Reich professional competition

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Reich professional competition in a textile factory
Medal Gausieger 1944, combined DAF and HJ emblem

Under the title Reichsberufswettkampf , centralized professional competitions were held in the National Socialist German Reich from 1934 to 1939, in which young people from all professions and companies could take part. It was carried out by the German Labor Front (DAF) in cooperation with the Hitler Youth (HJ) and the National Socialist German Student Union (NSDStB). The competition comprised three or four subject areas: professional practice, professional theory, ideological training and, for girls, also housekeeping .

history

At the end of 1933, the Reich Youth Leadership , represented by Artur Axmann , and the German Labor Front under Robert Ley agreed to hold the Reich professional competition . Axmann took over the management of the responsible department of the German Labor Front. The competition itself was not a new idea; corresponding smaller competitions were organized before 1933 under the same or a similar title by various professional associations, including the German National Handyman Association .

Around 500,000 young people took part in the first Reich professional competition in 1934, with the motto: The success of our struggle to rebuild the German economy essentially depends on the professional training of the next generation. By 1939 the number of participants rose to 3.5 million, with adults also being admitted from 1938.

With the outbreak of the Second World War , the competition was no longer implemented across the board, so in 1943 a “war empire occupation competition” was held in the Berlin Kroll Opera House and in 1944 in the Dresden German Hygiene Museum . The two daily newspapers, Dresdner Zeitung and Der Freiheitskampf , published in Dresden reported from mid-April 1944 to early May 1944 in many, sometimes extensive articles about the individual competitions and the supporting program.

execution

The competition was divided into around twenty different subject areas for apprenticeships , and from 1935 onwards there were additional areas for student (Reichsberufswettkampf) participants. In the professions, the comparisons were made at three levels: local competition, Gauwettkampf and poor competition.

The competition examined specialist practice and theory as well as the ideological training of the participants. Participants also had to prove their housekeeping skills.

The victory at Gau or Reich level usually brought considerable professional advantages and also strengthened the reputation of the company providing training. Particularly distinguished winners were accepted into funding foundations, the Reich winners were presented to Adolf Hitler on May 1st .

The meaning of the imperial professional competition

Certificate of participation in the Reich professional competition 1939 ( Nutrition group )

Central interests of the Hitler Youth and the German Labor Front were bundled in the competition. As a co-organizer, the Hitler Youth received a nationwide platform for self-presentation of their ideological position and at the same time gained a financially strong ally within the NSDAP in the German Labor Front . The Reichsberufswettkampf was next to the Reichssportwettkampf the most important external event of the Hitler Youth.

"The symbol of the leagues was the ride, the symbol of the Hitler Youth is the Reichsberufswettkampf."

- Baldur von Schirach : The Hitler Youth. Berlin 1934

For the German Labor Front, the realm job competition offered above all the opportunity to standardize the level of training of the participants and to check it centrally. Pressure was therefore exerted on companies with below-average performance in the competition; in extreme cases, the training permit was withdrawn.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alamy Limited: Robert Ley at the opening of the German youth war career competition in the Berlin Kroll Opera House, 1943 Stock Photo: 122549021 - Alamy Retrieved August 6, 2018 .
  2. ↑ NN: Professional war competition completed! In: Völkischer Beobachter , Berlin edition, April 29, 1944, p. 7.
  3. ↑ Cf. for example Kurt Böhm, Albert Niess, Wolfgang Zink: Erbbiologische Erhebungen an Würzburg auxiliary student families. Contribution to the hereditary inventory of the population of the Gau Mainfranken. Work in the professional competition of the German students 1937/38 at the University of Würzburg. State Archives Würzburg: RSF III * B – 3–425.

Web links

literature

  • Artur Axmann: Olympia of work: Young workers in the Reich professional competition . Junker & Dünnhaupt , Berlin 1936
  • Artur Axmann: The realm professional competition . Junker & Dünnhaupt, Berlin 1938
  • Michael A. Kather: The Reich Vocational Contest and Students of Higher Learning in Nazi Germany . In: Central European History 7.3 (1974), pp. 225-261
  • Günter Kaufmann : The Reichsberufswettkampf: the professional armament of the German youth . Junker & Dünnhaupt, Berlin 1935
  • Markus Stappen: "The Badges and Documents in the National Trade Competition / The Badges and Documents in the National Trade Competition", Verlag Sascha Ulderup, 2017
  • Werner Staudinger: The healing topic in the realm professional competition. Medical dissertation. Wuerzburg 1985.