What difference does a husband make? : women and marital status in Nazi and postwar Germany / Elizabeth D. Heineman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Heineman, Elizabeth D., 1962-

Series:

Studies on the history of society and culture ; 33

Studies on the history of society and culture What difference does a husband make?

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Single women--Germany--Social conditions--History.

Single women.

Marital status--Germany--History.

Marital status.

Marital status--Germany--Psychological aspects--History.

Single women--Social conditions--Germany.

Marital status--History--Germany.

Marital status--History--Psychological aspects--Germany.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xviii, 374 p. ) ill. ;

Other Title:

Women and marital status in Nazi and postwar Germany

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, c1999.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In October 1946, seven million more women than men lived in occupied Germany. In this study of unwed, divorced, widowed, and married women at work and at home across three political regimes, Elizabeth Heineman traces the transitions from early National Socialism through the war and on to the consolidation of democracy in the West and communism in the East.Based on thorough and extensive research in German national and regional archives as well as the archives of the U.S. occupying forces, this pathbreaking book argues that marital status can define women's position and experience as surely as race, gender, sexual orientation, and class. Heineman finds that, while the war made the experience of single women a dramatic one, state activity was equally important. As a result, West German women continued to be defined in large part by their marital status. In contrast, by the time of reunification marital status had become far less significant in the lives of East German women.In one broad, comprehensive sweep, Elizabeth Heineman compares prewar and postwar, East and West, lived experience and public policy. Her sharp analytical insights will enrich our understanding of the history of women in modern Germany and the role of marital status in twentieth-century life worldwide.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Illustrations

Preface

Abbreviations

1. Introduction: War, Politics, and Marital Status

2. Housewives, Activists, and "Asocials"

3. War Wives, Workers, and Race Traitors

4. The Hour of the Women

5. Marriage Rubble

6. Restoring the Difference

7. Narrowing the Difference

8. What's the Difference?

EPILOGUE: Who's More Emancipated?

Appendix A: Statistics from Published Reports

Appendix B: The Darmstadt Study

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 323-364) and index.

ISBN:

9780520937314

0520937317

9780585230054

0585230056

OCLC:

1419789868

Publisher Number:

2027/heb04362 hdl