Joseph Goebbels Analysis

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My primary source is a speech by the Nazi Minister of Propaganda and ‘Public Enlightenment’, Joseph Goebbels. The speech was given in 1933 at the opening of an exhibition in Berlin a mere six weeks following Hitler’s seizure of power. The speech’s goal was to lay out the foundations of womanhood under National Socialism. This essay will highlight the demographic and ideological principles related to women in Nazi Germany. However, it is essential to note that under Nazi ideology, gender relations were always second to those of race.

In Joseph Goebbels’s speech regarding German women under Nazi rule, he first reiterates that women are not inferior to men under Nazi beliefs, despite their complete exclusion from daily politics. According to
Goebbels highlights this crucial problem of falling birth rates, particularly in Berlin, where in the last fourteen years, has had a birth rate declining to the lowest rates seen in Europe. Goebbels goes on to blame this fundamental failing to the liberal ideas that swept across Germany in the previous century and declare that the new German government will not stand for the demise of Germany’s population. The Third Reich is calling upon the great German Nation to rectify this embarrassment and restore Germany to its former glory. The issue of decreasing birth rates was a widespread issue throughout Europe following the First World War, which left a large void of men. According to Allen the obsessive worrying about the matter was founded on the fear of military unpreparedness. Nazi Germany took several measures to attempt to raise the pathetic birth rate; the Marriage Loan Act was introduced not long after this speech Goebbels gave. This loan was one of the first major efforts to fix the birth rate problem and provided newly married with an interest free governmental loan for household goods and furniture. However, the newly married women were to first give up any work they might have had, and devote their lives to the home and child rearing. If these conditions were not fulfilled the loan would not be applicable. Another measure taken by Goebbels in 1934 was the introduction of Mother’s Day, which was a means of propaganda and served the purpose of glorifying the sacred duty a woman had: Her dedication to the German nation by giving it sons to fill the army units and households worthy of the soldiers returning from the war

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