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The League of German Girls or the Band of German Maidens[1] (German: Bund Deutscher Mdel, abbreviated as BDM) was the girls' wing of the Nazi Party youth movement, the Hitler Youth. It was the only legal female youth organization in Nazi Germany.
With the surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945, the organization de facto ceased to exist. On 10 October 1945, it was outlawed by the Allied Control Council along with other Nazi Party organizations. Under Section 86 of the German Criminal Code, the Hitler Youth is an "unconstitutional organization" and the distribution or public use of its symbols, except for educational or research purposes, is not permitted.
The Bund Deutscher Mdel had its roots in the early 1920s, in the first Mdchenschaften or Mdchengruppen, also known as Schwesternschaften der Hitler-Jugend (Sisterhood of the Hitler Youth). In 1930, the BDM was founded, and in 1931 it became the female branch of the Hitler Youth.[2] The league of German Maidens was derogatorily nicknamed by the counter-cultural Swingjugend "The League of German Mattresses", suggesting sexual promiscuity between the sex-separated groups who claimed to be traditional and conservative.[3][4] Its full title was Bund Deutscher Mdel in der Hitler-Jugend (League of German Girls in the Hitler Youth). In the final electioneering campaigns of 1932, Hitler inaugurated it with a mass meeting featuring the League; on election eve, the League and Hitler Youth staged "evening of entertainment."[5] It did not attract a mass following until the Nazis came to power in January 1933.
Soon after taking office as Reichsjugendfhrer on 17 June 1933, Baldur von Schirach issued regulations that suspended or forbade existing youth organizations ('concurrence'). Female youth groups were compulsorily integrated into the BDM, which was declared to be the only legally permitted organization for girls in Germany. Many of the existing organizations closed down to avoid this.[6] These Nazi activities were a part of the Gleichschaltung (Equalization) starting in 1933. The Reichskonkordat between the Catholic Church and Nazi Germany, signed on 20 July 1933, gave a certain shelter to the Catholic youth ministry, but they were the object of much bullying.
The Gesetz ber die Hitlerjugend (law concerning the Hitler Youth) dated 1 December 1936, forced all eligible juveniles to be a member of HJ or BDM. They had to be ethnic Germans, German citizens, and free of hereditary diseases.[7] Girls had to be 10 years of age to enter this League.
The BDM was run directly by Schirach until 1934, when Trude Mohr, a former postal worker, was appointed to the position of BDM-Reichsreferentin, or National Speaker of the BDM, reporting directly to Schirach. After Mohr married in 1937, she was required to resign her position (the BDM required members to be unmarried and without children in order to remain in leadership positions), and was succeeded by Dr. Jutta Rdiger, a doctor of psychology from Dsseldorf, 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. She joined Schirach in resisting efforts by the head of the NS-Frauenschaft (Nazi Woman's League), Gertrud Scholtz-Klink, to gain control of the BDM. Rdiger led the BDM until its dissolution in 1945.[8]
As in the HJ, separate sections of the BDM existed, according to the age of participants. Girls between the ages of 10 and 14 were members of the Young Girl's League (Jungmdelbund, JM), and girls between the ages of 14 and 18 were members of the Bund Deutscher Mdel (BDM) proper.[9] In 1938, a third section was added, known as Faith and Beauty (Glaube und Schnheit), which was voluntary and open to girls between 17 and 21 and was intended to groom them for marriage, domestic life, and future career goals. Ideally, girls were to be married and have children once they were of age, but importance was also placed on job training and education.
While these ages are general guidelines, there were some exceptions for members holding higher (salaried) leadership positions, starting at the organizational level of "Untergau". As regards lower (honorary) positions, even members of the JM could apply for them after two years of membership and would then obtain such a position typically at the age of 13. The higher leadership was recruited from members over 18 and was expected to maintain salaried office for no more than 10 years, and to leave the BDM by the age of 30.[10] As a general rule, members had to leave when they were married and especially when they had children.
The BDM uniform was a full blue skirt, middy blouse and very heavy marching shoes.[11] In 1939, a new uniform was introduced for regional and national leaders within the League of German Girls, and along with the new uniforms came new rank insignia for leaders. These new rank insignia took the form of a silver, and for higher ranks, gold bullion embroidered open-winged eagle on a black (white, on the summer tunic) shield with various types of borders to indicate grade. They were worn on the left chest of the tunic.[12]
Our people need a generation of girls which is healthy in body and mind, sure and decisive, proudly and confidently going forward, one which assumes its place in everyday life with poise and discernment, one free of sentimental and rapturous emotions, and which, for precisely this reason, in sharply defined feminity, would be the comrade of a man, because she does not regard him as some sort of idol but rather as a companion! Such girls will then, by necessity, carry the values of National Socialism into the next generation as the mental bulwark of our people.
The League encouraged rebellion against parents.[30] Der Giftpilz presented the propaganda of a German girl being ordered to visit a Jewish doctor by her mother; the girl protested on the grounds of what she had learned at BDM meetings, and while at the office, remembered the warnings in time to escape being molested by the doctor.[31] She then insisted that her mother admit that the BDM had clearly been in the right.[31]
Ilsa McKee noted that the lectures of Hitler Youth and the BDM on the need to produce more children produced several illegitimate children, which neither the mothers nor the possible fathers regarded as problematic.[32] These and other behaviors taught led to parents complaining that their authority was being undermined. In 1944, a group of parents complained to the court that the leaders of the League were openly telling their daughters to have illegitimate children.[33] Public opinion attributed a great deal of sexual laxity to the members.[34] The preparation camps for the 'Landdienst' (land service) of girls and boys often lay adjacent to each other. 900 of the girls participating in the 1936 Reichsparteitag in Nrnberg became pregnant. In 1937, a prohibition came out saying that camping was forbidden to the BDM.[35]
Before entering any occupation or advanced studies, the girls, like the boys in Hitler Youth, had to complete a year of land service ("Landfrauenjahr").[37] Although working on a farm was not the only approved form of service, it was a common one; the aim was to bring young people back from the cities, in the hope that they would then stay "on the land" in service of Nazi blood and soil beliefs.[38] Another form of service was as a domestic work in a family with many children.[39]
The 'Faith 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.[25]
The outbreak of World War II 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 Wehrmacht (armed forces) when they turned 18. The BDM were told by their leaders during the invasion of Poland that the Poles were a people "worthy of disgust, genuine sub-humans, who deserved to be ruled by a master race."[41] 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 charitable organizations. Many groups, particularly BDM choirs and musical groups, visited wounded soldiers at hospitals or sent care packages to the front.[citation needed] Girls knitted socks, grew gardens, and engaged in similar tasks.[citation needed] In 1943, Das deutsche Mdel urged on the ten-year-olds just joining the Jungmdelbund that "It is as if the Fhrer had spoken to you ten-year-old girls as well, who are now joining the community. From this day on, your small strength, too, will contribute to winning the war and building a greater and more beautiful Reich."[42]
The older girls volunteered as nurses' aides at hospitals, or to help at train stations where wounded soldiers or refugees needed aid. After 1943, as Allied air attacks on German cities increased, many BDM girls went into paramilitary and military services (Wehrmachtshelferin), 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.[44]
Many older girls, with Hitler Youth were sent to Poland as part of the Germanisation efforts.[45] These girls, along with Hitler Youth, were first to oversee the eviction of Poles to make room for new settlers and ensure they did not take much from their homes, as furniture and the like were to be left there for the settlers.[9] Their task were then to educate ethnic Germans, either living in Poland or resettled there from the Baltic states, according to German ways.[45] This included instruction in the German language, as many spoke only Polish or Russian.[46] They also had to organize the younger ones into the League.[45] Because many Hitler Youth leaders were drafted into the military, the task of organizing the boys into Hitler Youth also fell heavily on the League.[47] They were also to provide help on the farm and in the household.[47] As the only contact with German authorities, they were often requested to help with the occupation authorities,[48] and they put on various entertainments such as songfests to encourage the down-spirited new settlers.[49] Some members were sent to the colony of Hegewald for such efforts even when they had to receive gas masks and soldier escorts.[50]
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