Reichsschaft Deutscher Scouts
The Reichsschaft Deutscher Pfadfinder (RDP) was a German boy scout association that existed between 1932 and 1934. As the last major interdenominational association of the Bündische Jugend before it was finally banned by the Reich Youth Leadership , the Reichsschaft had a major influence on the establishment of interdenominational scout associations after the Second World War .
history
The Empire shaft was established on 31 December 1932 from the merger of the League of Empire Scouts and Scout , the New German scouts federal , Bavarian Scouts ring Munich in the Bavarian Pfadfinderbund , the German scouts Federal St. Georg ring , the cross Scouts in Upper Silesia , the struggle Federal German youth , of Württemberg groups in the colonial youth corps and larger groups from Lower Saxony. Already on 24./25. In September 1932, the German Scout Association and the Association of Reich Scouts became the Association of Reich Scouts and Scouts united.
The first federal leader was Dr. Rudolf Jürgens (previously a member of the New German Scout Association).
Federal character of the empire was the stem with an imperial eagle finished diamond lily , which was acquired from the New German Scout Association, Federal costume was a dark blue shirt with gray and red scarf.
When it was founded, the Reichsschaft took over membership in the German Scout Association from its predecessor, the Bund der Reichspfadfinder . On April 2, 1933, she was one of the founding members of the Greater German Confederation , but left it again on May 1, 1933 because, according to the representation of the Reichsschaft, the objectives and tasks of the Reichsschaft did not fit into this alliance. With the dissolution of the Greater German Confederation on June 17, 1933, repression against the Reichsschaft began, but the Reich Youth Leadership confirmed several times in the summer of 1933 that the Reichsschaft was not subject to the prohibition of the Greater German Confederation and was therefore allowed to continue its work. This is why numerous groups of previously forbidden leagues joined the Reichsschaft.
In the second half of 1933 attempts by the Hitler Youth began to influence the leadership of the Reichsschaft in order to achieve the admission of the Hitler Youth or a subdivision into the World Scout Movement . As early as the summer of 1933, the participation of Reichsschaft members in the fourth jamboree in Gödöllő was forbidden, but this ban was circumvented. On February 19, 1934, the Reich Youth Leadership informed the Reich shaft that the German Scout Association had converted Eberhard Plewe was deposed as head of the foreign ministry and by Karl Nabersberg would be replaced, staff director of the Hitler Youth. Shortly afterwards, Nabersberg made contact with the International Bureau of the Boy Scout Movement in London and with the Scouts de France , which remained unsuccessful because they refused to work with a Boy Scout Association led by the Hitler Youth.
After these talks failed, the Reichsschaft was banned on May 26, 1934. It had developed into a gathering place for numerous Bündish people and most recently had around 4,000 members. From August 1934, the federal government continued to operate illegally underground, with its center in Berlin. At the same time, members of the federal leadership around Plewe, including Walther Jansen , tried to obtain re-admission to the Reichsschaft by mid-1936.
An illegal winter camp was held in Groß Aupa in the Giant Mountains as late as Christmas 1936 . In 1937, individual Germans, including Reichsschaft members Heinz Ellon and Eberhard Plewe, took part illegally in the fifth world jamboree in Vogelenzang near Bloemendaal in the Netherlands .
In October and November 1938, some leaders of the forbidden Reichsschaft were arrested, including Jansen and Plewe, and Jürgens fled to Switzerland before being arrested in early 1939. The arrest was based on the fact that Jansen had been blown up as a Gestapo agent in Belgium and deported to Germany.
After the Second World War, Jansen and Plewe founded a new German Boy Scout Association in Berlin , while other members of the Reichsschaft were instrumental in founding the Association of German Scouts .
literature
- Jürgen W. Diener: The search for unity and unity. Eberhard Plewe (Ebbo) 1905–1986. in: Pulse 16. Documentation of the youth movement. Südmarkverlag, Heidenheim / Brenz 1988. ISSN 0342-3328
- Bernhard Schneider: Data on the history of the youth movement. Lit Verlag, Hamburg / Münster 1990. ISBN 3-88660-446-2
- Stephan Schröllkamp: Under the sign of the lily. History of the German Scout Movement 1909–1945 . Self-published, Berlin 1988.
- Fritz Schmidt: My old alliance opponent Eberhard Köbel. Dr. Arnold Littmann between the youth movement, Gestapo and emigration in Sweden. Edermünde 2004.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ There are inconsistent information about the members of the Reichsschaft, so Diener calls: Die Suche ... , p. 11, additionally the Bund Deutscher Newfadfinder and the Crusader Boy Scouts , but does not mention the Cross Scouts , the Colonial Youth Corps and the Lower Saxony groups .
- ↑ a b c d e Bernhard Schneider: Data on the history of the youth movement. Lit Verlag, Hamburg / Münster 1990. ISBN 3-88660-446-2 , pp. 101-106.
- ↑ Diener: Die Suche ... , p. 19ff