TEE INFLUENCE OP THE YOUTH MOVEMENT OH GERMAN EDUCATION by GEORGE THOMSON, M.A., B.Sc. Thesis presented for Ph.D. June, 1954, ProQuest Number: 13905174 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 13905174 Published by ProQuest LLC(2019). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 OECROE I E O H S ® . 11 I / * 1 * Whoever first thought of associating Silver Jubilee Celebrations with Ardgoil Estate deserves a Jubilee Medal* Forty thousand Glasgow sohool children would sertalnly unite to do him honour. It was a bold experiment organising a fort­ night’s excursions from the city schools, but all who were assoelated with these excursions in any eapaoity must agree that they were an unqualified success* It Is difficult to estimate the significance of such an excursion for 01a a go w Children* the rich and varied experiences of the day, the novelty, the glamour which invests the most trivial incident, the memories which will but mellow with the years * On ausii a day nothing is commonplace . The children assemble in the school playground* All is excitement. Eyes are bright and shining with keen antici­ pation* A murmur of eonversation runs through the class* groups From a little group of boys comes a voice ’Did ye hear Urn say that after we eat, the time’s oor aln to three o’clock?' Another responds ’By jings, it’ll be ©or ain tael’ They are just like puppies being let off the. lead. This is not an ordinary holiday. It is not a holiday from school, it is a genuine school holiday, Their first feeling is that this is a school day that is going to be different. Tramcars are waiting and off we go, A talkative conductor tries to discuss the day’s news with us on the - 2 - platform, but he might a* wall save his breath: the occu­ pants of the top deck are bawling ’Roll along, covered waggon, roll along1, while at the same time those down- it a Ire are loudly lamenting * poor old Joe’ * we arrive eventually at Bridge Wharf, and then there are all the tfarilla Of embarkation. At the gangway eaeh child re­ ceives two packages, a bun and a biscuit to take the edge off appetite, a little box of chocolate drops to whet the edge of enjoyment* By the time these have received due attention Bridge Wharf la far behind, we are well on our way *doon the Wetter<. Everything moves steadily past aa H w m NMPI# leiUtfUi' :^e b ^he'Vfcil - the long line of wharves, doeka, shipyards, ahipa and yet more ahipa, the ’Queen Mary’ massive yet graceful, cranes gigantic against the Sky, a dredger at work, Dumbarton Rock* Hew we are Into more spacious country, hills merge into hills, leading the eye to the far herIson. And the children} Some are standing at the rail taking in every detail of the changing panorama, others are prowling round exploring the ship, some of the more boisterous are frolicking about, puppies chasing their own metaphorical tails, others are silent, watching the cloud-shadows drifting across the landscape and weaving an ever-varying pattern of light and shade over the colours of hillside and loch. $ * * * - 3 - The hills are receding into the distance; we are on our return journey and the trip is almost over. It is a time for reflection, for letting the mind drift pleasantly over the experiences of the day. As thoughts drift on, the scene changes before me. This is no longer Hamburg ^children. The deck is more open but more crowded. The children look different from Glasgow children, the boys with close-cropped heads and sun-tanned skin, many of them wear­ ing only shirt and shorts, the girls with fair hair dangling in plaits or clasped tightly at the nape of the neck, with dresses rough and serviceable, mainly blue in colour, There is a constant chatter of talk and of nonsense, an occasional burst of laughter. From the far corner of the deck corns the strumming of a uke* almost submerged by lusty young voices singing about the *lieb* Vaterland. ^(This is no longer the ’Queen Alexandra* sailing up the Glyde. The brown waters which are swirling pa3t are the waters of the Elbe: It is July, 1933, and I am returning to Hamburg from Moorw&rder Day Colony on the Hugo von Basedow, with 1,000 Hamburg children). It is an interesting parallel - the excursion from Glasgow to Ardgoil, the excursion from Hamburg to MoorwSrderJ The comparison is tempting, but what contrasts it reveals! Hamburg has two Day Colonies for school children, one at Moorwlrder, forty minutes by steamer up the Elbe, **4- with full accommodation for 2,000 children, the other at Xohlbrand, across the El he hy ferry from the centre of the city, with full accommodation for 3,000. During the sum* mer vacation, three groups of almost 2,000 children each go to MoorwSrder for consecutive fortnightly periods, travelling hy steamer morning and evening, spending the whole day at MoorwSrder. Similarly for Kohlbrand. Each child pays roughly ten shillings for his fortnight»s stay, the money being collected in instalments at the schools* For poorer children the charge is reduced, according to home circumstances, and in many eases It Is purely nominal, fhe colonies are subsidised directly from city funds so that the charges made are no index of actual expenses. Now note this point,* during school time these colonies are visited by olass^groups, visiting as class-groups with their teacher, who is aided in supervision and in Instruction by the resident staff. In addition to these colonies there are the *school- homo*', houses in the country which have been established by Hamburg schools, individually or in groups, for the reception of school children, visiting with their teachers in classes and staying for a continuous period of a fortnight or even longer. Hamburg has about thirty school-homes, each capable of accomm­ odating from thirty to a hundred children, or even more. During school time the school-home is to all intents and purposes an an­ nexe of the school. Here for instance is a school-home belonging ’• J - & • to a secondary school* each year nine of the nineteen school classes visit it for a fortnight during school time, not fod a holiday but for purposes of education, 2?he period of school vacation is kept as a separate holiday period for selected pupils* and la not arranged on a olaas basis, She classes which do not visit this school-home usually go to sons other school-home for a fortnight during school time, or, in the case of the highest classes, go on excursion further afield, probably staying at Youth Hostels, of which there are literally thousands throughout Germany, In Hamburg the value of country excursions for city children was early recognised. Sven long before the War-r activities of this: kind werts organised-oh q u i W scale. From the very beginning it was an educational exper­ iment, conducted directly through the schools, or indirectly through teacher!1 organisations, and its Influence through­ out the Hamburg school system makes a profoundly interesting Study, Activities of a similar kind are slowly but surely coming into their own in this country, mainly in the guise of holiday camps or school journeys. It is vitally Important at this stage that all who have any responsibility in education should see to it that this incipient movement is directed not merely to recreation and holiday relaxation but first and last to the service of education. BOOK I . CONTENTS, Pages: Preface and Bibliography................... ......... .. i-xi. Part I ; Chapter I: Introductory - Beginnings of the Wandervogel - Expansion of the Move­ ment - Wandervogel Outlook........ 1-48. Chapter II: Trends in other youth organisations.,.. 49-74. Chapter III: The Preideutschen...................... 75-102. Chapter IV: The Postwar Expansion of the Youth Movement .......... 103-140. Chapter V. The Youth Hostels Movement............ 141-182. PBEFACE : BIBIIOQBAPHY. To uphold the thesis that the Youth Movement was an important influence in German education we first investigate the significance of the youth Movement as a whole, then explore its significance more particularly for education. We "begin with a discussion of the Youth Movement as a product of the abnormal social situation which obtained in Germany at the end of last century, tracing its emergence and expansion in the Wandervogel and kindred youth organisations. In this first phase, the youth associations were the vehicle of the Youth Movement. Though mainly outside the educational system these associations exerted considerable influence on education as they developed, through the methods and activities they served to popularise and the outlook they expressed. More­ over they came into close and intimate contact with other in­ fluences making for social change, with the hostels movement, with the growth of settlements and other nuclei of reform opin­ ion, with reform movements in education, and all these combined to bring tremendous pressure to bear on educational policy and on educational practice throughout Germany. But as the youth associations became assimilated into the social organism they became less representative of the spontaneous interests of the young people who comprised their membership, less genuinely part of the Youth Movement.