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The German Youth Movement (German : Die deutsche Jugendbewegung) is a collective term for a cultural and educational movement that started in 1896. It consists of numerous associations of young people that focus on outdoor activities. The movement included German Scouting and the Wandervogel. By 1938, 8 million children had joined associations that identified with the movement.
In 1896 the Wandervogel , a popular movement of youth groups who protested against industrialization, was founded in Berlin, and its members soon derived many vital concepts from the ideas of earlier social critics and Romantics, ideas that had extensive influence on many fields at the onset of the 20th century.
To escape the repressive and authoritarian German society at the end of the 19th century, its values increasingly transformed by industrialism, imperial militarism, as well as by British and Victorian influence, groups of young people searched for free space to develop a healthy life of their own away from the expanding cities. Expressing a romantic longing for a pristine state of things and older diverse cultural traditions, they turned to nature, confraternity and adventure. Soon the groups split and ever more organisations were founded, all still calling themselves Wandervogel, but organisationally independent. Nonetheless, the youth groups maintained a sense of belonging to a common movement, but one split into several branches:
After the First World War, the leaders returned disillusioned from the war. The same was true for leaders of German Scouting. So both movements started to influence each other heavily in Germany. From the Wandervogel came a stronger culture of hiking, adventure, bigger tours to farther places, romanticism and a younger leadership structure. Scouting brought uniforms, flags, more organisation, more camps and a clearer, more rational ideology. There was also an educationalist influence from Gustav Wyneken.
Together, this led to the emergence of the Bündische Jugend, a movement of many different youth associations. There were Wandervogel groups, Scouting associations and others, all of which mixed the elements described above with new ingredients. New styles and groups developed. A new tent form, the kohte, was introduced by Eberhard Kobel (aka "tusk"). Together with Koebel's interpretation of the yurt this type of tent is still the typical black tent used by German scouts on international scout camps to this day. The Deutsche Freischar and then the Jungenschaft was founded.
In the German Youth Movement one can find all the different reactions of German society as a whole to the rise of the Nazis. Many welcomed it as a liberation movement to break free of the perceived injustice of the Treaty of Versailles and to see Germany thrive once again. The notion of a 'Volksgemeinschaft', a people's community, was also popular. On the other hand, there were also many in the German Youth Movement who saw their associations as an elite superior to the more primitive Nazis. Some groups were genuinely democratic, or even left wing. Many more, even some of those who tended to the right, still wanted to carry on their independent work and existence as organisations. This led inescapably to a confrontation with the Nazi state, since the Nazi state did not allow any youth groups separate from the Hitler Youth, which itself adopted many of the outer forms of the Bündische Jugend after 1933. The groups remaining outside the Hitler Youth were outlawed and pursued, while some of them (e.g., the Edelweiss Pirates) tried to carry on.
One thing which might have been different from other sections of German society is the following: The Youth Movement was very idealistic, romantic and moral. Therefore, its members tended to take greater risks in following and acting upon their beliefs and persuasions. This might be the reason why one can find significant members of the Youth Movement on both sides, among the Nazis and among the Widerstand.
Examples for this are the following: Adolf Eichmann was one of their members from 1930 to 1931. Hans Scholl was a member of the Jungenschaft, an especially independent-minded association of the Bündische Jugend. Claus von Stauffenberg was a member of the Scout association of the Neupfadfinder, also an association of the Bündische Jugend.
After the war many associations were refounded in West Germany, when the allies allowed it. In East Germany the Communist government did not allow it but instead outlawed all independent youth organisations. On the other hand, there were some connections between the German Youth Movement and the Free German Youth; within which a pioneer movement subunit, named the Thälmann Pioneers, existed for East German schoolchildren aged 6-14.
In West Germany the Youth Movement became strongly dominated by Scouting, although Wandervogel, Jungenschaft and other groups were also refounded. In contrast to the situation before the war, all groups tried to have a more rational ideology and declared their support of the new Basic Law. German Scouting also approached world Scouting (the World Organization of the Scout Movement and the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts) and was admitted to the world organisations for the first time.
Both the kibbutz and Bruderhof Communities can trace their origins to the German Youth Movement. [1] The influence of Friedrich Nietzsche on the movement was substantial, with the philosopher described as the "Prophet of the German Youth Movement". [2] Today there are still many groups and organisations which see themselves as part of this movement. German Scouting is still heavily influenced by this history, although the historical influence varies from group to group. The most distinctive features of German Scouting trace from this history.
Jaroslav Foglar was a Czechoslovak writer who wrote many novels about youths and their adventures in nature and dark city streets. His signature series is Rychlé šípy, which was adapted into comics by Jan Fischer.
The Hitler Youth was the youth organisation of the Nazi Party in Germany. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name Hitler-Jugend, Bund deutscher Arbeiterjugend in July 1926. From 1936 until 1945, it was the sole official boys' youth organisation in Germany and it was partially a paramilitary organisation. It was composed of the Hitler Youth proper for male youths aged 14 to 18, and the German Youngsters in the Hitler Youth for younger boys aged 10 to 14.
Wandervogel is the name adopted by a popular movement of German youth groups from 1896 to 1933, who protested against industrialization by going to hike in the country and commune with nature in the woods. Drawing influence from medieval wandering scholars, their ethos was to revive old Teutonic values, with a strong emphasis on German nationalism. According to historians, a major contribution of the Wandervögel was the revival of folk songs in wider German society.
The Scout movement in Germany consists of about 150 different associations and federations with about 260,000 Scouts and Guides.
Kurt Gruber was a Nazi politician and from 1926 to 1931 the first chairman of the Hitler Youth.
The Young German Order was a large paramilitary and national liberal organisation in Weimar Germany. Its name and symbol were inspired by the Teutonic Knights.
Non-aligned Scouting organizations is a term used by the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM), World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) and their member national organizations to refer to Scouting organizations that are not affiliated with them. See List of non-aligned Scouting organizations.
Eberhard Koebel also Eberhard Köbel, called tusk, i.e., "the German" in the language of the Sámi people he traveled among, was a German youth leader, writer, and publisher.
The Sturmtrupp-Pfadfinder was a Scout association in Germany active from 1926 to 1934. The association never had more than 500 members. It was the first Scout association in Germany to admit boys and girls. It was interdenominational and politically neutral.
The Deutsche Jungenschaft vom 1.11.1929, abbreviated dj.1.11, was a youth group within the German Youth Movement.
Ludwigstein Castle is a 15th-century castle overlooking the river Werra and surrounded by woodland. It stands southwest of the town of Witzenhausen in North Hesse. Founded in 1415 the castle's buildings today were built in the 16th and 20th centuries. It was allowed to go to ruin in the late 19th century.
The Kohte is the typical tent of German Scouting and the German Youth Movement. Based on the Sámi goahti and lavvu and developed in the late 1920s and early 1930s, it is an open-topped tent assembled on-site from four characteristically shaped panels, which are traditionally black, and uses two tent poles lashed together in a V shape, from which the top of the tent is suspended using crossed sticks. The central hole serves as a smoke hole, so that a fire inside the tent is possible.
The Deutsche Freischar – Bund der Wandervögel und Pfadfinder (DF) is a German youth organization. Originating from the merger of several small Wandervogel and Scouting groups, it was one of the largest and most important associations of the Bündische Jugend of the Weimar Republic besides the Deutscher Pfadfinderbund and Reichsschaft Deutscher Pfadfinder.
The Leipzig Meuten were anti-Nazi gangs of children, teenagers and young adults based in Leipzig during the Nazi period of Germany. During the National Socialist era, these groups sought to recruit young individuals from working class backgrounds with the aim of destroying Nazi control. They were similar to the Edelweiss Pirates, but more politically driven. The organisation however, was dissolved by the Gestapo in 1939 with numerous youths sent to penitentiaries, youth prisons or reformatories.
Hans Blüher was a German writer and philosopher. He attained prominence as an early member and "first historian" of the Wandervogel movement. He was aided by his taboo breaking rebellion against schools and the Church. He was received with some genuine interest but sometimes perceived as scandalous.
The Deutscher Pfadfinderbund (DPB) (literal translation German Scouting Union) was the first German Scouting association, and the forerunner of the Deutscher Pfadfinderbund (1945). It existed from 1911 until 1933, when it was disbanded by the National Socialists.
Alexej "Axi" Stachowitsch was an Austrian-Russian author, pedagogue, songwriter, technician, one of the most important figures of post-war Scouting and Wandervogel in Germany and Austria, and founder and first principal of the Werkschulheim Felbertal. Stachowitsch was a program director and journalist at the 7th World Scout Jamboree in Bad Ischl, director of the de:Nerother Wandervogel, co-founder of the independent Balduinstein educational institution and founder of the Jungenbundes Phoenix. Meanwhile, it has become known that the castle Balduinstein has been the site of many acts of sexual violence against male minors since its founding and for three decades.
A Jugendburg, sometimes referred to in English as a youth castle, is a mediaeval castle in German-speaking countries that was converted during the 20th century into a public community centre or educational facility for young people. The sponsors of the original youth castles came mainly from the Wandervogel and Pfadfinder movement, or were at least linked to the youth movement.
Light Prayer is a painting associated with the German Youth Movement and Lebensreform concept of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It portrays a young, naked man who stands on a rock and stretches his arms toward the sky. It was created by the German painter Fidus, who from 1890 to 1938 made eleven versions in various media. In 1913, he created a postcard based on the painting that became widely spread in Germany.