German Girls League
The League of German Girls (in German Bund Deutscher Mädel, abbreviated BDM) was founded in 1930 as the female branch of the Youth Hitlerian (HJ) for young people between the ages of 10 and 18 established by the Nazi Party (NSDAP). Until the Nazis came to power in 1933, this organization had little relevance, but it subsequently grew rapidly, until membership was made compulsory in 1936. Members had to be German citizens and free of hereditary diseases.
History
The Bund Deutscher Mädel has its roots in the early 1920s, in the early Mädchenschaften or Mädchengruppen, also known as Schwesternschaften der Hitler-Jugend (Sisters of the Hitler Youth). In 1930 the BDM was founded, which in 1931 became the women's branch of the Hitler Youth. suggesting sexual promiscuity in separate-sex groups that claimed to be traditional and conservative. Its full title was Bund Deutscher Mädel in der Hitler-Jugend (League of German Girls in the Hitler Youth). In the last electoral campaigns of 1932, Hitler inaugurated it with a mass meeting in which the League participated; on the eve of the election, the League and the Hitler Youth organized an 'evening of entertainment'. It did not attract a mass following until the Nazi seizure of power in January 1933.
Shortly after taking office as Reichsjugendführer on June 17, 1933, Baldur von Schirach promulgated regulations suspending or prohibiting all other existing youth organizations ('concurrence'). Girls' youth groups were compulsorily integrated into the BDM, which was declared the only legally permitted organization for girls in Germany. Many of the existing organizations closed down to prevent this. These Nazi activities were part of the Gleichschaltung (Equalization) from 1933. The Reichskonkordat between the Catholic Church and Nazi Germany, signed on July 20, 1933, gave some shelter to the Catholic youth ministry, but they were subjected to much intimidation.
The Gesetz über die Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth Law) of December 1, 1936, required all eligible youths to be members of the JJHH or the BDM. They had to be of German ethnicity, German citizens, and free of hereditary diseases. Girls had to be 10 years old to enter this League.
The BDM was headed directly by Schirach until 1934, when Trude Mohr, a former postal worker, was appointed to the position of BDM-Reichsreferentin, or national spokesperson for the BDM, reporting directly to Schirach. After Mohr married in 1937, she had to resign from her position (the BDM required members to be single and childless in order to continue in leadership positions), and was succeeded by Dr. Jutta Rüdiger, a doctor of psychology from Düsseldorf, who was a stronger leader than Mohr and yet a close ally of Schirach, and also of his successor since 1940 as JJHH leader, Artur Axmann. She joined Schirach in resisting the efforts of the head of the NS-Frauenschaft (Nazi Women's League), Gertrud Scholtz-Klink, to gain control of the BDM. Rüdiger led the BDM until its dissolution in 1945.
As in the JJHH, there were separate sections of the BDM, depending on the age of the participants. Girls between the ages of 10 and 14 were members of the Youth League ('Jungmädelbund', JM), and girls between the ages of 14 and 18 were members of the Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM) proper. In 1938, a third section was added, known as Faith and Beauty (Glaube und Schönheit), which was voluntary and open to girls between the ages of 17 and 21 and was intended to prepare them for marriage, domestic life, and future career goals. The ideal was for the girls to marry and have children once they reached the age, but importance was also given to job training and education.
At the beginning of World War II, the Reichsarbeitsdienst (National Labor Service; RAD) was made compulsory for young women as well. It lasted half a year. Many young women became Blitzmädel (Wehrmachthelferin or helpers of the armed forces) during World War II.
Although these ages are general guidelines, there were some exceptions for members in higher leadership positions (salaried), starting at the "Untergau" organizational level. As for lower (honorary) positions, even WB members could apply for them after two years of affiliation and normally obtained a position of this type at the age of 13. Senior positions were recruited from members over the age of 18 and were expected to hold their salaried position for no more than 10 years, leaving BDM at the age of 30. As a general rule, members were required to leave when they left. married and especially when they had children.
Leaders
Trude Mohr was appointed the first Reichsreferentin in June 1934. Her main initiative was to offer a new way of life for German youth, stating:
Our people need a generation of girls that is healthy in body and mind, safe and decisive, with pride and confidence in the future; a generation that assumes its place in the day by day with aplom and discernment; a generation free of all sentimental and enthusiastic emotion, and which, precisely for this reason, in a clearly defined femininity, would be the companion of a man, because she would not consider him as a kind of idol, but a companion! These girls will, by necessity, take the values of National Socialism to the next generation as the mental bulwark of our people.
In 1937, after marrying Obersturmführer Wolf Bürkner, she became pregnant and had to renounce her responsibilities.
Jutta Rüdiger (1910 - 2001) was a special case. She had joined the BDM in 1933, at the age of 23 and after finishing her doctorate in psychology. Soon after, at the beginning of 1934, she obtained honorary positions; in June 1935 she was promoted to the first salaried position (leader of the "Untergau Ruhr-Niederrhein") and in November 1937, at the age of 27, she was appointed Reichsreferentin de the BDM succeeding Trude Mohr, who after becoming pregnant had had to resign from her post, as required by Nazi law. Rüdiger held her position as head of the BDM until the German defeat in 1945, when she was 34 years old.