Bündische Jugend

Would-be totalitarian regimes place a great deal of emphasis on cultivating, shaping and forming youth. Although repeated by a number of figures in history, the phrase ‘He who has the youth has the future’ is closely associated with Joseph Goebbels. The two very different books under review focus on attempts to manipulate and mould youth according to nationalist/fascist precepts. As reflected in the historiography of Weimar Germany, the Bündische Jugend is the weak link between the tremendous energy and enthusiasm of the Wandervogel and the ruthless regimentation of the Hitler Youth. The heterogeneous and overlapping collection of youth movements, formed in the early 1920s, reflected a rightward shift in youth politics post-First World War but nevertheless preserved some independence, authenticity and diversity in comparison with the naked instrumentalisation of the Nazi years. In his new history of this interim period, Rüdiger Ahrens uses a thorough and rigorous social history approach to shine light on an otherwise neglected topic. The fruits of his painstaking, exhaustive research constitute a richer, more complex and layered assessment of the functions of these mostly right-wing nationalist youth organisations. Ahrens claims new sources which illuminate the mentalities of his youthful subjects. His wider source-base helps to clear up confusions about the different movements active at different times. He uses grey literature, biographies and apologist memoirs to good effect—but most of these are from the perspective of functionaries rather than ordinary members

Enthusiasm · Historiography · Interim · Nationalism · Nazi Germany · Nazism · Political science · Politics · Theology · European history and politics · German History and Society · History · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society · Law · Philosophy