The Bund Deutscher Frauenvereine (Federation of German Women's Associations) (BDF) was founded on 28/29 March 1894 as umbrella organization of the women's civil rights feminist movement and existed until the Nazi seizure of power in 1933.
Its creation was inspired by the founding of the World's Congress of Representative Women meeting on the occasion of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Several women from Germany attended this event: Anna Simson, Hanna Bieber-Böhm, Auguste Förster, Käthe Schirmacher. They took the example of the American National Council of Women as a model for the BDF. The International Council of Women also played a role in strengthening the co-operation between the NCW and the BDF.
The first board was composed of:
In 1896 they were joined by:
Among others, the Reifensteiner Association was among the members.
In 1933, the Nazis rose to power, and asserted control over women's associations. Groups involving communists or socialists were forbidden, and members were arrested or even assassinated in rare cases. All associations were asked to turn in Jewish members, including the Union of Protestant Women, the Association for Home and Countryside, the Union of German Colonial Women, and the Union of Queen Louise. Soon enough, however, the majority of the organizations were either forcibly destroyed or decided internally to disband, like the BDF which dissolved itself in 1933 to avoid being controlled. Some of the affiliated associations joined the Deutsches Frauenwerk.
Membership steadily grew in the first twenty years: