Johanna Haarer

Johanna Haarer (3 October 1900 – 30 April 1988) was a German-Austrian physician and author.

Haarer obtained her doctorate in medicine in 1925, but gave up her career as a doctor in 1932 after she married and had children. She began writing articles on parenting and baby care for , the weekly supplement of the National Socialist newspaper . The popularity of her articles led to the publication of her first book, (The German Mother and Her First Child), in 1934, which became the best-selling parenting guide in Nazi Germany. During the Third Reich, she was the most successful author of educational literature within the National Socialist ideology.

After the Second World War, she was imprisoned for a year in American-run internment camps because of her involvement in the NSDAP and her party membership. In the post-war years, her involvement in the National Socialist regime prevented her from opening her own medical practice, and for that reason she worked as a pulmonologist for the West-German government until 1965.

Until the 1970s, she was considered an influential figure in the field of child rearing. Her debut book was reprinted, in a modified form, until 1987. A total of 1.2 million copies of the book were sold. Provided by Wikipedia