Boyhood

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jungenschaft is a term that was mainly coined and used in the Bundischen youth movement . On the one hand, it was used to designate a certain age group within some youth associations, usually that of 11 to 18 year olds. On the other hand, certain notions of collective organization were linked with the term. Hermann Kügler coined the term in 1920 to express the idea of ​​a pure boy wandering bird. This was followed by those districts that explicitly saw themselves as boys' associations during the 1920s . Eberhard Köbel , also a supporter of the boys' union idea, took up the term in 1929, but conceived his autonomous German Youth Union from November 1, 1929 (dj.1.11) programmatically as a movement that was to reshape and renew the youth movement from within. The dj.1.11 had a style- defining effect beyond the Second World War .

Boyhood as a boys' union

When the leader of the Sachsengau of the wandering bird , Hermann Kügler, returned from the First World War , he found the Saxon wandering bird in what he saw as a poor condition. He attributed this to the gender mix of the fraternities and sought a separation. The will leads to the boys' union, because: “The boy's mind goes to the union, the girl's endeavors go to mating. But that wears down every covenant. A union cannot harbor germs that necessarily lead to its deterioration. ”Kügler derived the term Jungschaft from an analogy to the term“ Jungmannschaft ”, which was used in Silesia : Jungebund → Jungschaft. For Kügler, youth was not a theoretical term, but the supporting element of the Bundestag youth on which the larger league was to build. This expressed a conviction that was in fact constitutive for the entire Bundische culture, namely "the conviction of a social difference between the sexes that cannot be influenced by anything."

The Gau Sachsen had already become the first pure boys' district in the Wandervogel in October 1919 when the girls left. But Kügler wasn't the only one in the Alt-Wandervogel who wanted an all-male youth association. During the Federal Week of the Alt-Wandervogel from March 30th to April 4th, 1920 in Bad Sachsa , the union split into a boys 'and a girls' union. Not because women are considered to be inferior or because Hans Blüher's point of view of the men's union, according to Federal Leader Ernst Buske , but because boys and girls want to develop separately for their own good.

“The facts are that the girl matures much earlier in her development than the boy and that the girl is therefore mentally superior to the boy, for whom the WV usually means the development time, from which the great danger of mental influence through the girl grows up. And this danger is greater and more far-reaching than is generally assumed, since our entire culture has reached such a sterile stage, not at least because of the immense influence of women, that it is actually no longer possible to speak of culture. Our whole life is effeminate and effeminate. "

- Ernst Buske : Federal Communications May 1920

The historian Marion De Ras argues that it was the growing influence of girls that made it necessary for boys and men in Wandervogel to equate youth movement and boy movement and to define girls as the other category. The First World War caused a change in attitudes within the Wandervogel. The war participants wanted to restore the pre-war situation, when at least the leadership positions of the leagues were male-dominated. At the same time, the stab-in- the-back legend created the impression that softening caused defeat. In the end, Ernst Buske only clearly articulated one conviction that had already been sublimated, namely that girls had no right to be in the Wandervogel.

However, there was also opposition, mainly from the districts of Berlin , Bavaria and Swabia , which contributed to the further fragmentation of the old wandering bird. At the federal representative assembly in Naumburg on October 23 and 24, 1920, for example, Kügler's Gau Sachsen split off. On January 1, 1921, the groups that refused to separate from the girls founded the Deutsch-Wandervogel on the Hanstein . Kügler, in turn, was one of the founders of the Wandervogel boys' association on March 30, 1921 , in which the Jungsgaue Saxony, Harz - Elbe and Baden merged. He also became the first leader of the new covenant. At the end of 1921, the Silesian Young Society under Hans Dehmel also joined the Bund.

In 1922/23 the various leagues converged again. The various boys' associations Altwandervogel, Wandervogel-Wehrbund , Wandervogel-Jungsbund and Schlesischer Wandervogel-Jungsbund reunited in August 1923 and took on the name Wandervogel-Deutsche Jungenschaft . Under Buske's leadership, the name Alt-Wandervogel, Deutsche Jungenschaft was adopted. Negotiations with the alliance of free migratory birds failed in 1925 because of the girl question. After the merger of the Alt-Wandervogel, Deutsche Jungenschaft and the Greater German Scout Association at the beginning of 1926, the Wandervogel-Deutscher Jugendbund joined the new alliance after a promise to also include girls. This new association was called the Association of Wandering Birds and Scouts , later the German Freischar . In other societies, such as the Young National Federation of the term found church youth use to profess the idea of Young Federation.

Within the German Freischar group, young people referred to the 11 to 18 year olds. The 18 to 25 year olds were grouped together in the young team, while the older ones were part of the team. The individual levels should be independent and have their own laws. At the same time, according to the concept of the Lebensbund, members of the youth team should, if possible, lead the youth groups.

Eberhard Köbel and the "autonomous youngsters"

In all leagues of the youth movement there were radical supporters of the idea of ​​youth. In the German Freischar group, it was particularly Eberhard Köbel who was enthusiastic about the idea of ​​a large German youth group and at the same time carried out a “young rebellion”. On November 1, 1929, he first founded the dj.1.11 in the form of a conspiracy within the German Freischar. After the sudden death of federal leader Ernst Buskes and the arbitrary self-proclamation of Köbel as leader of the southern leagues of the German Freischar, Köbel was expelled from the German Freischar on May 4, 1930. The dj.1.11 was then constituted as an independent federation.

Köbel chose the term “autonomous youth” because he was a supporter of the idea of ​​a pure boys' union and at the same time wanted to distance himself from the idea of ​​the “life union”. He criticized the inclusion of all ages in the leagues and argued that the young team of the elderly patronized the young and neglected their way of life. In doing so, he challenged the definition of youth as a phase of preparation for man.

“One can only surrender to one thing: either the idea of ​​the life union or the boyhood. The youth leader belongs entirely to the youth. The moment the boyhood is no longer enough for him, is no longer just important, he is no longer a boy leader, but a youth carer, educator, to an idea, to the idea of ​​the life union. "

- tusk (di Eberhard Köbel) : Jungschaft or Lebensbund (1930)

Köbel's conviction that the idea of ​​young people had revolutionary potential arose from the idea of ​​an "order" to which the members belonged body and soul. Regardless of the anarchist component, according to Marion de Ras, he was concerned with more conservative ideals, whose roots he saw among primitive peoples. In the case of Köbel, it was not a question of the mind either, but rather a "fundamental religious question" and "universal truth".

Boyhood until today

The dj.1.11 is considered to be "probably the most important group for the development of the Bündischen counter-milieu" during National Socialism . This is one of the reasons why the dj.1.11 has shaped the style of the development of the youngsters to this day. Shortly after the end of the Second World War, various youth groups were formed that more or less followed the tradition of dj.1.11. The Göttingen Young Society, founded in 1946 by Walter Scherf (trip name tejo), became famous. As with many of these start-ups, this group mainly consisted of former members of the young people , which for a long time led to a rejection by young people's groups , which had roots in the young people's resistance against the National Socialists.

In 1946 some young people (Bremen, Göttingen, Hildesheim, Lüneburg, Verden / Aller, Wolfenbüttel and Hanover) united to form the German young people . At the turn of the year 1948/1949 Walter Scherf was elected federal leader. In mid-1949, however, he withdrew. The association was continued by Michael Jovy , Hans-Jochen Zenker and Gerhard Rasche . In 1951, Klaus-Jürgen Citron founded the Neue Deutsche Jungenschaft out of the Deutsche Jungenschaft , but this new foundation was not supported by most of the leaders of the German Jungenschaft and did not last long. In 1954 it became part of the “Jungenschaft im Bund”, Jovy, Zenker and Rasche, for their part, had the name deutsche jungenschaft registered as an association in order to protect the name.

The idea of ​​an independent youth group was retained:

“It is important to break through to new content and new forms of boys' life while preserving the Bundische heritage. This is how it should be: those who belong to the youth community in the covenant should be distinguished, not signed. We have the firm confidence that it will succeed. The prerequisite for this is the inviolable independence of the boys as well as their being in a bond with people who have experienced the decisive shaping of their lives on their way through the boys' union and who are committed to it. That is why the allies of the youth are not 'former' but 'present', who vouch with their personality for the purity of the cause and the authenticity of the alliance and who put their knowledge and skills in its service. "

- Circular letter of the "BUNDES", an amalgamation of several boys' associations , at the beginning of 1954

In 1953, Johannes Ernst Seiffert tried to tie in even more directly with Koebel's dj.1.11 with the dj.1.11-Bund by aligning this youth with his imagination, forms and content. In addition, new foundations or continuations of old groups existed as autonomous hoarding and hoarding rings such as the cartel of German young people founded on November 1, 1959 and the dj.1.11-hortenring in the Rhine / Ruhr area (joined the dj.1.11-Bund in 1963).

The Bund deutscher Jungenschaften - BdJ , which resembles the German Freischar before 1933 rather than the pre-war youth fraternity - BdJ emerged in 1960 from the Jungentrucht and the Jungenschaft in the Bund (which consisted of parts of the German Freischar, the companionship and the New German Jungenschaft and was founded in 1954). The BdJ saw itself as a present-day and multifaceted alliance and, especially in the wake of the Meißner camp in 1963, developed great supra-bundle influence. The BdJ opened up to girls and adults up to mixed groups. There were also girls in groups of the dj.1.11-Bund; all other post-war youth groups retained the idea of ​​the all-boys association.

In addition to some young leagues' unions, not very strong in members, who see themselves as successors to dj.1.11 to varying degrees, federations such as the German Freischar , the German Scout Association or the Scout Association Crusaders continue to use the term young people as a designation for groups or ages. Also in the church, predominantly the Protestant youth work and in the YMCA , the concept of the youth group has been preserved for groups of boys. However, these groups mostly have different roots than dj.1.11. There are also some Christian (mostly Protestant) young people who see themselves in the tradition of dj.1.11. However, critics interject that a denominational relationship with the ideal of autonomy of dj.1.11 cannot be reconciled.

literature

  • Helmut Grau: dj.1.11. Structure and change of a subcultural youthful milieu in four decades . dipa, Frankfurt am Main 1976. ISBN 3-7638-0213-4 .
  • Rudolf Kneip, Ludwig Liebs u. Karl-Heinrich Zimmermann: On the secret of Bündischer leadership. Documentary discussions with Hermann Kügler . dipa, Frankfurt / Main 1980, ISBN 3-7638-0221-5 .
  • Werner Kindt (Ed.): The German youth movement 1920 to 1933. The Bundische Zeit. Eugen Diederichs, Düsseldorf 1974.
  • Marion EP de Ras: Body, Eros and Female Culture. Girls in the Wandervogel and in the Bündische Jugend 1900-1933 . Centaurus, Pfaffenweiler 1988.
  • Fritz Schmidt (Ed.): The clear air is free today: The Bund Deutscher Jungenschaften . Südmarkverlag Fritsch, Heidenheim 1986. ISBN 3-88258-090-9
  • Fritz Schmidt: German Youth Association 1945–1951 . Puls 19. Südmarkverlag, Witzenhausen 1991. ISSN  0342-3328

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kneip, Lieps u. Zimmermann, On the Secret of Bündischerführung , p. 12.
  2. ^ Rudolf Kneip: Wandervogel - Bündische Jugend, 1905-1943. Frankfurt a. M. 1967, cit. after Werner Kindt (ed.): The German youth movement 1920 to 1933. The Bundische Zeit. Eugen Diederichs, Düsseldorf 1974, p. 70.
  3. ↑ Kneip, Lieps u. Zimmermann, From the Secret of Bündischerführung , pp. 11–15.
  4. ↑ Irmgard Klönne: "I jump in this ring". Girls and women in the German youth movement. Centaurus, Pfaffenweiler 1990, pp. 215-219, cit. 215.
  5. ↑ a b Werner Kindt (Ed.): The German youth movement 1920 to 1933. The Bundische Zeit. Eugen Diederichs, Düsseldorf 1974, p. 47f.
  6. ^ Marion EP de Ras: Body, Eros and Female Culture. Girls in the Wandervogel and in the Bündische Jugend 1900-1933 . Centaurus, Pfaffenweiler 1988, p. 90.
  7. ^ Marion EP de Ras: Body, Eros and Female Culture. Girls in the Wandervogel and in the Bündische Jugend 1900-1933 . Centaurus, Pfaffenweiler 1988, pp. 105, 91f.
  8. ↑ Hiltraud Casper-Hehne: On the language of the Bundischen youth. Using the example of the German Freischar. Niemeyer, Tübingen 1989, p. 52.
  9. ↑ Hiltraud Casper-Hehne: On the language of the Bundischen youth. Using the example of the German Freischar. Niemeyer, Tübingen 1989, p. 6f.
  10. ↑ Werner Kindt (Ed.): The German youth movement 1920 to 1933. The Bundische Zeit. Eugen Diederichs, Düsseldorf 1974, p. 1211.
  11. ^ Marion EP de Ras: Body, Eros and Female Culture. Girls in the Wandervogel and in the Bündische Jugend 1900-1933 . Centaurus, Pfaffenweiler 1988, p. 93.
  12. ↑ Wilfried Breyvogel: Young forms of resistance - From organized resistance to youthful everyday opposition , in: Peter Steinbach, Johannes Tuchel (ed.): Resistance against National Socialism . Series of publications Volume 323, Federal Agency for Political Education, Bonn 1994. ISBN 3-89331-195-5 , pp. 435f., Cited. 435.
  13. ↑ Grau: dj.1.11 , p. 53; Schmidt: New German Young Society , -schrift- 37
  14. ^ Schmidt: Deutsche Jungenschaft , p. 38
  15. ^ Karl Seidelmann: Bund and group as a way of life for German youth. Attempt to study the appearance of German youth in the first half of the XX. Century . Wiking, Munich 1955, p. 378.
  16. ↑ a b Grau: dj.1.11 , p. 54
  17. ↑ Florian Malzacher, Matthias Daenschel: Youth Movement for Beginners . Second edition. ISBN 3-88258-131-X , p. 157
  18. ↑ Gray: dj.1.11 , p. 65