Essay On Kinder Kuche

Kinder, Kuche, Kirche is a traditional German expression generally attributed to Kaiser Wilhelm II, which roughly translates to Children, Church, Kitchen (Koonz, 27). The words Kinder and Kuche were used prominently across the torrent of propaganda put out by the Nazis, and nearly every policy position dealing with women was along this vein of thinking. Cate Haste points out succinctly in her book Nazi Women, the goal of the new order in concerns to women is thus; “Men and women would be equally respected, but in their separate domains. In marriage, family and motherhood, German women would find their true vocation in the service of the whole nation, the Volksgemeinschaft” (Haste, 74). It is important to highlight however that the limited avenues available to women in this system do not constitute liberation or equal respect. In essence this paper aims to explore the contradiction in terms of fundamental Nazi ideas about women and their role in the society they were creating. As well as putting forth a theory that the Nazis ideas were an overcorrection in response to rapid modernization during the interwar period. These ideas had an astonishing rate of success from a modern perspective, and it seems as …show more content…
This ‘new women’ may have looked something like what Elizabeth Hurley describes as “the cigarette out on the streets, motorbike riding, silk stockinged or tennis skirted young woman out on the streets, in the bars or on the sports field” (Stibbe, 10). Matthew Stibbe also expounds on this further, pointing to the conflict that arose from this phenomenon. While the New Woman might be accepted and celebrated in the major cities and urbanized areas, for many Germans fresh out of a World War that decimated their economy and population, it was perhaps a step too far into the