Jutta Rüdiger

Jutta Rüdiger (14 June 1910 – 13 March 2001) was a German psychologist and head of the Nazi Party's female youth organisation, the League of German Girls (, BDM), from 1937 to 1945. After World War II, she continued a career in pediatric psychology and maintained a membership of the Association of German Professional Psychologist.

Early career Rüdiger was born on 14 June 1910 in Berlin but was brought up in Düsseldorf, where her father was an engineer. During economic depression in the interwar era, her father was forced to agree to working for a lower salary, which economically impacted her middle-class family.

After leaving school, Rüdiger trained as a psychologist, In 1935, Rüdiger became BDM Leader in the Ruhr-Lower Rhine region. In November 1937 she became Leader of the BDM, at which time she joined the Nazi Party. She succeeded Trude Mohr, who had vacated the position on her marriage, as Nazi policy required. Rüdiger was leader until 1945. They would then become wives to Nazi men to bear many children to increase the strength of the Aryan race.

By 1941, however, there was an acute labour shortage in Germany as some men were conscripted and sent to the front, and the BDM girls were increasingly pressed into compulsory labour service, usually either on farms or in munitions factories, with girls from upper or middle-class families going into office jobs. Rüdiger came to preside over a female work force of several millions, directing them as the economic ministries requested additional labour.

From 1943 onwards, the BDM also supplied thousands of girls for work in flak (anti-aircraft) batteries guarding German cities. By means of this, the Nazi system would allow young women to come to combat service. Girls as young as 13 operated flak batteries, fired guns and shot down Allied planes. Many were killed when their batteries were hit by bombs or machine-gun fire from Allied fighters. Later in the war, BDM girls fought against the advancing Allied armies.

Arrest and later life Rüdiger was arrested by American forces in 1945, and spent two and a half years in detention. Rüdiger was not charged with any specific offence, and was never brought to trial. Upon her release, she resumed her career as a paediatric psychologist, in the areas of the educational guidance and industrial psychology, in Düsseldorf. She also maintained a membership of the Association of German Professional Psychologists.

According to historian Michael Kater, Rüdiger remained "an unreconstructed Nazi". She died in 2001 at Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria, aged 90.

Publications Jutta Rüdiger Der Bund Deutscher Mädel: eine Richtigstellung, Lindhorst: Askania, c. 1984 abridged electronic version Der Bund Deutscher Mädel in Dokumenten: Materialsammlung zur Richtigstellung; Hrsg.: Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Jugendforschung GBR, Lindhorst. Zsgest. von Jutta Rüdiger. Lindhorst: Askania