...

Perhaps I'm naive, or my previous education regarding post World War Two Germany was incomplete, but until last week I was completely unaware of the anti-fraternization movement, much less that the rape of German women by American soldiers was a widespread problem. The degree to which German society went to punish those women who "fraternized" with American soldiers (beatings, hair-cutting) was appalling; as Biddiscome points out, it's easy to evoke feminist rhetoric and characterize such behavior as the objectification and perceived ownership of women, especially when placed alongside the metaphor of women taken by the American troops  as the spoils of war. 

I think a more convincing explanation for this sort of vigilante violence toward women, however, lies in the rapidly changing roles of women over the course of the 1920s-40s, and the unfamiliarity of these newly established gender roles to the returning German soldiers. Not only had women filled new jobs and roles in society in the absence of Germany's men during World War Two; studies also showed that the Post-war German woman was in fact more assertive and self-reliant than their male counterparts. The insecurities of the returning soldiers (especially in the presence of healthy soldiers from the world's richest country) led to a widespread distrust and resentment of women - German men tried to push women out of their jobs, accused them of "deserving" rape, and even beat them or forcibly cut their hair as punishment for their sexual and social "transgressions". I realize that the American soldiers occupying Germany were in a position of power over the German men, but I'm surprised that more of the latter's aggression wasn't taken out on the former. What did German men have to gain in so alienating their fellow female citizens?