Bismarckjugend

Bismarckjugend, 'Bismarck Youth', was an anti-Marxist youth movement in Weimar Germany. Bismarckjugend was the youth wing of the monarchist German National People's Party (DNVP).

The organization was founded in Hanover in 1922, through the unification of various local youth groups close to DNVP. DNVP was the last of the established parties in the Reichstag to have a national youth wing of its own. The organization was politically completely dependent on the DNVP. The youth movement was initially led by Wilhelm Kube. Bismarckjugend branches were at first centred in the industrial areas of Germany. Later the movement spread its wings to the rural eastern regions of the country.

Soon after the founding of the national youth organization (in 1922), Hermann Otto Sieveking became its chairman. Under Sievekings' leadership, the organization developed a paramilitary character. It also began to organize annual national youth meetings.

By mid-1923 Bismarckjugend entered a period of continuous decay. Generally DNVP was associated with the old order and was unpopular amongst the younger generation.

In July 1928 the seventh national youth meeting of Bismarcksjugend has held in Friedrichsruh to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Otto von Bismarck's death. Friedrichsruh is the site of Bismarck's mausoleum. The meeting had particular importance to the mother party, as it was an important event to show strength after the meagre electoral result for DNVP in May the same year. By the end of the 1920s Bismarckjugend had been revitalized and had expanded its membership.

In the 1933 National Socialist take-over, parties other than the NSDAP either dissolved themselves or were banned. On June 27, 1933 a 'Friendly Agreement' was signed between the DNVP (renamed in 1932 into German National Front (DNF)) and the NSDAP, following which the DNF dissolved itself. In 1935, the wearing of the Bismarckjugend uniform was banned by law.

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