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Women’s Movement The women’s movement in the World War embraced a number of efforts working for the improvement of the economic, social and political position of women. There was a distinction between the moderate and radical middle class, and the proletarian and the confessional women’s movement. Whereas, before the war, lines of conflict were mostly drawn between a middle-class and a proletarian women’s movement, during the war the women’s movement was divided between the large majority of supporters of the war and the small minority of those who opposed it. At the start of the war…

Women’s Unions The term women’s unions include all organizations committed to the war effort and to social auxiliary work by women. First among them are the Country Women’s Unions of the Red Cross. These include the Väterlandische Frauenverein für das Gebiet des Norddeutschen Bundes [Fatherland’s Women’s Union for the Region of the North German Federation], founded in 1886, and the Red Cross Country Women’s Unions in Baden, Bavaria, Hesse, Saxony, and Württemberg. Their task was to promote and organize care of the war wounded. They were u…

National Women’s Service Organization of the German women’s movement. During the war, the National Women’s Service (NWS) regulated the various social welfare activities both by and for women which were important for the political and economic promotion of the war effort on the home front. On August 1, 1914, the Prussian Ministry of the Interior established the Bund deutscher Frauenvereine (Union of German Women’s Organizations). In case of war, these organizations had already drawn up a provisional plan in July, outlining the responsibilities of the NWS …