West European Studies

Volksgemeinschaft is a German word that translates to a peoples community and was a political ideology being pushed in Germany before the Second World War by the National Socialist German Workers Party (Welch, 2004). In German political circles, this system had been conceptualized by theorist Ferdinand Tonnies in his book Community and Society. However, Ferdinand became a social democrat when the Nazi movement was increasing in power and influence. In this essay, I explain the concept of Volksgemeinschaft and the mechanisms the Nazi machinery employed to attract German youth into the movement (Welch, 2004).

The Nazis, led by Adolf Hitler wanted to create a peoples community by having all religious groups, social organizations, families and the individual submit to the state (Welch, 2004). His rule thus absorbed arts, the media, institutions of education, religion and most of the other areas through which people interacted into Nazi organization to realize the Volksgemeinschaft. Volksgemeinschaft was a vision aimed at establishing a purely German community dedicated only to the state and war and to eliminate all forms of social stratification and class struggle (Welch, 2004). Ownership and control of private property was to be permitted only if such property benefited the common society. In other words, Nazism would become a doctrine and a religion, dominating all aspects of life in Germany.

In order to establish the peoples community, the Nazis seized control of information and propaganda (Welch, 2004). Regulatory control measures were placed on all entertainment and information channels and Adolf Hitler issued a directive order authorizing the creation of the Reich Chamber of Culture. This was the tool Hitler would use to dominate Germans by suppressing freedom of communication, opinion and expression. In addition, he appointed Dr. Joseph Goebbels as the Minister of Propaganda (Welch, 2004).

Hitler visualized native Germans as the perfect race, and therefore all other residents with their ancestry outside Germany were categorized as undesirable. Jews were the most targeted group. However, the Reich Chamber of Culture was not designed to keep the undesirables out of the system, but rather to integrate Nazi doctrines into the arts and other forms of entertainment (Welch, 2004).  It had divisions dedicated to literature, broadcast and print media, music, theatre and visual arts and the film industry.

The Nazi regime established a publishing house called Eher Verlag which controlled the purchase of all newspapers in the entire nation. From this publishing house, propaganda articles were pre-written as dictated from  the Nazi top brass and distributed to all newspaper publishers for inclusion in the news (Welch, 2004). All films were to glorify the Nazi party, its leader Adolf Hitler and the martyrdom of Nazism. Entertainment in forms of outdoor theatre and art thematically emphasized blood and soil, meaning that every German should be ready to die for the country. Hitler went on a mission to re-establish the relationship between ancient Greeks and modern Germans reinforcing the notion that they were not just culturally superior, they were the perfect race (Welch, 2004).

Hitler and the entire Nazi fraternity wanted to establish a socio-economic and political system anchored on Nazi principle (Welch, 2004). They therefore had to sell their ideology to the youth so that they grow having these beliefs entrenched deep into their consciences. To accomplish this, Hitler established youth groups according to ages to train young boys. Those aged between six and ten years were enrolled into a program called Pimpfen that is similar to cub scouts in the ordinary scouting movement. Boys Aged between ten and fourteen years were similarly enrolled into a program known as Deutsches Jungvolk and those between fourteen and eighteen belonged to the Hitler Jugend or the Hitler Youth (Wildt, 2007). Military values and enduring love for the countries were taught in the two older groups. The boys were taught to be unquestioningly obedient and ruthless while fulfilling their country to the nation and to have honor, undeterred strength and courage.

The boys were trained on military strategy, usually conducting military drills and ceremonies to honor those who had died in wars, fighting for the nation. Due to their importance to the Nazi regime, the boys in the Hitler youth were put under watch of very dedicated Nazi philosophers who made sure they were indoctrinated with the ideologies and philosophies on which Nazism was founded on (Welch, 2004). Additionally, the youth in the party who had shown enough commitment were given the responsibility of inducing staunch patriotism to other youth from all over the nation and absolute devotion to the leader, Hitler. By the year 1939, membership to the Hitler youth had become compulsory. Those emerging from the lower two categories were to take an oath while being initiated to the Hitler Youth (Welch, 2004).

Young girls were not left out of Hitlers grand plan being grouped into two separate groups one for those between the ages of ten to fourteen and another one for those between the ages of fourteen to eighteen (Welch, 2004). Besides being taught to be dutiful future wives and mothers, the girls were also indoctrinated with the values and philosophies of Nazism and taught to be obedient and disciplined and to absolutely submit to the will of the state. Hitler needed the youth of Germany to be loyal to him and him only therefore it is unsurprising that he went to such lengths to brainwash the youth of the nation.

Since the beginning of Nazi rule under Hitler, there was a deliberate attempt to control and manipulate all aspects of daily life. Popular culture, music, film and art plus broadcast and print media were filled with propaganda. To prevent from engaging in intellectual dialogue and issue-oriented thinking, Hitler enacted an anti-intellectualism policy and fed into all people a strong sense of militancy, national pride and love for Nazism (Wildt, 2007). He and the party realized the effectiveness of continuing to use the Reich (organizations, offices, ministries and other mechanisms for controlling a particular characteristic of daily life for example religion or music) to brainwash and control the youth in Germany as a means of establishing a Nazi rule that would last forever (Welch, 2004). If he had sufficient control over the youth, Hitler that his control over Germany would only strengthen with time, and then he could establish the Volksgemeinschaft with minimum opposition.

The main objective of Hitler in his endeavor of establishing a Peoples Community was reviving German strength after the destruction that had occurred in the course of the First World War. He also wanted to build an invincible nation and an army of brainwashed followers who would annex territory from states neighboring Germany for more living space, and eliminating the Jews and other undesired people (Wildt, 2007). He was a racial supremacist as pointed out earlier, and he wanted to implement the Volksgemeinschaft as a means of creating a nation of the perfect race.

Hitler was somehow successful in influencing the youth of Germany in accepting Nazi doctrines. German youth had a need for youth groups where their affairs could be addressed. At the time, being in the military was perceived as a prestige and a manifestation of patriotism and bravery (Welch, 2004). Hitler capitalized on these factors to indoctrinate the youth with Nazi ideals and philosophies. In any way, recruitment into the Hitler youth was made compulsory in 1939. Furthermore, the school system was inappropriately used to exalt warfare and alienate pupils from their parents. Popular strategies employed include fun activities like camping and hiking and while at it, children could be taught Nazi policies and be taken through marching sessions and other military drills (Welch, 2004). The leisure accompanying such outings attracted more and more young boys and girls and those who disdained from them had little choice since almost all other organizations were either illegalized or closed down permanently.

Continuous alienation between parents and kids raised a youth population that supported the Nazi regime more that their parents. Textbooks and educational curricula had been altered to expound on Nazi philosophy and history, perverted racial ideologies and teach how glorious war was (Welch, 2004). There was a deliberate attempt to induce anti-Semitism in children from a very young age by insinuating that the Jews were taking over the running of government, business opportunities and other resources that the bona fide Germans were entitled to by birth (Wildt, 2007). The timing of teaching such values and beliefs at such young ages was effective since the children had not come into contact with any opposing views as the media was gagged by the machinations of the National Socialist Party.

Children and young people also found it easy to accept outrages committed against the people by the Nazis like house inspections since unlike the older generations, they had not lived in any other political system and interpreted such activities as supporting government cause rather than invasion of personal privacy. Any anti-Nazi dialogue directed to most young people from parents or other members of the family and the community usually went unheeded since the children had been taught to put the Nazi party above everything else, including family (Welch, 2004).

However, some young people were more insightful and did not accept what they were taught by the National Socialist Party blindly. As a result, anti-Nazi youth movements sprouted from several quarters, the main being the Swing Movement youth group and the Edelweiss Pirates. As the war progressed, the Hitler Youth had become less leisure oriented and more of an army (Welch, 2004). Morale among members decreased and enrolment dropped. More and more youth were now joining anti-Hitler youth movements and engaged acts of disobedience for example listening to popular music from the United States and Britain which had banned.

The Edelweiss Pirates were move vocal in opposing Nazism. This group was more or less structured like the Hitler Youth and engaged in the same activities like camping hiking and singing but instead sang tunes attacking and criticizing the Nazi regime (Welch, 2004). When they encountered members from the Hitler Youth, they could attack the ferociously. They disobeyed directives issued by the Nazis like abstinence from sexual activities, not dressing like Americans or Britons and accepted members of the opposite sex (Welch, 2004). All in all, it is somewhat difficult to assess the extent of Nazi influence on German youth before the war since no solid statistics are available and even if they were, they would lack credibility as the Nazis often exaggerated things.