Birth of the Movement
The League of German Girls (BDM) was the female branch of the Hitler Youth, created to shape girls into what the regime considered ideal members of the national community. Much like the Hitler Youth, it was founded in the 1920s as just one youth group among many but expanded rapidly after the Nazis came to power in Germany.
The Rise to Power
By 1936, participation was compulsory and millions of girls between the ages of 10 and 18 were enrolled. The structure mirrored that of the boys organizations and became a standard part of growing up.
The program emphasized physical health and outdoor activity. Hiking, camping, sports, and group exercises were central, reflecting the regime’s focus on building strong, healthy bodies. Unlike the boys’ more overtly military training, the BDM framed physical fitness in terms of future motherhood. Strength was not for combat, but for raising the next generation.
Role in the Reich
Education within the BDM reinforced ideological lessons taught in schools. Girls were instructed in racial theory, national pride, and the importance of loyalty to the state. At the same time, there was a strong emphasis on traditional gender roles: preparing girls for domestic life, child-rearing, and support roles within society. The message was clear: their contribution to the nation would come through family and continuity.
The BDM presented itself as modern and liberating. It offered friendship, travel, and a break from older social constraints while quietly channeling those experiences into loyalty and conformity. It gave many girls opportunities they might not otherwise have had, even as it narrowed the acceptable vision of their future.
Service and labor were also expected. Members participated in community work, seasonal agricultural labor, and later, wartime support roles. As the war progressed, girls served as auxiliaries in areas like communications, clerical work, and air defense support, helping sustain the war effort as male manpower dwindled.
Women in Wartime
Wartime demands found the men of the cities and farm towns across the country being drafted into the army. In response, the BDM found itself providing agricultural labor in farm towns harvesting crops, milking cows, and similar duties. Others served as radio operators or typists for the military or served to help recover victims of bombing raid buried in the rubble.
In the end, the League of German Girls functioned much like the Hitler Youth: a system designed to shape identity from an early age. It offered belonging, structure, and opportunity but always within a tightly controlled ideological framework.
Ordinary Lives, Extraordinary Times 