Figure 1.--The German Scout movement was heavily influenced by the Wandervogel--Germany's first uniformed youth group. Modern German Scouts give little attention to the uniform. These Scouts are from the Pfadfinderschaf at Südlandfaher.

While I have been able to find little information on German Scouting in English, there is some German language material. A HBC contributor has kindly translated available German information. Unfortunately because HBC has such limited information on German Scouting, the translated information is rather confusing and provides a still incomplete picture of the development of German Scouting.

The German writer that much of the information on this pages is based mixes joyfully small facts of minor importance with more imporant items. I don't think that he trying to get at anything else than just stating facts. You have to guess what importance development he is trying to escribe. With the questionned sentence he is simply telling us that the two youth movements prevailing at that time, on one side the old federal youth with a lot of links to political and military groups and still a very strong "imperial education", on the other side the new scouting movement who was really trying to implement Baden-Powell's ideas but had not yet been able to get rid entirely of the very same "imperial education", these two groups were completely independant one from the other and to be found in only two different regions of Germany.

What confuses HBU is the references to the federal union an Scout groups as two competing youth groups. HBU does not know just what this federal union youth group was. HBU had thought that the Scouts were just one of a large number of competing youth groups. This writer suggests that there was a basic ifference between the Scouts and all other German youth groups--but unfortunatly does not explain what the difference was.

German Scouting

Foundation

The first groups of German scouts organized in 1909. Lions book "The pathfinder book" was an attempt to translate Baden-Powell's work to German conditions. As a result, the German Imperial Government adapted scouting as a useful program for pre-military youth education. It found considerable support in military circles. This may have in part been due to the anti-military bias of the more important Wandervogel movement.

Federal Youth Movement

The federal youth movement which arose around the turn of the century initially had no connection with Scouting. The two different movements were not unified until after World War I.

Free German Youth day

A major event in the German youth movement was the 1913 Free-German-Youth-Day, as a counterpart to the 100th anniversary of the Leipzig Battle. It was held with much pomp and glory on the High-Meissner. (Presumably the High-Meissner is a prominate local mountain where the Scouts would camp.) If the Scouts (pfadfinder) with still the ideas of (recht nahesstehenden) the German Empire (dem kaiserreich) were principally located in Leipzig, the Federal Youth (FY) was represented almost only on the High Meissner. [HBU is not sure what this means. The Germain is: Während die dem Kaiserreich doch recht nahestehenden Pfadfinder hauptsächlich in Leipzig anzutreffen waren] The German Youth were defending unity of the German peoples, in opposition to small states and local patriotism and to the "Wilhelmnish"..... collection of separate youth groups.

Weimar Republic

After the World War I (1914-18) there were more points of contact between F.Y. and Scouts, resulting in several types of associations, combining in different ways the main features of both original groups: scouts federations, youth federations, and other groups (such as "Jungenschaften" - "Jungscharen" - "Horten" - "Wandervögel" - "Zugvögel" (where HBC were unable to find comprehensive translation!).

The German source unfortunately provides little other information on the history of Scouting in the period between the two World Wars. There was a wide variety iof youth groups in Germany. Scouting was not the dominate movenment that it was in many other countries. This was perhaps in part because that Scouting was strongly associated with the British and was non-political.

Third Reich (1933-45)

Many popular Germn youth groups stressed volks-culture and were associated with political parties. Of course, in 1933 the NAZIs ended Scouting and folded Scouts and some Scout leaders into the Hitler Youth movement.

Current Situation

Today all German youth groups have a great deal in common, originating from traditional scouting, such as "Kohten", "Jurten", "Jujas" and many of our songs of Federal tradition. Nevertheless differences between both Scouts and F.Y. can still to be found, the largest being probably the education concept of scouts, rejected by F.Y. (even if they transferred in practice much of it). At the 1988 Meissner, which took place on the the 75th anniversary of the Free-German-Youth-Day, numerous Scouts participated.

German Text

This is the original German information: Im Jahr 1909 entstanden in Deutschland erste Pfadfindergruppen. Lions Buch "Das Pfadfinderbuch" war der Versuch, das Werk Baden-Powells auf deutsche Verhältnisse zu übertragen. Das führte dazu, daß der den kaiserlich-deutschen Verhältnissen angepaßte Scoutismus als Mittel der vormilitärischen Jugenderziehung genutzt wurde. Entsprechend große Unterstützung fand die Idee in Militärkreisen. Die um die Jahrhundertwende aufgekommene bündische Jugendbewegung hatte zunächst keine Berührungspunkte mit den Pfadfindern - die beiden verschiedenen Konzeptionen wurden vor dem ersten Weltkrieg nicht in Verbindung gebracht. 1913 fand als Gegenveranstaltung zur 100-Jahr-Feier der Völkerschlacht in Leipzig, die mit viel Pomp und Gloria begangen wurde, der Freideutsche Jugendtag auf dem Hohen Meißner statt. Während die dem Kaiserreich doch recht nahestehenden Pfadfinder hauptsächlich in Leipzig anzutreffen waren, war die bündische Jugend fast nur auf dem hohen Meißner vertreten. Sie traten für die Einheit der deutschen Völker gegen Kleinstaaterei und Lokalpatriotismus und gegen die wilhelminische Vereinnahmung der Jugend ein. Nach dem Krieg gab es mehr Berührungspunkte zwischen Bündischen und Pfadfindern, es entstanden zwischen den "Urbündischen" und den "Scoutistischen" verschiedene Mischformen, die Elemente aus beiden Konzeptionen in sich vereinigten: Pfadfinderbünde, Jungenschaften, Jungscharen, Horten, Jugendbünde, Wandervögel, Zugvögel, usw. Heute gibt es zahlreiche Gemeinsamkeiten. So entstammen "urpfadfinderische" Elemente wie Kohten, Jurten, Jujas und viele unserer Lieder der bündischen Tradition. Dennoch ist die Unterschiedlichkeit Pfadfinder/Bündische nach wie vor anzutreffen. Der größte Unterschied ist wahrscheinlich das Erziehungskonzept der Pfadfinder, daß die Bündischen ablehnen (auch wenn sie z. T. in der Praxis vieles davon übernommen haben). Auf dem Meißnerlager 1988, das aus Anlaß des 75jährigen Jubiläums des freideutschen Jugendtages stattfindet, waren auch zahlreiche Pfadfinder vertreten.