page_title: Themes in Nazi propaganda
section_title: Motherhood
hierarchical_section_title: Themes in Nazi propaganda / Values / Motherhood
caption_attribution_description: English: en:Cross of Honor of the German Mother
context_page_description: The propaganda of the National Socialist German Workers' Party regime that governed Germany from 1933 to 1945 promoted Nazi ideology by demonizing the enemies of the Nazi Party, notably Jews and communists, but also capitalists and intellectuals. It promoted the values asserted by the Nazis, including heroic death, Führerprinzip, Volksgemeinschaft, Blut und Boden and pride in the Germanic Herrenvolk. Propaganda was also used to maintain the cult of personality around Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, and to promote campaigns for eugenics and the annexation of German-speaking areas. After the outbreak of World War II, Nazi propaganda vilified Germany's enemies, notably the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States, and in 1943 exhorted the population to total war.
context_section_description: During the era of the Nazi Party in Germany, policies and propaganda encouraged German women to contribute to the Third Reich through motherhood. To build the Third Reich, the Nazis believed that a strong German people, who acted as a foundation, was essential to the success of Nazi Germany. Motherhood propaganda was implemented by the Nazis to build the German nation. Within this propaganda there were three main arguments that were used.
  The first argument that was used in Nazi motherhood propaganda was that German mothers were expected to produce as many children as possible. The mother of Nazi Germany was glorified in visual propaganda. 'Marriage loans' were also created and promoted through propaganda, and these were for recently married couples to fund a baby. These loans were to be used as “vouchers for furniture and other household goods, provided, of course, that the women gave up work on marriage and devoted herself to motherhood”. In order to ensure the success of these marriage loans, there were increased taxes for single people and couples without children.
  Another use of Nazi propaganda was that they wanted women to have as many Aryan children that they could bear to make a future for the next generations master race. The encouragement of by the Nazis came to its peak in 1939 with the  introducing of "The Honor Cross of the German Mother" which went to mothers who provided an "important service" for the German nation. The cross was put into three different categories (bronze, silver, gold), a mother who had four or five children earned her bronze cross, whilst a mother who had six or seven children earned her silver cross and the mother who had eight or more children earned her gold cross. Mother's Day in May 1939 saw three million German mothers be honored the Mutterkreuz (Mother's Cross) whilst their husbands were preparing for the war.
  The ideology of a “good mother” in Nazi Germany is described by Rupp “As a mother of her family, she meets the demands of the nation, as a housewife she acts according to the laws of the nation’s economic order, as employed woman she joins in the overall plan of the national household…But her life, like that of the man, is in its major outlines determined by the binding law that everything must be subordinated to the profit of the people”. This illustrates how the Third Reich used motherhood propaganda to build up the German nation.
  The second argument within German propaganda is that racially desirable German women were supported in their effort to have children; however undesirable mothers, such as Jews and gypsies, were discouraged from having more children. This was because Nazi Germany wanted to eradicate ‘undesirable’ populations from the Third Reich. If women did not produce desirable children, they were subject to shaven heads, pillorying, public humiliation and execution. Some women were even used a propaganda themselves, and were forced to wear signs in public that said “I have committed racial treason” or “I fornicate with Jews.” Great importance was placed on the women's ability to choose desirable mates and have many desirable children.
  The third argument used in Nazi motherhood propaganda created an ideal Nazi woman, which implicitly encouraged women to always be mothers in one way or another.
  The first way that this ideal was created was through the construction of spiritual motherhood in Nazi propaganda. German women who were not able to have children were encouraged, through propaganda, to participate in spiritual, rather than physical, maternity by doing womanly work. Their contributions to the war came in the form of mothering German society. Spiritual maternity allowed all women to fulfill their most important duty as caregivers.
  The next way that motherhood towards Germany was created through Nazi propaganda was through the ideal German woman. This ideal was portrayed by women contained in the propaganda who were “broad-hipped women, unencumbered by corsets, who could easily bear children.” Because of this ideal Nazi women was fit and strong, they were 
caption: Mother's Cross
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