by Joseph Goebbels
The source: “Deutsches Frauentum,” Signale der neuen Zeit. 25 ausgewählte Reden von
Dr. Joseph Goebbels (Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP., 1934), pp. 118-126.
German women, German men !
It is a happy accident that my
first speech since taking charge of the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and
Propaganda is to German women. Although I agree with Treitschke that men make
history, I do not forget that women raise boys to manhood. You know that the
National Socialist movement is the only party that keeps women out of daily
politics. This arouses bitter criticism and hostility, all of it very
unjustified. We have kept women out of the parliamentary-democratic intrigues
of the past fourteen years in Germany not because we do not respect them, but
because we respect them too much. We do not see the woman as inferior, but
rather as having a different mission, a different value, than that of the man.
Therefore we believed that the German woman, who more than any other in the
world is a woman in the best sense of the word, should use her strength and
abilities in other areas than the man.
The woman has always been not
only the man’s sexual companion, but also his fellow worker. Long ago, she did
heavy labor with the man in the field. She moved with him into the cities,
entering the offices and factories, doing her share of the work for which she
was best suited. She did this with all her abilities, her loyalty, her selfless
devotion, her readiness to sacrifice.
The woman in public life today
is no different than the women of the past. No one who understands the modern
age would have the crazy idea of driving women from public life, from work,
profession, and bread winning. But it must also be said that those things that
belong to the man must remain his. That includes politics and the military.
That is not to disparage women, only a recognition of how she can best use her
talents and abilities.
Looking back over the past
years of Germany’s decline, we come to the frightening, nearly terrifying,
conclusion that the less German men were willing to act as men in public life,
the more women succumbed to the temptation to fill the role of the man. The
feminization of men always leads to the masculinization of women. An age in
which all great idea of virtue, of steadfastness, of hardness, and
determination have been forgotten should not be surprised that the man
gradually loses his leading role in life and politics and government to the
woman.
It may be unpopular to say
this to an audience of women, but it must be said, because it is true and
because it will help make clear our attitude toward women.
The modern age, with all its
vast revolutionary transformations in government, politics, economics, and
social relations has not left women and their role in public life untouched.
Things we thought impossible several years or decades ago are now everyday
reality. Some good, noble, and commendable things have happened. But also
things that are contemptible and humiliating. These revolutionary
transformations have largely taken from women their proper tasks. Their eyes
were set in directions that were not appropriate for them. The result was a
distorted public view of German womanhood that had nothing to do with former
ideals.
A fundamental change is
necessary. At the risk of sounding reactionary and outdated, let me say this
clearly: The first, best, and most suitable place for the women is in the
family, and her most glorious duty is to give children to her people and
nation, children who can continue the line of generations and who guarantee the
immortality of the nation. The woman is the teacher of the youth, and therefore
the builder of the foundation of the future. If the family is the nation’s
source of strength, the woman is its core and center. The best place for the
woman to serve her people is in her marriage, in the family, in motherhood.
This is her highest mission. That does not mean that those women who are
employed or who have no children have no role in the motherhood of the German
people. They use their strength, their abilities, their sense of responsibility
for the nation, in other ways. We are convinced, however, that the first task
of a socially reformed nation must be to again give the woman the possibility
to fulfill her real task, her mission in the family and as a mother.
The national revolutionary
government is everything but reactionary. It does not want to stop the pace of
our rapidly moving age. It has no intention of lagging behind the times. It
wants to be the flag bearer and pathfinder of the future. We know the demands
of the modern age. But that does not stop us from seeing that every age has its
roots in motherhood, that there is nothing of greater importance than the
living mother of a family who gives the state children.
German women have been
transformed in recent years. They are beginning to see that they are not
happier as a result of being given more rights but fewer duties. They now
realize that the right to be elected to public office at the expense of the
right to life, motherhood, and her daily bread is not a good trade.
A characteristic of the modern
era is a rapidly declining birthrate in our big cities. In 1900, two million
babies were born in Germany. Now the number has fallen to one million. This
drastic decline is most evident in the nation’s capital. In the last fourteen
years, Berlin’s birthrate has become the lowest of any European city. By 1955,
without emigration, it will have only about three million inhabitants. The
government is determined to halt this decline of the family and the resulting impoverishment
of our blood. There must be a fundamental change. The liberal attitude toward
the family and the child is responsible for Germany’s rapid decline. We today
must begin worrying about an aging population. In 1900 there were seven
children for each elderly person, today it is only four. If current trends
continue, by 1988 the ratio will be 1 : 1. These statistics say it all. They
are the best proof that if Germany continues along its current path, it will
end in an abyss with breathtaking speed. We can almost determine the decade
when Germany collapses because of depopulation.
We are not willing to stand
aside and watch the collapse of our national life and the destruction of the
blood we have inherited. The national revolutionary government has the duty to
rebuilt the nation on its original foundations, to transform the life and work
of the woman so that it once again best serves the national good. It intends to
eliminate the social inequalities so that once again the life of our people and
the future of our people and the immortality of our blood is assured.
I welcome this exhibition,
whose goal is to explain and teach, and to reduce or eliminate harm to the
individual and the whole people. This serves the nation and popular
enlightenment, and to support it is one of the happiest duties of the new
government.
Perhaps this exhibition titled
“The Woman” will represent a turning point. If the goal of the exhibition is to
give an impression of women in contemporary society, it does so at a time when
German society is undergoing the greatest changes in generations. I am aware of
how difficult this is. I know the obstacles that had to be overcome to give
this exhibition a clear theme and a firm structure. It should show the
significance of the woman for the family, the people, and the whole nation.
Displays will give an impression of the actual life of women today, and will
provide the knowledge necessary to resolve today’s conflicting opinions, which
were not primarily the result of the contemporary women’s movement.
But that is not all. The main
purpose of the exhibition “The Woman” is not only to show the way things are,
but to make proposals for improvement. It aims to show new ways and new
opportunities. Clear and often drastic examples will give thousands of German
women reason to think and consider. It is particularly pleasing to us men in
the new government that families with many children are given particular
attention, since we want to rescue the nation from decline. The importance of
the family cannot be overestimated, especially in families without fathers that
depend entirely upon the mother. In these families the woman has sole
responsibility for the children, and she must realize the responsibility she
has to her people and nation.
We do not believe that the
German people is destined by fate to decline. We have blind confidence that
Germany still has a great mission in the world. We have faith that we are not
at the end of our history, but rather that a new, great and honorable period of
our history is now beginning. This faith give us the strength to work and not
despair. It enabled us to make great sacrifices over the past fourteen years.
It gave millions of German women the strength to hope in Germany and its
future, and to let their sons join in the reawakening of the nation. This faith
was with the brave women who lost their husbands and breadwinners in the war,
with those who gave their sons in the battle to renew their people. This faith
kept us standing during the need and desperation of the past fourteen years.
And this faith today fills us with new hope that Germany will again find its
place in the sun.
Nothing makes one harder and
more determined than struggle. Nothing gives more courage than to face
resistance. During the years when Germany seemed destined to decline, a new
kind of womanhood developed under the confused veneer of modern civilization.
It is hard, determined, courageous, willing to sacrifice. During the four years
of the great war and the fourteen years of German collapse that followed,
German women and mothers proved themselves worthy companions of their men. They
have borne all the bitterness, all the privation and danger, and did not fail
when hit by misfortune, worry, and trouble. As long as a nation has such a proud
and noble womanhood, it cannot perish. These women are the foundation of our
race, of its blood, and of its future.
This is the beginning of a new
German womanhood. If the nation once again has mothers who proudly and freely
choose motherhood, it cannot perish. If the woman is healthy, the people will
be healthy. Woe to the nation that neglects its women and mothers. It condemns
itself.
We hope that the concept of
the German woman will again earn the honor and respect of the entire world. The
German woman will then take her pride in her land and her people, in thinking
German and feeling German. The honor of her nation and her race will be most
important to her. Only a nation that does not forget its honor will be able to
guarantee its daily bread.
The German woman should never
forget that.
I declare this exhibition
open. May it reveal all the former errors and show the way to the future.
Then the world will once again
respect us, and we will be able to affirm the words of Walther von der
Vogelweide, who had this to say about the German woman in his famous poem:
He who seeks
Virtue and proper love,
Should come to our land.
There is much joy.
Long may I live there.
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