Hitler Youth Activities: Physical Conditioning


Figure 1.--The Hitler Youth program was based on Hitler's anti-intellectualism. Physical, rather than mental superiority, was stressed and outdoor activities dominated the program.

Hitler's anti-intelcualism was reflected in the Hitler Youth program and its activities. The Hitler Youth program stressed physical, rather than mental superiority. Outdoor activities dominated the program and many of the activities, especially for the older boys delt with skills which the military would find of value. Hitler from the beginning saw the Hitler Youth movement as a tool to hardening boys for their future role of soldiers. He wanted a generation of 'victorious active, daring youth, imune to pain'. Hitler wanted them to be "quick like greyhounds, tough like leather, and hard like Krupp steel." There was to be no intelectual training for the boys of the New Order, he saw intelectual pursuits as damaging to German youth. Some of this was similar to Scouting which extolded the benefits of healthy outdoor activities. Scouting almost exclusively, however, dealt with outdoor activities and never denegrating academics and school. The Hitler Youth not only pursued outdoor activities, but physical consition and exercises as well. And just as the boys had military duties that required a healthy body, girls had their own duties, to bbar and raise children. This was the ultimate duty of the members of the Hitler Youh Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM). Healthy young women woul dbear and raise healty babies. It should not be thought that the HJ phsical conditioning was limited to just military purposes and bearing babies. There was also an ideological compnent to the Hitler Youth physical condition effort. The idea of a master race and the superior abilities meant that every German youth had the resonsbility to care for his or her bofy as a duty to the nation. The idea of the perfect body was represented in NAZI art and in Strenhth through Joy mass field exercizes. Ironically for a regime thst mudered people in the millions, the NAZIs had an interest in public heath, again for purposes of building a healthy racial community. It was the Germans who first made the connection between smoking and cancer. The HJ conducted an intense ant-smoking campaign.

Anti-Intelectualism

Hitler's anti-intelcualism was reflected in the Hitler Youth program and its activities. There was to be no similar intense "intelectual" training for the boys of his New Order, he saw intelectual pursuits as damaging to German youth. Hitler saw physical fitness as much more important for German youth than memorizing what he called 'dead facts'. He wrote, "A violently active, intrepid, brutal youth - that is what I am after... I will have no intellectual training. Knowledge is ruin for my young men.” Hitler firmly believed that a less well-educated, but physically healthy individual with a sound, firm character, full of determination and willpower, is more valuable to the Volkish community than an intellectual weakling. [Gavin] One of the major changes in education the NAZIs made after seizing control was expanding the physical education (PE) program in the schools. As in much of Europe, physical training was given little attention in German schools. Before the NAZIs seized control, schools devoted only about 2 hours weekly to PE. School were order to sharply adjust their schedules to expand the PE program. One source suggests that the schools were directed to schedule an hour of PE in the morning abd an hour in the afternoon, but we can not yet cofirm that. Interestingly, Hitler had no interest in sports with one exception--boxing. He felt boxing should be promoted to build aggressiveness among boys. We are not sure if this wa promoted in the schools. It was in the Hitler Youth program. Hitler did not disapprove of education, although he wasuspicious of the schools which he did control when he seized power abd were highly regarded througout Europe. He wanted subjects taught with a NAZI bent. He did not want history taught, for exaple, as an intelectual exercize, but with a strong German nationalist message.

Physical Activities: Boys

The Hitler Youth program stressed physical, rather than mental superiority. Outdoor activities dominated the program and many of the activities, especially for the older boys delt with skills which the military would find of value. Hitler from the beginning saw the Hitler Youth movement as a tool to hardening boys for their future role of soldiers. He wanted a generation of "victorious active, daring youth, imune to pain." Hitler wanted them to be "quick like greyhounds, tough like leather, and hard like Krupp steel." Some of this was similar to Scouting which extolded the benefits of healthy outdoor activities. Scouting almost exclusively, however, dealt with outdoor activities and never denegrating academics and school. The Hitler Youth not only pursued outdoor activities, but physical conditioning and exercises as well.

Physical Activities: Girls

And just as the boys had military duties that required a healthy body, girls had their own duties, to bear and raise children. This was the ultimate duty of the members of the Hitler Youh Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM). Healthy young women woul bear and raise healty babies. TheBDM program was very different than the HJ program for boys. There were physical and outdoor asctivities, but much more limited and less combastive than those for boys. The BDM program focused on developing home-making skills like cooking, sewing, child care, and other needed skills for a German wife and mother.

The Year of Physical Training (1935)

Membership in the HJ increased rapidly after the NAZI seizure of power (1933). Over half of German youth signed up or were signed up by their parents in a few years (1935). This was a year before membership was made mandatory. Hitler Youth leader Bauder von Schirach declared 1935 to be the it as "The Year of Physical Training". The HJ began the practice of naming each year adter a policy objective. Schirach also announced the second major annual HJ event – the Sports Competition. Medals could be won by HJ who performed rigorous athletic drills and achieved demanding hysical fitness standards. As part of this effort a day would be set dufring the summer as the 'Day of the State Youth'.

Importance: Self Confidence

Hitler saw physical training as essential in building his new order. Here it was pysical trainin that was at the core of the preparation he wanted for German youth. He saw physucal training and body building as essential for building self-confidence. He wrote. "It is precisely our German people, that today, broken down, lies defenseless against the kicks of the rest of the world, who need that suggestive force that lies in self-confidence. But this self-confidence has to be instilled into the young fellow citizen from childhood on. His entire education and development ha* to be directed at giving him the conviction of being absolutely superior to the others. With his physical force and skill he has again to win the belief in the invincibility of his entire nationality. For what once led the German army to victory was the sum of the confidence which the individual and all in common had in their leaders. The confidence in the possibility of regaining its freedom is what will restore the German people. But this conviction can only be the final product of the same feeling of millions of individuals." [Hitler, p. 618.]

Ideological Component

It should not be thought that the HJ phsical conditioning was limited to just military purposes for the boys and bearing babies for the girls. There was also an ideological compnent to the Hitler Youth physical condition effort. The idea of a master race and the superior abilities meant that every German youth had the resonsbility to care for his or her bofy as a duty to the nation and Aryan racial community. The idea of the perfect body was represented in NAZI art and in Strenhth through Joy mass field exercizes. In esence one's own body became property of the state. Hitler writes, "Thus the entire education has to be directed towards employing the free time of the boy for the useful training of his body. He has no right to loaf about idly in these years, to make streets and movie theaters insecure, but after his daily work he has to steel and harden his young body so that life will not find him too soft some day. To get this under way and also to carry it out, to guide and to lead is the task of the education of youth, and not the exclusive infiltration of so-called wisdom. It has also to do away with the conception that the treatment of the body were the concern of each individual. There is no liberty to sin at the expense of posterity and, with it, of the race." [Hitler, p. p. 346.]

Public Health

Ironically for a regime thst mudered people in the millions, the NAZIs had an interest in public heath, again for purposes of building a healthy racial community. Itwas the Germans who first made the connection between smoking and cancer. The HJ conducted an intense anti-smoking campaign.

Sources

Gavin, P. "Hitler Youth," The History Place. (1999).

Hitler, Adolf. Mein Kampf.







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Created: September 4, 2000
Last updated: 1:40 PM 11/6/2014