German Fire Brigades: Youth Auxileries (Jugendfeuerwehr)


Figure 1.--We are not sure about this photograph, but we would guess that it is some kind of German military school. We would guess the photograph was taken about 1915.

Many German communities had fire brigades. Rather like voluntary fire brigades in America. The members included youths and teenagers. We have also noted quite young boys in fire brigade uniforms. This seems to have been the junior division of these brigades. A German reader tells us, "It is common that the voluntarien fire brigades of villages/towns have a youth group (not the professional fire brigades in the big towns and community centres." Many of these groups are very elabirately uniformed. Our German reader tells us, "Such a youth group participates in official ceremonies of voluntarian fire brigades in community events, e.g., annual celebration and the like. It has no relation to military organisations." I am not sure when these youth auxileries were first formed, bu we notice them in the early 20th century. We note these groups into the 1950s. We are not sure if they still exist.

Community Fire Brigades

Many German communities had fire brigades. Rather like voluntary fire brigades in America. We have little information on these brigades such as how common they were and just who participated. I think the larger cities had paid professional fire departments. Towns and villages could not apport paid professional forces so they organized voluntary brigades. These voluntary fire brigades may be found in nearly all communities, villages, towns. Their duty is to be prepared, in case of a big fire, to replace the professional fire brigade in case of additional alarms. In very small villages at these times neigbors helped, of course, if there was no organisation.

Youth Auxilleries

The members included youths and teenagers. We have also noted quite young boys in fire brigade uniforms. This seems to have been the junior division of the voluntary town and village fire brigades. The German term is Jugendfeuerwehr which I think means "young fire war" . I suspect that many of the younger boys involved wete the children or younger brother of the adult volunteers. A German reader tells us, "It is common that the voluntarien fire brigades of villages/towns have a youth group (not the professional fire brigades in the big towns and community centres." Many of these groups are very elabirately uniformed. Our German reader tells us, "Such a youth group participates in official ceremonies of voluntarian fire brigades in community events, e.g., annual celebration and the like. It has no relation to military organisations." The boys as shown here are clearly too young to engage in fire fighting. As sons or younger brothers of the fire fighters the youth auxillery gets them involved un the program. And they have meetings like other youth groups. In the case of a local event, annual parish fair or so, they take part in the parade together with the adult groups.

Chronology

I am not sure when these youth auxileries were first formed, but we notice them in the early 20th century. Certainly these grouos significantly predate the early 20th century image seen here. In the medieval cities and villages built of wood and thatch there were many fires. So there must have been some kind of organisation to fight against a fire if it occurs. A Geramn reader writes, "Wwe had the "Nachtwaechter" (night watch, fire watch) at night, staying at the top floor of the church tower during night watching for fire etc." We note these groups into the 1950s after World War II. We are not sure if they still exist.

Uniforms

The uniforms for these fire brigades were styled on the basis of the professional fore brigades in the city. There was not one national style, but there were rough similarities. Usually there were differences for the youth auxilleries to differentite them from the adult members. The boys here wear distinctive helmets (figure 1). They look similar to the spiked military helmets, bit there are differences. The uniform consisted of a jacket and long trousers. The tunics have high collars, epaulettes, and what look like brass buttons. These boys wear white trousers. I'm not sure how common these white pants were. Boys this age probably normally wore kneepants. We suspect there fore brigade uniforms were probably their first long pants. They have belts worn over the jackets. Many but not all of the boys have hachets on their belts.






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Created: April 19, 2004
Last updated: April 20, 2004