“Protestant Women and Germany's Reconstruction after World War I”

Carol Woodfin, Palm Beach Atlantic College

                   Protestant women saw an urgent task for them to assume in Germany's recovery following the nation's defeat in World War I and revolution of 1918.  Women saw Germany's situation as bleak, in part due to material issues, such as the economic crisis, something important to Protestant women as they continued and increased their charity and social work and attempted to assist families in economic need.  But Protestant women saw their role in the new society as going far beyond meeting physical need.  Women saw their role in the recovery of the nation as based on women's special moral and spiritual gifts, which were different from and at times superior to those of men.  In their tasks as wives and mothers they believed themselves to be essential to bringing Germany out of the social, moral, and spiritual decline she had lapsed into during and even before the war.  They saw themselves as being able to help restore the national community, because of their feminine virtues, as well as their Christian faith, with a maximum benefit when the two came together.  They believed there was a struggle going on for the soul of Germany, which called for repentance and a return to the Gospel.  Particularly important in the crises of the post-war decade, women, in their roles as wives, and especially as mothers,  saw themselves as preservers and transmitters of moral values and the best German culture had to offer.   

                   This paper will concentrate on efforts of the Protestant Women's Auxiliary, or Frauenhilfe,  to help Germany recover from the war and turmoil following the revolution.  The Auxiliary, the largest Protestant women's organization in Germany, with some 500,000 members, was founded in 1899 under the patronage of Empress Auguste Victoria, wife of Kaiser Wilhelm II, and consisted of local church chapters, and district, regional and provincial affiliates, as well as an all-Prussian, later national, executive committee, headquartered in Berlin. Its work included charity, Bible studies, nursing, assistance to families in economic need, and support for ongoing congregational activities such as worship and visitation.  The Auxiliary published three periodicals, Bote fuer die deutsche Frauenwelt (Messenger for German Women), for the members; Frauenhilfe, for leaders, and Wege und Ziele, geared for professional and educated women.  All contained articles by both leaders and members, as well as by leaders in the Protestant churches.  Men provided most of the Auxiliary's professional leadership, though in the Weimar period women began to assume more positions. 

Auxiliary women and their leaders viewed post-war Germany with deep concern.  In almost all cases, they saw the war as precipitating, or at least accelerating moral, spiritual, and social problems.  In describing Germany's condition, Auxiliary authors often spoke of "sickness," or "wounds."  Westphalian General Superintendent and provincial Auxiliary director Wilhelm Zoellner, of Münster, at the Auxiliary's annual assembly in Stettin in 1921, stated that more and more "doctors" were gathering at the "sickbed" of the German people, trying to bring a cure to the "deathly ill patient."  According to Zoellner, people agreed the worst "symptoms" were confusion and strife, and that the "will towards community" had been lost.[1]  Hans Hermenau, director of the East Prussian Auxiliary, in a song for the provincial affiliate's annual assembly in 1922, to be sung to the tune of "Deutschland über alles," declared: "Germany, your wounded soul/cries out for mercy.  . . . German women, true to the Cross/Lift you, saving, from death."[2]  Beda Prilipp, a frequent contributor to Wege und Ziele, asserted that Germany needed to "win back its manhood," lost in the war and which was now causing Germany's desperate plight.  Interestingly, she saw women as the ones who would create the proper atmosphere "in which men might grow again."[3]

Gerhard Hoppe, executive director of the Auxiliary, attributed Germany's social collapse to the fact that Germans had lost their understanding for "spiritual values and great ideas which lift the individual beyond himself."[4]  Otto Moeller, executive director of the Brandenburg Auxiliary, wrote of the lack of unity in the country, along with "pleasure-seeking" and materialism instead of integrity, and lack of civic spirit and patriotism.[5]  Paul Blau, general superintendent in Posen, a region lost to Poland, spoke of a "culture in ruins" and the present day as "in shambles."  Morals had collapsed and religious life was in "sad decline."[6]  Thea Zimmermann saw the political conditions as hopeless, "a threatening stormcloud" hostile to religion.  Coupled with this was an un-Christian self-seeking and "spirit of godlessness" in state life.[7]  Martha Ebbinghaus-Domizlaff wrote in 1924, on the tenth anniversary of the outbreak of the war, that the pre-war time now seemed like a fairy tale.  Everything had since been shattered "like a whirlwind."  The current situation in Germany, wrote Ebbinghaus-Domizlaff, was comparable to after the biblical deluge or when the captive nation of Israel lay down by the waters of Babylon and wept.[8] 

Gerhard Hoppe, however, told Wege und Ziele readers it was incorrect to view the war and revolution as the only cause of the present turmoil.[9]  Since the 1871 unification of Germany, wrote Hoppe, Germans had seen the intellect as "the highest spiritual development of man" and no longer had a sense of human limitation, as if they were building "a new tower of Babel."  They had lost their sense of community.    "Not entirely incorrectly people spoke of royal Prussian Christianity," he wrote.  When the unity of the initial phase of the war broke down, people were angry at those they blamed for the war, which included the church, and "radicals entered the scene like hyenas after the juiciest bite."[10]

Numerous articles reveal an intense searching for a higher meaning behind Germany's defeat and misery during and following the war and revolution, and almost all point to problems within Germany itself.  Many authors believed God was using the defeat to teach Germans valuable lessons about their own sin and lack of faith, and to call them back to faith in Christ.  Sins cited included materialism, pleasure-seeking, complacency, and trusting in human success rather than in God, all of which had been evident before the war, but which, believed Auxiliary authors, had intensified in the turmoil of the war and revolutionary days.  In addition, authors saw Germany as a nation that had ceased to follow God's commands.  Auxiliary authors called on their readers to accept what had happened, and continued to happen, as part of God's purpose for them and for Germany, and to examine themselves and their faith to determine where they, and Germany, were in need of God's correction.

                   In a meditation for New Year's 1919, the first after the defeat and revolution, Otto Moeller, executive director of the Brandenburg Auxiliary, wrote that the future had "never seemed darker."  God, however, had allowed the existing conditions, and Christians must "bow before his hand," knowing that God's ways were always right.[11]  Moeller urged Auxiliary women not "to stand accusing among the ruins," looking for who was to blame, or to dwell on what had been lost.  Rather they should examine themselves, recognize their own sin and disobedience, confess, turn to God, and trust him completely.  By so doing, they could carry "God's thoughts" into the life of the nation.[12]

In articles throughout 1919, Otto Moeller reflected on the spiritual condition of Germany and how Auxiliary women could begin to find meaning amidst the sorrow.  He wrote that Germany's children would face hard work and suffering as they tried to rebuild Germany and reclaim her national honor.  Sin, however, was "the root of misery," not hard work and suffering.  Auxiliary women could best equip their children for their duties toward the Fatherland by teaching them to turn from sin and honor God.[13]

Numerous Auxiliary authors saw the German family in decline, with women primarily at fault.  Not only was the family being eroded due to the laxity of morals, but many women no longer took their responsibilities as wives and mothers seriously.  Many women no longer wanted to have children, or only wanted a few.  Thomas Werdermann spoke of the "masculinization of women" who did not want to have children.[14]  Women were no longer willing to do housework, or spend time raising their children properly, turning out instead a generation of wild youth.[15]  Some women were setting a bad example for others by not being thrifty, but "living in luxury," evidenced, among other things, by the use of imported silk.[16]  One author feared women were too often pursuing "men's professions," leading to a further decline in the family because then men would not be able to find jobs to support their families.[17]  Additional problems for the family were the increase in divorce rates, venereal disease, marital infidelity and premarital sexual relations.  The prevalence of abortion was also cited as evidence of the decline in morals and the family.[18]

A 1921 Bote article featuring a fictitious conversation between an aunt and her young niece, Gretel, offered readers a summary of the problems of the changing roles of women and decline in morality that Auxiliary women perceived, through the example of a frivolous young "new woman."[19]  Gretel and her husband were taking lessons to learn the latest dances.  She was now tired and her children were irritating her.  The aunt asked if it was indeed fun to learn "the ugly dances of the Negro, Japanese, English and French," and claimed it must give Germans suffering in the occupied or lost territories "a bitter feeling" to know their countrymen were "pleasure-seeking."  Gretel countered that it was better to "forget all the misery" and not even read the newspapers:  "boring politics doesn't interest me."  Her aunt chastised Gretel for her attitude, saying the new right to vote German women had received in 1918 obligated women to exercise their right "as a weapon" so Germany could recover.  "I think the future of our people depends on the women just as much as the men," asserted the older woman.  The aunt then went on to criticize the frivolity of entertainment, clothing, women's shoes and wasting money on the cinema, certain novels and slide shows.  Even marriages, said the aunt, were now often based on "pleasure-seeking," apparently an accurate statement concerning Gretel's own marriage.[20]

Auxiliary women passed resolutions on moral concerns on several occasions.  The Westphalian provincial Auxiliary in 1926 urged the government to intervene in the housing crisis because it was a major cause of health and moral problems in Germany.  The resolution declared, "We women cannot stand aside while the German family falls apart and is ruined."  It called for reform of the housing laws, cutting back on the building of luxury buildings and concentrating on family housing to encourage "the return of health and morality."[21]  At its 1927 annual assembly in Flensburg, the Auxiliary unanimously passed a resolution which expressed women's concern over the declining birth rates in Germany.  Causes the resolution cited for the lower birth rates included economic conditions, but also a "relaxation of morals and a dwindling of the fear of God."  The resolution called on religious and civil authorities to do everything they could "to make it easier for parents to raise children and to nourish among our people the joy of a child-rich home."[22]  Both resolutions linked morality to the post-war economic distress.  Also notable is the view that it was up to the state to help solve the problems, implying that the republican government was at least partly responsible for the current conditions.

According to Auxiliary authors, social breakdown was also evident in widespread materialism and greed, and a loss of the proper attitude towards work.[23] One columnist in 1919 claimed the 1 May Labor Day holiday was hardly necessary since there had already been so many strike days.[24]  Otto Moeller wrote of a "lack of desire to work" on the part of many Germans.[25]  Dörthe Kögel stated that the "spirit of capitalism" and materialism had made "great inroads" into Germany, even before the war.  People were interested in luxury, and "becoming pampered, spoiled."[26]  Beda Prilipp sounded a similar alarm when she wrote that workers had not been trained to understand the importance of their work in "upholding the state" and work was merely seen as "a thing of power."  Workers, she wrote, no longer had a sense of "calling" about their work, which was one reason for Germany's decline.[27]  Prilipp also decried the "mechanization of our entire domestic political life under the rule of the machine."[28]   Agathe Kamrath of Schwinemünde asked: "Is the world really everywhere what the American trust magnates want to make out of her?  A great work house in which the individual is only a cog, whose inner worth is useless and even a hindrance?"[29]         

Though Auxiliary journals may have exaggerated the extent of the moral decay of Germans, they were not incorrect in noting some real moral problems.  Certainly the public perception, among both conservatives and liberals, was that, in general, moral standards had declined in Germany during and since the war.  Even in the Reichstag, delegates spoke of "pleasure-seeking," "pleasure-frenzy," "dancing-mania" and cinema attendance, as moral issues.[30]  Though there was an increase in births immediately following the war, by 1924 they had not reached even close to the 1910 level, especially a problem given Germany's loss of two million men in the war.  There was an increase in the number of divorces in the 1920s, compared to pre-war numbers, though this peaked by 1921.  The divorce rate, however, remained higher than in other European countries.  Illegitimate birth rates had increased during the war and remained higher than before the war.[31]  Abortion, though illegal, was widespread in the Weimar period.  A heated debate went on regarding Paragraph 218 of the criminal code which penalized women who had abortions with up to five years in prison.  Researchers estimate that in spite of the laws about one million abortions took place each year during the Weimar Republic, or one for every live birth.[32]  Crime was on the rise, particularly theft, and there were more crimes committed by juveniles and women than before the war.  With the runaway inflation of the early 1920s many Germans felt work and self-discipline were no longer properly rewarded. Others believed the inflation itself was a moral problem stemming from irresponsible spending habits on the part of the government and individuals.[33] 

                   According to Auxiliary women, Germany's post-war moral, spiritual and social health was fragile.  Though not unique among Germans in describing and denouncing the problems, Auxiliary women appeared particularly concerned with problems that revealed a decline in the traditional family or that threatened its existence, and behaviors that showed a lack of concern for the good of the community and nation.  As they struggled to find solutions for Germany's ills, Auxiliary women would draw on their Christian faith both to strengthen them in the struggle to heal the nation, and as the only means to bring about a cure.

They called for a restoration of the nation on the basis of the Christian Gospel.   In their pleas for this renewal to take place on a Christian foundation they went beyond mere national sentiment.  In their claims that women had a unique contribution to make in helping Germany recover, Auxiliary women also went beyond national pride and linked Germany's recovery with the Christian, specifically Protestant, faith.  Auxiliary authors challenged women to fulfill their unique duties so the nation could be rebuilt.  Protestant women could thereby help Germany in its spiritual, moral and social recovery from the war.  Much of the language used to describe women's efforts was very traditional, with a repeated use of the term "Mütterlichkeit" or "motherliness."  Yet now motherly  skills should not only be applied in the home, but be taken out into the community more than before the war.[34]  Throughout the Weimar period Auxiliary authors faced the issue and speakers at several meetings had as their topics national recovery and what Auxiliary women could do to help.    

The executive committee of the Auxiliary in November 1918, addressed its chapters in "To the Auxiliary in City and Countryside," noting the dire situation Germany was in and calling for the Auxiliary to rally to Germany's rescue in her time of need.  What was at stake was the "soul of our people."[35]  The declaration continued:

You German women of our great Auxiliary in East and West!  Do not think that your strength is too small to stand by the Fatherland in its need!  Lift praying hands up to God, who holds our nation's fate in His strong hands and who can still help where human eyes see no escape.[36] 

The committee said others would follow the lead of women.  If they complained, others would complain.  If they were selfish and greedy, others would follow.  But if they were strong, strength would flow from them.[37]  Also in November 1918 Frauenhilfe stated: "Women will be involved in the new formation of things, more than in the past" and Auxiliary work must go on for the sake of the German people.[38]  Auxiliary women must get involved to "secure the German character."[39]           

In January 1919, Wege und Ziele editor Dörthe Kögel wrote of a Germany in ruins, but claimed Germans' strength of character, and the help of God meant Germans would not decline into slavery:  "While we put our heads to the yoke and work for our enemies, something is active within us which from this very work will draw strength for the rebuilding of our people."  Christians must be active in the reconstruction process because only by a strengthening of religious life could a secure foundation be laid on which Germany could rebuild.[40] 

Bote readers also were exhorted in 1919 to do their part to assist in Germany's recovery.  Luise Mewis, in "German Homesickness: A Diary from a Dark Time,"[41] spoke of the need for everyone, including women, to help rebuild.  "Women often see something when men can no longer see.  Women have soft, gentle hands and warm hearts," which could be used in the rebuilding of the nation, Mewis wrote.  This reconstruction must be done for Germany's children so the nation could be passed on to them, "made holy and pure."  With God's help, Germany would recover what had not been valued highly enough before: the "good old German way."[42]

Wilhelm Richter, Berlin Cathedral pastor, continued similar thoughts in the January 1919 issue of Frauenhilfe in "Into the New Year."[43]  He wrote that the year began with even less hope than the previous years.  In spite of the apparently bleak outlook, however, Auxiliary women still had the capacity to work, for themselves, for their families, for the nation and for the church.  Only those unable to work were "poverty stricken."  Richter pointed out that the physical damage to the "German house" was severe and would be difficult to repair.  But the moral rebuilding would be even more difficult, since many values had been destroyed. Richter urged his readers to build a new foundation in the coming years, or "the plow of world history would go over the former place of the German house." Christians needed to be in the front lines clearing away the rubble, but it was not enough to poke around in the ruins and try to place the blame on someone else.  Auxiliary women needed to examine why the collapse had happened.  It would be painful to admit one's own guilt, but through this repentance, Germans could return to God who would provide new faith, hope and direction.[44]

Gerhard Hoppe saw Auxiliary work as "service to our German nation" and a "missions duty for the soul of our people" from which no woman should withdraw.[45]  Otto Moeller, in "What Should We Do Now?" called Auxiliary women's role in the inner renewal of the nation "a great task, our holy duty."  Auxiliary women were members of the national community, and therefore had a responsibility for it.  The Auxiliary should not be satisfied merely to build itself up and found itself on the basis of the Gospel, but must work for the welfare of the nation "as salt, preserving and penetrating according to God's will."  The Auxiliary must also work to build up the church and use its extended sphere of duties to do so. Members must become involved in anything that would help strengthen the church and the nation, and defend against threats to the life of the nation, so that "German piety, German loyalty, German discipline and customs again will be an example for the world."[46]   

In an address, "The Protestant Auxiliary, a Community Building Force in the City and Countryside,"  Wilhelm Zoellner, Westphalian general superintendent and Auxiliary director, at the annual meeting of the Auxiliary in 1921, spoke of the numerous forces in the country which were attempting to build community, but which were operating on a false basis.  New conditions did not create new people, he said.[47]  Zoellner distanced the Auxiliary from the emerging folkish and Nazi movements when he said the solutions for Germany's problems could not come from the swastika or "pure Aryanism," a distinction later leaders would be careful to draw as well.[48]  Zoellner also claimed community could not be restored in Germany through socialism or idealism.   Nor could a mere revival of Germany's cultural heritage provide a solution for the unruly and impious youth of the nation in its "hungering after community."[49]   Zoellner said only those who had community with God as revealed in Jesus Christ could have community with one another.  If the Gospel upheld the Auxiliary in every task, then it would be a community building force.  Zoellner used imagery that would have been meaningful for housewives and mothers when he declared:  "The true Christian woman," created community in her family and beyond to the nation, as "a housekeeper of God," bridging "the chasms of the present," thereby working towards the nation's recovery.  Much applause and the subsequent discussion reportedly indicated that the listeners agreed with the speaker.[50]

At the Auxiliary's annual assembly in 1926, in Barmen, Gertrud Eitner, a pastor's wife, addressed participants on "What Do We Christian Women Owe Our Nation?"[51]  noting that Germans were bound together by more than need, into a "community of destiny."  Women needed to contribute their God-given "special gifts" to this community.  The highest gift women had to offer was "motherliness," which must be practiced and extended beyond the sphere of the family.  Eitner claimed Germany would not have declined into its present moral predicament or class struggle if women had been more effective in bringing their motherly qualities into public life, in "Germany's community of destiny."[52]  Eitner urged the Auxiliary woman to look at the nation in the same way she would look at her own child, seeing its needs, weaknesses and strengths.  As a woman would wash and bind a child's wounds, so she must also do for the nation.  This could be done by seeking out lonely persons or the endangered.  Women might have to sacrifice an afternoon nap or coffee invitation to do so but they might thereby "give a person new courage to live.  Or save a soul from the abyss."  Motherliness would be especially helpful in public life in understanding problems of housing, marriage, children, and economic and professional problems.  These needed a "warm heart," according to Eitner.  It was their Christian faith that allowed and compelled Auxiliary women to take their motherliness beyond the walls of their home.  Women must let their Christian faith work among the people, and all should do their part as the body of Christ.[53]          

In their discussion of Germany's recovery, Auxiliary women and their leaders looked to their religious faith as a justification for action in the life of the nation.  Auxiliary women, as women and as Christians, saw it as their religious duty to help restore Germany to its former strength.  Special, God-given gifts women brought to this effort included "motherliness," which could now be exercized not only in the home but in the nation as women helped to restore the national community.  Auxiliary women viewed Germany's recovery not only in political but also in spiritual terms as they repeatedly emphasized that recovery could not occur without God's help.  They also sought to translate these ideals into actions benefitting the nation, as the next section will reveal.

Auxiliary women had long seen the importance of passing on the proper values to their children.  During the Weimar Republic they saw this task as even more crucial.  Given their views of the nation's decline and problems, considered above, Auxiliary women no longer believed their children would automatically be exposed in school to the German cultural heritage they valued.  Auxiliary women therefore now believed they had an even greater responsibility towards their children to teach them an appreciation for German culture, including its history and current political circumstances, so they might grow up into good citizens, loyal to the German nation.  Auxiliary women also saw an increased role for their organization in educating its own members in German culture.  The Auxiliary saw these cultural tasks as part of its service to families, the church and the nation, something that was a legitimate religious responsibility and which clearly was a departure from the traditional focus on Bible studies and charity work.

Pastor Friedrich Johanneswerth of Soest stated the Westphalian Auxiliary saw education of the public and the "preservation of the German cultural heritage" as among its responsibilities.  Meetings of Westphalian Auxiliary chapters often included lectures on the intellectual and cultural life of Germany, and members read aloud books together and had discussions, slide shows and celebrations on these topics.  Auxiliary women also took excursions to historical and cultural sites.  Johanneswerth wrote:  "Every individual, properly functioning Auxiliary has something of an adult education school in it."[54]  

Pastor Joachim Beckmann of Soest, in "The Service of the Auxiliary in Continuing Education,"[55] described the Westphalian Auxiliary's activities in more detail.  In its educational work the Auxiliary sought to educate the whole person and shape her values.  Since the Auxiliary recognized the folk, or nation, as an order of creation, according to Beckmann, one of its duties was to cultivate the cultural heritage.  This task was not separate from the Auxiliary's religious and charity work, since the Auxiliary promoted and assisted the family, and the family was the basis for the nation.  The Auxiliary could fulfil its mission work and service to the church only if it helped educate "the nation, families, women and mothers."  The Auxiliary had always recognized and performed this task, according to Beckmann.  Auxiliary women had mainly done charity work earlier because that was the most immediate, and some Auxiliaries might still not have "grown out" of that mentality, he claimed.  Beckmann, writing in 1931, said more time was now spent in meetings on religious and cultural development for women than on charity work.  Celebrations now contained a cultural content more often than "religious edification," according to Beckmann.  Auxiliary women also gathered to read aloud cultural books, including literature and art, often using materials published by the Auxiliary.  The Westphalian Auxiliary advised local chapters on good books to read in its newsletter and sponsored a bookstore in Gelsenkirchen.[56]  Chapters in other cities such as Berlin sponsored reading rooms for children to expose them to books Auxiliary women believed to be culturally enriching.[57] Johanneswerth's and Beckmann's comments are difficult to interpret.  The Westphalian Auxiliary was the largest and most active provincial affiliate.  Beckmann's emphasis on the cultural, even secular, activities of the Auxiliary, seem to indicate his realization that the Auxiliary's functions had expanded beyond the earlier, more traditional, roles for women in the church.  In a time of rising nationalistic fervor the comments may appear to reveal an alarming move towards the folkish movement and away from orthodox Christianity.  Yet the Westphalian Auxiliary would not fall prey to the German Christian movement.  Beckmann later became active in the Confessing Church, as did Wilhelm Zoellner, Auxiliary director and Westphalian general superintendent.[58] 

The article mentioned earlier which featured a fictitious conversation between an aunt and her young niece, Gretel, also offered Bote readers a summary of the problems of the changing roles of women that Auxiliary women perceived and what was now required of a German mother in helping to preserve and pass on Germany's cultural heritage.[59]  Gretel was neglecting her children and tired after dance lessons.  She had declared her lack of interest in politics.  Her elderly aunt chastised her for her frivolity and lack of concern for the nation's future, then went on to say that mothers now more than ever needed to teach their children "German sensitivity" and tell them about German heroes of ancient and medieval times, as well as of the World War, since German history teachers now "had their hands tied," something on which she did not elaborate.  Mothers should tell their children about what their grandparents and great grandparents did for the country.  Parents must take their children to church, read to them, go on walks, and teach them patriotic songs.  Mothers could read to their children from newspapers and must tell them of the "current oppression."  The niece admitted the aunt was right and promised to read something to her children that night.[60]    

Of critical importance to Auxiliary women in their efforts to rebuild the nation was strengthening the traditional family, not only for its own sake, but also as the foundation of a healthy society.  People of varying political persuasions, from left to right, saw a crisis in the family.  The Weimar Constitution even stated that "maintaining the purity" and the "recuperation" of the family were significant tasks for the government and community.[61]  Thea Zimmermann of Döbern wrote in 1921[62] that marriage and raising children were the most important subjects the Auxiliary could deal with in its meetings.  Women must be trained in child raising, wrote Zimmermann, a difficult task given the greater rights and additional political responsibilities women now had, and the disruptions caused in many families by the loss of the husband and father during the war.[63]  The Auxiliary in the Weimar Republic sought to strengthen families in several ways.  Conferences and programs promoted the ideal of the German Christian family, while the Mothercare program provided relief for overworked mothers.  Additionally, the Auxiliary sponsored continuing education programs and conferences for mothers and supported home economics and social work training to assist women in their own families and in the community.          

At the September 1921 annual assembly of the Auxiliary, in Stettin, Prof. Lic. Dr. Sellman of Hagen spoke on "The Protestant Women's Auxiliary: A Living Force for the Moral Edification of Family and Nation."  The Auxiliary, he said, must influence public opinion, "to further the pure and noble in public life and above all in the family" and must work with all organizations which had this purpose.  Auxiliary women should further "a sense of family, joy in children, a sense of simplicity and warmth, and in order to be able to do all this should root themselves deep in Christianity, faith in the Savior and their relationship with Him."[64]                       

                   The year 1925 provided an excellent chance for Auxiliary women to promote the Christian family.  The year marked the 400th anniversary of Martin Luther's marriage to Katherine von Bora.  The Auxiliary's annual assembly that year was held in Wittenberg, from 13-15 June.  The conference celebrated the anniversary of the Protestant parsonage, but also, by extension, Protestant family life in general.  A bronze medallion was designed for the occasion with pictures of Luther and Katherine on one side.  On the other side of the medallion were two hands, clasped, and the phrase "Who can find a virtuous woman?  For her price is far above rubies."[65]  Topics on the agenda included "Luther's Marriage as an Act of the Reformation," by Head Pastor Knolle of Hamburg; and "Luther and German Family Life" by Thea Zimmermann, a pastor's wife from Döbern, and a frequent contributor to Auxiliary journals.[66]     

The 1927-28 Auxiliary Winter Program focused on strengthening families through the woman.  Frau Dr. Hummel, explaining the theme, said the greatest part of the work of building up the nation fell on women and they must be spiritually prepared for this task.[67]  Women without their own families had an influence on mothers through professions such as teaching or nursing.  Helping to train young women to be good housewives was a task in the nation's recovery.  Hummel recommended families taking a young girl into their homes to help train them, not because this would be cheaper, but because it would help the German people.  Attitudes such as women not wanting to have children or continuing to work after marriage when there was no financial need for it, must be fought, said Hummel. Children were a gift from God but also members of the nation.  It was up to women to create pleasant homes where men would want to stay home.  Hummel stated: "The main thing in the family, the spiritual armor of Germany, is the bringing up of children.  In children lies the future of the German people."[68]

In 1928 the Auxiliary began its Mothercare program.  In that year, the Auxiliary's annual assembly, of 1500 participants, passed a resolution stating that many mothers were on the verge of breaking down and the Auxiliary wanted to help.[69]  The brochure for the Auxiliary's 1928-29 Winter Program stated the nation could not get better unless mothers performed their duties well.  Mothers, especially, were suffering because of the economic difficulties and the housing crisis.  All Auxiliary chapters, according to the brochure, should have in their programs care for new mothers and should help them with questions of raising children and running a household.  Another facet of Mothercare was providing rest cures for mothers, as well as short retreats for them.[70]  By the end of the 1920s, the Auxiliary sponsored over 42 convalescent homes, and 54 continuing education schools for mothers.[71]                   

As Mother's Day celebrations gained acceptance in Germany in the late 1920s, Frauenhilfe  announced that this was a good thing to do to promote and honor motherliness.  The day, however, must be more than just a day for flowers, and should be observed quietly in the home.  The Auxiliary could promote the "profession of mother" and the Christian ideal of motherhood in its programs using the Auxiliary brochure "Women's Festivals and Mother Evenings," by H. Meinberg and B. Zielke,[72] and could help mothers through efforts such as its Mothercare.[73]  After 1930, the Auxiliary published its own Mother's Day materials, with ideas for worship services and celebrations which blended an emphasis on the family with nationalism.[74]  The 1931 suggestions called for a tableaux with women wearing national costumes, and children gathered around the mother, or both parents.  Mentioning the decline in the German family, the brochure said the Auxiliary sought to promote a strong Christian family, with the mother at its center.[75]

The Auxiliary not only furthered the ideal of motherhood and the Christian family, it provided concrete training for girls and women for these tasks.  The Auxiliary's program brochure stated the Auxiliary's support for educating girls for their "profession" as Christian wives and mothers as the "foundation for a healthy and pure family life," and for the "preservation of the Christian family as the source of a healthy national strength and foundation of the state."[76]  One of the stated objectives of the Auxiliary regarding economic life was to promote "domestic life, and the effectiveness of the wife and mother."[77]  Joachim Beckmann wrote that in training women to be the "heart and center of the German, Christian family the Auxiliary was performing an educational and cultural task."[78]  Many Auxiliary chapters offered home economics courses for girls who had finished school, some state recognized.[79]  The Auxiliary also sponsored courses and workshops on mothering.[80] 

The Auxiliary supported jointly with the deaconess mother houses of Berlin and Brandenburg a Protestant Women's School (Evangelisches Frauenseminar) in Berlin, begun in 1916.  The school's brochure stated that its purpose was to educate Protestant girls "for the profession of the German Christian woman in the broadest sense of the word," whether this would be practiced publicly through social welfare work or in the home.  The course was two years long, with the first year consisting of theoretical, the second practical training.[81]  Included in the program, in addition to courses on social problems such as housing, were legal issues affecting social workers, the modern history of Germany, political topics such as the Weimar constitution and women in politics, psychology, church and state issues, women and economics, the women's movement, and the history of charity work.  Topics on the family included:  the history of the family, the patriarchal extended family, the woman question, the decline of the family, negative influences on the family, new laws affecting mothers and the family, the feminine ideal of the time of the Reformation, and the role of the Protestant pastor's wife.[82]    

In some ways Auxiliary women's emphasis on the family bound them closely to the past.  It is not surprising that Protestant women would lament the decline in the traditional family in the 1920s.  Nor were their efforts to affirm and celebrate the virtues of Protestant German motherhood a departure from earlier ideals.  Yet even in this most traditional of spheres for Protestant women, Germany's post-war plight forced Auxiliary women to reconsider their roles.  Auxiliary women believed that strong families were particularly important in Germany's recovery.  The Auxiliary thus saw in women's domestic roles a broader significance as a part of women's responsibility for the welfare of the German nation.  At a time when many wives and mothers faced tremendous economic difficulty, Auxiliary women moved beyond promotion of an ideal to provide relief for overburdened women through its Mothercare, and greater practical training for women through support of home economics and social work schools and programs.  The training included not only domestic skills, but also political and social concerns, indicating an awareness that women needed to be informed on public issues, even if their primary sphere of activity remained the family.  Though a natural outgrowth of the pre-war emphasis on family and church, the dire social, political, and moral situation of post-World War I Germany lent a new urgency to the Auxiliary's activities, as well as enhanced Auxiliary women's conviction that their efforts to sustain the family had consequences beyond the walls of the home to the German nation as a whole.  As they lamented Germany's plight, which they saw as including dramatic social and moral decline, Auxiliary women concluded that the special, motherly gifts of Christian women were more needed than ever, if the nation were to survive and recover.  Protestant women needed to pay increased attention to strengthening their own families as the foundation for a healthy Germany, as well as bring their gifts into public life to help rebuild the national community.  Auxiliary women also took on greater responsibilities in passing on the German cultural heritage to their children, and to other Auxiliary members, in light of the decay they identified in the nation at large.  Though Auxiliary women continued to promote a traditional model of the family, former distinctions between the public and private spheres became blurred.  In the case of the German woman and her domestic tasks, what is evident is more than an extension of motherliness into public life.  More noticable is the encroachment of political and public issues into the home, the formerly private realm, and into church associations such as the Auxiliary, long considered an acceptable extension of women's private sphere.  Auxiliary women now felt they had to teach their children about the German heritage and the current political environment in order for them to become resposible citizens who later could help Germany regain its former prestige.  The Auxiliary saw its own efforts in the church and home as helping to restore the German national community on the basis of the Christian faith, the only possible basis for recovery, according to Auxiliary women.