Cambridge University Press From Nurturing the Nation to Purifying the Volk: Weimar and Nazi Family Policy, 1918–1945 (Publications of the German Historical Institute)

Fearing that the future of the nation was at stake following the First World War, German policymakers vastly expanded social welfare programs to shore up women and families. Just over a decade later, the Nazis seized control of the state and created a radically different, racially driven gender and family policy. This book explores Weimar and Nazi policy to highlight the fundamental, far-reaching change wrought by the Nazis and the disparity between national family policy design and its implementation at the local level. Relying on a broad range of sources - including court records, sterilization files, church accounts, and women's oral histories - it demonstrates how local officials balanced the benefits of marriage, divorce, and adoption against budgetary concerns, church influence, and their own personal beliefs. Throughout both eras individual Germans collaborated with, rebelled against, and evaded state mandates, in the process fundamentally altering the impact of national policy. Review 'It is one of very few books which explore aspects of social policy in both the Weimar and Nazi periods and the author is, therefore, able to contribute to wider historiographical debates about continuities in German history as well as the nature of the Nazi state and women's agency within it.' European History Quarterly Book Description This book explores Weimar and Nazi family policy to highlight the disparity between national policy design and its implementation at the local level. About the Author Michelle Mouton is associate professor of history at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1997. She is the recipient of the Fritz Stern Prize awarded by the German Historical Institute for the best dissertation in German History upon which this book is based. She has published articles in Central European History Journal, the Journal of Women's History, and the History Workshop Journal.