Hitler Youth: Definition, Law & Tasks

By 1935 all youth organizations were banned by the Nazi regime except for one – the Hitler Youth. It thus became the only officially recognized youth organization in Germany and played an important role in the indoctrination and education of young people.

«Indoctrination» describes the influencing of groups or a society through the use of psychological means in order to achieve the formation of a certain attitude or opinion.

Hitler Youth – Definition

But what exactly was the Hitler Youth (HJ) actually? In short, the Hitler Youth was the Youth and junior organization of the NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers’ Party).

It was already seven years before Hitler «seized power», that is 1926established and was after gender and age groups organized, whereby the group for the 14-18 year old boys was also called «Hitlerjugend». This might be a bit confusing at first, but don’t worry, you can see the exact structure here:

Hitler Youth

masculine

age group

Female

German youth (DJ)

10-14 year olds

Jungmädelbund (JM)

Hitler Youth (HJ)

14-17/18 year olds

League of German Girls (BDM)

17-21 year olds

BDM work “Faith and Beauty”

(established in 1938)

In this explanation you will primarily learn more about the male HJ organizations, because you will also find a separate explanation for the HJ organization for girls and young women, the «Bund Deutscher Mädel» (BDM), here on !

Hitler Youth – emergence

Already in March 1922 became the «youth federation of NSDAP» was founded in Munich. But just a year later, after the NSDAP had died in 1923 as a result of the Hitler putsch was banned, the youth organization also dissolved.

From 1925, various smaller youth organizations competed for recognition from the NSDAP, which had since been revived. In Saxony, some youth organizations came together to form the «Greater German youth movement«, which eventually came to be regarded as party youth. In the year 1926 became this renamed «Hitler Youth».. In the same year the women’s section of the organization, the «Association of German girls«, founded.

At the beginning the HJ was still the SA assumed, after Hitler’s «seizure of power» in 1933, however, it increasingly oriented itself towards the ss.

Law on the Hitler Youth

«The future of the German people depends on the youth. The entire German youth must therefore be prepared for their future duties.

The Reich government has therefore passed the following law, which is hereby promulgated:

§ 1. All German youth within the territory of the Reich is brought together in the Hitler Youth.

§ 2. The entire German youth is to be brought up physically, mentally and morally in the spirit of National Socialism to serve the people and the national community in the Hitler Youth, apart from at home and school.

§ 3. The task of educating all German youth in the Hitler Youth is transferred to the Reich Youth Leader of the NSDAP. He is thus «Youth Leader of the German Reich». He has the position of a supreme Reich authority with its seat in Berlin and reports directly to the Führer and Reich Chancellor.

§ 4. The Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor shall issue the legal ordinances and general administrative regulations required for the implementation and supplementation of this law.

Berlin, December 1, 1936.

The Führer and Chancellor Adolf Hitler

State Secretary and Head of the Reich Chancellery Lammers«1

Hitler Youth members

That Prohibition of any alternative youth organization until 1935 as well as the compulsory membership away 1939led to rapidly increasing membership. In the table you can development understand the HJ membership numbers:

19321933193419351936193719381939members107.9562.292.0413.577.5653.943.3035.437.6015.879.9557.031.2268.669.809

Hitler Youth Uniform

Fig. 2: Hitler Youth uniform

the uniforming is often an important component in military and totalitarian regimes – it was the same in the «Third Reich» and its Jyouth organizations. The parents had to pay for the clothes out of their own pockets. For many families, getting the uniforms was a challenge financial burden because the clothing of a «Pimpfe» (member of the youth) cost about 42 Reichsmarks and the average annual income in Germany in 1935 was about 1,692 RM. Unemployed people could not even afford the expensive uniforms, which made them Donations for «needy comrades» were dependent. In Figure 2 you can see a contemporary HJ summer uniform see.

Because without a uniform it was not possible to join the HJ or participate in HJ service. That uniform appearance was so important to the Nazis because it was the «national community» should visualize.

Below you will learn more about the activities of the HJ.

Hitler Youth – Construction

At the beginning of the explanation you could already see the rough structure of the Hitler Youth. However, in addition to the division between gender and age groups, there was still many other groups within the Hitler Youth. But how was such a mass organization actually structured and how could it be managed organizationally?

At the Top the entire HJ stood for the longest time (1933-1940). Reich Youth Leadershipr Baldur von Schirach. After him took over Arthur Axmann this position. In the Hitler Youth there was different positions, which could be worn by young men and women in the HJ. Because just like the rest of the regime, the Hitler Youth was after the leader principle set up.

At the leader principle the population was strictly subordinate to the «Fuhrer». In almost all organizational structures within the NS state, «leaders» were appointed who had authority over their respective areas – so there was no democratic say for the respective subordinates.

Hitler Youth – German youth

The «German Young People» provided for the boys from 10 to 14 years represents the first HJ organization. Its members were also known as «vaccinate«. In it, the adolescents were already systematically exposed to the National Socialist ideology according to the regime’s strict ideas indoctrinated.

Hitler Youth – Special Units

In addition to the General Hitler Youth, the children and young people could still, depending on their own Interests / special talentsin special forces participate. Around the…

  • Flieger-HJ,
  • engine HJ,
  • Marine-HJ,
  • or the news HJ.

In this way, the young people could be trained even more specifically and earlier for certain groups that they were later to join.

NSFK = National Socialist Air Corps; NSKK = National Socialist Motor Corps

Hitler Youth – tasks and activities

memories of contemporary witnesses and contemporary witnesses to their Hitler Youth membership are not uncommon positive, even if they themselves condemn the Nazi regime. The reason for this is the activities they undertook in the HJ and the simple fact that they spent a lot there time with their friends and other peers spent. The good sides of the youth organization covered there, in the memories, often the ideological background and military drill. For example, many children and young people would never have been able to go on certain excursions or try out activities without the HJ.

Less exciting, however, were the weekly ones home nights, where smaller HJ local groups met. However, these played an important role in the activities of the Hitler Youth because they took place so regularly and there with them Among other things, upcoming events or excursions were prepared by the adolescents and they shared them propaganda radio broadcasts listened to.

Also physical training was central to the state education of youth. Therefore physical exercises, long marches and the like were also on the program for the children and young people in the Hitler Youth. But there were also, as indicated at the beginning, rides, tent holidays and other leisure trips undertaken, which were often enjoyed by the members.

the militarization the HJ, in preparation for war and to create future ones soldiers, also played an increasingly important role over time. The transmission of values ​​such as camaraderie, allegiance, willpower and performance of duty were therefore taught to the children from an early age.

Figure 1 emphasizes this again!

During the Second World War then also counted air raid service, cleanup or fundraisers, for example for clothing or the winter welfare organization, for the tasks of the HJ members who were still too young to to the front to be sent.

Hitler Youth – The Most Important

  • The Hitler Youth was that youth organization the NSDAP in the «Third Reich».
  • By 1935 all other youth organizations were banned and down 1939 was the membership in the HJ causing obligationincreasing membership to over 8 million.
  • The Hitler Youth was roughly in five sub-organizations divided: «Deutsches Jungvolk» (boys from 10 to 14), «Hitlerjugend» (boys from 14 to 18), «Jungmädelbund» (girls from 10 to 14), «Bund Deutscher Mädel» (girls from 14 to 17/18) and «Faith and Beauty» (18-21 girls).
  • Through the Hitler Youth, the Nazi regime was able to make a significant contribution to education of the children and young people and to confront them with the Nazi ideology indoctrinate.

proof

  1. constitution.de: Law on the Hitler Youth (June 16, 2022)
  2. museenkoeln.de: Hitler Youth. Uniform. (06/16/2022)
  3. dhm.de: The Hitler Youth – HJ (06/17/2022)
  4. Fig. 1 – «NS Schmuckblattelegramm» by Ludwig Hohlwein on Auktionshaus Christoph Gärtner (https://www.stampcircuit.com/stamp-Auction/auktionshaus-christoph-gärtner-gmbh-co-kg/8423605/lot-17237-sichtskarten- propaganda) licensed under Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en)
  5. Fig. 2 – «Hitler boy uniform from the 1930s» by WerWil on Wikimedia (www.wikimedia.org) licensed under licensed under Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed .en)