The HJ
The magazine Die HJ - the battle paper of the Hitler Youth was the most important youth medium of the NSDAP . In the National Socialist German Reich - like the Hitler Youth (HJ) in general - it had the task of guaranteeing the “ideological orientation” and system-conforming will-formation of the youth within the framework of the party and thus securing the rule of the NSDAP for the distant future.
In addition to the general content of youth issues, the Kampfblatt was often extremely aggressive in tone and was also understood as a “wake-up call” for preparing political initiatives and for violent actions. Other leading youth media that existed until 1933 were partially absorbed by the HJ magazine, or continued to exist (after political alignment with the party goals) in the form of several monthly magazines. The newspaper Die HJ was strictly controlled by the Office for Press and Propaganda of the Reich Youth Leadership . Only the denominational youth were allowed to maintain their own modest literature.
The Hitler Youth often received directives on political orientation from the Reich Youth Leadership (which was initially a party organization and later became a "Upper Reich Authority"). In the first edition of 1938, Karl Lapper defined the "constant propaganda mobilization of the Hitler Youth" as the goal of Nazi youth propaganda . In addition to newspapers, film was also placed in the service of the Hitler Youth.
In 1939 the magazine was renamed Junge Welt - the Reichszeitschrift of the Hitler Youth , it existed until the end of 1944. From April 1939 Wilhelm Utermann was the main editor and from May 1942 Herbert Reinecker . From 1947 the title " Junge Welt " was reused in the GDR for a youth newspaper.