Figure 1.--This Scout group in 1933 was not yet incorporated into the HJ. The month is not indicated, but the background suggests the the late-Spring or summer (June-September). The uniforms seem similsr, but not identical to the HJ. The shirts almost certainly were not brown. Notice the cross on the Scout emblem, but we do not know if this was a Protestant or Catholic unit.

German had one of the most vigorous and diverse youth movements in the world. This changed with the rise of the NAZIs. The NAZIs after seizing power (January 1933) moved against other youth groups. Hitler appointed Baldur Benedikt von Schirach Youth Leader of the German Reich (Jugendfuehrer des Deutschen Reiches) (June 1933). Schirach proceeded to ban Marxist youth groups. Other youth movements like the Scouts were incorporated into the Hitler Youth. Leaders committed to Scouting were exluded when the various associations were turned into HJ units. The Catholic Centre Party before disbanded under NAZI pressure (July 5, 1933) obtained guarantees over catholic education and youth groups. There were also some natioinaslist groups that remained independent, but only for a while. Schirach reported to the Führer that Protestan youth group members (which included the Protestant and secular Scouts) had been fully incorporated into the HJ (December 1933). While the Catholic Scouts and other youth groups were exempted at first, they also were eventally incorporated into the HJ as well. Many facilities of the Scouts and other youth groups were seized by the Hitler Youth, a practice they followed in areas with German populatiions incorporated into the Reich. Thus the only youth groups available to German children was the Hitler Youth. Here participation was not at first mandatory. Most German children eventully had to join the Hitler Youth. An intreaguing study of Scouting in occupied countries during the War is available. Eventually participation in the Hitler Youth was made manditory for all Aryan German youth (December 1936).