What Difference Does a (Disabled) Husband Make? Disabled Veterans, Women, and the Limits of Population Policy in the Third Reich

Abstract

The Nazi regime used state-run marriage mediation of disabled veterans and war widows to align women's marital choices with the Nazi goal of raising the German birth rate. Marriage centers were intended as a gateway to wider acceptance of population policy and to eventually abolish the marriage “free marketplace” in favor of demographic management to create collective outcomes of hereditary fitness. This involved creating new marital and reproductive duties among Germans and channeling this social responsibility to convince Germans to willingly participate in marriage mediation for the greater good. Yet, individual desire and self-reliance in the broader marketplace almost always trumped Nazi policy.