National Socialist German Student Union

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Banned today as a mark of a former National Socialist organization : Badge of the NSDStB

The National Socialist German Student Union ( NSDStB ; also NSD Student Union ) was a division of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) founded in 1926 for students . On behalf of the NSDAP, it was to take over the ideological training of the students in accordance with the National Socialist ideology. Like all party branches, the NSDStB was structured strictly according to the Führer principle , barracked the students in comradeship houses (mostly taken over by corporation houses ) and from 1930 onwards equipped them with brown shirts and swastika flags .

The badge of honor of the NSD student union is one of the anti-constitutional propaganda means in the Federal Republic of Germany , the manufacture, public wear or distribution of which is prohibited.

Until 1933

In the first few years, the NSDStB found it difficult to gain a foothold in the student body, especially since its leadership was initially based on the ideas of the "left" wing of the NSDAP around Gregor Strasser and Otto Strasser and clearly anti-bourgeois and anti-corporate tones in its propaganda.

In 1928, however, Baldur von Schirach took over the leadership of the NSDStB and subsequently sought new members with increasing success, including among the traditional student associations . In many places, however, resistance arose against this appropriation: In May 1930, for example, the "Deutsche Corpszeitung" issued a strong warning against political party involvement in general and for the NSDAP in particular. Nevertheless, in January 1931 the NSDStB against the protest of the Kösener Seniors Convents Association (KSCV) was recognized by the General German Arms Ring as an equal partner. The contract was terminated by some traditional connections in August because the expectation of separating areas of activity was not fulfilled.

However, the success among the German students could no longer be stopped: After strong resistance from the old board, the NSDStB took over the leadership of the German Student Union (DSt) at the Graz Student Day in July 1931 . In his farewell speech, the outgoing chairman of the DSt Hans-Heinrich Schulz (member of the Corps Hildeso-Guestphalia Göttingen ) sharply attacked the NSDStB because of its claim to totality and stated, among other things:

"At the moment when a political party exclusively puts its stamp on the German student body, one will no longer be able to speak of a German student body."

In July 1932, the factual self-alignment of the DSt was completed: At the Königsberg Student Day the delegates appeared in the uniforms of the NSDAP branches; The NSDStB provided the General Student Committee (AStA) at almost all universities .

In the winter of 1932/33 there were again protests against the total claim to power of the NSDStB, which had to accept heavy losses of votes in various AStA elections. After their initial cooperation, the corporation associations were now in sharp opposition to the NSDStB and shortly before they came to power they founded the University Political Working Group of Student Associations . With the appointment of Adolf Hitler as Reich Chancellor on January 30, 1933, this attempt to defend oneself against the NSDAP's totalitarian claim to power also became obsolete.

From 1933

Leaflet of the German students , in 1933 for the book burning was spread

With the Deutsche Studenten-Zeitung (later renamed The Movement ), the NSDStB created a central journalistic organ in 1933. In April 1933, the German student body under the leadership of the NSDStB initiated the campaign against the un-German spirit , which started in all university towns. 12 theses were disseminated (see leaflet), u. a. the demand for censorship , which has long been used in practice. In Berlin, at the beginning of May 1933, at the sound of a trumpet, sports students plundered the Institute for Sexology , which had been founded in 1919 and was located in the Tiergarten district on the street “In den Zelten”. They transported 15 quintals of literature from the world-famous specialist library, which they brought to the student house on Oranienburger Strasse . There were already books from other libraries there, some of which had been stolen through the use of force in so-called collection campaigns. On May 10th, parts of the literature from the student house were brought in a train through the Brandenburg Gate to the Opernplatz and burned in the dark with so-called fire spells. At midnight, Propaganda Minister Goebbels gave a speech - literally - my fellow students . Among the authors of the burned books were Erich Kästner , Ernst Glaeser , Heinrich Mann , Erich Maria Remarque . Kästner was there, but remained undetected in the crowd.

This action went down in the history books in Germany as the book burning in 1933 and took place similarly at other universities and colleges.

The National Socialist Student Union moves through Wilhelmstrasse in Berlin (February 7, 1934), photo taken from the Federal Archives

In the Göttingen riots in 1934 there were violent clashes between traditional liaison students and the NSDStB, whose Reichsführer Albert Derichsweiler (1934–36) led a rigorous fight against the corporations. In 1935 the community of student associations (GStV) was founded, which was initially recognized by the party leadership of the NSDAP. The State Secretary and head of the Reich Chancellery Hans Heinrich Lammers , a member of the Wratislavia Breslau and the old gentleman leader of the Miltenberger Ring , became the leader of the GStV . By October 20, 1935, at the latest, the traditional ties broke up. When parts of old rulers joined the NSDStB comradeships , many connections survived and the corporation houses were preserved.

At the beginning of September 1935 the Kösener Seniors Convents Association was excluded from the community of student associations "because it did not voluntarily undertake the complete implementation of the Aryan principles". This surprising procedure by G.St.V. can be explained from an article by Albert Derichsweiler in the Völkischer Beobachter :

"The times of negotiations and discussions have come to an end with our decision to put the student generation before the decision: student union or corporation, political student or apolitical philistine ."

- Albert Derichsweiler

In 1936 the NSDStB withdrew recognition from all student associations . In the same year Gustav Adolf Scheel was appointed Reichsstudentenführer , who also headed the German Student Union, the Reichsstudentenwerk and the National Socialist Lecturer Association .

In 1937 the NSDStB issued the Order of Honor for German students . With this the unconditional satisfaction on a light saber was uniformly introduced. However, from 1938 onwards, every duel had to be approved by the Reich Student Leader.

With the Control Council Act No. 2 of October 10, 1945, the NSD Student Union was banned by the Allied Control Council and its property was confiscated.

Federal and Reichsführer of the NSDStB (1926–1945)

literature

  • Anselm Faust: The National Socialist German Student Union. Students and National Socialism in the Weimar Republic , 2 vols. Düsseldorf 1973. ISBN 3-7895-0153-0 and ISBN 3-7895-0152-2 .
  • Michael Grüttner : Students in the Third Reich , Paderborn 1995. ISBN 3-506-77492-1 .
  • Holger Zinn: University policy at the end of the Weimar Republic: The NSDStB Marburg, its rise and importance in the university policy spectrum until 1933 , in: Einst und Jetzt. Yearbook of the Association for Corporate Student History Research, Volume 50 (2009), pp. 325–384.

Web links

Commons : NS-Studentenbund  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ A member of the student union was not automatically a party member of the NSDAP. See Walter Jens and the NSDAP, NZZ-Online from January 16, 2004, accessed on May 21, 2011
  2. ^ Criminal Code: § 86a Use of symbols of unconstitutional organizations , on: dejure.org.
  3. ↑ Hermann Emil Kuenzer : From my life , part III. Frankenzeitung ( Corps Franconia Tübingen ), No. 157, pp. 121-134.