Due to the compulsory membership of all young women, except for those excluded for racial reasons, the League became the largest female youth organization at the time with over 4.5 million members.

Under Section 86 of the German Criminal Code, the Hitler Youth is an "unconstitutional organization" and the distribution or public use of its symbols, except for educational or research purposes, is not permitted.

Final solution Pre-Machtergreifung Post-Machtergreifung Parties The Bund Deutscher Mädel had its roots in the early 1920s, in the first Mädchenschaften or Mädchengruppen, also known as Schwesternschaften der Hitler-Jugend (Sisterhood of the Hitler Youth).

Soon after taking office as Reichsjugendführer on 17 June 1933, Baldur von Schirach issued regulations that suspended or forbade existing youth organizations ('concurrence').

The Gesetz über die Hitlerjugend (law concerning the Hitler Youth) dated 1 December 1936, forced all eligible juveniles to be a member of HJ or BDM.

After Mohr married in 1937, she was required to resign her position (the BDM required members to be unmarried and without children in order to remain in leadership positions), and was succeeded by Dr. Jutta Rüdiger, a doctor of psychology from Düsseldorf, who was a more assertive leader than Mohr but nevertheless a close ally of Schirach, and also of his successor from 1940 as HJ leader, Artur Axmann.

She joined Schirach in resisting efforts by the head of the NS-Frauenschaft (Nazi Woman's League), Gertrud Scholtz-Klink, to gain control of the BDM.

[9] In 1938, a third section was added, known as Faith and Beauty (Glaube und Schönheit), which was voluntary and open to girls between 17 and 21 and was intended to groom them for marriage, domestic life, and future career goals.

While these ages are general guidelines, there were some exceptions for members holding higher (salaried) leadership positions, starting at the organizational level of "Untergau".

[14] Her main initiative was to nourish a new way of living for the German youth, stating:[15] Our people need a generation of girls which is healthy in body and mind, sure and decisive, proudly and confidently going forward, one which assumes its place in everyday life with poise and discernment, one free of sentimental and rapturous emotions, and which, for precisely this reason, in sharply defined feminity, would be the comrade of a man, because she does not regard him as some sort of idol but rather as a companion!

Such girls will then, by necessity, carry the values of National Socialism into the next generation as the mental bulwark of our people.In 1937, after marrying Obersturmführer Wolf Bürkner,[16] she became pregnant and resigned her duties.

She was appointed head of "Faith and Beauty" in January 1938, a few days before her 26th birthday, and was discharged in September 1939 because of her marriage with Wilhelm "Utz" Utermann in October 1939.

From this time on, Jutta Rüdiger, who was a lesbian in lifelong partnership with Hedy Böhmer, a fellow Nazi traveller, and thus uninterested in marriage, took over to lead the BDM directly, thus holding both leadership positions until 1945.

[19] The BDM used campfire romanticism, summer camps, folklorism, tradition, and sports to indoctrinate girls within the Nazi belief system, and to train them for their roles in German society: wife, mother, and homemaker.

[24] This instruction would include learning the Horst Wessel song, the Nazi holidays, stories about Hitler Youth martyrs, and facts about their locality and German culture and history.

[25] Physical education included track and field sports like running and the long jump, gymnastics (e.g. somersaulting and tightrope walking), route-marching, and swimming.

[28] Holiday trips offered by HJ and BDM – for example, skiing in winter and tent camps in summer – were affordable; children from poor families got subsidies.

[36] Before entering any occupation or advanced studies, the girls, like the boys in Hitler Youth, had to complete a year of land service ("Landfrauenjahr").

The BDM were told by their leaders during the invasion of Poland that the Poles were a people "worthy of disgust, genuine sub-humans, who deserved to be ruled by a master race.

Younger girls collected donations of money, as well as goods such as clothing or old newspapers for the Winter Relief and other Nazi charitable organizations.

After 1943, as Allied air attacks on German cities increased, many BDM girls went into paramilitary and military services (Wehrmachtshelferin), where they served as Flak Helpers, signals auxiliaries, searchlight operators, and office staff.

In the last days of the war, some BDM girls, just like some boys of the male Hitler Youth (although not nearly as many), joined with the Volkssturm (the last-ditch defense) in Berlin and other cities in fighting the invading Allied armies, especially the Soviets.

[54] Notes Further reading Media related to Bund Deutscher Mädel at Wikimedia Commons Final solution Pre-Machtergreifung Post-Machtergreifung Parties