League of German Girls

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The League of German Girls (German: Bund Deutscher Mädel or BDM), was the only female youth organization in Nazi Germany. It was the female equivalent of the Hitler Youth.

1 History
2 Training and activities
3 Wartime service
4 References
5 Further reading
6 External links

[edit] History

The BDM was founded in 1930 as a subordinate unit of the Nazi Party's youth movement, the Hitler Youth (HJ). Its full title was the League of German Girls in the Hitler Youth, (Bund Deutscher Mädel in der Hitler-Jugend). It did not attract a mass following until the Nazis came to power in January 1933, but grew rapidly thereafter, until membership was made compulsory for eligible girls between 10 and 18 in 1936. Members had to be ethnic Germans, German citizens, and free of hereditary diseases.<ref>"Der Jungmädeldienst", published February 1940, Berlin</ref>

The BDM was run directly by the HJ leader Baldur von Schirach until 1934, when Trude Mohr, a former postal worker with limited education, was appointed National BDM Deputy (BDM-Reichsreferentin), a title intended to signify the BDM's continued subordination to the HJ. When Mohr married in 1937, she was required to resign her public positions, and was succeeded by Dr Jutta Rüdiger, a doctor of psychology from Düsseldorf, who was a more assertive leader than Mohr but nevertheless a close ally of Schirach, and also of his successor from 1940 as HJ leader, Artur Axmann. Rüdiger led the BDM until is dissolution in 1945. She joined Schirach in resisting efforts by the head of the Nazi Women's League (NS-Frauenschaft), Gertrud Scholtz-Klink, to gain control of the BDM.<ref>Michael Kater, Hitler Youth, Harvard University Press 2004, chapter 3</ref>

As in the HJ, separate sections of the BDM existed, according to the age of participants. Girls between the ages of 10 and 14 years old were members of the Young Girl's League (Jungmädelbund, JM), and girls between the ages of 14 and 18 were members of the Bund Deutscher Maedel (BDM). In 1938, a third section was added, known as Belief and Beauty (Glaube und Schönheit), which was open to girls between 17 and 21 and was intended to groom them for marriage to suitable Nazi Party or SS husbands.

While these ages are general guidelines, it should be noted that a girl, once she held a leadership position (either honorary or a paid position), could remain in the League for as long as she liked, provided she neither married nor had children. Rüdiger became BDM Leader at 26, while Clementine zu Castell, the head of Belief and Beauty, was 47 when she took the position in 1938.

[edit] Training and activities

The BDM used campfire romanticism, summer camps, folklorism, tradition, and sports to educate girls within the National Socialist belief system, and to train them for their roles in German society: wife, mother, and homemaker.

These programs offered to girls often appeared very interesting and seemingly allowed the girls more freedom within society than they had previously known. Prior to the BDM, it was nearly unheard of that girls would travel without their parents, or do such "boyish" things as camping, hiking, and playing sports. All accounts agree that before the outbreak of war, the BDM was very popular with German girls, more popular than the HJ, with its rigorous paramilitary training, was with boys.

The Belief and Beauty organizations offered groups where girls could receive further education and training in fields that interested them. Some of the works groups that were available were arts and sculpture, clothing design and sewing, general home economics, and music.

[edit] Wartime service

The outbreak of war altered the role of the BDM, though not as radically as it did the role of the boys in the HJ, who were to be fed into the German Army as soon as they turned 18. The BDM helped the war effort in many ways. Younger girls collected donations of money, as well as goods such as clothing or old newspapers for the Winter Relief and other Nazi party charitable organizations. Many groups, particularly BDM choirs and musical groups, visited wounded soldiers at hospitals or sent care packages to the front.

The older girls volunteered as nurses' aides at hospitals, or to help at train stations where wounded soldiers or refugees needed a hand. After 1943, as Allied air attacks on German cities increased, many BDM girls went into para-military and military services where they served as Flak Helpers, signals auxiliaries, searchlight operators, and office staff. Unlike male HJs, BDM girls took little part in the actual fighting or operation of weaponry, although some Flak Helferinnen operated anti-aircraft guns.

In the last days of the war, some BDM girls, just like boys of the male Hitler Youth, joined with the Volkssturm (the last ditch defense) in Berlin and other cities in fighting the invading Allied armies. 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, Dr. Jutta Rüdiger denied that she had approved BDM girls using weapons, and this appears to have been the truth.

Some BDM girls were recruited into the Wehrwolf groups which were intended to wage guerilla war in Allied-occupied areas. A former BDM leader, Ilse Hirsch was part of the Wehrwolf team who assassinated Franz Oppenhoff, the Allied-appointed mayor of Aachen, in March 1945. <ref>Kater, Hitler Youth, 227</ref>

One should note that by the time they joined the Red Cross, Luftwaffe Helferinnen, Volkssturm or Wehrwolf, they were no longer BDM members, but members of those respective organizations.

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

"The Hitler Youth" - David Littlejohn
"Ein Leben fuer die Jugend" - Dr. Jutta Ruediger
"Deutsche Frauen und Maedchen" - Norbert Westenrieder
"Brauner Alltag" - Klaus-Joerg Ruhl
"Alltag im 3. Reich" - Frank Grube & Gerhard Richter
period 1930s/1940s publication of the BDM from www.bdmhistory.com digital archives