The family was apparently in danger in Germany after World War I. Of course, religious and government leaders have asserted this regularly for centuries: gender and household hierarchies seem to be perpetually in jeopardy, and are thus almost always the subject of concern and discussions. Weimar policy makers went beyond hand-wringing to action, however, substantially expanding social welfare programs designed to shore up the Germany family. But how much changed in this area after 1933? Michelle Mouton's new book is the latest contribution to a larger debate over continuities and ruptures between Weimar and Nazi social welfare policies in general. Mouton offers cogent and strongly supported arguments that 1933 was a watershed in terms of social policy, as National Socialist leaders reshaped Weimar family and gender policies in ways that sought to racialize them and strengthen their impact within ordinary German households.

The history of German social policy during these two periods is actually not a new field, but Mouton brings an unparalleled wealth of evidence to the table. Her study examines family policy at both the national level (in terms of policies and laws) but also the implementation of these policies at the local level, by consulting a wide variety of regional and municipal sources from Westphalia. Mouton's monograph is also a contribution to Alltagsgeschichte, since she conducted many interviews with the women these policies were aimed at, gathering individual responses and accounts of how these laws did (or did not) affect daily life in both urban and rural areas. Overall, Mouton bases her arguments on a very broad array of sources, including the voices of national and local political leaders, church accounts, physicians, social workers, judges, and ordinary Westphalian women. The book is organized thematically rather than chronologically, which facilitates comparisons between the two regimes and works to support Mouton's overall conclusions.

There were some continuities in terms of policies toward the family, as Mouton acknowledges: both regimes supported “the use of marriage certificates, financed kindergartens, and celebrated Mother's Day” (p. 272). But Nazi authorities strove to racialize existing policies, created new race-based initiatives (e.g., the marriage loan program), and were much more willing to intervene in the household. The result was a “fundamental change in both the aim and impact of family policy” (p. 272). The list of programs and policy areas that were altered in consequence was very long: Mouton documents substantial alterations in marriage counseling centers, recuperation programs for overworked mothers, sterilization and adoption laws, policies toward unwed mothers, the granting of marriage certificates, divorce laws, child support orders handed down by courts, the determination of paternity for illegitimate children, and the ways in which the state honored motherhood. The sheer scope of the policy areas she covers on both national and local levels is impressive, rendering her overall conclusions persuasive.

But although Nazi policy makers sought to effect quite sweeping changes, this study shows the limits of their practical effectiveness, as well. Mouton discusses how frequently local leaders, institutions, and individual women obstructed or resisted Nazi policies if those new guidelines infringed on the local community's interests or conflicted with widely shared religious beliefs. Local authorities often saw no need for an expansion of mother advice clinics, for example, and claimed that they lacked funding for the clinics or that they already had well-run clinics (staffed by Catholic or Protestant nurses). Even where the advice clinics were created, mothers might avoid using them: by 1942, only half of the mothers in Westphalia were taking their children to such clinics and often only did so when clear benefits were offered.

Evasion of Nazi policy efforts was easier in some areas than others, of course. Mouton concludes that in the area of adoption and foster care, NS policy makers were able effectively to centralize and tighten up requirements for foster parents and those who wanted to adopt, imposing racial criteria that were difficult to get around. But when Nazi bureaucrats were successful, as in adoption law, the consequences often played out in ways that were unexpected: the effective tightening of adoption criteria, for example, combined with the increased demand for adoptive parents after 1939 to force the state to redefine “family” in ways that strongly contradicted Weimar polices, even allowing single women to take in children. As with policies that attempted to help unwed mothers, race and blood became more important than fatherhood. The introduction of blood tests to determine paternity undermined men's attempts to escape paying child support through claims that the mother had been “promiscuous,” and Nazi policy makers attempted (although in an often muted fashion) to improve the social standing of “worthy” single mothers.

The use of court cases, local detail, and interviews is exemplary here. And all this evidence is smoothly interwoven with (and juxtaposed against) an examination of policy developments at the national level. Mouton's book will be informative and useful for all who are interested in the history of the German family and the evolution of social welfare policies.