The Youth Movement in Germany
[One of the most significant events in Europe since the War has been the enthusiasm with which the youth of post-War Germany has taken to open-air life and sport. Stay-at-home Englishmen, who are disposed to regard Germans as people who consistently over-eat and who live in stuffy rooms, will have to revise their opinions, and this article will help them to do so. It contains a lesson for us. We see no reason why " shelters for youth" such as are described in this article should not be adopted in this country.—Ere. Spectator.] ONEONE of the most striking features of post-War is what for want of a better name must be called the German Youth Movement. Travellers in Germany, particularly during the summer months, cannot but have been impressed by the enormous numbers of boys and girls, of young men and young women, wandering along the roads, happy and care-free as the birds after whom they are named. For these are the German Wandervogel, and behind them is an organization of the most elaborate nature, and one which bears the characteristic German stamp of thoroughness.
The basis upon which the whole movement rests is to be found in the " Jugendherbergen," or " Young People's Shelters." For this purpose the whole of Germany has been divided up into twenty-eight dis- tricts, and in each district there are numerous " Her- bergen." Regions like the Rhineland and the Black Forest have a shelter in. practically every small town (in the province of Baden alone there are close on one hundred such shelters), but these institutions are to be found throughout the length and breadth of Germany.
Beginning in 1911 with seventeen shelters, the move- ment has grown with phenomenal rapidity. In 1913, the last pre-War date for which statistics are available, there were eighty-three Herbergen, which provided a night's shelter for 20,000 persons. In 1920 the numbers had gone up to 700 and 502,000 respectively, and, according to the latest official figures, there were in 1927 2,560 Herbergen, which provided a night's rest for two and a-half million young people.
From the North Sea to the Alps, from the Rhine to the eastern frontiers, there is a network of Herbergen, where boys and girls can be assured of a comfortable night's lodging. The accommodation is Spartan in its simplicity. Guests are provided with a straw mattress, a straw pillow, and one or more blankets. In some Herbergen the mattresses are laid on the floor—at Con- stance 120 of us slept on the floor of a gymnasium— in others there are iron bedsteads in double tiers, on the bunk principle. There are ample facilities for washing—a foot bath is compulsory before retiring to rest—and everywhere it is possible to cook, either by means of gas or on wood fires.
In the smaller villages the Herbergen have from a dozen to twenty beds. At Cologne they can sleep 500, and during the summer the Herberge .is always full. Incidentally, here, as in several other large cities, the shelter is an old barracks, a significant indication of the spirit of post-War Germany. Heidelberg has its Her- berge in an old mansion, situated in charming grounds near to the Neckar. The shelter has 320 beds, is equipped with central heating, and is open throughout the year. A good midday meal is provided for 70 pfennigs, and an evening meal for 50 pfennigs.. The canteen supplies bread, butter, milk, cocoa and other simple necessities at cost price. Abundant supplies of milk are obtainable everywhere. The facilities offered at Heidelberg are typical of those to be found in all the larger Herbergen. At present many of the shelters are housed in the schools, and are therefore open during the summer holidays only; but the movement aims at the eventual acquisition of permanent Herbergen all over Germany. According to the " Herbergsverzeichnis " for 1928, there are 4,000 cinemas in Germany, annually frequented by 350 million people. It would be far better for Germany, states one writer, if she were to devote the money now spent on the screen to throwing open " the sun-strewn stage of Nature."
The Youth Movement is a great and successful social experiment, and one that thoroughly deserves to succeed. Its aim is to inculcate amongst the youth of Germany a universal desire for travel. The sponsors of the move- ment regard the early cultivation through travel of a love of the open air as the surest bulwark against con- sumption, alcohol, tobacco and the cinema, against love of pleasure, the slavery of fashion and effeminacy. For country youth it is a sure antidote against flight from the land, for he who wanders through his homeland grows to love it, and does not hanker after the shallow pleasures of the cities. Membership is open to all, without distinction ' of rank, religion or politics. The young artisan rests side by side with the scholar from the high school, the rich man's son with the poor man's. All wanderers are enjoined to spare meadows and fields, woods and shrubs, " for sacred is the land and all she bears," and it is a remarkable fact that in Germany one has to look in vain for litter, whether in town or country.
What lessons has the movement for England ? During the summer holidays it is no exaggeration to say that 90 per cent. of our children are at a loose end for 90 per cent. of the time. And yet our schools are empty and our classrooms lie thick in dust. Better far the dust of wayfaring feet than the accumulated dust of idleness ! Germany encourages her children to indulge in an activity of the highest educational and health- giving value, by providing them with beds for 20 pfennigs a night—less than 2 id.—while for persons over twenty years of age the charge is 50 pfennigs, or less than 6d. The State Railways make special concessions to members, and the railway refreshment rooms, on the express instructions of the German Ministry of Transport, supply wanderers with food, non-alcoholic drinks and fruit at specially cheap rates. Some people may argue that our climatic conditions make such a system of " wander- ing " impossible. But good equipment, good shoes, mackintoshes and rucksacks arc more important than good weather. Every tramper or cyclist will bear that out. One has only to contrast the glorious mahogany faces of the German Wandervogel with the pallor of the average London or Manchester youth to see the benefits and possibilities of the movement. Germany is finding her place in the sun. When shall we do likewise ?
W. J. H. WATKINS.
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