Figure 1.--Hikes in the country were popular activities for the Hitler Youth and other German youth groups. Fights sometimes occurred when the differed groups, especially with political affiliations, encountered each other.

Hitler from an early point in his political career conceived of the imprtance of appealing to children and guiding their moral and political formation. This was a novel approach for a German politician. No other German politican made a similar effort. Hitler joined the NAZI Pary in 1921. The NAZI youth movement was formed in 1926. Rudolf Hess suggested it be called the Hitler Youth (Hitlerjugend). The movement proved to a valuable force in Hitler's drive to seize power.

German Youth Groups

German youth during the 1920's were involved in an incredible diverse number of mostly small youth organiztions, perhaps as many as 2,000 such groups. The most popular organization was the Wandervogel, which was popular due to the involvement of sports. Boys were able to go on weekend retreats, where they would hike and learn to survive on their own in the wilderness. Organized sporting events of soccer and other various competitions kept the interests of the children. The Wandervogel were noted for their love of the land, not the new, modern conveniences of the cities. Hiking and skiing were chosen over activities such as watching a movie or going to a dance. The Wandervogel, which was formed November 4, 1901, reflected the main attitudes of the of the youth movement. The Wandervogel was partly a manifestation of the perceptible mood of boredom and restlessness appearance of Wilhelmian Germany was little more than a facade which concealed latent tensions beneath the surface. The youth movement was a rejection of the Weimar government, which was one of the reasons why they were so easily supportive of the NAZI regime. They were also disenchanted with the older generation and their new sets of values: work and money. The Hohe Meissner meeting of 1913 showed the spirit of the youth. German youth wanted to rejuvenate Germany and were so serious in their convictions that they were approached by a variety of people and organizations. These people included reformers, intellectuals and critics of Weimar Germany. They wanted the youth to become their allies, but they were making a serious mistake. This mistake was that they expected that the youth to be led by adults, but the youth were not willing to give up their independence.

Early NAZI Youth Organization

The National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP or NAZI Party) announced the foundation of the Jugendbund der NSDAP om March 8, 1922 in the newspaper Völkischer Beobachter. The Jugenbund held its first meeting May 13. As with the NAZI Party, the Jugenbund was first primarily centered in Bavaria. It was renamed Jungsturm Adolf Hitler. There were other NAZI youth organisations informally organized, but it was the only one that was officially sanctioned by the NSDAP. The leader of the Jugendbund was Adolf Lenk an (Sturm Abteilung) SA leader. (The SA was the para-military NAZI formation of stree thugs, better known as the Brown Shirts or Storm Troopers.) The Jugendbund was organized into two levels: the Jungmannschaften (14-16 years old) and the Jungsturm Adolf Hitler (16-18 year old). Showing its SA origins, Jugenbund was involved in street disorders. The first notable action was in the so-called "Battle of Coburg" October 14-15, 1922. Jugenbund members joined about 800 adult SA Storm Troopers. The Jugendbund held its first national congress in 1923, as units had been organized in other German states besides Bavaria.

Munich Beer Hall Putch (1923)

Hitler tried to seize power in Munich with the SA orgabized by Göring. The Jugenbund was susposed to take part in the Munich Beer Hall Putsch of 1923, but did not. The attempted Putsch was a failure. Even so the Jugenbund was banned after the disastrous failure of the Putsch along with the NSDAP itself. The Jugendbund was the forefather of the Hitler Jugend but it was outlawed (with the rest of the party) after the failed "Beer Hall Putch" in 1923. Hitler in jain began to plot out a new strategy for seizing power.

Attempts at Reorganization

During the years that the NSDAP was outlawed the NAZI youth was organised in various other organisations. The NAZIs tried to reorganize a youth movement after the 1923 banning, hoping that name changesw ould bes ufficient. Jugendbund leader Lenk tried twice to reorganize. The first group was the Vaterländische Jugendverband Grossdeutschlands. The second was the Grossdeutsche Jugendbewegung (GDJB). Authorities arrested Lenck each time. Kurt Gruber proved more successful. Gruber had been the Jugendbund leader in Saxony. He set up the Grossdeutsche Jugendbewegung (GDJB). Saxon authorities accepted the GDJB. Gruber also cooperated with other extreme right groups. The GDJB was renamed the Frontjugend as it became with youth branch of the Frontbann, a group set up to reserect the banned SA. The Frontjugend, however, later decided to revert to the GDJB. Other NAZI youth groups appeared. Gerhard Rossbach in Austria formed the Schilljugend. Units in Germany were led by SA-Gruppenführer Edmund Heines. Hitler decided tht a unified NAZI youth movement was needed and he considered who to appoint to lead it. Lenk decided he did not want the task. Rossbach made the mistake of refusing to accept Hitler as the leader. Hitler than gave the asignment to Gruber.

Hitler Youth Founded

The NAZI Party (NSDAP) on July 4, 1926, held a convention Parteitag) where youth leaders and party members attended. The theme was Educational Questions and Youth Organizations. At this convention the NAZIs decided to form a party youth group. Rudolf Hess suggested it be named the Hitler Youth (Hitlerjugend).

Sturm Abteilung (SA)

Later in 1926 leadership of the HJ movement was transferred to Franz von Pfeffer of the Sturm Abteilung (SA). Pfeffer's vission for the HJ was limitd. His primary focus was to train young men to fight against members of left-wing youth groups. As a branch of the SA the HJ used the SA brown shirt uniform. This resulted, howevr, in unforseen consequences. In the increasing streeting fighting and demonstrations that Hitler promoted, some members were killed because they were mistaken for SA stromtroopers. This prompted the design of a more destinctive HJ-uniform. Hitler officially recognized these decisions on July 27, 1926. Hitler decided that if the youth loved the outdoors, they would also love weapons; unfortunately, he was right. The boys loved weapons, only the boys were given weapons training, and the programs designed by the party's security aparatus, the Schutzstafel (SS). The programs involved all the activities the youth normally would do in their other organizations, with the exception of the use of weapons. Three of Hitler’s seven points of business for the German people dealt directly or indirectly with education in the Third Reich:
Point 4: The state must take the sport of the youth to an unheard-of-level.
Point 6: The state must emphasize the teaching of racial knowledge in schools.
Point 7: Dealt indirectly with education and enphasized that the state must awaken patriotism and national pride in all its citizens. This is clearly a goal that was enforced in the HJ.

Rallies

The first national HJ rally was held in 1928 with 600 boys. The next year 2,500 boys took part in the Nüremberg party rally. These annual rallies were to become the primary political event in German political life with thousands of HJ boys participating and adding to the pageantry.

Hitler and Children

HBU is unsure as to when Hitler's ideas for the HJ crystalized. We believed they began to take shape as Hitler observed the idealism of the boys and how it could be used to political advantage. The HJ movement played an important role in enabling the NAZIs to seize power and as result Hitler saw the potential for a massive youth movement in his desire to remold the German people. Hitler's influencial ideas and powerful personality were to reach past the adult members of the NAZI party, to the German children. Hitler felt that by teaching the future generation about fascism, then all of his plans and ideas would succeed with the help of the children. Hitler then acted as the father of the German children. He gained their respect and support at a young age, which was a new tactic which had never been used before. This effort of course was facilitated when the NAZIs seized power in 1933 and quickly took contol of the schools as well as independent youth groups. Hitler gained the children's respect and support by teaching them strict manners and discipliary orders while they were still in school. He also enforced the teaching of Fascism and xenephobic nationalism in the schools.

Kurt Gruber

Kurt Gruber was appointed Reichsfuehrer of the Bund Deutscher Arbeiterjugend (German Youth Workers Organization) and adviser for youth affairs on the NSDAP Reichsleitung. Gruber decided not move his headquarters to Munch, but kept it in Plauen. The HJ under Gruber, however, did not grow significantly. This did not please Hitler who began to think about a more ffective leader. Gruber's position as HJ Leader eventually camne into question. Balder von Schirach worked go undemine him behind the scenes. What finally doomed Gruber was the return of Ernst Röhm at Hitler's request from South America to assume command of the chaotic SA. The storm troopers feeling their strength were disatisfied with what they saw as Hitler's moderate lkeadership. They broken and occupied the NZI Party office in Berlin (March 193), an embarassment for both Giebells ahd Hitlker. Hitler named himself Supreme Commander of the SA and appointed his old colleague Röhm as its Chief of Staff, but who actually began running the organization. Gruber operated the HJ as a semi-independent entity within the SA. Röhm was not going to llow rht, he wanted control of the organization. Hitler supporting Röem ordered Gruber to report as a subordinate to the SA Chief of Staff (April 1931). He also ordered Gruber to move the HJ organization from Plauen to the main Nazi headquarters in Munich. This was important as at Plauen it was more difficylt for Röem to supervise him. And Schirach began criticizung him for financial losses.

Figure 2.--Baldur Von Schirach attending the funeral of a 15-year old Hitler Youth boy who had been killed.

New Units

The HJ began to take its final shape in 1930. Two new branches of the HJ was formed: Deutsche Jungvolk (DJ) and Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM). Jungmädel (JM) was later made a seperate branch). DJ was the branch for younger boys aged 10-14 and BDM the branch for girls. The girls had previously been organised in Schwesternschaften

Organizational Responsibility

The HJ as their uniforms show was originally organized as a unit of the SA. The HJ was separated from the SA in 1931. The SA was banned at the time and the rough undisciplined SA was hardly a force wkith which most German parents, ecept NAZI Party stalwarts, wanted their children involved. In fact, SA members had complained that the Hitler Youth uniform looked too much like their uniform. After its separation from the SA, the more elite SS began to play an increasingly important role in the HJ. The program was increasingly militarized. The HJ in fact played an important role in World War II. The HJ in 1944 formed a SS Panzer Division which fanatically resisted the Allied landings at Normandy and in the ensuing battle was descimated. HJ boys played a major role in the Volkstrum which defended the Reich in 1945.

Baldur Von Schirach

Baldur von Schirach was born in Berlin on March 9, 1907, the son of an aristocratic German father and an American mother, whose ancestors included two signatories of the Declaration of Independence. On his father's side descended from an officers' family with artistic tendencies and a cosmopolitan background (Carl von Schirach had resignedfrom the army in 1908 to become a theatre director in Weimar), Baldur grew up in a pampered, well-to do environment. One of the earliest members of the NSDAP (he entered the Party in 1924-25 while attending the University of Munich where he briefly studied Germanic folklore and art history),

Von Schirach and the HJ

The guiding light that made the Hitler Youth into a formidable youth organizaion was Baldur Von Schirach, who was eventually tried at Nuremberg and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Von Schirach, who came from a cultured family, joined the NAZI Party in 1925 when he was only 18 years old. Upon special request of Hitler, he went to Munich in order to study Party affairs. After having joined the Party, he became active in converting students to National Socialism. Schirach actively promoted the NAZI Party (NSDAP) and its affiliated youth organizations. This was the start of Schirach's conspiratorial activities, which he continued for two decades in the spirit of unbending loyalty to Hitler and to the principles of National Socialism. Schirach shows his slavish loyalty to Hitler in his principal book, The Hitler Youth, published in 1934:

We were not yet able to account for our conception in detail, we simply believed. And when Hitler's book, Mein Kampf, was published it was our bible which we almost learned by heart in order to answer the questions of the doubters and superior critics. Almost everyone today who is leading youth in a responsible position joined us in those years."

Figure 3.--The Hitler Youth participated in NAZI rallies and demonstrations well before Hitler seized power.

Hitler in 1929 appointed Schirach leader of the National Socialist German Students League. Hitler insisted in 1931 that the HJ headquarters to be moved to Munich. Hitler was disatisfied with Gruber's lack-luster performance with the HJ and forced him out. A new post of Reichsjugendführer was created to head NAZI youth movements: the HJ, he National-Sozialistische Schülerbund (NSS), National-Sozialistische deutsche Studentenbund (NSDSt.B. Baldur von Schirach was appointed to the new post. He also made head of the NSDSt.B and Adrian von Renteln was made head of the HJ and NSS. Schirach began devoting his efforts full time to Party work. Before 1933, Schirach moved throughout Germany, leading demonstrations and summoning German youth to the Hitler Youth. When this organization and the wearing of its uniform were forbidden by law, Schirach continued by illegal means. Of this period he writes:

"Whoever came to us during this illegal time, boy or girl, risked everything. With pistols in our belts we drove through the Ruhr district while stones came flying after us."

Schirach relates that Rosenberg and he were not successful before 1933 in efforts to reach "an understanding" with other youth organizations. Schirach states that he thereupon arrived at a conclusion which later was to spell the doom of independent youth groups: "I realized at that time that an understanding with the leaders of the League would never be possible and devoted myself to the principle of the totality [Totalitlaet] of the Hitler Youth which in the year 1933 cost all those leagues their independent existence." The Hitler Youth as a SA unit were nominally under the command of SA Chief Ernst Roehm. After Hitler had Roehm murdered during the Night of the Long Knives, the HJ came under the direct control of von Schirach.