Order groups of the FDJ

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Emblem of the order groups, was worn on the FDJ shirt or beret

The order groups of the FDJ were a security service of the youth organization Free German Youth (FDJ) in the GDR . Her tasks included securing folk festivals, demonstrations, concerts and other events as a steward service and as an auxiliary for the People's Police . The order groups were organized in hundreds and mostly wore the FDJ blue shirt and the red order group armband. Forerunners of the Ordnungsgruppen existed since the 1950s, officially and throughout the GDR, the FDJ Ordnungsgruppen were founded in 1961 after the Berlin Wall was built. After the peaceful revolution in the GDR in 1989, the organizational groups were dissolved.

history

Forerunner (until 1961)

The forerunners of the order groups were the "wild structures" of the FDJ shock troops and the agitation troops in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Based on the structures of the Communist Youth Association (KJVD) from the time of the Weimar Republic - in particular the Young Red Front - the task of these groups was to occupy public space, discipline hesitant supporters and intimidate opponents. Violence was threatened and used. Especially during the forced collectivization of peasants in the period from 1952 to 1960, which reached a high point with graduation in 1960, such FDJ groups were on the move on trucks and harassed peasants, for example by mass appearances, chants in front of the house and the confiscation of Share the harvest.

The organization gained its first experience as a steward service at the German meeting on May 27-30, 1950, as well as in 1954 and at the 1951 World Festival in East Berlin . At that time, however, there was still no consensus in the leadership of the FDJ on the structures of this organizational group.

At the beginning of March 1959, the Central Agitation Department of the Central Council of the FDJ published a preliminary draft program for the central bundling of all loose organizational groups of the FDJ in the GDR. The name “Ordnungsgruppe der FDJ (OG der FDJ)” was used for the first time at numerous internal association meetings. In a first draft it was said: "By forming voluntary regulatory groups of the Free German Youth, we want to help ensure public safety and order". This plan appears undated for the first time within the preparations for the VI. FDJ parliament in the “Youth program for the victory of socialism”, a document of the youth commission of the SED Politburo . On April 7, 1959, the FDJ secretariat decided to set up an "Ordnungsgruppe der FDJ" in Dessau from April 13 to 30, 1959, as an example for the entire GDR. The choice fell on Dessau because the youth groups organized by the FDJ city administration and the local People's Police (VP) were already considered experienced after they jointly dissolved the so-called "rock 'n' roll gang" there. Therefore, the East Berlin headquarters seemed to be best suited to develop and set up the general guidelines of the regulatory group. Due to numerous misinformation when the information and experience were passed on from the OG via the city management and district management of the FDJ to the head of the association in East Berlin, the OG of the FDJ, which was ultimately set up centrally, no longer had much to do with the original one in Dessau.

Establishment of the organizational groups until the end of the Ulbricht era (1961–1971)

The official founding date is August 22, 1961, a good week after the wall was built, on which the FDJ Central Council published a corresponding resolution.

After the Berlin Wall was erected in August 1961, the security groups acted together with the People's Police against "provocateurs". With the "voluntary order groups", the FDJ was supposed to support the People's Police in their tasks and help "... to remove the remains of the capitalist way of life among the youth - hooliganism, drunkenness, boisterous behavior towards the elderly, reading trash, etc." During the FDJ campaign "Blitz contra Natosender" (also known under the name "Aktion Ochsenkopf "), from September 1961 onwards, groups of orders destroyed antennas that were suitable for receiving West transmitters. The order groups were also used against supporters of the forbidden Western "beat music". The Leipzig Beatdemo in 1965 was a highlight .

From the Honecker era to the "Wende" (1973–1990)

On June 25, 1973, the First Secretary of the SED, Erich Honecker, confirmed a “Plan to ensure security at the 10th World Festival” presented by the Minister for State Security, Erich Mielke. All resources of the MfS district administrations in Potsdam , Frankfurt (Oder) and Berlin, as well as the guard regiment “Feliks Dzierzynski” were made available to guarantee this . In addition there were 4,260 full-time MfS employees from the rest of the GDR and around 1,500 members of the FDJ order group, who were subordinated to the People's Police. Furthermore, a further approx. 500 men, consisting of teachers, officers' listeners and course participants from the Law School in Potsdam , were recruited as a kind of rapid reaction force . At some events, especially when West German youth organizations were strongly represented, the order groups came into action together with members of the guard regiment dressed in FDJ shirts.

As a thank you for their commitment at the World Festival, around 150 members of the regulatory group traveled to the XI in 1978, together with the first Secretary of the FDJ Egon Krenz . World Festival in Havana ( Cuba ). As part of the exchange of information between the preparatory committees for the festival, the experiences in securing such an event were also passed on to the members of the security groups of the Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas , who maintained a similar regulatory group.

In 1980 the “Central Organization of the FDJ” (ZOV) was formed as a “permanent formation of volunteers”. At the end of the 1980s, the order groups had around 40,000 members across the GDR.

Structure, training and equipment

The order groups were unarmed and mostly wore the FDJ blue shirt and the red order group armband.

The order groups were mostly organized in hundreds .

reception

During the Cold War , West German journalists often equated the FDJ groups with the HJ patrol service from the time of National Socialism, for example in 1962 by Karl Wilhelm Fricke .

The political scientist Christian Sachse counted the groups in his dissertation on " Defense Education " in the GDR ( FU Berlin 1998) together with the combat groups and task forces of the GST among the "paramilitary special formations" of the GDR, although they were unarmed.

literature

  • Andreas Herbst (eds.), Winfried Ranke, Jürgen Winkler: This is how the GDR worked. Volume 1: Lexicon of organizations and institutions, departmental union management , League for Friendship between Nations (= rororo-Handbuch. Vol. 6348). Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1994, ISBN 3-499-16348-9 .
  • Wiebke Janssen: Youngsters in the GDR - persecution and criminalization of a youth culture . Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 3-86153-579-3 .
  • Marc-Dietrich Ohse: Youth after the Wall was built. Adaptation, protest and stubbornness (GDR 1961-1974) . Ch. Links, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-86153-295-6 .
  • Christian Sachse: Active youth, well-educated and disciplined - military education in the GDR as an instrument of socialization and rule (1960–1973) . LIT Verlag, Münster 2000, ISBN 3-8258-5036-6 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christian Sachse: Militarization despite the thaw . In: Roger Engelmann, Thomas Grossbölting (Hrsg.): Communism in the crisis - the de-Stalinization 1956 and the consequences . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2008, ISBN 3-525-35052-X , p. 439.
  2. ^ A b Wiebke Janssen: Youngsters in the GDR . Berlin 2010, pp. 241–244.
  3. ^ "Resolution of the Central Council of the FDJ on the organizational groups of the FDJ as helpers of the state and security organs of August 22, 1961". In: Thomas Widera: Pacifists in Uniform: Construction Soldiers in the Field of Tension of SED Politics 1964-1989 . V&R unipress, 2004, ISBN 3-89971-180-7 , p. 51, footnote 23.
  4. ↑ Verena Zimmermann: Creating the New Man: The Re-education of Difficult and Delinquent Adolescents in the GDR (1945-1990) , Böhlau Verlag (2004), ISBN 978-3-412-12303-1 , p. 196 ff.
  5. ↑ a b Andreas Herbst, Winfried Ranke, Jürgen Winkler: How the GDR worked , Volume 1. Reinbek 1994, pp. 299-300.
  6. ↑ Christian Sachse: Active youth, well-educated and disciplined . Münster 2000, p. 222.
  7. ↑ Stefan Wolle: Die heile Welt der Diktatur , Ch. Links Verlag, 1998, ISBN 3-86153-157-7 , p. 165 ff.
  8. ↑ Arnold Freiburg and Christa Mahrad: FDJ, Socialist Youth League of the GDR , published in the West German publisher, ff S. 242nd
  9. ^ Karl Wilhelm Fricke : FDJ patrol service. The order groups of the FDJ . In: SBZ archive , Vol. 13 (1962), pp. 40f.
  10. ↑ Christian Sachse: Active youth, well-educated and disciplined . Münster 2000, p. 106.