Die Arbeitsmaid – “The Working Maiden” – a rare booklet published as part of the women’s division of the Reich Labour Service, RADwJ – Reichsarbeitsdienst der weiblichen Jugend – an organization aimed at “educating” Nazi girls through physical and agricultural labor, based on the ideology of “Blood and Soil” (Blut und Boden). Content overseen by: Gertrud Zippris. Editors: Karl Friedrich Brust, Friedrich Strindberg. Publisher: Ullstein. Berlin, 1936. Rare.
The Reich Labour Service (RAD) was established in 1935 and became mandatory for young German men prior to their conscription. At the same time, women were required to perform a similar service – usually in agriculture, gardening, household assistance, or logistical support. The goal of female enlistment was not to promote women’s careers, but to instill Nazi ideological values and reinforce the vision of the “Aryan mother of Germany.” The booklet, intended to encourage the enlistment of girls into the service, presents throughout the woman’s service to the nation as the ideal of the new generation, through numerous black-and-white photographs accompanied by emotional descriptions: “Only four weeks ago she worked in a factory – today she is a ‘working maiden’, ” reads the caption next to a photo showing the young girl arriving for service. The girls’ boarding facilities are described here as “houses of work and joy”, and “the flags of the Reich Labour Service flutter across all of Germany.” From the introduction: “For the first time in the history of nations, a state has taken upon itself the great task of educating adolescent girls for a conscious life within the community. This is done through service for the community. This means: through their work in kindergartens, with settler women and female farmers, or with the large families of agricultural laborers, the working maidens must learn that a people such as the German people has no need for silly fashion dolls, selfish women, or ‘mere housewives’ with narrow horizons. The German girl must be aware of the hardships and dangers facing the German people. She must learn to work mentally and physically, to be healthy in body and mind, and not least of all, she stands before the great task of creating a good life from the difficult life we are forced to live. For to be happy in life and to bring happiness to others – this, after all, is truly a great art. And it is true: not only work, but happiness too must be learned!”.
The words of the “Reich Labour Leader” Konstantin Hierl are presented next (head of the Reich Labour Service, cabinet minister, and a close associate of Adolf Hitler even before his rise to power. After the war, he was tried and found guilty of serious offenses. Hierl was sentenced to five years in a labor camp. Following his early release, he lived in Heidelberg until his death on September 23, 1955), shaping the vision of women’s labour service: “In the ‘Labour Service of German Girls’, German daughters, just like grown boys, must be educated in the values of loyalty, obedience, and comradeship. These virtues are just as important for girls. For the nation is made up of men and women, and a national education that encompasses only one part of the nation will not only be incomplete, but, looking to the future, even pointless…”.
Among other features, the booklet includes a map depicting the areas in German cities where bases of the Reich Labour Service for women were established. The map is described as follows: “Across Germany, the hands of working girls are at work! Each hut on this map represents a camp for forty girls. In addition to the camps, there are regional schools and a national school, group leaderships, regional leaderships, and national leadership – a vast organization has been established to educate German girls to serve the nation.” Throughout the booklet, there are numerous photographs of the German girl working in the fields, assisting the elderly, attending classes, dancing together, engaging in sports activities, participating in ceremonies around the Nazi flag, riding bicycles together, and more.
The cover of the booklet features a blond young woman with a sickle in a field – the idealized image of the “Aryan peasant woman” connected to the soil. Throughout the booklet appears the emblem merging the ideas of physical labor with Nazi ideology: a swastika combined with the symbols of the Labour Service – a plow and sheaves of wheat.
50 pages. 37 cm. Tear on page 49 with loss to the upper right corner. Good condition.
