Robbert-Jan Adriaansen. The Rhythm of Eternity

“The youth movement” was the name that Germans in the early twentieth century used to describe the hiking groups that called themselves Wandervögel (Wandering Birds) and, after 1919, Bündische Jugend (Associated Youth). The Rhythm of Eternity: The German Youth Movement and the Experience of the Past, 1900–1933, a new intellectual history by Robbert-Jan Adriaansen, shows that they were remarkable organizations. Unlike other organizations for teenagers in Europe and North America, they operated under the principle that only youth should lead youth, and that only youth could rejuvenate an allegedly materialist, degenerate society. In printed journals, they published hundreds of reports about their journeys and beliefs, without supervision by older people, who were not welcome in their organizations. These reports are among the largest, if not the largest, collection of sources by youth from the early twentieth century that were unmediated by adults. When they were in their early twenties, members of the youth movement also published philosophical treatises about youth.

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Eternity · German · Literature · Materialism · Movement (music) · Political science · Sociology · Theology · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · European history and politics · Gender Studies · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Philosophy · Psychology