Viking youth

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Flag of the Viking Youth with Othala rune

The Wiking-Jugend (WJ) was a neo-Nazi children and youth organization . The organization founded in 1952 was banned in 1994 by the Federal Minister of the Interior ; At the time of the ban, it was the largest neo-Nazi youth organization with 400 to 500 members.

She acted in the succession of the Hitler Youth and the Association of German Girls . A characteristic of the Wiking youth was their self-image as a refuge of a closed National Socialist socialization from early childhood to adulthood of their members. Closely related to this was its function as a cadre school for German and European right-wing extremism , which gave it a key position within the relevant organizations and networks. The importance of the Wiking-Jugend was therefore not limited to the youth sector, but also lay in their cross-organizational and networking function.

Name and symbol

With their reference to the Scandinavian Vikings , the Wiking youth located themselves in a general sense within the "Nordland" and "Nordrace" ideologies that have been virulent in German right-wing extremism since the völkisch movement of the German Empire. In a more concrete sense, the name referred to the right-wing extremist Bund Wiking of the 1920s and above all to the Wiking division of the Waffen-SS . In its founding phase, the Wiking-Jugend was ideologically and generationally closely linked to the comradeship associations of the Waffen-SS, whose magazine was entitled Wiking-Ruf .

The symbol of the Viking youth was an eagle in front of a rising sun and the Odal rune served as an additional symbol . The group ban includes a ban on the use of the rune as a group symbol.

Foundation and development

The Wiking-Jugend emerged from the Reichsjugend founded in May 1950 . This was the youth organization of the Socialist Reich Party and was headed by Walter Matthaei . Due to the ban of the party, the Reichsjugend joined forces on December 2, 1952 in Wilhelmshaven with parts of the "German Unitarian Youth" and the "Fatherland Youth" to form the Wiking Youth. The founder and first federal chairman of the Wiking Youth was the former Reich Youth Leader of the Socialist Reich Party, Walter Matthaei. However, Matthaei left Germany early and settled in Falangist Spain , from where he acted as one of the leading players in European neo-Nazism until his death and cooperated with his successors at the top of the Wiking youth.

In this phase, the Wiking-Jugend was united with similar ethnic and neo-Nazi youth organizations through the comradeship ring of national youth associations . While these lost their attraction to young people due to external factors such as the founding of the Bundeswehr , the attractiveness of pop culture and finally the protest culture of the 1960s and partially dissolved, the Wiking Youth became the hegemonic youth organization of neo-Nazism with the largest number of members.

A peculiarity within right-wing extremism was the dynastic leadership of the organization, which after Matthaeis' departure was only taken care of by members of the Nahrath family and passed on in a straight line from father Raoul Nahrath to son Wolfgang Nahrath and grandson Wolfram Nahrath . The management of the organization was transferred from Wilhelmshaven to Cologne and from there to Stolberg in 1967 . The family's private house there in the Büsbach district served as an organizational center until the ban and was operated together with Sascha Wagner ( NPD ) before the ban . Formally, however, Wolfram Nahrath had moved the federal seat to Berlin in 1991 .

After the leadership functionaries, especially the federal leader , had come closer and closer to the right-wing extremist Freedom German Workers' Party (FAP) since the end of 1984 , some members who did not want to support the neo-Nazi course resigned from the WJ in 1987 and founded the working group in 1987 Young family and the Sturmvogel - the German Youth Association , a youth association that still exists today.

In the following years there were ever closer contacts with the FAP, among other things, FAP delegations were deployed to protect tent camps, since 1989 at the latest, members of the WJ had also been organized in the FAP, the son of the then federal leader was even a member of the party executive. However, the Wiking youth distanced themselves from the group of followers around the neo-Nazi Michael Kühnen .

In Germany, the Federal Ministry of the Interior banned the Wiking youth on November 10, 1994 in accordance with Section 3 of the Association Act ; this was confirmed on April 13, 1999 by the Federal Administrative Court. At the time of the ban, it was the largest neo-Nazi youth organization with 400 to 500 members.

Since after the ban numerous actors and similar organizational structures and symbols reappeared in the home-loyal German youth , this was considered the successor organization of the Wiking-Jugend. It was also banned in 2009.

Organizational form

The Wiking-Jugend used the legal form of a registered association under German law (with its seat in Stolberg , registered on October 25, 1974), but was organized as a Europe-wide federation based on the Führer principle . The spatial scope of the Federal German core organization did not correspond to the borders of the Federal Republic of Germany , but to those of the Greater German Reich . The overarching organizational level was formed by the “Bund” with the “Federal Leader” at its head. Subordinate to the “Bund” were “ Gaue ” and these in turn “Horste”, whose boys and girls were in turn formed by “Pimpfen” and “Jungmädeln”. The Gauzeichen were rectangular with white letters on a black background and not identical to those of the Hitler Youth.

The Wiking-Jugend had organizational branches in the countries of Spain, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Belgium (Flanders), France, Scandinavia, Australia-New Zealand and Switzerland, which were connected to the “Bund” as “Gaue” or “support points”. The Dutch and Flemish “Wiking Jeugd” were particularly active among the non-German “Gau”.

The internal hierarchy of the Wiking youth comprised fourteen leadership titles. Formal membership was possible from the age of six. Since there was no upper age limit, the organization functioned as a life union and was able to integrate adult actors into old age. The concept aimed at the most complete national socialization possible in connection with a National Socialist training and "Führerauslese". The influence of state schools and parental homes should be minimized through isolation and hostility. An essential part of the concept was the promotion of family formation among the adult members, which was understood both as the political core of the organization and as the biological core of a national community . These family structures sometimes stretched over several generations and in these cases were referred to as “convictions”. On the other hand, there was a high fluctuation of children and young people who could only be tied to the organization temporarily.

Camps , trips , marches and festivals played a central role in child and youth work . In the medium of these ventures, the young people received paramilitary training and were exposed to severe physical exertion at the same time. From the mid-1980s onwards, the so-called Heide-Heim in Hetendorf, Lower Saxony, was repeatedly made available to the Wiking Youth by the sponsoring associations around Jürgen Rieger for their tent camps, and the paramilitary exercises often took place at the nearby Munster military training area .

The Wiking youth in Austria

At the beginning of the 1980s, the Wiking youth held tent camps in the Carinthian Glantal for several weeks . The establishment of an Austrian association was not approved in 1980 by the Security Directorate of the federal state of Carinthia by decision of September 23, 1980; this was confirmed by the Constitutional Court on October 16, 1981.

Publications

The publications were “Der Wikinger” and the youth magazine “Gäck”, which specializes in addressing students. The internal media used included a “trip calendar”, hectographed or photocopied training materials and other gray literature . Some of the non-German organizations of the Wiking Youth had their own media.

Members

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Well-known Wiking youth members and functionaries were:

Supporters and environment

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literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Collection of materials "Facts and arguments on the NPD ban"
  2. ↑ a b Ministry of the Interior of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia : Report on the Protection of the Constitution of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia 1987 , p. 17.
  3. ^ Ministry of the Interior of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia : Report on the Protection of the Constitution of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia 1988 , p. 17.
  4. ↑ a b Ministry of the Interior of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia : Report on the Protection of the Constitution of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia 1989 , p. 17.
  5. ^ Prohibition of the Wiking-Jugend e. V. , MBl. NRW 1995, p. 6, corrected p. 361 and MBl. NRW 1999, p. 876.
  6. ↑ Federal Administrative Court confirms the ban on Wiking-Jugend (BVerwG 1 A 3.94). April 13, 1999, accessed July 22, 2013 .
  7. ↑ BMI prohibits right-wing extremist HDJ. Federal Ministry of the Interior , archived from the original on April 3, 2009 ; accessed on March 31, 2009 .
  8. ^ Andrea Röpke : Holidays in the Führerbunker. The neo-Nazi child-rearing of the "Heimattreuen German Youth (HDJ)". 2nd Edition. Educational Association Work and Life, Braunschweig 2008, ISBN 978-3-932082-32-0 , p. 28 f.
  9. ^ Die Presse : Affair: HC Strache and the Wiking Youth , August 22, 2007.
  10. ↑ Ref .: B209 / 81; VfGH decision of October 16, 1981
  11. ↑ a b c d e f g h Antifascist press archive and education center Berlin : Profile: Wiking Jugend eV (WJ)
  12. ↑ a b c d e Andrea Röpke : Holidays in the Führerbunker. The neo-Nazi child-rearing of the "Heimattreuen German Youth (HDJ)". 2nd Edition. Educational Association Work and Life, Braunschweig 2008, ISBN 978-3-932082-32-0 , p. 29.
  13. ↑ Yury Winterberg : The Rebel. Odfried Hepp - neo-Nazi, terrorist, dropout. Gustav Lübbe Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach 2004, ISBN 3-7857-2160-9 , p. 47 ff. And 59 ff.
  14. ^ Andrea Röpke : Holidays in the Führerbunker. The neo-Nazi child-rearing of the "Heimattreuen German Youth (HDJ)". 2nd Edition. Educational Association Work and Life, Braunschweig 2008, ISBN 978-3-932082-32-0 , pp. 87 f.
  15. ^ Andrea Röpke : Holidays in the Führerbunker. The neo-Nazi child-rearing of the "Heimattreuen German Youth (HDJ)". 2nd Edition. Educational Association Work and Life, Braunschweig 2008, ISBN 978-3-932082-32-0 , p. 10.
  16. ^ Andrea Röpke : Holidays in the Führerbunker. The neo-Nazi child-rearing of the "Heimattreuen German Youth (HDJ)". 2nd Edition. Educational Association Work and Life, Braunschweig 2008, ISBN 978-3-932082-32-0 , p. 39 ff.
  17. ^ Gideon Botsch : The extreme right in the Federal Republic of Germany 1949 until today. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2012, ISBN 978-3-534-23832-3 , p. 131.
  18. ^ Andrea Röpke : Holidays in the Führerbunker. The neo-Nazi child-rearing of the "Heimattreuen German Youth (HDJ)". 2nd Edition. Educational Association Work and Life, Braunschweig 2008, ISBN 978-3-932082-32-0 , p. 38.