BDM Activities: Biking

Figure 1.--We are not sure how to interpret this photograph. We assume the teenagers here are older BDM girls. But we do not recognize the striped uniforms. The location is on Pomerania, part of wjich was turned over to the Ples to form the Polish Corrider by the Versailles Treaty. But as te signs are in Germany, the photograph may have been taken after the German invasion. and the area waas annexed to the Reich. The girls were clearly on an extended trip as you can see their camping gear.

We had thought that bike trips were a activity for the boys which had a more strenuous and competivie program. Most of the photographs of bike outings we have found show the boys biking. We have hover found rferences to the girls biking as well. [Reese, p. 146.] We think it was less common than for the boys. Many German parents would not have liked the idea of girls on their own biking around the country while the idea was moew acceptable for the boys. Short day trips might have been acceptable for girls, but trips linvolving overnight camping or hostels would have encountered some opposition. An element of the BDM program, like the bpy's program, meant that there was no adult supervision. Rather the trips would have been superbised by older girls serving as BDM leaders. We have found a few photographs of BDM girls on biking expeditions.

Sources

Reese, Dagmar. Growing up female in Nazi Germany.