LEADER 04361cam a2200421Ia 4500001 81127 005 20240621173512.0 008 030312s2001 xx r 000 0 eng d 035 (OCoLC)ocm52280962 035 81127 049 LHMA 040 LHM |beng |erda |cLHM 090 GT911 |b.G84 2001 100 1 Guenther, Irene. 245 10 Nazi "chic"? : |bfashioning women in the Third Reich / |cby Irene Viola Guenther. 246 30 Fashioning women in the Third Reich 264 1 [Place of publication not identified] : |b[publisher not identified], |c2001. 300 viii, 589 pages 336 text |btxt |2rdacontent 337 unmediated |bn |2rdamedia 338 volume |bnc |2rdacarrier 502 Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. 504 Includes bibliographical references (pages 551-588). 520 During the Third Reich, women's clothing became a site of contentious debate. Clothing, which the Nazis hoped would serve as a visible sign of inclusion into-or exclusion from-the Volksgemeinschaft, the national community, instead became a divisive wedge between the government and the majority of German women. This dissertation explores attempts by the Nazi state to construct a female appearance that would both mirror official gender ideology and support plans for a Nazi-controlled European fashion industry. The purpose is two-fold: to understand the ideological battles concerning clothing and image fought within the Nazi political hierarchy and the public cultural sphere, and to assess the extent to which female fashioning could and did avert totalitarian regulation because of profound disjunctions between propagandistic rhetoric, economic imperatives, and political necessities. Fashion, therefore, serves as a window into a number of important issues. It illuminates the complex relationship between German women and the Nazi dictatorship, as it details transformations of female dress and image, French-German relations, anti-Semitism in the fashion industry, the economic policies of autarky and aryanization, clothing problems on the home front, clothes and clothing production in the concentration camps, and the constant contradictions between ideology, governmental directives, and daily realities. In this way, the story of women's clothing during the Nazi years can elucidate a great deal about the ambiguous nature of German fascism at the intersection of gender and culture. To provide essential background, this study begins in the rampantly nationalistic years surrounding the First World War, when the groundwork for these clothing conflicts was laid, examines the 1920s, when Berlin vied with Paris to become the cultural "hot-spot" of Europe, and then concentrates on the period in which the battles regarding women's clothing and appearance culminated, the years of Hitler's Third Reich. Primary sources from government ministries, fashion school archives, women's magazines, and SS/SD public morale reports, reveal that no cohesive national fashion program was ever successfully implemented, despite tireless attempts by some officials. Obstacles included ambivalent posturing, competing factions, and conflicting laws in the less than monolithic National Socialist state. Ultimately, it was not Nazi regulations that fashioned German women. Largely, it was the destruction and shortages caused by total war, as well as the inherent intensely personal essence of fashioning, that fashioned and refashioned women in the Third Reich. 530 Electronic version(s) |bavailable internally at USHMM. 533 Photocopy. |bAnn Arbor, Mich. : |cUMI Dissertation Services, |d2002. |e22 cm. 590 Dissertations and Theses 591 Record updated by Marcive processing 21 June 2024 650 0 Fashion |zGermany |xHistory |y20th century. 650 0 Clothing and dress |zGermany |xHistory |y20th century. 650 0 National socialism and women |zGermany. 651 0 Germany |xSocial life and customs |y20th century. 856 41 |uhttp://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=726079831&sid=21&Fmt=6&clientId=54617&RQT=309&VName=PQD |zElectronic version from ProQuest 956 41 |u http://dc.ushmm.org/library/bib81127/3032406.pdf |z Hosted by USHMM. 994 X0 |bLHM 852 0 |bstacks |hGT911 |i.G84 2001 852 |bwww 852 0 |bebook