Nazi leaders were obsessed with increasing the size and health of the so-called "national community" ("Volksgemeinschaft") so that the German nation could dominate Europe. During the years of Nazi rule, Nazi authorities and German medical professionals tried different policies and initiatives to increase the sinking German birth rate.1
Shortly after the Nazi Party rose to power in 1933, the new regime enacted legislation that increased existing criminal penalties for abortion among so-called “Aryan” Germans.2 The Lebensborn (“Fount of Life”) program was designed to discourage abortions by providing discreet maternity homes and adoption services to single “Aryan” women.3 Although Nazi policies encouraged these births outside of marriage, Nazi propaganda urged young “Aryan” Germans to marry early and have many children. Large families were the Nazi ideal, and they were promoted through written articles, visual propaganda, and the introduction of military-style awards for motherhood.4
The featured photograph shows examples of the Honor Cross of the German Mother—an award first introduced by the Nazi regime in 1938 to encourage married German women to give birth to many children.5 Women were awarded bronze for four children, silver for six children, and gold for eight children. The medals were supposedly made from these precious metals, but were actually mass-produced from cheap imitation materials instead. The awards feature black swastikas in the center of an elongated blue and white enamel cross that resembles a Christian cross. The words "DER DEUTSCHEN MUTTER" (“the German mother”) appear around the swastika, and rays of light fashioned in metal appear to shoot out from behind the cross. Though they were typically kept or displayed in a small case, the medals included a blue and white ribbon for wearing around the neck. These colors signified loyalty in other Nazi-era service awards.6
To receive one of these medals, both husband and wife had to be considered “genetically healthy” people “of German blood” who had not been deemed to be “asocial.” Only so-called “Aryan” women could be awarded the Honor Cross of the German Mother. “Non-Aryans” were excluded. So were “Aryans” diagnosed with—or with family histories of—conditions or traits that authorities considered negative and inheritable. These included blindness, deafness, epilepsy, Huntington’s disease, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, physical and mental disabilities, and alcoholism.7
These military-style medals were awarded in public ceremonies that promoted motherhood as the Nazi ideal for women and the ultimate fulfillment of women’s roles in German society.8 These ceremonies were recorded for newsreels and reported in newspaper articles and radio broadcasts in an attempt to raise the social status of motherhood. In addition, members of the Hitler Youth and the German League of Girls were instructed to salute women wearing the Honor Cross of the German Mother in public. Despite these efforts, not all Germans respected the medals or their recipients.9
The Nazi regime did not only use propaganda to encourage large families, but it also provided financial incentives for having many children. Marriage loans given to newlyweds were forgiven if the marriage produced four healthy and “racially acceptable” children.10 Germany’s birth rate did increase during the 1930s, but Nazi policies and propaganda encouraging many children had no measurable effect on this. In fact, Germany’s birth rate during the Nazi era never reached the levels of the early years of the Weimar Republic.11