Vaterländischer Frauenverein

Vaterländischer Frauenverein (acronym, VFV; English translation, "Patriotic Women's Association"; long form, "German Women's Association for the Care and Aid of War Wounded") was founded by the Prussian Queen (later German Empress) Augusta on 11 November 1866.

The first associations of this kind in Germany were the VFV in Koblenz, Hamburg, and Kassel, established between 1866 and 1869.

All over Germany, the half million women of the VFV had prepared so that, "when war comes," they had taken a first aid nurse's training course.

In the first month of the war, no less than 70,000 women of the VFV, trained in first aid to the injured, had arrived at the doors of the Reichstag to offer themselves for Red Cross service.

The VFV assembled 29,000 women in Berlin alone to take the course of training arranged for helferinnen, assistants in all phases of relief work.