Nazi's View of Marriage
The National Socialist Party quickly turned heads in July 14th, 1933 through the Law Concerning the Formation of New Parties, by declaring itself the only political party that was "allowed to exist in the Third Reich" (156.HCCR). Soon thereafter, the political perception the Nazis were likely to enforce would transform the whole view of German culture, economy, race, and especially, the way German individuals emotionally and physically interacted with one another. One relationship in the German state that stood out in my mind was the Nazi’s view of marriage, its purpose, its use and its representation in the German state. The Nazi’s perceived marriage as a processing factory, where each partner had certain roles and purposes to fulfill. Through the creation of speeches, art and laws, the relationship that would stand to the occasion in representing the Third Reich was the relation between man and woman...marriage.
Thesis Statement:
Marriage defined the Volksgemeinschaft, or “community of people,” of Germany because it was the basis relationship that connected the small world of the household to the larger German community. Also, marriage made it rightfully possible to produce "pure blood" German children with the genetically correct German parents. Marriage was so vital to the Nazis because it was the true basis of their socio-political perspectives. In effect, see if you agree with my thesis students...In order to define Volksgemeinschaft, the Nazis constructed marriage by associating the relationship with modeled public male and private female roles, and with the assumption of procreating “pure blood” Aryan children. The Nazis used marriage to define their Volksgemeinschaft because it enforced the vertical relationship in marriage into the Nazi based society and it would help increase the capacity and population of the Aryan race.
How the Nazi’s constructed marriage: Part one
Nazis constructed marriage to define their “community of people” by associating the relationship with modeled public male and private female roles. In the Nazis perspective, marriage was no longer a physical or emotional attraction between a man and a woman, yet it became a small system within a larger system that would sustain both the German households and the German society. Marriage soon became defined as a modeled system when Hitler depicted the Nazi‘s preferences in a speech to the National Socialist Women‘s section on September 8th, 1934.
After World War I, there was a spiritual void left within the people of Germany. The outcome of the war had ripped the German society along the class lines causing great stress and tension among the people. The people of Germany had believed all along that they were winning the war, and therefore the news of surrender came as a great shock to them. To make things worse, the peace treaty established placed the entire fault of the war on Germany and left them responsible for paying for the costs of the war for all who were involved. This sparked a conflict between the middle and working classes in society. Then, the depression followed, creating even more unhappiness among the people. With all of this unhappiness because of the class divisions and the depression, the Nazi...
In his lecture, Existentialism is a Humanism, Jean-Paul Sartre discusses common misconceptions people, specifically Communists and Christians, have about existentialism and extentanitalists (18). He wants to explain why these misconceptions are wrong and defend existentialism for what he believes it is. Sartre argues people are free to create themselves through their decisions and actions. This idea is illustrated in the movie 13 Going on Thirty, where one characters’ decision at her thirteenth birthday party and her actions afterwards make her become awful person by the time she turns thirty. She was free to make these decisions but she was also alone. Often the idea of having complete free will at first sounds refreshing, but when people
Since the “new woman” ideal was unrealistic for many women, many could feel that they were not strong modern woman. Hitler and the Nazi party targeted that insecurity by boosting the importance of the role of a mother in Germany. Only by following the tradition lifestyle of a woman could they ever be equal with men in their contribution to the Nazi movement. Elsbeth Zander, a Nazi activist and leader of the German Women’s Order, addresses the role of women in 1926, where she explains the important impact of motherhood in Germany. Zander explains, “We women must, through our quiet, honest work, inspire the German male to do noble things once more!.” Which when analyzed critically, this quote truly means that women should be the behind the scenes of the movement, caring for the household and being strong in their soul, not actions. Propaganda supporting Nazi’s defination of womanhood was common, such as the “Healthy Parents- Healthy Children!” poster from 1934 Germany. The visuals of this poster, with an Aryan woman dressed femininely is shown happily with her many children and husband is in direct contrast to the visuals of a “new woman” who stood independently on her own, dressed androgynously. In this way, the Nazi party was not only setting the racial standard for Nazi Germany, but the gender
In the novel by Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the two main characters, Huck and Jim, are strongly linked. Their relation is portrayed by various sides, some of them good and some others bad. But the essential interest of that relation is the way that uses the author to describe it. Even if he had often been misunderstood, Twain always implied a message behind the themes developed around Huck and Jim.
In Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain presents the problem of slavery in America in the 19th Century. Twain poses this problem in the form of a character named Huckleberry Finn, a white boy raised in the antebellum South. Huck starts to question his view regarding slavery when he acquaints himself more intimately with a runaway slave while he himself tries to run away. Huck’s development as a character is affected by society’s influence on his experiences while growing up in the South, running away with Jim, and trying to save Jim. Although Huck decides to free Jim, Huck’s deformed conscience convinces him that he is doing the wrong thing.
“As a woman is above a worm, so is a man above a woman. As a woman is above a worm, so is a worm above a Christian” (Burdekin 7).This excerpt from the fictional book of Holy Hitler in Swastika Night is a prime example of the totalitarian religion in the fictional German empire and the hierarchy it produces. This religious tenet takes its form in the practices of modern day life for all the inhabitants of Germany and its conquered lands. Burdekin situates this dogma in the novel’s exposition as it explains succinctly the strictures of s...
Adolf Hitler, as the new dictator of Germany, had an image of the "perfect society." This image, though, did not include a group of what Hitler declared "undesirables." This group included t...
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) is referred to as the most popular existentialist of the twentieth century and was born out of the third force movement in psychology. The third force movement of the twentieth century consisted of a diverse collection of psychologists and philosophers that did not all share universal principles, but were all reacting to the new orientation of psychology, which differed from behaviorism in that it did not reduce psychological processes to reactions to mechanical laws of physiological events but acknowledged the mediating and active role of the mind (Brennan, 2003). Despite the diversity of the third force movement, there were commonly shared views amongst its pioneers. One of these views was the focus on personal freedom and responsibility in terms of decision making and fulfilling ones potential (Brennan, 2003). The mind was considered to be active, and dynamic and a place where an individual could express their uniquely human abilities of cognition, willing, and judgments (Brennan, 2003). There was an emphasis on the self, and an acknowledgement of the strive of humans toward individually defined personality development. Existentialism holds that an individual is free to define his or her life course through his or her choices and decisions, but individuals are responsible for the consequences of their personal choices and decisions, and therefore freedom is a burdensome source of anguish (Brennan, 2003).
Not being married was not always accepted as what it is today. People of the older generation were forced into marriage, even if they didn’t love that person. It was more of the concept of “they will learn to love each other.” Whereas today, anyone has the option of when to get married, who to marry, or even to never get
Existentialism is a term that was coined specifically by Jean-Paul Sartre in regards to his own life. Sartre had adopted the Atheistic approach to life and its meaning, and while he was not the first or only one to do so, was the first and only one to come up with a way to describe it. Under Existentialism, man lives without higher power or guidance and must rely solely on himself and what he is aiming to do in order to lead a fulfilling life. This can be anything. Critics of Sartre propose that, because such a vast array of options exists within the meaningfulness of life, this philosophy is obsolete and trivial in nature. This is not true, as it is seen in everyday examples – celebrities, namely – that a thirst
The treatment of Jews and other minority groups by the Nazi’s can be described as actions that could only be done by a totalitarian state. Hitler believed in eugenics, the idea of improving a race by selective breeding. Nazi ideology of the Jewish race was severe anti-Semitism and pure hatred. The Nazi policy towards the Jews has been said to be the most brutal and horrific example of anti-Semitism in history.
German women had a specific role throughout World War II given by Hitler. Hitler made it clear that women would have as many kids as they could and that they were not expected to work. They were to be wives of german men and mothers. The guidelines for being an ideal women in Nazi was that women should not work for a living, not wear trousers, not wear makeup, not wear highheeled shoes, not to dye hair, and not go on a diet. During World War II, Nazi, Germany passed a law that gave newly wed couples a loan of about 1000 marks which reduces by 25% for each child they had.If the couple went on to have four children the loan would be wiped out. This law was called The Law of Encouragement of Marriage. Approximately 90% women were at home taking
Jean-Paul Sartre was a notable French philosopher and writer of the 20th century whose literary works have strongly influenced the world of academia and spurred intellectual contest in the Modern era. In Sartre’s 1945 publication, “Existentialism and Humanism,” Sartre had argued extensively about the notion of abandonment – the notion that we live freely in this world without purpose, and his stance on atheistic existentialism. His main argument was that existence precedes essence so humans acquire meaning through lived experiences since humans are free to choose and decide for themselves. From this, he concludes that there exists no such thing as ‘a priori’ morality and that “God is a useless and costly hypothesis” (28). In this paper, I will be rebutting Sartre’s moral nihilism argument since it lacks apparent linkage between the notion of freedom of choice and the idea that ‘a priori’ morality does not exist.
“[…] When we say that a man is responsible for himself, […] he is responsible for all men. […] To choose to be this or that is to affirm at the same time the value of what we choose, because we can never choose evil. We always choose the good, and nothing can be good for us without being good for all.” (Sartre, 201) Sartre mentions subjectivity here – the starting point for existentialism – making it apparent that there is no universal standard for good or bad; it is how we each individually view the world. The way each one of us creates value for the universe is essential to existentialism. According to Sartre, you’re free to do and choose whatever you want, but you're making a choice that involves all of humanity. No one can make your decisions for you, therefore you have to take responsibility for them, and for the affect they can have on society. We must live as though the world was watching us. Who’s to tell what’s good or bad? It’s a subjective answer, a choice. What may seem natural is always a choice, and we live in a universe with no fundamental value, meaning everything we do is a choice, and subjectively to us, those choices are ‘good’. When we make a choice, it affects what other people’s ideas of good and bad are, it influences them, when we act as lawgivers. That’s a lot of responsibility to uphold, and according to Sartre we should embrace it, for the sake of our own consciences and to make a better world around
Sartre based his philosophy first and foremost on mankind's innate free will, and declared that it is a by-product of the interaction between being and nothing. According to Sartre, individuals are free from the moment of their birth and they continue on throughout life to define their essence. The nature of an individual is what we have done in the past and wha...