Nanna Conti

Nanna Conti (1881 to 1951) was a German midwife who led the association of German midwives under the Nazi regime. Born Nanna Pauli in Uelzen, she married in 1898, separated in 1902, trained as a midwife in Magdeburg and from 1905 worked as a freelance midwife in Berlin, later joining the Prussian association of midwives, which campaigned for midwives to have greater powers and priority over physicians at childbirth. She joined the Nazi Party in 1930 and from 1933 held the post of Reichshebammenfuhrer, leader of the German midwives. Her source records that she helped establish a school of midwifery in Berlin, worked on reducing maternal mortality, and was involved in a 1938 law requiring a midwife at every birth. It also records that she promoted Nazi ideology and antisemitism, helped pass laws excluding Jewish midwives, and was involved in forced sterilization policies. She was president of the International Midwives Union from 1936 and died in Bielefeld in 1951.