What is the feminine equivalent of “Der Fuehrer”? If Hitler had been succeeded by a woman who wanted to retain his old title, surely she couldn’t have been called “Der Fuehrer.” And “Die Fuehrer” sounds ungrammatical.
This is a WAG, but maybe “Fuehrerin”? Just based on könig and königin.
That’s right, femalization goes by adding -in, also: die Führerin.
Concur
Where did I read an alternative history of Eva Braun taking over a victorious Germany when AH died?
What the others said.
Nominative: die Führerin, Genitive: der Führerin, Dative: der Führerin, Accusative: die Führerin.
The female form is in use as a generic female form for ‘leader’ and also was in use during the Third Reich as part of female senior functionaries’ title (e.g. the president of the Nazi womens’ league was the Reichsfrauenführerin).
Of course the situation postulated by the OP couldn’t have happened politically - a woman as overall leader, in a position of authority over men, would have been contrary to the basics of Nazi ideology.
Nicht schuldig.
I want to thank everyone who answered my questions. I appreciate the information. And I have a question for this poster. I thought I was pretty familiar with Nazi ideology since it was one of things I studied when I was getting my Ph.D. in Political Science, but I know of no stated principle which would preclude a woman from becoming leader of the party. Can you provide a cite?
The declared policy of Nazism (in wartime practice tempered by the labour shortage) was for women’s role to be motherhood and homemaking. There were frequent statements to that effect (Hitler on a 1934 party conference: “The word womens’ emancipation is only a word invented by the Jewish intellect. We to not consider it right for a woman to intrude into the man’s world, but consider it natural for these two worlds [i.e. male and female spheres] to stay separate.”
The Weimar republic’s advances in women’s rights were denounced and as a matter of policy working women, esp. married ones, were pressured to leave the workforce. Some more background in the German-language Wikipedia article
So leadership (except within womens’ and girls’ organizations) definitely was a man’s job.
So would that make the plural “Führerinnen”? If so, that’s a fun word to say.
Yes but, Nazi ideology was not important. Or to say it another way, it was flexible. Treaty with the Soviets? No problem! Alliance with the Japanese? Why not?