Hitler Youth (Hitler-Jugend): organization, activities and legacy

The historical background of the HJ is formed by concepts of "youth care" in the Empire, which generally provided for "military training" and national education of male youth between elementary school and barracks, and which had been introduced in state laws since 1888. At the end of 1916, as part of the Hindenburg Program, the Third OHL initiated the law on patriotic service, some of which concerned minors. These militaristic concepts were continued after the November Revolution in the form of numerous "military sports groups" of right-wing parties and paramilitary associations. Military discipline was also a common component of the activities of most non-party youth organizations.

In March 1922, the "NSDAP Youth League" was founded in Munich as the party's first official youth organization. The initiative for this came from NSDAP member Adolf Lenk, not from the party leadership. The Jugendbund was subdivided into "Jungmannschaften" (14- to 16-year-olds) and the "Jungsturm Adolf Hitler" (16- to 18-year-olds). The latter was directly subordinate to the SA and was considered its youth department. In the beginning, the youths wore the same uniforms as SA members. Consequently, the Jugendbund was hardly perceived as an independent organization, either publicly or within the party.

After the Hitler putsch in 1923, the NSDAP was initially banned. Thereupon the youth league largely dissolved. After the re-admission of the party, various individual groups from it competed under assumed names for recognition as party youth: among them the "Schilljugend" founded by Gerhard Roßbach. Kurt Gruber in Plauen in the Vogtland succeeded in 1926 in enlarging some of these groups and uniting them to form the "Greater German Youth Movement" (GDJB), which was initially limited to Saxony. After a short power struggle, Gruber prevailed against Roßbach and achieved that the GDJB was recognized as a party youth.

In July 1926 in Weimar, at the second party congress of the NSDAP, which had been re-founded in 1925, the GDJB was renamed "Hitler Youth, Federation of German Workers' Youth" at a special meeting for youth issues in the club pub "Armbrust". The name was given by Hans Severus Ziegler, later deputy Gauleiter in Thuringia; Julius Streicher successfully suggested the name. Gruber was appointed "Reichsführer" of the HJ and appointed to the Reich leadership of the party.

From then on, the HJ was the most important youth organization of the NSDAP, but remained subordinate to the SA until 1932. One could become a member at the age of 14 at the earliest, at 18 one had to join the NSDAP or (from 1927) the SA. All HJ leaders had to be confirmed in writing by NSDAP local group leaders. In the beginning they did no youth work, but took part in street fights and marches of the NSDAP. From 1928 on, they organized home evenings, group trips, excursions, etc. From 1929 onwards, HJ school groups were formed, which Adrian von Renteln brought together in the National Socialist School Association (NSS). The Deutsches Jungvolk (German Young People) of 10- to 14-year-olds also came into being at that time. The "sisterhoods", which had also been formed since 1926, were renamed Bund Deutscher Mädel in 1930.

On May 1, 1931, the Reich leadership of the HJ was moved from Plauen to Munich. In October 1931, the office of a "Reich Youth Leader" was established there within the Supreme SA leadership and filled by Baldur von Schirach. Schirach, who had only acted as a messenger at the founding party congress, had led the National Socialist German Student League (NSDStB) since 1929, and exercised his new office while retaining his previous leadership position. He was given the rank of SA group leader. Thus the three Nazi youth organizations, HJ, Nationalsozialistischer Schülerbund and NSDStB, were now under Schirach. The previous Reichsführer of the HJ, Gruber, resigned from his office on November 1, 1931, and was appointed to the Youth Committee of the Reichsleitung of the NSDAP. The new Reichsführer of the HJ became Adrian von Renteln on November 1, 1931. The hitherto independent Bund Deutsches Jungvolk was affiliated to the HJ: 15-year-olds had to join the actual HJ, 18-year-olds still had to join the SA.

In March 1932, Hitler rescinded the incorporation of the HJ into the SA, as the SA was threatened with a state ban. Nevertheless, the HJ was briefly banned on April 13, 1932, but continued to operate under the name NS Youth Movement. Schirach claimed that during these months the HJ gained 35,000 members. After the SA and HJ bans were lifted, he took over the overall management of NS youth work, incorporated the NS-Schülerbund into the HJ, and centralized its structures. Starting in September 1932, HJ company cells were also established.

At the Reich Youth Day of the HJ in Potsdam on October 1 and 2, 1932, about 80,000 young people took part, marching past Hitler in columns for seven hours. The HJ was surprisingly accepted into the Reich Committee of German Youth Associations, in which all German youth associations had voluntarily united.

During the Weimar Republic, a total of 24 members of the Hitler Youth lost their lives in violent political conflicts, most of them in the years after 1930. Among them was Herbert Norkus, who was killed by communists on 24 January 1932 during a publicity campaign for the NSDAP in Berlin-Moabit. He was subsequently celebrated by the National Socialists as a "role model for the militant commitment of the Hitler Youth" and as a "blood witness of the movement". In 1933, the propaganda film "Hitlerjunge Quex" was made, which transfigured Norkus' fate.