Sisterly Advice and Eugenic Education: The Katholische Deutsche Frauenbund and German Catholic Marriage Counseling in the 1920s and 1930s

During the 1920s and 1930s, the Deutscher Caritasverband and the Katholische Deutsche Frauenbund spearheaded German Catholic marriage counseling. But the two organizations and the predominantly female Catholic marriage counselors disagreed about the nature and focus of the counseling work. By the early 1930s, the public image of Catholic marriage counseling indicated increased support for eugenics. The Frauenbund and the marriage counselors, although they did not reject eugenics outright, did not wish counseling to be a tool for the implementation of eugenic ideas. Instead, they hoped to preserve it as a domain for women, focusing on offering emotional and spiritual assistance.