Wehrmacht brothel
Wehrmacht brothels and SS officers brothels , in which Wehrmacht soldiers and SS members could be sexually satisfied, were set up by the Wehrmacht leadership during the Second World War in the occupied territories.
In the course of this war, around 500 such brothels were set up in occupied countries. In German-occupied Denmark , there was no army brothels.
View of the Wehrmacht and the Nazi leadership
On September 9, 1939, the Reich Minister of the Interior, Wilhelm Frick, issued a decree that was to regulate the police treatment of prostitution in the "operational area" of the German Wehrmacht . Prohibition and prosecution of wild prostitution were intended to prevent damage to the health of Wehrmacht members. The prostitution was allowed to be maintained "only in special houses" under the supervision of the German medical services. A fundamental prohibition of sexual activity was considered "inopportune, because it would increase the number of rape crimes and the risk of violations of Section 175 RStGB (prohibition of homosexual acts among men)."
In an order from the Commander-in-Chief of the Army , Walther von Brauchitsch , it is stated: "Sexual intercourse with female personnel whose health is not checked must be stopped as far as possible". At the same time he demanded that the German soldiers practice " self-discipline in the sexual field ", "This commandment is a matter of course, especially for married soldiers."
The army doctor and the quartermaster general in the army high command gave in the second half of July 1940 two complementary decrees out that the establishment of brothels for soldiers initiated and tracking wild prostitution for occupied France in the way. The order was to seize selected brothels for the occupying forces. The implementation of the directives is documented in a situation report by the Chief Medical Officer at District Chief B on September 23, 1940:
“Brothels for soldiers are set up in almost all larger towns and are constantly monitored; in addition, there are 'drop-off hotels' in Biarritz , Bordeaux , La Rochelle , Nantes , Angers , Vannes , La Baule and Lorient . Raids on free prostitution were carried out at the instigation of the commandant physicians in almost all larger towns by the French moral police, which apparently works well. A number of wild prostitutes were recorded as sexually ill and given treatment. "
Working conditions, earnings as well as the police and medical control of the brothel employees were regulated in detail with the help of a comprehensive catalog of requirements.
Prostitution in occupied France
After the western campaign of the Wehrmacht , which ended with the defeat of France , 1.5 million French were prisoners of war or forced laborers in Germany. Women and families who remained in France often had to "survive on their own".
For many women, affairs with German soldiers or casual prostitution became a question of survival. There was lively sexual intercourse between German occupation soldiers and the female population of France. After the occupation of France, it turned out that venereal diseases spread to a considerable extent among the soldiers . On July 29, 1940 it was ordered that Wehrmacht brothels were to be set up, which were under the control of the Wehrmacht medical inspection. For this purpose, brothels that met German hygienic standards were selected from among the large numbers of brothels in France. If uncontrolled prostitutes repeatedly infected Wehrmacht soldiers, they were deported to concentration camps. The execution of the ordered prosecution of free prostitutes was largely entrusted to the French police. In October 1941, the medical officer of the Orléans field command ordered the French police to arrest all “filles soumises” (for example: “docile women / girls”) working outside the Wehrmacht brothels and to transfer them to the Jargeau camp. Between October 1941 and November 1944 at least 303 women from the surrounding region who had been accused of wild prostitution were interned in the camp. The internment in Jargeau was linked to the Wehrmacht brothel system. From December 1941, the occupying forces had French women transferred from the camp to Wehrmacht brothels. Formally, the recruitment for brothel work took place with the consent and at the request of the internees; in fact, it was one of the few ways to escape the camp.
The French women working in the Wehrmacht brothels were regularly examined by the Wehrmacht and, in the event of an infection (even against their will), were admitted to a hospital . The examinations were carried out by local medical officers under the supervision of the Wehrmacht medical services. Sexual contact with French women outside the controlled brothels should be prevented. The aim was to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Security police motives also played a role. It was feared that French resistance groups could deploy female agents on German armed forces. In addition, private relationships between soldiers and civilian women generally appeared to undermine the discipline of the force and its authority over the people of occupied France. (see also fraternization ) .
In a report by the field officer from Angers from November 1940, it says: "The brothels were visited in 14 days by 8,948 soldiers, of whom 2,467 had sexual intercourse."
Towards the end of 1941, the Wehrmacht had 143 Wehrmacht brothels with 1,166 prostitutes in Military Administrative District A alone - an area that included around a third of the German-occupied northern zone. In the port city of La Rochelle , at least 250 French women were active in Wehrmacht brothels in the course of 1942. In Le Mans there was a Wehrmacht brothel near the Le Mans cathedral , especially for Germans who came from abroad.
Soviet Union
The same situation was difficult to solve for the Wehrmacht in the Soviet Union because official prostitution was prohibited there. After wild prostitution had developed, the Army High Command ordered the establishment of Wehrmacht brothels for the Soviet Union in March 1942. The uncontrolled prostitution was severely prosecuted for fear of obtaining intelligence for the partisan organizations. The women in the Wehrmacht brothels in the Soviet Union also had to be checked regularly.
Origin of women
In the Wehrmacht brothels in both Poland and France, “prostitutes who were already known and monitored” or women who “had been won over to the brothels by announcement” were active. The historian Regina Mühlhäuser writes that the “recruitment of prostitutes” took place in a mixed form of “conventional employment” and “different forms of forced prostitution ”. As there was fear of military espionage, prostitutes were required to be “politically unsuspicious”. The Wehrmacht also decreed the selection of brothel staff based on their "race". Since there were officially no prostitutes in the Soviet Union, they were recruited there.
In German-occupied Norway no Norwegian, only French prostitutes worked.
Cinematic reception
- Thomas Gaevert , Martin Hilbert: Women as Prey - Wehrmacht and Prostitution (documentary), first broadcast January 12, 2005 ARD
Related topics
- Comfort women - forced prostitutes in Japanese army brothels during World War II
- Sutler - Army escorts in the Middle Ages who, in addition to supplying the troops, also partly pursued prostitution
literature
- Gabriele Czarnorwski: Women - State - Medicine. Aspects of body politics in National Socialism. In: Women between selection and extinction. Contributions to feminist theory and practice. No. 14, 1985.
- Insa Meinen: Wehrmacht and prostitution in occupied France. Edition Temmen , Bremen 2002. ISBN 3-86108-789-8 .
- Christa Paul: forced prostitution. State-built brothels under National Socialism. Edition Hentrich, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-89468-141-1 .
- Wendy Jo Gertjejanssen: Victims, Heroes, Survivors. Sexual Violence On The Eastern Front During World War II . University of Minnesota, May 2004 ( ictimsheroessurvivors.info [PDF; 13.0 MB ] dissertation).
- Sexuality and Denunciation. In: taz , April 30, 2002
Web links
- Wehrmacht and prostitution in occupied France
- Insa Meinen: Wehrmacht and prostitution in occupied France
Individual evidence
- ↑ Information from: Helke Sander / Barbara Johr (eds.): Liberators and Liberated - War - Rape - Children. Frankfurt a. M. 2005, p. 65.
- ↑ a b Ebba D. Drolshagen : Don't get away with it scot-free: the fate of women in the occupied countries who loved Wehrmacht soldiers . Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1998, p. 92.
- ↑ Erotic Invasion of the Wehrmacht - The French political scientist Patrick Buisson questions the image of the German occupation.
- ↑ z. B. The military commander in France (November 1, 1940): situation report for October ( memento of September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ). Quote: “With regard to sexually transmitted diseases, prostitution is currently very much in evidence in the departments around Paris, as prostitutes of free prostitution are leaving Paris. The examination of the French brothel girls by the French doctors still leaves much to be desired. "
- ↑ a b c Insa Meinen: Wehrmacht and prostitution in occupied France. Bremen 2002
- ^ Ludger Tewes : France during the occupation 1940–1943. Bonn 1998, p. 268.
- ↑ Birgit Beck: Wehrmacht and sexual violence. Sex crimes before German military courts 1939–1945 . Schöningh, Paderborn 2004, ISBN 3-506-71726-X , p. 116.
- ^ University of Oldenburg : Information about the author and research project (funded from 1996 to 1998 by the Volkswagen Foundation).