Gertrud Scholtz-Klink
| Gertrud Scholtz-Klink | |
|---|---|
Gertrud Scholtz-Klink, 1934
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| Born |
Gertrud Scholz-Treusch 9 February 1902 Adelsheim, Baden |
| Died | 24 March 1999 (aged 97) Tübingen-Bebenhausen |
| Nationality | German |
| Citizenship | German |
| Known for | Fervent Nazi and supporter of National Socialism |
| Notable work | Die Frau im Dritten Reich (The Woman in the Third Reich, 1978) |
| Political party | National Socialism |
| Movement | National Socialism |
| Spouse(s) | Eugen Klink (1920-1930), Guenther Scholtz (1932-1938), August Heissmeyer (1940- his death) |
| Children | 6, including Ernst Klink |
Gertrud Scholtz-Klink later known as Maria Stuckebrock (9 February 1902 – 24 March 1999) was a fervent Nazi Party (NSDAP) member and leader of the National Socialist Women's League (NS-Frauenschaft) in Nazi Germany.
She married a factory worker at the age of eighteen and had six children before he died.
Scholtz-Klink joined the Nazi Party and by 1929 became leader of the women's section in Berlin. In 1932, Scholtz-Klink married Guenther Scholtz, a country doctor (divorced in 1938).
When Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, he appointed Scholtz-Klink as Reich's Women's Führerin and head of the Nazi Women's League. A good orator, her main task was to promote male superiority, the joys of home labour and the importance of child-bearing. In one speech, she pointed out that "the mission of woman is to minister in the home and in her profession to the needs of life from the first to last moment of man's existence."
Despite her own position, Scholtz-Klink spoke against the participation of women in politics, and took the female politicians in Germany of the Weimar Republic as a bad example: "Anyone who has seen the Communist and Social Democratic women scream on the street and in the parliament, will realize that such an activity is not something which is done by a true woman". She claimed that for a woman to be involved in politics, she would have to "become like a man" to achieve something, which would "shame her sex" - or "behave like a woman", which would prevent her from achieving anything: either way, therefore, nothing was gained from women acting as politicians.
In July 1936, Scholtz-Klink was appointed as head of the Woman's Bureau in the German Labor Front, with the responsibility of persuading women to work for the benefit of the Nazi government. In 1938, she argued that "the German woman must work and work, physically and mentally she must renounce luxury and pleasure", though she herself enjoyed a comfortable material existence.
Scholtz-Klink was usually left out of the more important meetings in the male-dominated society of the Third Reich, and was considered to be a figurehead. For propaganda reasons, Nazi Germany liked to present her as influential to foreign countries, but her own views were reportedly not considered important. She did, however, have the influence over women in the party as Hitler had over everyone else.
By 1940, Scholtz-Klink was married to her third husband SS-Obergruppenführer August Heissmeyer, and made frequent trips to visit women at Political Concentration Camps.
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Wikipedia