Rosie the Riveter. Who is not familiar with the iconic image of the American factory worker with her fresh headscarf and clenched fist? But the Nazis also turned out to lure women to the war industry with beautiful propaganda images.
What is the German memory of the role of women in the Second World War? The permanent exhibition of the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin presents visitors with iconic images. The exhausted refugee from Sudetenland, the sadistic camp guard, the woman in rags who helped Berlin recover brick by brick immediately after the war. And of course the stereotypical mother of healthy blond children, the future of the Reich.
During my research into the image of women in the war, I came across a postcard of a blond young lady with a crisp red polka dot headscarf working in an airplane hangar, which seemed out of place in this environment. She looked like Rosie the Riveter, the energetic American factory worker in overalls, charming but ready to do man's work.
American invention
Rosie was created by the US government to get women into the factories. The war demanded more weaponry and the American men joined the army. It was logical that (married) women took their place in the workplace, in the aircraft and weapons industry, but actually everywhere where downtime was undesirable. The women did need some encouragement and legitimacy to venture outside their traditional domestic territory.
So the government launched a media campaign with posters, illustrated stories in magazines about the war effort, advertisements, film and songs such as Rosie the Riveter, Anna She Wears a Red Bandanna and Mommy, Put Your Britches On. They used slogans like WOMEN – there's work to be done and a war to be won and I'm proud – my husband wants me do to my part. Charming and tough, the new factory worker got a face with Rosie the Riveter.
Now we mainly know the woman with her red and white headscarf, clenched fist and the motto We can do it; at the time, Norman Rockwell's Rosie on the Saturday Evening Post of May 29, 1943 was famous:a muscular young woman with a sandwich and a rivet tool for the American flag. Her foot rests on Mein Kampf.
More exciting life
The postcard in the archives of the Berlin museum fits seamlessly into this American story about the women who courageously (but still attractively) helped to win the war in addition to their households. Only those who turn over the card will see:Frauen purchase für Euch:Im Flugzeugbau. He is part of a series of propaganda cards from 1943, part of exactly the same government effort on the German side to get women into the industry.
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For the Nazi ideologues, it was a bitter necessity to show the good sides of the workplace, in addition to continuing to insist on the role of women as wife and mother. There was also a shortage of men and a great need for workers in Germany. So women had to get new role models. German posters and cards show as sexy as professional young women in laboratories, behind the wheel of a truck, in the aircraft industry, and so on. The latter women often became Blitzmädchen named after the lightning bolts on their badges.
The new course was started by the men of the Nazi top, but women's magazines eagerly took advantage of this chance for a more exciting life. Take the National Socialist magazine Frauen-Warte (women's view). Like American women's magazines, it had articles about fashion, education, sports, health and increasingly also about working women and what might interest them. For example, an article in December 1944 about the technical ingenuity, concentration and fine motor skills of women emphasized the changed perspective on factory work.
It was time to collectively overcome the stereotypes and prejudices of the 1930s, wrote author Lydia Reimer-Ballnet. She acknowledged that there was still some catching up to do, for example in the area of payment, and that men sometimes spoke condescendingly about their successors. Yet enormous progress had been made:companies and factories trained women and placed them in responsible jobs. The war gave women an unprecedented opportunity to showcase their talents and the author had no doubts that they could maintain their leadership position once peace was achieved.
Rosie as an example
Frauen-Warte deviated from traditional views on women's duties and reinforced this with photographs. We see self-confident young women, devotedly engaged in work that until recently was considered exclusively masculine. Again, these might as well have been American Rosies. In fact, the postcard designer from a moment ago who looked like a Rosie clearly has one of the photos from Frauen-Warte used to develop into a colored propaganda image.
It is not the case that during the war there were only innovative images in Frauen-Warte any more than the Nazi leadership completely abandoned its conservative ideal about the relationship between man and woman. A song by Frauen-Warte from 1944 featured the iconic blonde mother with a well-fed baby in a flower meadow on the cover. The motto was:Mütter, Ihr tragt das Vaterland.
But the next issue featured four women in oversized men's uniforms prominently featured on the cover. They are standing in front of a spotlight, one of them is pointing at the sky. Motto:German women protect die Heimat as makers of anti-aircraft guns. Articles about women who distinguished themselves through courage and commitment in providing civilian assistance after bombings or about women scientists were illustrated with photographs of individuals. They all conveyed the same message:German women can and want to do more than you can because of the Nazi stereotype of the Deutsche Mutter. would think.
130,000 Blitzmädchen
It did not stop with some writing in women's magazines or propaganda images. Women flocked. Of course, not every woman who worked in the German war industry was there because she liked it. More than three million women, mainly from Russia and Ukraine, were forced to do so. Some German women will have done it for self-preservation.
But on the other hand were the countless young women who did take this opportunity to escape the traditional gender roles or monotony of the countryside. By the end of the war there were some 130,000 Blitzmädchen for the German Air Force. A few have reminisced about their experiences and motives, how attractive they found the uniform with the lightning bolt badge and the fun kepi. It wasn't for the war, one of them said, but for the adventure I wanted with it.
This was no different for many American women who enjoyed the (heavy) men's work they did during the war. But there is a big difference. The American Rosie built planes, ships, tanks and bombs to defeat Nazi Germany. Her patriotism is good in the collective memory. Her imaginary portrait stands for standing up for your rights.
Shame…
It is impossible to see the images of the tough blond German women in their overalls and uniforms, no matter how feminist. The National Socialist charge hinders that. Anyone who sees the images knows what evil has been done partly in the name of these women. These women became independent, but their patriotism served an abject political system.
The women themselves were often ashamed afterwards that they had helped in the Nazi war, and kept silent. Is that why we know so little about them? That these powerful images of professional working women are much less well-known than those of German women as unwilling birthing machines, sadistic perpetrators or pitiable victims?