“Heroic Maidens and Women of a Great Era,” is the title of a brochure in the popular series “When Germany Awoke: The People and Events of the Wars of Liberation,” which appeared in 1913 to commemorate the one-hundredth anniversary of the wars of 1813–15. To be sure, the centenary mainly honored the “heroic deeds” of the “brave national warriors” – the volunteers and militiamen who had gone to battle. The observance also paid homage, however, to the “great sacrifices” made by “German women” during these wars. By 1913 it was generally acknowledged that wars fought with conscript armies could be conducted most successfully when they were accompanied by a general mobilization of civilian and military society. This implied that the broad support of women was also necessary for victory. In order to convey this insight to women and girls in the bellicose era on the eve of the First World War, authors of brochures that addressed female readers regularly referred to the “heroic age” of hundred years before, in which, in their interpretation, patriotic consciousness had “awakened” in men and women alike, and members of the “female sex” had actively committed themselves to the fatherland for the first time. The pamphlet noted accordingly that