Nanna Conti

Nanna Conti, née Pauli (21 April 1881 – 30 December 1951) was a German midwife who headed the association of German midwives during the Third Reich and held the position of Reichshebammenführer from 1933. Her son Leonardo Conti headed Nazi health programs.

Conti was born in Uelzen in Prussian origin family and was politically influenced by her father Dr. Carl Eugen Pauli (1839–1901) who was associated with the Pan-German League. An extramarital affair of Pauli led to the mother Anna Pauli née Isecke to separate and raise the children. In 1884 the family moved to Leipzig and in 1893 to Lugano. Nanna married Silvio Conti (1872–1964) in 1898 and they had three children who survived into adulthood apart from several miscarriages. In 1902 she separated and moved to Magdeburg in 1902 and apprenticed as a midwife. She then worked in Charlottenburg and became a member of the Prussian association of midwives. The association worked for greater powers and worked for a law that made them responsible for childbirth, giving priority over physicians. Conti became a member of the NSDAP along with her sons in the 1930s and was appointed chairperson for the German midwives association. She wrote on midwife practice and promoted Nazi ideology and anti-Semitism. She was involved in the passing of laws that excluded Jewish midwives. She was involved in reducing maternal mortality and helped establish a school of midwifery in Berlin. She represented Germany at a conference in London in 1934 and hosting the 1936 meeting at Berlin and as chairperson of the Congress she was automatically declared president of the International Midwives Union (founded in 1919 and later becoming the International Confederation of Midwives) in 1936, She was also involved in policies such as forced sterilization of women with disabilities or hereditary diseases. In 1938 she was involved, along with her son, in the passing of a law that mandated the presence of a midwife at every birth that happened Germany. In 1945 she fled to live in Schleswig-Holstein and escaped any punishment. She moved to Bielefeld in 1951 where she lived until her death. Her son Leonardo committed suicide in prison while another committed suicide before the end of the war.