Home front
Home front describes the involvement of the civilian population in acts of war , even if the actual front lies outside the living space of the population. This involvement can take place, for example, through acts of war behind the front lines (such as bombing ) or through the work of the civilian population in the arms industry or military logistics .
Concept history
From the French Revolution to the First World War
The importance of civilian production and support services in war first became apparent during the 25-year French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars , when Britain was able to support and, in some cases, even arm the various coalitions that faced France . Although Britain had a far smaller population than France, Britain's global maritime trade and early industrialization outweighed France's numerical superiority with a stronger economy .
During the American Civil War , the higher productivity of Northern industry was a significant factor in victory, as the generals on both sides had roughly the same military capabilities.
In the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71 and in the First World War 1914–1918, the catchphrase also established itself in Germany.
Second World War
The term found widespread use in Germany, however, mainly during the Second World War . Here the German civilian population was heavily stressed by military production and logistics and was drawn into combat operations via air strikes long before the actual front reached their residential areas. During this period, the term was used for propaganda purposes to suggest to the German people that cooperation between civilians would be decisive for the success of the war, and to present the efforts of the population as militarily significant. Due to its outstanding use in Nazi propaganda , the word “home front” is incorrectly counted as part of the language of National Socialism and has a negative connotation, but is basically not Nazi-genuine.
The mobilization in the German Reich covered all areas of life for propaganda purposes. This is expressed in the term “ total war ” coined by Joseph Goebbels . The inclusion of women in armaments and their mobilization, however, met with ideological reservations. Nevertheless, in view of the great shortage of labor, the employment rate of women in Germany was already higher in 1939 than in Great Britain until the end of the war.
According to statistics from the Reich Labor Ministry from autumn 1943, 25.4% of women were employed in the war economy in the USA, 33.1% in Great Britain and 34% in Germany. According to Adam Tooze, this number is likely to underestimate the actual extent of female employment in Germany. The female employment rate in Germany was higher during the Second World War than during the First World War. In 1939, one third of married women and over half of women between the ages of 15 and 60 were employed in Germany. Women made up more than a third of the workforce in Germany and only a quarter in Great Britain. The difference to Great Britain is partly explained by the different economic structure. Only 2.7 million of the 14 million female workers were employed in industry. In agriculture, which made up a larger share in Germany than in the more industrialized USA or Great Britain, 6 million were employed, especially in family businesses in southern Germany - the men were increasingly drawn into the war. In the UK, on the other hand, only 100,000 women worked in agriculture. But in 1939, more than half of women were also employed in industrial centers such as Berlin or East Saxony. In cities like Hamburg and Bremen and in the Ruhr area, 40% of women of working age were employed. Neither the mobilization of women nor the recruitment of “foreign workers” nor forced labor could compensate for Germany's economic inferiority vis-à-vis the war opponents.
During the invasion of the Soviet Union by the German Reich moving Soviet soldiers and civilians, the location of their factories away from the front (sometimes entire factories were dismantled and elsewhere rebuilt) and began systematically moderate T-34 tanks and attack aircraft of type IL-2 in to produce large quantities.
The Norwegian equivalent, the Hjemmefront, reflects the consistently positive image of Norwegian resistance to the German occupation of Norway in World War II, which encompassed all areas of life.
Secondary literature
on the Franco-German War
- Alexander Seyferth: The Home Front 1870/71. Economy and Society in the Franco-German War (= War in History , Volume 35), Paderborn et al: Schöningh 2007.
to the First World War
- Thomas Flemming, Bernd Ulrich: Home Front. Between enthusiasm for war and famine - how the Germans experienced the First World War. Bucher Verlag, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-7658-1850-9 .
- Sven Felix Kellerhoff : Home Front. The fall of the ideal world - Germany in the First World War. Quadriga Verlag, Cologne 2014, ISBN 978-3-86995-064-8 .
for World War II
- Nicole Kramer: People's comrades on the home front. Mobilization, behavior, memory (= series of publications by the Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences , Volume 82), Göttingen: V & R 2011, ISBN 978-3-525-36075-0 .
- Sven Oliver Müller: German soldiers and their enemies. Nationalism on the front and the home front in World War II , Fischer 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-050707-5 .
- Dietmar Süß : Control through information? Joseph Goebbels as "Commissioner of the Home Front" and the Reich Inspectorate for Civil Air Protection. In: Rüdiger Hachtmann , Winfried Suss (ed.): Hitler's commissioners. Special powers in the National Socialist dictatorship (= Contributions to the History of National Socialism , Volume 22), Göttingen: Wallstein 2006, pp. 183–206.
- Doris Tillmann; Johannes Rosenplänter: Air War and "Home Front". War experience in the Nazi society in Kiel 1929-1945 . Solivagus-Verlag, Kiel 2020, ISBN 978-3-947064-09-0 .
Web links
- Andreas Möser: Heimatfront Hannover / Until January 11, 2015, an exhibition on the First World War and its direct impact on Hanover can be seen in the Historical Museum on the hannover.de website
- NN : The First World War on the home front ( memento from July 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) on the ndr.de page from July 15, 2014
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jürgen Brühns: "» Home Front «- The Civilian War" , Norddeutscher Rundfunk , as of March 14, 2013.
- ^ Adam Tooze , Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy , 2006, paperback 2007, p. 513 ff.
- ^ Adam Tooze, Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy , 2006, paperback 2007, pp. 358 ff.
- ↑ On the Norwegian home front, cf. Terje Rollem .