When Lina E., a maid, gave birth to her daughter Martha in 1922, the man she identified as the father denied paternity, and Lina began motherhood without any financial support. When Langenholzhausen city authorities discovered that Lina was virtually penniless, Martha's guardian took the case to court, whereupon the court ordered August K., a bricklayer, to pay child support. For sixteen years, the court, together with the youth department and Martha's state-appointed guardian, ensured that August paid and that Lina and Martha received economic assistance.

At a Mother's Day celebration in Detmold, Frau Brielmann received the bronze Honorary Cross for German Mothers. Her award, the highest honor given to women under National Socialism, came after a close investigation of her mothering skills, her racial background, and her family's “worthiness.” During the meal that followed the distribution of the crosses, Frau Brielmann told the women at her table, “They should have given me the means to stop bearing children instead of the award.” Local Nazi authorities, offended by this remark, began an investigation seeking grounds to revoke Frau Brielmann's Honorary Cross.

Herr Neske, a soldier, returned from the Russian front to discover that his exhausted wife had been strained to the limits caring for their two young daughters in war-torn Detmold. He turned to the local National Socialist authorities for help.