her mother; the girl protested on the grounds of what she had learned at BDM meetings, and while at the office, remembered the warnings in time to escape being molested by the doctor.^[31] She then insisted that her mother admit that the BDM had clearly been in the right.^[31]

Ilsa McKee noted that the lectures of Hitler Youth and the BDM on the need to produce more children produced several illegitimate children, which neither the mothers nor the possible fathers regarded as problematic.

By 1944, the drafting of boys resulted in most of the "land service" help, with the harvest being performed by girls.[37]

In the last days of the war, some BDM girls, just like some boys of the male Hitler Youth (although not nearly as many), joined with the Volkssturm (the last-ditch defense) in Berlin and other cities in fighting the invading Allied armies, especially the Soviets. Officially, this was not sanctioned by the BDM's leadership, which opposed an armed use of its girls, even though some BDM leaders had received training in the use of hand-held weapons (about 200 leaders went on a shooting course which was to be used for self-defense purposes). After the war, Jutta Rüdiger denied that she had approved BDM girls using weapons in her interview with Junge Freiheit:

(...) At the end of the war, Martin Bormann wanted to set up a women's battalion. (...) I replied that I wasn't thinking about it. Women are not suitable to fight with guns in hand. (...) At the very end I (however) only allowed the girls to be trained in pistol shooting so that they could defend themselves in dire need – or even shoot themselves."^[52]

Some BDM girls were recruited into the Werwolf groups which were intended to wage guerrilla war in Allied-occupied areas.^[53]

The 'Kontrollratsgesetz Nr. 2' (enacted 10 October 1945) by the Allied Control Council forbade the NSDAP and all its sub-organizations, including the BDM. Their properties were confiscated.^[54]

• Das deutsche Mädel
• Saxon Greeting

Notes