Figure 1.--Girls during the 1930s were much morev involved in sport than ever before, but generally not competitive sports. We see coordinated group atthletic exhibitions like this. Unlike many we have seen, this was not BDM events, but a sports club. There appears to be an organ in the background so the clun was apparently organized by a church.

Most of the clubs, especially before the NAZI era were male groups. Female sports clubs were very limited, if they existed at all. I have not noted images of girls' sports clubs. The NAZIs were certainly not feminists. In fact they moved to restrict opportunity for girls. They saw the place for women as the home, the kitchen and caring for the children. Athleticism was an exception, but primarily related to health and physical fitness. Healthy women could produce healty children. Thus physical fintness was part of the BDM program. The physical activities involved were for the most part non-competiive sports in contrast to the very competitive male sports program. A German reader writes, "I guess there were sports clubs for girls with sports 'suitable for girls'". A particular telling example was the images of uniformed girls doing coordinated gym displays. Often we see these girls wearing BDM gym uniforms. But we also note sports clubs as well, including clubs with mixed memberships. We can not identify the clubs, but the jersey logos tell us that they were not HJ/BDM units. After World War II, most of the sports clubs we see are for boys and young adult men.

Created: 12:39 AM 5/28/2010
Last updated: 12:39 AM 5/28/2010