Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Nazi family propaganda in "Hitlerjunge Quex"

In “Hitlerjunge Quex” two extremely contrasting sides are depicted. One the one hand the bad Communists that behave undisciplined, promote chaos, do not work and drink and smoke all the time. On the other hand the good Nazis which consist of a new generation which stands for higher ideals and values.
Regarding the family policy of Hitler’s regime which supported the traditional gender roles of the man working and earning the money and the women staying at home to raise the children, it becomes clear how gender propaganda works in the movie.
Gerda, a young female Communist, represents the emancipated woman of that time: She wears trousers, make-up and lip-stick, smokes and drinks with the boys and plays with her sexual charms. The fact that she is with the bad Communists shows that her behavior is disregarded by the Hitler regime.
The opposite of Gerda is Ulla, a young female Nazi. She wears dresses, cooks for her brother and does what she is told by him. The fact that she is on the “good” side shows that her behavior is regarded as proper and valuable. She embodies the ideal woman in the Nazi imagination.
To sum up, the film promotes the family policy of the Nazis by assigning the emancipated woman to the bad side and the “classic” woman to the good side. The Nazis therewith try to stop the emancipation movement that resulted out of World War I when woman had to take a lot of jobs of men who died at war.

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