History Place - Hitler Youth - Beginnings
Before the Nazi Party was founded, a strong youth movement already existed in Germany.
It began in the 1890s and was known as the Wandervögel, a male-only movement featuring a back-to-nature theme.
Wandervögel members had an idealistic,
romantic notion of the past, yearning for simpler days when people lived off the land. They
rejected the modern, big city era and took a dim view of its predecessor, the industrial revolution, which had been started by their fathers and grandfathers.
They scorned greed and materialism,
and the new emerging corporate mentality. They found strict German schooling oppressive and rejected parental authority.
They saw hypocrisy in politics and the social class system of Kaiser Wilhelm's Germany, which was based entirely on birth
and accumulated wealth.
New political, para-military, religious, and sports oriented youth groups
sprang up all over Germany, including the
Young Socialists, Young Democrats, and Young Conservatives. Many of the groups adopted military style uniforms and established a hierarchy of formal ranks, a big change from the informal clothing and rule by consent of the pre-war youth groups. However, they shared some of the same themes,
opposing a return to the old social status quo, while working to create an idealistic new era, a better Germany, a better world perhaps.
