When Goering was a Pin-Up: The German Women's Magazines that Mixed Fashion with Fascism

By DAVID WILKES
www.dailymail.co.uk
14th April 2009

Hermann Goering poses with his daughter Edda for the cover of Frauen Warte in February 1940 just months before as commander of the Luftwaffe he launched the Battle of Britain

With knitting patterns, recipes and fashion, it seems to offer a diverting read for housewives and mothers. But a clue to the sinister aims of this women's magazine lies in the choice of cover model - Hermann Goering, a Hitler henchman and few people's idea of a pin-up. The Nazi publishers had more on their minds than merely entertaining German women while their menfolk were fighting the Allies.

Each issue of Frauen Warte (translated as Women Wait) contained articles full of propaganda designed to brainwash readers into accepting Hitler's tyranny.

The cover photograph from February 1940 shows Luftwaffe chief Goering cuddling baby daughter Edda in a warped version of the kind of 'tough but sensitive man' images often seen today.

A two-page article claims England is responsible for the Second World War, before more familiar stories on home economics and fashion news

Inside is an article entitled The Expert Housewife of Today, discussing schooling for women in home economics. But there are also two pages devoted to claiming England was responsible for the Second World War because it wanted to take over the world. It is among 65 issues of the magazine belonging to a private collector, which are to be auctioned.

Frauen Warte, the Nazi Party's biweekly magazine for women, ran from 1935 to 1945. In 1939, it had a circulation of 1.9million. Richard Westwood-Brookes, of Mullock's Auctioneers, said: 'As you turn through the pages you get an incredibly creepy feeling.

'It shows the Nazi propaganda machine was so well-oiled it infiltrated every area of human society.



Hitler salutes the troops on one cover of a women's magazine. The collection is going under the hammer at Mullock's Auctioneers and is expected to fetch around £700

'You've got magazines very much in the mould of today's glossy women's mags, filled with things you would expect, but then with propaganda inside.'

The magazines are expected to fetch at least £700 in total at the Mullock's auction at Ludlow Racecourse in Shropshire on April 23.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1169882/When-Goering-pin-The-German-womens-magazines-mixed-fashion-Fascism.html


Can't happen here. - AC