After reading the speech that parroted Adolf Hitler’s views on the role of women in German society, it is clear that the Weimar women and the reputation of the New Woman were deemed a threat to Hitler's rule in Post-Weimar Germany due to the feminizing of men and the increased masculinity of women. As Goebbels states that women are not “inferior but rather they have a different mission and a different value, in economic strife this was attractive to German women at the time. Hitler in one of his speeches told 800,000 women to give up their occupations and let men take their jobs instead. (Spartacus Educational, Unemployment in Nazi Germany) During the Weimar Republic, there was an archetype referred to as the New Woman. …show more content…
This was not a new concept but a term coined in the late nineteenth century by Sarah Grand, in the New Aspect of the Woman Question. Merriam-Webster defines as, a woman especially of the late 19th century actively resisting traditional controls and seeking to fill a complete role in the world.
This image perpetuated mostly by male fantasy was of modern femininity and the depiction of what being a women meant changed drastically during the late 1920s to early 1930s. The trend was towards a more serious, chaste woman. Characteristics of the New Woman archetype included being glamorous and sexy, financially independent, technologically inclined while simultaneously excelling at domestic duties (housework and motherhood). (Hung, 2015, page 54) In contrast to modern femininity presently, Jochen Hung, refers to the ideas of three divisions that encompass all the aspects of the New Woman. These are broken down into Gretchen, Girls, and Garconnes. It is understood that Gretchen is the obedient wife and caring young mother, the Girl is the American-style superficially obsessed, glamorous woman and the Garconne is the rationalized masculinized independent woman.(Hung, 2015, page 54) Of the three the most threatening to Hitler’s rule and most men was the Garconne. Both Hitler and Goebbels in their speeches in order to appeal to their female constituents, was not to outright say women were inferior but to simply say women had a different role in society. Due to the economic depression Germany suffered, due to the Wall Street Crash of 1929 (Spartacus, Women in Nazi Germany) simplified the rationale for all German citizens especially women to persuade them to stay at home. If you combine that with the high employment rate and the slew of disabled veterans returning, it gave rise for the New Woman as a concept to propel itself. The New Woman in cinema was a different but similar depiction of females in the Weimar Republic (Anjeana K. …show more content…
Hans, 2014, page 2-3). In further exploration of Weimar films the ill fates of the female leads end in destitution, murder or suicide. A classic silent film which debuted in 1929, Pandora’s Box (Hans, 2014, page 27) whose main character Lulu, punished for her coquettish ways by execution in a brutal manner. Louise Brooks the same actress plays Thymian in Diary of a Lost Girl, (Hans, 2014, page 27) here she exemplifies how a woman can be both innocent and tortured. From being impregnated by her father’s assistant to being shunned and sent to a reform school. After escaping with another patient the women end up in a bordello. (Ebert, 2012, Movie Review) This anxiety of the aforementioned ideal woman is either suppressed or punished in the films that Hans has passionately studied. In a new sociocultural definition of a woman transformed by the experience of war, enjoying a mild freedom and