Gender in Hitler Youth Quex

Gender is represented in many different ways throughout the film Hitlerjunge Quex.  When representing the Communist way of life, particularly through the character of Gerda, the film seems to show women as more masculine, licentious, and immoral.  Gerda is always shown wearing pants, makeup, offering and accepting cigarettes, flirting, and is consistently used as a pawn by the Communists to lure young men into the Communist cause.  She is portrayed as a wanton, most noticeably in the scenes where she entices the young Nazi to go to the fair with her and when she is shown straddling an animal on the carousel.  The other Communist men do not seem to respect her, and she shows little self-respect in turn.  Furthermore, Gerda is always with one man or another, not settled down and producing children, which was the core value in the Nazi ideology concerning women.  The character of Gerda and her association with the Communist party illustrates a clear example of what the NSDAP exemplified as the “bad woman.”

On the other hand, the character of Ulla within the National Socialist party presents for audiences an image of the upheld values of a good German woman.  She is respected by her peers, including her male peers, so much so that it is she who Heini informs of the Communist attack.  She is always in an equal position to her brother, seems to be loyal to Heini, and is always in her feminine Hitler Youth uniform.  Unlike Gerda, she represents the wholesome qualities of a young girl that the Nazis sought to instill in their youth.

The film is also clear on “bad” and “good” expressions of masculinity.  The Communist men are shown as heavy drinkers, heavy smokers, excessively violent, and disrespectful.  They are the Nazi ideal of uncivilized men, although the filmmakers may not have anticipated the irony of the “violent” Communists as opposed to the docile Nazis at the time.  On the contrary, the National Socialist men always appear crisp and clean, obedient, healthy, upbeat, and confident.  The unswerving characterization of gender through the Communist and National Socialist parties in the film make the Nazi message concerning gender roles very clear.