Cold War Communities: Women's Peace Politics in Postwar West Germany, 1945–1952

In this book chapter in the edited volume Home/Front: The Military, War, and Gender in Twentieth-Century Germany, the author, Irene Stoehr examines women's peace politics in postwar West Germany between  1945 and 1952. The chapter expolores  the tensions within and between various women's groups after the war. With the priority of reconstruction and independence from political parties, women attempted to work together, and included even former National Socialist women. When cooperation between West and East ultimately failed, it was due to Cold War politics, not questions of war and National Socialism, which both sides relegated to the margins.