Document details

Writing and Rewriting the Reich: Women Journalists in the Nazi and Post-War Press

Toronto et al.: University of Toronto Press (2023), xvi, 360 pp.

Contains illustrations, bibliogr, pp. 307-337, index

Series: German and European Studies, 48

ISBN 978-1-4875-4721-9 (hbk); 978-1-4875-4736-3 (pdf)

"This book tells the complex story of women journalists as both outsiders and insiders in the German press of the National Socialist and post-war years. From 1933 onward, Nazi press authorities valued female journalists as a means to influence the public through charm and subtlety rather than intimidation or militant language. Deborah Barton reveals that despite the deep sexism inherent in the Nazi press, some women were able to capitalize on the gaps between gender rhetoric and reality to establish prominent careers in both soft and hard news. Based on data collected on over 1,500 women journalists, the book describes the professional opportunities open to women during the Nazi era, their gendered contribution to Nazi press and propaganda goals, and the ways in which their Third Reich experiences proved useful in post-war divided Germany. It draws on a range of sources including editorial proceedings, press association membership records, personal correspondence, newspapers, diaries, and memoirs. It also sheds light on both unknown journalists and famous figures including Margret Boveri, Ruth Andreas-Friedrich, and Ursula von Kardorff. Addressing the long-term influence of women journalists, this book illuminates some of the most salient issues in the nature of Nazi propaganda, the depiction of wartime violence, and historical memory." (Publisher description)
PART I: THE PRE-WAR YEARS, 1933-1939
1 On the Peripheries of Power: Women Journalists in the Nazi Press, 19
2 Prettying Up Politics and Normalizing Nazism, 1933-1939, 49
3 Traversing Borders, Pushing Boundaries: Female Foreign Correspondents and the Lead-Up to War, 76
PART II: THE WAR YEARS, 1939-1945
4 Opportunity and Infuence on the Home Front, 1939-1945, 113
5 The Beautifcation of Total War and Occupation, 145
PART III: THE AFTERMATH
6 New Patrons, New Entanglements: Transitioning to the Post-War Press, 179
7 Rewriting the Third Reich: Female Journalists, Autobiography, and the Legacies of National Socialism, 213
Conclusion: Infuence and Complicity, 247