In October 1946, seven million more women than men lived in occupied Germany. In this study of unwed, divorced, widowed, and married women at work and at home across three political regimes, Elizabeth Heineman traces the transitions from early National Socialism through the war and on to the consolidation of democracy in the West and communism in the East.

Based on thorough and extensive research in German national and regional archives as well as the archives of the U.S. occupying forces, this pathbreaking book argues that marital status can define women's position and experience as surely as race, gender, sexual orientation, and class. Heineman finds that, while the war made the experience of single women a dramatic one, state activity was equally important. As a result, West German women continued to be defined in large part by their marital status. In contrast, by the time of reunification marital status had become far less significant in the lives of East German women.

In one broad, comprehensive sweep, Elizabeth Heineman compares prewar and postwar, East and West, lived experience and public policy. Her sharp analytical insights will enrich our understanding of the history of women in modern Germany and the role of marital status in twentieth-century life worldwide.

Elizabeth D. Heineman is Associate Professor of History at the University of Iowa.

"Through a brilliant study of German women 'standing alone,' Heineman advances a provocative argument: marital status operates as a social marker analogous to race, class, and gender."—Lynne Haney, American Journal of Sociology

"Heineman's work is indispensable for students of postwar Germany. Its rigorously comparative analysis makes usefully clear not only how differently the issue of marital status was perceived and deployed in the two Germanies but also how stubbornly both regimes maintained gender difference."—Atina Grossmann, American Historical Review

"Elizabeth Heineman has produced an original and comprehensive work . . . Heineman's complex exploration of the very different ways in which ideology, policy, social experience, and popular memory construct the meaning of marital status makes an important contribution to our knowledge of gender and sexuality in Nazi and post-World War II Germany and will be of interest not only to scholars of twentieth-century Germany but also to those interested in the history of women, family, and social policy in modern industrial societies."—Mary Nolan, Central European History

"A pathbreaking book. Nothing else attempts the broad sweep or comprehensive vision that Heineman offers in this book."—Robert Moeller, author of Protecting Motherhood