June Club

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The Juniklub was a right-wing intellectual group in the Weimar Republic , or rather a discussion group for young conservatives . The circle, initiated by Hans Roeseler and dominated by Arthur Moeller van den Bruck , which occasionally meets daily, is considered to be the most important right-wing idea center at the beginning of the 1920s.

The meeting of intellectuals wanted to gain ideas on how to shape Germany's political future on a conservative basis. The mass and party state were rejected, as was Western democracy and the policy of compliance with the Versailles Treaty. The aim was a corporative - corporate society, governed by an independent and responsible leadership.

The journalistic organ was the weekly magazine Das Gewissen , from 1928 Der Ring . Heinrich von Gleichen-Rußwurm was the owner of the "Ring-Verlag" (from 1922) .

history

founding

In March 1919, at a meeting between Hans Roeseler (member of the Association of German Students [VDSt] and the Association of Warrior Aid East [VKO]), Max Hildebert Boehm , Arthur Moeller van den Bruck and Heinrich von Gleichen-Rußwurm in Weihenstephan at the Potsdamer Bridge the merger of the solidarians with the VKO and thus the establishment of a new club decided. In addition to the four above-mentioned, the founding group consisted of a further nine people who were academics of the younger generation and who for the most part had been journalists. At first, they met in Heinrich von Gleichen-Rußwurm's apartment on Potsdamer Privatstrasse 121i, which is why the name I-Klub was initially given. In protest against the signing of the Versailles Treaty on June 28, 1919 and as a counterweight to the left-wing Berlin November Club , the name was changed to " June Club" three months after the association was founded. In Max Hildebert Boehm's book Ruf der Junge (Call of the Young) , Boehm even speaks of a coded program contained in the name. This is how the sequence of letters stands for Juvenum Unio Novum Imperium.

College of National Politics

As a teaching and research institute, the club founded the Political College in Berlin in 1920, which carried out a series of political courses until 1924. This resulted in the University of National Politics with its winter courses and exams in 1922, which was headed by its founders, Baron Gleichen and Martin Spahn . Young conservative circles, the Juniklub and the German National People's Party were involved . It is seen as a counterpart to the German University of Politics , with which it entered a study group in the years 1927–1930.

Move to Motzstraße 22

At the end of 1920 the June club moved to the house of the German Protection Association for Border and Abroad Germanism at Motzstrasse 22 in Berlin-Schöneberg . Since then, the club life has been more tightly organized u. a. They met on fixed dates and official membership cards were handed out.

resolution

On April 24, 1924, the members met for a meeting to discuss the dissolution of the club. There were several reasons for this. On the one hand, the internal unity could no longer be maintained due to different points of view, such as the Hitler coup that took place in Munich in 1923 . Heinrich von Gleichen-Rußwurm pursued the conversion of the June club into a men's club, which met with strong resistance from Arthur Moeller van den Bruck, as the name itself seemed reactionary to him. There was also no guideline for concrete political action, which inevitably led to collisions and thus intensified the crisis. By 1924, the number of members of the club grew to 1,000 people. The exclusivity was thus lost, which resulted in a decreasing integrative power of the club. On the other hand, the period around 1923/1924 was characterized by political détente in the Weimar Republic. Many came to terms with the Weimar Republic, which took the club's base. Probably the decisive point in the dissolution of the June club was the illness and the subsequent suicide of Moeller van den Bruck in 1925, with which the June club lost face. With the dissolution of the June club, many members organized themselves into other associations. Heinrich von Gleichen-Rußwurm founded the German Men's Club in December 1924 and Max Hildebert Boehm founded the Institute for Border and Foreign Studies in April 1926. In the spring of 1927 an attempt was made to rebuild the previous unity, but this failed. The initiators included: Hans Roeseler , Arthur Moeller van den Bruck , Max Hildebert Boehm , Otto de la Chevallerie , Albert Dietrich , Fritz Ehrenforth , Paul Fechter , Karl Hoffmann , Wilhelm von Kries , Alexander Ringleb , Franz Röhr , Werner Wirths

structure

Members

There were mostly around 120 to 150 members and invited guests who met for the events on Tuesday evenings of the June club. The members consisted of an elite who saw themselves in this way and were disappointed by the Wilhelmine era and the Weimar " party state ". Acquiring membership turned out to be very difficult, as it was already laid down in the Thirty-Three Sentences and later in the club statutes that the trust of all members of the June club was necessary in order to acquire membership. If even one person expressed his mistrust with good reason, membership was excluded. Women were generally denied membership. The members came in particular from circles of intellectuals and journalists, but also from the military, the higher civil service and industry. Men of the most varied social positions and convictions met.

“It was unanimously reported by former employees of the June Club that one of the happy experiences from this time was the fact that social, denominational and also ideological barriers were falling in the club, so that men of the most varied social positions and attitudes could meet here were able to meet for lively, factual discussions. Mainly in the first year of its existence, men met at the club's political evenings, who later often feuded as political opponents. "

- Hans-Joachim Schwierskott : Arthur Moeller van den Bruck and revolutionary nationalism in the Weimar Republic. Musterschmidt, Göttingen a. a. 1962, p. 59 f.

At the same time, there were different groups in the June club. Martin Spahn , Heinz Brauweiler and Eduard Stadtler as well as Franz Röhr and Heinrich Herrfahrdt stood for Catholic conservatism . Another faction was formed by the VDSt and its representatives Hans Roeseler , Walter Szagunn , Fritz Ehrenforth , Carl Georg Bruns , Hermann Ullmann , Karl Maßmann , Erich von Oettingen , and Karl Manteuffel-Katzdangen . A third group consisted primarily of men who were active in the press, such as Werner Wirths , Walter Schotte , Hans Heinrich Schaeder , Walther Schulz , Frithjof Melzer , Fritz Hesse , Paul Fechter and Fred de la Trobe . Also included were Karl Hoffmann, Wilhelm von Kries and Rudolf Böhmer , Paul Lejeune-Jung , Cäsar von Schilling , Hans Schwarz , Gustav Steinbömer and Albert Dietrich as participants in club evenings.

Employee

The employees of the June Club included Moeller van den Bruck , August Winnig , Heinrich von Gleichen-Rußwurm , Martin Spahn , Georg-Ernst Graf von Bernstorff , Max Hildebert Boehm , Heinrich Rogge , Karl Anton von Rohan , Walter Schotte , Eduard Stadtler , Wilhelm Stapel and Hermann Ullmann .

Publications

At first they met every day in a small circle in von Gleichen-Rußwurm's apartment and the first joint journalistic work to be published was a political dictionary in which the group's views were recorded. Shortly after it was founded, a program in the form of thirty-three sentences was formulated in cooperation with Moeller van den Bruck, in which the club defines itself as a community. On January 1, 1920, the weekly magazine Conscience became the mouthpiece of the June Club , which was published since April 9, 1919 by former front officer Werner Wirths under the name Das Gewissen, an independent newspaper for popular education . Even before the June Club bought this newspaper, most of the journalistic work for the newspaper was done by members of the June Club. On the other hand, there was no automatism, because a number of ambitious June Club members never published in conscience . There were also articles by sympathizers of the club who did not live in Berlin. The conservative-minded youth was seen as the target group. Arthur Moeller van den Bruck was mainly active as a journalist in the conscience and published detailed articles, the "weekly chronicle" and the "criticism of the press", but he also carried the main burden of the editorial team, as the editor Eduard Stadtler was often absent due to long lecture tours. Through his many publications in newspapers and books, Moeller van den Bruck quickly became an ideological leader and was considered the “secret king” within the association. There were also publications beyond the association's own newspaper in almost all other conservative magazines, such as B. in the German Volkstum , Die Deutsche Rundschau and Die Hochschule . In the first few months, attempts were made to influence public opinion at public speaking events, but this did not correspond to the style of Heinrich von Gleichen-Rußwurm or the reticent Moeller van den Bruck, and so the June Club concentrated on its internal discussions and journalistic work. Only Eduard Stadtler and a few other members (including Max Hildebert Boehm) came to the lectern and achieved success for their political organization.

contacts

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

At Rudolf Pechel's invitation , Adolf Hitler appeared in the club in 1922, but could not win any of the participants for the NSDAP . There were close contacts with Karl Haushofer .

See also

literature

  • Volker Weiß : Modern anti-modern. Arthur Moeller van den Bruck and the change in conservatism. Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh , Paderborn 2012 ISBN 3-506-77146-9 , passim
  • Berthold Petzinna: Education for the German lifestyle. Origin and development of the young, conservative “Ring” circle 1918–1933. Academy, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-05-003191-3
  • Volker Mauersberger: Rudolf Pechel and the "Deutsche Rundschau". A study on conservative-revolutionary journalism in the Weimar Republic 1918 - 1933. Schünemann, Bremen 1971, ISBN 3-7961-3023-2
  • Hans-Joachim Schwierskott: Arthur Moeller van den Bruck and revolutionary nationalism in the Weimar Republic. Musterschmidt, Göttingen a. a. 1962.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Dietrich Bronder: Before Hitler came. 2nd Edition. Geneva 1975, p. 65.
  2. ↑ Dietrich Bronder: Before Hitler came. 2nd Edition. Geneva 1975, p. 66.
  3. ^ A b c André Schlüter : Moeller van den Bruck: Life and Work , p. 293 ff., Online
  4. ↑ Manfred Schoeps : The German men's club. A contribution to the history of young conservatism in the Weimar Republic , Erlangen-Nuremberg, dissertation at the philosophy faculty there, 1974
  5. ↑ Hoffmann was Martin Spahn's assistant in the foreign policy working group of the "Political College" of young conservatives. For him, geographical areas determined the development of international relations and foreign policy in general. According to David T. Murphy: The "Heroic Earth". Geopolitical thought in Weimar Germany 1918 - 1933. Kent State University Press, Kent (Ohio) 1997 ISBN 0-87338-564-0 p. 162. Available online
  6. ↑ Claudia Kemper: The "conscience" 1919–1925: Communication and networking of the young conservatives. Munich 2011, p. 160 f.
  7. ↑ Dietrich Bronder: Before Hitler came. 2nd Edition. Geneva 1975, p. 66 f.
  8. ↑ Claudia Kemper: The "conscience" 1919–1925: Communication and networking of the young conservatives. Munich 2011, p. 45.