Hitler Youth
From Metapedia
The Hitler Youth (German: Hitler-Jugend , abbreviated HJ) was a paramilitary organization of the NSDAP. It existed from 1922 to 1945. The HJ was the second oldest paramilitary NS group, founded one year after its adult counterpart, the Sturmabteilung (the SA).
[edit] Origins
The Hitler Youth was originally established in 1922 as the Jungsturm Adolf Hitler. Based in Munich, Bavaria, it served to train and recruit future members of the Sturmabteilung (or "Storm Regiment"), the adult paramilitary wing of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP.
Following the abortive Munich Beer Hall Putsch in 1923, the Hitler Youth was ostensibly disbanded but many elements simply went underground, operating clandestinely in small units under assumed names. It was formally re-established in early 1926, a year after the Party had been reorganized. The architect of the re-organisation was Kurt Gruber, a law student and admirer of Hitler from Plauen, Saxony. He fused together several of the clandestine youth groups to form an embryonic national organisation. It was called the Großdeutsche Jugendbewegung or GDJB (Greater German Youth Movement).
After a short power struggle with a rival organization - Gerhard Roßbach's Schilljugend - Gruber prevailed and his Greater German Youth Movement became the Party's official youth organization. In July 1926, it was renamed Hitler-Jugend, Bund deutscher Arbeiterjugend (Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth) and, for the first time, officially became an integral part of the Sturmabteilung.
By 1930, the Hitler-Jugend had enlisted over 25,000 boys aged fourteen and upwards. It also set up a junior branch, the Deutsches Jungvolk, for boys aged ten to fourteen. Girls from ten to eighteen were given their own parallel organisation, the Bund Deutscher Mädel (or BDM), the League of German Girls.
In April 1932, the Hitler Youth was banned by Chancellor Heinrich Brüning in an attempt to stop widespread political violence. But by June the ban was lifted by his successor, Franz von Papen as a way of appeasing Hitler whose political star was ascending rapidly.
A further significant expansion drive started in 1933, when Baldur von Schirach became the first Reichsjugendführer (Reich Youth Leader), pouring much time and large amounts of money into the project.
