According to the breastfeeding surveys of Berlin, made periodically as part of the census, the rate of infants exclusively breastfed by their mothers decreased from Seasonal distribution of infant mortality in berlin according to nourishment, Percent. Statistisches Jahrbuch der Stadt Berlin, 32, , In many places they were founded by city councils or local civic societies.
They both served as examples for the foundation of other institutions. In the course of the same year over a hundred infant care centres were registered [33]. Their aim was to encourage mothers to breastfeed their infants through education and supervision. Consequently, breastfeeding campaigns were launched throughout Germany, balancing in their means between propaganda and instruction, education and control [34,35]. They organised courses for mothers in urban centres and employed country teachers travelling from village to village throughout the country to teach mothers the basics of infant care.
Paediatricians understood the importance of the way of presenting and explaining in order to successfully popularise the basics of hygiene in infant care and preventive health care. From the three ways of teaching—orally, written or figuratively—soon the latter was judged as the most effective. The visualisation of knowledge seemed the most promising to reach all levels of society [37].
Adolf Hitler, die deutsche Mutter und ihr erstes Kind
A picture was considered to be perfect for fast and easy communication; it could function as an optical signal and enable a faster and better transfer of contents than reading or listening could. As a result, exhibitions on health care increased on a national and international level. The first exhibition about infant care took place in in Berlin, and the success of the great Hygiene-Exhibition of in Dresden ultimately demonstrated that the principle of the exhibition was gaining importance within teaching women and mothers in particular, eventually leading to the popularization of picture based knowledge.
It created an alliance between doctors as instructive scientists and society as an advised entity. In a civil political sense there were positive side effects of this presentation and celebration of medical knowledge for the profession of the pediatrician. In addition to the knowledge transfer, the opportunity of visualization also implied a popularization of the medical profession itself.
Expert knowledge could now also be displayed within a non-expert-public; by simplified presentations of human anatomy, for example, or in relation to organic processes of the body. The exhibitions gradually enhanced the prestige of the profession. Even economically the exhibition concepts led to a lucrative connection between medicine and industry. Due to financial constraints on the part of the organizers, exhibition space was regularly leased to companies.
The products presented were therefore both exhibits and commercial advertising [38]. The collection of coloured images on the subject of infant care, which covered the main points by photos, graphs and diagrams, could serve for illustrative purposes in the classroom or as a small portable exhibition. The images in the Atlas were scientifically correct and yet easily comprehendible, tying in with traditional ways of representation and aesthetic customs [40].
The contents were displayed vividly, so that they could be understood at first sight.
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Other modern media were also used: A regular schedule of five to six meals per day and a night break was advised. In practical baby care, this was combined with socalled breastfeeding premiums which were systematically increased since for needy families, either granted by payment in kind or, more common, in cash. Usually the support lasted three to six months [42].
The amount of the grant varied strongly—in the ten largest German cities, payments ranged from 0. In some cities a specific aid in times of risk was granted: However, there were extensive bureaucratic procedures and methods, and often these were downright discriminatory []. The mothers had to give their consent to unannounced home visits, they had to visit the welfare centre on a weekly basis, in some towns at least fortnightly. To receive a breastfeeding premium, they had to prove that they were breastfeeding, and to demonstrate this, they had to feed the infant before the male staff present or bring the used diapers to the centre.
Obviously, the approach was based on a widespread lack of knowledge of living conditions in the lower classes. Even if the mothers approved of these new facilities and accepted the associated new values, they could not exploit their potential. For example, a visit to the centre demanded time, hardship and expense. The roads to the centres were long and could often be covered only by expensive public transport.
When there were other children, these had to be left unattended at home or taken to the centre as well.
Muttermacht und Lebensangst - Zur Politischen Psychologie der NS-Erziehungsratgeber Johanna Haarers
In short, these approaches could not work too well, because they ignored the living conditions of the urban working-class family. Neither the budget nor the multiple burdens of a woman as supplementary income earner, housewife and mother were considered. This discrepancy between theory and practice declined in the years of World War I and the Weimar Republic, when infant care was systematically expanded, and was additionally anchored on a state level.
The effects of World War I on infant mortality are assessed in different ways [48,49]. On the one hand, families experienced difficult life circumstances, rationing and economic hardship, on the other hand the infant care has been strengthened, especially during the war years [].
Given wartime population losses and declining birth rates Arthur Schlossmann called on behalf of the Board of the German Society of Paediatrics DGfK on the national government to strengthen infant care: The heat wave in had claimed countless victims among infants, and this had been used as an argument to intensify efforts for the welfare of infants [54]. Similarly there was an impulse to intensify efforts once again after the outbreak of war had caused increasing infant mortality rates.
A great many welfare measures thus were taken and the infant mortality rates actually decreased, especially in the cities in the years and , mostly because more mothers started breastfeeding their babies. Whereas the first few months of war had led to an initial decrease in breastfeeding frequency and an increase in recorded infant mortality, the ongoing war had caused food shortages and a collapse of the municipal milk supply, forcing mothers to start breastfeeding again [55,56].
This was supported by the introduction of the state maternity benefit. This payment was—unlike the municipal breastfeeding premiums—not hinged on any control visits. This strengthened the role of welfare centres because the breastfeeding premiums were distributed by them. This way, the visits to the counselling centres increased significantly and at the same time the mothers were bound to the institution over a longer period of time. The work of the counselling was thus integrated into the public services. This caused an enormous expansion of infant care during World War I.
Voluntary visits, which had been campaigned for in vain, had now been achieved by this simple combination of a legal payment with an observation by the counselling centre [57]. Elsewhere, she commented that the shortcomings during the war years caused such a substantial rise in breastfeeding rates which all their campaigning had not been able to achieve [58].
This development marked a significant change in the infant care, because now the state had engaged in substantial financial commitments. Until then, the financial responsibility had always been left to the local authorities, private organisations and health insurance agencies. To complement the maternity benefit a weekly family help was introduced in the Reich Insurance Code RVO , and at the same time, the reimbursement for impecunious and uninsured mothers prevailed through the state. Local contemporaries estimated the impact of these measures as positive.
In Munich an investigation of the district association showed that about 70 percent of 30, infants were breastfed during the years [59]. Even from an external perspective these changes were noticed. The English government, which followed with interest the trend of infant mortality rates in the German Empire during the war, expressed a somewhat reserved but generally impressed judgment. The report of the Intelligence Department stated that the breastfeeding rates had increased but—with a stand-offish tone—that the women after the three-month payments would promptly wean their infants Local Government Board, Even if this was the case, the overall situation that more mothers breastfed their infants and that the breastfeeding period was at least three months can be assessed quite positively regarding the situation before The war years showed, in fact, a substantial increase in breastfeeding rates and duration in the German cities with a subsequent drop in infant mortality Figure 1 , to which a combination of relatively cool summers and a sharp decrease in birth rates had contributed additionally.
While local and regional studies from the AngloSaxon countries showed that the breastfeeding rates in these countries were decreasing during the first third of the twentieth century [60,61], the developments in Germany seem to have been more complex—although such a statement is so far based on a few local data [62].
Thus, of pregnancies after a month 87 were breastfed, after three months 55 and after six months still 19 [63]. Given the fact that in Bavaria traditionally low breastfeeding rates prevailed, the development in Munich was even more impressive. The statistics of the Bavarian State Statistical Office surveys carried out a poll regarding breastfeeding behaviour and duration from to simultaneously with the smallpox vaccinations. According to this survey about 41 percent of all mothers breastfed their children in , and 59 percent applied entirely artificial nutrition [64].
The statistics of the Bavarian Landesimpfanstalt state vaccination institute were continued during the post-war years.
Johanna Haarer - Die deutsche Mutter und ihr erstes Kind
Corresponding data was compiled in Munich from the age cohorts from to for 38, infants. The percentage of artificially fed infants was significantly lower than at the beginning of the century, and amounted to 16 percent in with a downward trend in subsequent years up to 10 percent in Table 1. It shows a continuous increase of the number of infants who were breastfed over 1 - 3 months, and especially those of breastfed infants over 3 - 6 months, while the number of breastfed infants over six months declined.
Breastfeeding propaganda constituted a central element of the Nazi infant care, its importance ranked highly on the national health agenda, which was dominated by racial ideology. The overall enormous breastfeeding rates above 90 percent, however, have to be seen in relative terms, if in addition the duration of breastfeeding is considered—and actually amounted about 70 percent at the time of the first visit at the infant care centre [65].
At the same time the popularisation strategies reached a new dimension. The publisher supported a young female doctor specialist in pulmonary medicine,. Breastfeeding ratio in Munich, in Percent.
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In a more medical perspective, the content of the guide with its high prevalence on breastfeeding was quite in the tradition of guides from the Weimar Republic and the Empire, but written in a much more aggressive language. In the edition of , relevant passages about breastfeeding read: The emphasis on the first child also suggested that this experience and knowledge could be learned and adopted and were not exclusively natural, innate instincts—even though Haarer regarded the ability to breastfeed generally as hereditary.
In the Soviet zone of occupation in it was put on the list of banished books [71,72]. In the edition of this read: The argument remains rather imprecise and almost vague: Instead, a self-demand feeding concept developed in the USA during the s, was propagated and popularised. This programme promised benefits for both the infant and the mother and was already realised during the hospital stay by accommodation of mother and child in the same room rooming-in.
This diametrically opposed change quickly entered into the paediatric handand textbooks, as the nutritional physiology models could not be countered [75]. Conversely, the term of so-called breastfeeding fanatics and breastfeeding fanaticism came up, stressing that too much pressure on mothers who were physically unable to breastfeed which might evoke feelings of guilt or inadequacy. Simultaneously, the scientific research developed baby food into a high-tech product that large food companies globally promoted with sophisticated advertising campaigns.
Furthermore, as during the s and s progress and technology gained more importance in society, the propagation of an early change to artificial infant nutrition fell on fertile ground. In addition, in the context of the emerging environmental movement the potential toxic contamination of breast milk especially by DDT or dioxin became an issue. Only in the last decades of the twentieth century resistance increased to the sometimes even aggressive marketing methods of food companies for artificial feeding of infants, especially in developing countries where food companies tried to open up new markets, not least because of declining birth rates in industrialised nations.
Accordingly, the debates became internationalised. Members of the working group were sentenced only for the title of the publication and charged with a rather symbolic penance of Swiss Francs per person. In addition, the judge advised the company to rethink its marketing practices.
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In the media this was spread as a moral victory for the Third World group [77]. At the same time, the experts returned to classic views since the s and referred increasingly to the health benefits of breastfeeding and advocated almost unanimously a period of at least six months of breastfeeding. As the infant mortality serves as an indicator of prosperity and advance of a society, the different levels of infant mortality in Eastern and Western Germany were used as an argument in the ideological conflicts of the Cold War propaganda Figure 4.
West Germany interpreted the lower rates in the GDR during the late s and early s merely as related to newly introduced. Infant mortality in Western and Eastern Germany, By contrast, in East Germany the lower rates were attributed to the local intensive prevention and care, which however, in the long run, was esteemed not to be able to keep up with the western high-tech medicine.
This, in turn, was considered to be the explanation why infant mortality rates in the west declined below the rates in the east [79,80]. Traditionally, the infant mortality was used as an argument to convince the mothers of the benefits of breastfeeding. But then again artificial baby food products manufactured in state-owned enterprises could hardly be declared unsuitable. Despite this, breastfeeding in the GDR was still considered to be more favourable, and in this context it was pointed out that surplus milk could be given to other mothers out of solidarity, or picked up by a milk collecting point for which a fee was paid milk bank.
Privacy Policy Terms of Use. The article presents information about educational advice literature written by German national socialist writer Johanna Haarer and published between and It is noted that Haarer's books contain advice on how to inspire social and military virtues such as courage, discipline, and obedience in German children. The article attempts to discover the reasons for the popularity of Haarer's books among German women during the Third Reich. Further comments are made concerning Haarer's opinion that women are totally responsible for the success or failure of their children to adapt to national socialist values.
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