New Social Order (Part A) Source: J. Noakes & G. Pridham, Documents on Nazism 1919-1945 (London 1974), pp. 349-374. Education In view of the Nazis' wish to impose their ideology on German culture, it was not surprising that they should have allotted ~ major role in their State to education. Nazi education policy combined an anti-intellectual approach with an emphasis on those subjects and activities, which would train the new generation in loyalty to the Nazi State. In the universities, the NSDAP had found little support among the teaching body before 1933, although the Nazi student organization did win a majority in the AStA elections at most universities in 1931-32. The 'seizure of power' had aroused much enthusiasm among students, who already had little sympathy for the traditional liberal values of the university. In many cases, the NSDStB provoked demonstrations against those professors suspected of lukewarmness towards the aims of the Nazi regime. At Marburg University a professor of law was humiliated by students when during a lecture on Roman law he expressed the view that Nazi policy had non-German roots. Many professors found the conflict between their academic consciences and the required compliance with Nazi policy unbearable and resigned. By 1935 over 300 university teachers had left their posts and during 1933-38 the dumber of professors declined to 71 per cent of its 1931-32 level. The new role of the universities In a speech at Berlin University in May 1933, Bernhard Rust, the Prussian Minister of Education (and later head of the new Reich Ministry of Education created in May 1933), told the assembled professors that the universities had a purpose other than scholarship: The German university has two tasks, which must be seen quite clearly. The university is not only the place of research, but also the place of education. We cannot measure the value of a German university only by the number of academic publications; we must also consider it from another standpoint. Gentlemen, during those years when this un-German State and its un-German leadership barred the way to German youth, you, in your professional solitude and devotion to your great work of research, overlooked the fact that youth looked to you to lead the future of the German nation. Youth was marching while you, gentlemen, were not out in front. . . . Rust's aim was to 'reorganize the teaching body so that it can fulfil its task running parallel with the will of the nation'. The Government assumed formal control over the universities through its appointment of the rectors, who were given full responsibility for administration. Academic senates and other autonomous bodies lost their power. An emphasis was put on subjects which the authorities preferred. New chairs were established for military and racial science, and the qualification for university teaching (the Habilitation, an advanced dissertation) now included training in field sports and labor camps. Official attitudes were influenced by the views of Party militants, who had little respect for academic distinction-in a speech in Berlin in 1938 Streicher asked rhetorically: 'If one put the brains of all university professors into one side of a pair of scales, and the brain of the Fuehrer into the other, which side do you think would sink?' Nazi lecturers were of course preferred, to fill the vacancies left by the many professors who had resigned, but their quality as academics was not always high. As Professor Paul Kahle of Bonn University wrote, The provmotion of Nazi professors Among the Privatdozenten there were several who became Nazis in the hope of getting a professorship which they were otherwise doubtful of obtaining. Many of them had been pronounced, not convinced, Catholics so long as it was profitable, but as soon as advantages were no longer to be seen there, they turned to Nazism. Amongst them was Karl Schmidt. . . . Karl Schmidt had been Privatdozent and assistant in the clinic of Ophthalmology, which he had to manage for some time during the illness of the able Professor Roemer. He was a fairly good physician but no scholar, and he doubted whether he would be promoted to a professorship on merit alone. I remember a long conversation with him shortly before the Nazis came to power. He complained then about the policy of the Center Party which he held responsible for his non-promotion. He had secretly turned to Nazism in good time and had some connexion with Reich Doctors' Leader Wagner in Munich, an influential man in Germany during the first period of Nazi rule. So in 1935 he became Professor Roemer's successor, and as he turned more and more to active Nazism, he became Rector of the University in 1937 and still held his post in 1939 when I left Bonn. Schmidt had been given the nickname 'Beer Schmidt', of which he knew and was proud. At a social gathering of the staff of the University with their families in 1938, he let us see a film representing him and his companions performing gymnastic exercises-gymnastics were somewhat over-estimated under the Nazis. He was a fat man, and for recreation he drank down in long draughts, one after another, seven big jugs of beer which stood before him. Dismissal of Professor Kahle Kahle was one of those who managed to retain their posts despite their reluctance or refusal to conform to political requirements. A full Nazification of the universities proved impossible because wholesale dismissals would have created an enormous gap in the staff, which could only have been filled by those who had little experience or few qualifications for the work. Kahle was himself dismissed because of an indiscretion by members of his family: But my whole activity came to a sudden end in November 1938. The fact that I had an influential position without being a Nazi, that I was in contact with many more Nazi authorities than most of my colleagues in Bonn, especially those who regarded themselves as good Nazis, the fact that, thanks to my position, it was not necessary for me to make any compromise with Nazi ideology, to go to any meeting arranged by the Nazis, to send any of my sons to the Hitler Youth, may have alarmed some of the Nazis in Bonn, inside and outside the university. Already during my negotiations with the Ministry in 1935 I had been told by the official of the Ministry with whom I dealt of denunciations of me sent to the Ministry at regular intervals by Anton Baumstark, who had been Professor in Muenster University and had been dismissed there on moral grounds in spite of his being an outspoken Nazi and Dean of the Philosophical Faculty in Muenster. Since 1934 he had been living in Bonn again, where he had been before he was called to Muenster in 1930. He was a Nazi spy and a most suspicious hypocrite. . . . My wife had paid a five minutes' visit to a Jewish shop which had been destroyed by the Nazis on l0 November 1938. My eldest son, a student at Bonn University, had accompanied her. A policeman had seen them in the shop and had noted their names. The Nazis prepared a long and very abusive article against my wife and son for the Westdeutscher Beobachter. I was informed about the 'crime' committed by members of my family for whose actions I was held responsible by the Rector, who told me the news by telephone. He knew about the article, but did nothing 'to prevent it. When the article - four columns! - appeared in the paper two days later, I was suspended from my post in the university, my son was expelled from the university, my wife was condemned by the secret Nazi court, and in consequence of this we were outlawed. The Ministry in Berlin was completely powerless against the local Nazi authorities. We succeeded in leaving Germany quite secretly in March 1939. It was only at the end of May that the Nazi officials, the Gestapo, came to my house in Bonn. They were greatly surprised to hear that the whole family had disappeared and had been safely in England for nearly two months. . . . Academic work suffered because of the wide range of duties demanded of students. They were required to pursue many extra-curricular activities as working farms as well asfrequent sport, on the principle that they should not regard themselves as an intellectual elite but should serve the community (the heroism of Spartan youth was held up as a model). The Ten Commandments of Student Education (September 1937) urged students to do their duty towards the German people, to live in order and discipline, to be comradely, chivalrous and modest and to 'live up to the Fuehrer'. Guidelines for school regulations Similar considerations, the emphasis being on character rather than intellectual ability and on dedication to the community ( Volksgemeinschaft), determined the policy on schools. Wilhelm Frick, Minister of the Interior, announced in his decree of 18 December 1934 that 'the principal task of the school is the education of youth in the service of nationhood and State in the National Socialist spirit'. In the same decree he ordered the use of the Hitler salute in schools : Teachers and pupils are to give one another the German salute [the Hitler salute] within and outside the school. At the beginning of each lesson the teacher goes in front of the class, which is standing, and greets it by raising his right arm and with the words 'Heil Hitler'; the class returns the salute by raising their right arms and with the words (Heil Hitler'. The teacher closes the lesson after the pupils have risen by raising his right arm and with the words (Heil Hitler'; the pupils reply in the same way. Apart from this, the pupils greet the members of staff by raising their right arms in the appropriate posture within the boundaries of the school. Where hitherto Catholic religious instruction began and ended with the verse and response: (Praised be Jesus Christ.' (For ever and ever, Amen.', the German salute is to be given before this at the beginning of the lesson and after it at the end of the lesson. The non-Aryan pupils are given the choice of whether or not they want to give the German salute. . . . The importance of the 'New Education' The hoisting of flags and such ceremonies were calculated to induce a spirit of conformity. The Nazis hoped through the introduction of ideological training at the impressionable stage to mould the younger generation into a more acquiescent body than their elders, whose ideas had been mainly formed during the days of Imperial Germany. Understandably, the authorities paid special attention to school curricula. A preference was given for those subjects which contained a strong ideological element, such as German history and literature. In a speech on (the new education' to a conference of ministers of state governments (May 1933), Frick proclaimed: Our mother tongue, of the harmony, power and flexibility of which we can be proud, belongs to the noblest values, whose preservation lies close to our hearts. Unfortunately, its purity is not always cared for as much as is desirable. Even government offices frequently employ superfluous foreign words, which plainly endanger the comprehension of language among wide sections of the people. The school has in this respect important tasks to fulfil so that we can hand down the precious treasure of the German language pure and unadulterated. We also include here the German script, which should never lose its unquestionable superiority over the Latin script. With reference to the general aim of education, which I have indicated, it follows that history stands in the foremost place among school subjects. Therefore, special attention should be given to the development of the teaching of history and the selection or production of new history books. . . . The Nazi version of German history emphasized such themes as the existence of Germans outside the borders of the Reich, the superiority and heroic nature of the German race and the line of continuity from Charlemagne through Frederick the Great to Hitler. But the remodelling of history textbooks was not handled in any coordinated fashion until the introduction of a general censorship in 1938. The uniformity of education policy suffered from the conflicts of the different authorities which had an interest in education. Rust was formally Education Minister, but Frick (as Minister of the Interior) and Goebbels (with his claim to supervise the cultural health of the nation) also had a hand in educational matters, not to mention such Party leaders as Rosenberg (concerned with the ideological relevance of education), Bouhler (who controlled the production of school-books) and, of course, Baldur von Schirach (who as Hitler Youth Leader wished to restrict the influence of traditional schools). The ultimate aim of the proponents of a radical educational policy-like Baldur von Schirach and Robert Ley, leader of the German Labor Front-was the creation of a special school system under Party control, which would train the Nazi elite for future generations. The establishment of a completely new system separate from the State was based on the wish to implement the 'revolutionary' ideological aims of the NSDAP. Hitler gave his approval to this idea and thereby enabled the Party to by-pass Rust, the Minister of Education, whose policy was considered too slow by the radicals. The new system consisted of three stages : the Adolf Hitler Schools (initiated in 193 6), which the selected pupil would enter at the age of 12; the so-called Ordens-burgen (the name was borrowed from Teutonic Knights); and finally, the Party High Schools in place of universities: Of these the first two stages were completed. The Adolf Hitler Schools, founded in 1935-37, were under the control of the local Gauleiter and boys were selected who had excelled in the Jungvolk. Four Ordensburgen were established in castles throughout the Reich under the authority of Robert Ley, as head of the Party organization. These institutions illustrated the aim of the Third Reich to create on the one hand a classless society, and on the other a new elite to lead that society. The Nazis intended to form a new elite based not on social class but on equality of opportunity, where the criterion for selection was the degree of devotion to National Socialism. But these new institutions failed to establish themselves satisfactorily because of the lack of sufficient and suitable applicants and because of competition from the traditional institutions of education, which remained relatively strong despite the Government measures. Youth An increasingly serious competitor for control over education was the Hitler Youth, the youth branch of the Party. Its leader, Baldur von Schirach, who sought to exclude the influence of school and home on the minds of the young, was ambitious that his organization should with its educational and semi-military activities provide the basis for training future generations. According to Schirach, 'the Hitler Youth is an ideological community of education-he who marches in the Hitler Youth is not one among millions but a soldier of an idea'. It was a frequent theme of Nazi ideology that youth had a major role to play in 'the new Germany'. Hitler's views on Youth Hitler took up this theme when he spoke to the Hitler Youth at the Nuremberg Party Rally in September 1935 : German Youth ! You are assembled here on parade for the third time. Over 54,000 representatives of a community which is getting larger year by year. The weight of those whom you represent here every year is becoming heavier and heavier. Not only numerically speaking; no, we see it in terms of quality. When I think back to that first parade and to the second and compare them with this one today, I see the same development which we can see in the whole of the rest of German life. Our people are becoming noticeably more sturdy and disciplined and youth is beginning to do the same. The ideal of manhood has not always been the same even for our own people. There were times which now seem to us very far off and almost incomprehensible when the ideal of the young man was the chap who could hold his beer and was good for a drink. But now his day is past and we like to see not the man who can hold his drink, but the young mwho can stand all weathers, hardened young man. Because matters is not how many glasses of beer he can drink, but how many blows he can stand; not how many. nights he can spend on the spree, but how many kilometers he can march. We no longer see in the boorish beer-drinker the ideal of the German people: we find it in men and girls who are sound to the core, and sturdy. What we look for from our German youth is different from what people wanted in the past. In our eyes the German youth of the future must be slim and slender, swift as the greyhound, tough as leather, and hard as Krupp steel. We must educate a new type of man so that our people is not ruined by the symptoms of degeneracy of our day. . . . Membership of the Hitler Youth Hitler envisaged a process whereby a German youth would enter the Party youth organization at the age of 10 and in his late teens pass on to the SA and SS and later the armed forces. At the beginning of 1933, the Hitler Youth had been a relatively small organization, containing no more than I per cent of the total membership of youth organizations in the country. Its leader, von Schirach, used the new authority enjoyed by the Nazis through Hitler's appointment as Chancellor to put pressure on the other youth organizations, some of which rapidly dissolved themselves and joined the Hitler Youth. But the establishment of a monopoly over German youth took longer than expected because of strong resistance from conservative groups and especially from the Catholic associations. The following statistics illustrate the rate of increase in membership: HJ (boys DJ (boys BDM (girls JM (girls Total aged 14-18) aged 10-14) aged 14-18) aged 10-14) End 1932 55,365 28,691 19,244 4,656 107,956 End 1933 568,288 1,130,521 243,750 349,482 2,292,041 End 1934 786,000 1,457,304 471,944 862,317 3,577,565 End 1935 829,361 1,498,209 569,599 1,046,134 3,943,303 End 1936 1,168,734 1,785,424 873,127 1,610,316 5,437,601 End 1937 1,237,078 1,884,883 1,035,804 1,722,190 5,879,955 End 1938 1,663,305 2,064,538 1,448,264 1,855,119 7,031,226 Beg. 1939 1,723,886 2,137,594 1,502,571 1,923,419 7,287,470 and the BDM Werk (girls aged 18-21): 440,189 ABBREVIATIONS. HJ, Hitler-Jugend (Hitler Youth); DJ, Deutsches Jungvolk (German Young People); BDM, Bund Deutscher Maedel (League of German Girls); JM, Jungmaedelbund (League of Young Girls). Members of a Catholic Youth Club forced to join the Hitler Youth The degree of the enrolment in the Hitler Youth was lowest in Catholic areas, where the Hitler Youth faced strong competition from the well-established confessional youth groups. A case of pressure being applied by a teacher was recorded in Trier early in 1934. A local Catholic priest wrote to the Party district leader on 14 February 1934 complaining; In the 5th Class which is taught by teacher A there are 10 members of the Youth Club W. These boys have been youth club members for years and remained when the Hitler Youth was founded. Because of this latter fact they have had to endure a good deal of chicanery from their teacher. Despite the fact that there is a Reich Concordat, despite the fact that the Supreme Youth Leadership of the Reich stresses again and again that no boy is to be forced into the Hitler Youth, teacher A exerts such pressure on the members of the Youth Club that it is almost unbearable for the boys. For example : last Saturday he set those boys concerned the essay: 'Why am I not in the Hitler Youth?', while all the other children in the class had no homework. On setting the essay he added : 'If you don't write the essay I shall beat you until you can't sit down.' Another case: a member of the H] had come back to the Catholic Youth Club. When Mr A heard of this he threatened he would set him forty sums every time he stayed away from the HJ parade. This was made even worse by his threat of a beating as well. After this, the boy who had voluntarily wanted to come back to us stayed in the Hider Youth. The teacher's pressure on the Youth Club members even goes so far as to threaten the boys that he would (muck up' their reports at Easter and would not move them up, and so on. When Mr A was asked why he often punished only the members of the Youth Club, he said: 'It goes against the grain to beat a boy wearing the brown shirt of honor.' From this one can figure out how unbearable the pressure of the teacher is on members of the Catholic Youth Club. It would be in the interest of the boys and of the whole class if this situation was changed and the Youth Club members were given the same freedom and just treatment as the other members of the class. Letter of the Party district leader to the district leader of the NS Teachers' League, 2 March 1934 The reply from the Party district leader makes it clear that, at this stage at least, the Party wished to avoid too much controversy by precipitate action. I send the enclosed report of the Chaplain of W re treatment of the Catholic Youth Club of W in the primary school by Mr A for your information. It is advisable to suggest to the teacher concerned that he proceed more wisely, cautiously, and inconspicuously so that the other side has no occasion for complaint. Law on the Hitler Youth, 1 December 1936 During the first two years of the regime, while Hitler was consolidating his position, he was anxious not to give unnecessary offence to the Catholic Church. The Church had resented the aggressive and precipitate manner in which von Schirach had attempted to 'coordinate' Catholic youth clubs during the first months of the regime. In June 1933, therefore, Hitler endeavored to establish greater control over the youth movement by placing Schirach, as Reich Youth Leader, under the authority of the Reich Minister of the Interior. As the regime consolidated itself, however, the Hitler Youth began to acquire greater scope to assert itself. Teachers came under growing pressure from the authorities to persuade their pupils to join, and in November 1935 the Ministry of the Interior decreed that future applicants for posts in the Civil Service should show evidence of 'successful activity' in the Hitler Youth. Finally, a law of I December 1936 declared the Hitler Youth to be the State youth organization of which membership was compulsory: The future of the German nation depends upon its youth and German youth must therefore be prepared for its future duties. The Reich Government has accordingly decided on the following law which is published here with: I. The whole of German youth within the borders of the Reich is organized in the Hitler Youth. 2. All German young people, apart from being educated at home and at school, will be educated in the Hitler Youth physically, intellectually, and morally in the spirit of National Socialism to serve the nation and the community. 3. The task of educating German youth in the Hitler Youth is being entrusted to the Reich Leader of German Youth in the NSDAP. He therefore becomes the 'Youth Leader of the German Reich'. His office shall rank as a Supreme Governmental Agency with its headquarters in Berlin and he will be directly responsible to the Fuehrer and Chancellor of the Reich. 4. All regulations necessary to execute and supplement this decree will be issued by the Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor. Most activities outside school were taken over by the Hitler Youth, such as scouting, hiking, camping and, of course, all sporting activities, some of which, like shooting, had a military emphasis. In 1934, the State Youth Day had been instituted, when such outdoor activities replaced all school instruction (it took place on a Saturday). Ceremony of admission into the Cubs of the Deutsches Jungvolk Members of the Hitler Youth were required to swear an oath to the Fuehrer. The following ceremony for admission to the junior male branch of the HJ was laid down on instructions of the Trier section of the Hitler Youth (dated April 1940): It is of the greatest importance that the admissions are arranged in a solemn way. For everybody the hour of his induction must be a great experience. The cub [Pimpf] and young lass [Jungmaedel] must regathis hour of their first vow to the as the holiest of their whole life. Text of the speech of the DJ leader, to be read in all branches: Dear boy! / Dear girl! This hour in which you are to be received into the great community of the Hitler Youth is a very happy one and at the same time will introduce you into a new period of your lives. Today for the first time you swear allegiance to the Fuehrer which will bind you to him for all time. And every one of you, my young comrades, enters at this moment into the community of all German boys and girls. With your vow and your commitment you now become a bearer of German spirit and German honor. Every one, every single one, now becomes the foundation for an eternal Reich of all Germans. When you too now march in step with the youngest soldiers, then bear in mind that this march is to train you to be a National Socialist conscious of the future and faithful to his duty. And the Fuehrer demands of you and of us all that we train ourselves to a life of service and duty, of loyalty and comradeship. You, ten-year-old cub, and you, lass, are not too young nor too small to practice obedience and discipline, to integrate yourself into the community and show yourself to be a comrade. Like you, millions of young Germans are today swearing allegiance to the Fuehrer and it is a proud picture of unity which German youth today presents to the whole world. So today you make a vow to your Fuehrer and here, before your parents, the Party and your comrades, we now receive you into our great community of loyalty. Your motto will always be : 'Fuehrer, command-we follow!' ( The cubs are asked to rise.) Now say after me: 'I promise always to do my duty in the Hiter Youth in love and loyalty to the Fuehrer and to our flag.' Poets for a Hitler Youth ceremony in 1941 Such ceremonies took on an almost religious character. New members had to recite set poems, which expressed dedication to the Fuehrer. The following may serve as an example of the sort of kitsch which typified them: background. But although she could hardly pronounce a single foreign word correctly, it would not have occurred to anyone to make fun of her. She brought us to the point at which we each recognized one another's particular value, after having come to know one another's weak and strong points, and everyone strove to be willing and reliable.