Sex and the Nazi Soldier: Violent, Commercial and Consensual Encounters during the War in the Soviet Union, 1941-45

407 Pages·2020·28.947 MB·English

by  Regina Mühlhäuser, Jessica Spengler

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sex for protection or food. In some areas, they engaged in consensual relations,
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Regina Mühlhäuser is a Senior Researcher at the Hamburg Foundation for the
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Group “Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict”’.
ISBN 978-1-4744-5907-5
Regina Mühlhäuser
edinburghuniversitypress.com
Cover design: www.richardbudddesign.co.uk Translated by Jessica Spengler
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Sex and the Nazi Soldier
Series Editors: Victoria M. Basham and Sarah Bulmer
The Critical Military Studies series welcomes original thinking on the ways in
which military power works within different societies and geopolitical arenas.
Militaries are central to the production and dissemination of force globally,
but the enduring legacies of military intervention are increasingly apparent at
the societal and personal/bodily levels as well, demonstrating that violence
and war- making function on multiple scales. At the same time, the notion
that violence is an appropriate response to wider social and political problems
transcends militaries: from private security, to seemingly ‘non- military’ settings
such as fitness training and schooling, the legitimisation and normalisation of
authoritarianism and military power occurs in various sites. This series seeks
original, high- quality manuscripts and edited volumes that engage with such
questions of how militaries, militarism and militarisation assemble and disas-
semble worlds touched and shaped by violence in these multiple ways. It will
showcase innovative and interdisciplinary work that engages critically with the
operation and effects of military power and provokes original questions for
researchers and students alike.
Titles in the Advances in Critical Military Studies series include:
Published:
Resisting Militarism: Direct Action and the Politics of Subversion
Chris Rossdale
Making War on Bodies: Militarisation, Aesthetics and Embodiment in International
Politics
Catherine Baker
Disordered Violence: Gendered Neo-Orientalism and Terrorism
Caron Gentry
Sex and the Nazi Soldier: Violent, Commercial and Consensual Encounters during the
War in the Soviet Union, 1941–45
Regina Mühlhäuser (translated by Jessica Spengler)
The Military-Peace Complex: Gender and Materiality in Afghanistan
Hannah Partis- Jennings
Forthcoming:
Inhabiting No-Man’s-Land: Army Wives, Gender and Militarisation
Alexandra Hyde
Sex and the Nazi Soldier
Violent, Commercial and Consensual
Encounters During the War in the
Soviet Union, 1941–45
REGINA MÜHLHÄUSER
Translated by Jessica Spengler
Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK. We publish
academic books and journals in our selected subject areas across the humanities and social
sciences, combining cutting- edge scholarship with high editorial and production values
to produce academic works of lasting importance. For more information visit our website:
edinburghuniversitypress.com
© Regina Mühlhäuser, 2010
English translation © Jessica Spengler, revised and extended edition, 2021
Originally published in German as: Eroberungen. Sexuelle Gewalttaten und intime
Beziehungen deutscher Soldaten in der Sowjetunion 1941–1945
© 2010 by Hamburger Edition HIS Verlagsges. mbH, Hamburg, Germany
This translation from German is published by arrangement with Hamburger Edition.
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
The Tun – Holyrood Road, 12(2f) Jackson’s Entry, Edinburgh EH8 8PJ
Typeset in 10.5/13 ITC Giovanni Std by
Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire,
and printed and bound in Great Britain.
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 4744 5907 5 (hardback)
ISBN 978 1 4744 5909 9 (webready PDF)
ISBN 978 1 4744 5910 5 (epub)
The right of Regina Mühlhäuser to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, and the Copyright and
Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498).
The translation of this work was funded by Geisteswissenschaften I nternational – Translation
Funding for Work in the Humanities and Social Sciences from Germany, a joint initiative of
the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, the German Federal Foreign Office, the collecting society VG
WORT and the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (German Publishers & Booksellers
Association).
CONTENTS
List of Figures vii
Acknowledgements x
Abbreviations xii
Map: Eastern Europe before World War II xiv
1. Introduction: War, Violence, Sexuality 1
Points of Departure 2
Sources on Sexual Encounters 10
Private Photographs by Wehrmacht Soldiers, Part 1 19
2. Sexual Violence 27
Forms and Functions of Sexual Violence 31
Situations 34
Negotiations in the Military 84
3. Sexual Transactions 117
Occasional Sexual Bartering 120
Professional Prostitution 123
Persecution of Women ‘Suspected of Prostitution’ 125
Disciplining Wehrmacht Soldiers 129
Appeals to SS Men 144
Wehrmacht Brothels 149
4. Consensual Relations 192
The Men’s Desire for Normality 195
vi / Sex and the Nazi Soldier
The Women’s Desire for New Experiences 200
Regulation by the Wehrmacht 206
SS Directives 211
Negotiations Regarding Marriage Applications 215
Rhetoric of Defeat 230
Private Photographs by Wehrmacht Soldiers, Part 2 245
5. Occupation Children 253
Population Policy Strategies 255
Control Measures 261
6. Concluding Remarks: Gender, Sexuality and Violence in the
War and Post-War Period 304
7. Epilogue: What Can We Learn from the Nazi Case? 316
Racist ‘Pollution Taboos’ 317
Conflicting Military Interests 322
Sexual Violence and Sexuality 325
Soldiers’ Corporeality 328
Sexual Violence as a Weapon 330
Bibliography 337
Index 384
LIST OF FIGURES
Map: Eastern Europe before World War II. © Peter Palm, Berlin xiv
1 Gisbert Witte, bundle of photographs, photo 227, private
collection of Margret Witte- Ebel, Lüneburg 19
2 Gisbert Witte, bundle of photographs, photo 290, private
collection of Margret Witte- Ebel, Lüneburg 20
3 Herbert Achenbach, bundle of photographs, slide 100,
private collection of Christiane Feuerhake, Leer 20
4 Hans Mayer, album, page 25, Spielhahnjäger Museum,
Bad Tölz 21
5 Hans- Georg Schulz, album II, page 13, private collection
of Schwarz/Dippold 21
6 Walter Gerloff, album III, page 11, private collection of
Achim Gerloff, Hamburg 21
7 Georg Möller, album, page 19, private collection of Peter
Möller, Varel 21
8 Gisbert Witte, bundle of photographs, photo 317, private
collection of Margret Witte- Ebel, Lüneburg 22
9 Jürgen W., diary, page 113, Archives of the Hamburg
Institute for Social Research 22
10 Willi Rose, bundle of photographs, private collection of
Thomas Eller, Berlin 23
11 Georg Möller, album, page 25, private collection of Peter
Möller, Varel 24
12 Anonymous album, page 43, (‘Album Heer 622’), Auris
Media Verlag 24
13 Anonymous album, page 4, (‘Album Heer 429’), Auris
Media Verlag 24
viii / Sex and the Nazi Soldier
14 Karl- Heinz Müller, album, page 11, private collection of
Dr Wolfgang Müller, Hatten 25
15 Anonymous album, page 44, (‘Album Heer 622’), Auris
Media Verlag 25
16 Heinrich Hindersmann, bundle of photographs, photo 137,
private collection of Horst Hindersmann, Dörpen 26
17 Dr Karl Dieter Zoller, album, page 16, private collection of
Archiv Zoller, Rastede 26
18 Anonymous album, page 8, (‘Album Heer 429’), Auris
Media Verlag 62
19 Heinrich Kleemeyer, album, page 15, private collection of
Mike Voigt, Syke 245
20 Johannes Gravemeyer, bundle of photographs, booklet 1,
photo 20, private collection of Archiv Gravemeyer, Wittmund 246
21 Karl Hellbusch, bundle of photographs, photo 3, private
collection of Karl Gerd Hellbusch, Oldenburg 246
22 Heribert Osburg, album, page 13, private collection of Rita
Stüwe, Buchholz 247
23 Heinrich Hindersmann, bundle of photographs, photo 4,
private collection of Horst Hindersmann, Dörpen 247
24 Heinrich Kleemeyer, album, page 22, private collection of
Mike Voigt, Syke 248
25 Gisbert Witte, bundle of photographs, photo 87, private
collection of Margret Witte- Ebel, Lüneburg 248
26 Heinrich Hindersmann, bundle of photographs, photo 187,
private collection of Horst Hindersmann, Dörpen 249
27 Hermann Jaspers, album, page 19, private collection 249
28 Willi Rose, bundle of photographs, private collection of
Thomas Eller, Berlin 249
29 Helmut Severin, album, page 30, private collection of
Gabriele Schröter, Westoverledingen, Ulrike Severin, Cologne 250
30 Hans- Georg Schulz, album II, page 7, private collection
of Schwarz/Dippold 250
31 Willi Rose, bundle of photographs, private collection of
Thomas Eller, Berlin 250
32 Gisbert Witte, bundle of photographs, photo 168, private
collection of Margret Witte- Ebel, Lüneburg 251
33 Heinrich Kleemeyer, album, page 17, private collection of
Mike Voigt, Syke 251
34 Heinrich Hindersmann, bundle of photographs, photo 178,
private collection of Horst Hindersmann, Dörpen 251
List of Figures / ix
35 Heinrich Hindersmann, bundle of photographs, photo 179,
private collection of Horst Hindersmann, Dörpen 252
36 Willi Rose, bundle of photographs, private collection of
Thomas Eller, Berlin 252
37 Anonymous album, page 10, (‘Album Heer 372’), Auris
Media Verlag 313