Frontispiece: The front cover of Spartanerjungen by Paul von Szczepan´ski (A. Anton Verlag, Leipzig, n.d.), illustrated by Fritz Buchholz. This work was originally published in 1901 under the title Spartanerjünglinge, by which it is better known. SPARTA’S GERMAN CHILDREN The ideal of ancient Sparta in the Royal Prussian Cadet Corps, 1818–1920, and in National Socialist elite schools (the Napolas), 1933–1945 Helen Roche The Classical Press of Wales First published in 2013 by The Classical Press of Wales 15 Rosehill Terrace, Swansea SA1 6JN Tel: +44 (0)1792 458397 www.classicalpressofwales.co.uk Distributor in the United States of America ISD, LLC 70 Enterprise Dr., Suite 2, Bristol, CT 06010 Tel: +1 (860) 584–6546 www.isdistribution.com © 2013 Helen Roche All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. ISBN 978-1-910589-17-5 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Typeset, printed and bound in the UK by Gomer Press, Llandysul, Ceredigion, Wales ––––––––––––––––– The Classical Press of Wales, an independent venture, was founded in 1993, initially to support the work of classicists and ancient historians in Wales and their collaborators from further afield. More recently it has published work initiated by scholars internationally. While retaining a special loyalty to Wales and the Celtic countries, the Press welcomes scholarly contributions from all parts of the world. The symbol of the Press is the Red Kite. This bird, once widespread in Britain, was reduced by 1905 to some five individuals confined to a small area known as ‘The Desert of Wales’ – the upper Tywi valley. Geneticists report that the stock was saved from terminal inbreeding by the arrival of one stray female bird from Germany. After much careful protection, the Red Kite now thrives – in Wales and beyond. Dedicated to the memory of my father, Jerome Roche (1942–1994) CONTENTS Page Acknowledgements ix List of illustrations xi 1 General introduction 1 Sources and methodology 2 The philhellenist background 16 2 Personal and political appropriations of Sparta at the Prussian Cadet Corps: Historical context 33 ‘The Spartans of Lichterfelde’ 33 Historical background: The aims and ethos of the Royal Prussian Cadet Corps 36 3 Spartanerjünglinge, or the importance of being Spartan 55 How to become a Spartan Youth 55 The endorsement of Spartanertum by Cadet-Corps authority figures 70 4 Creating the Cadet-Corps’ Spartabild: Teaching, textbooks and the ancient sources 81 The Spartan trope and the ancient sources 83 Cadet-school textbooks as potential sources for the Spartan trope 94 5 Of Spartans and Socialisation: The function of ‘spartanern’ 111 The anatomy of the total institution 112 The Prussian Cadet Corps as a total institution 114 The function of ‘spartanern’ 117 6 The Cadet Corps and its critics: Education, politics and the Prussian military 125 The Cadet Corps, politics and Spartanertum, 1840–1900 125 Anti-militarist attitudes: Sparta as a byword for brutality in liberal and socialist thought 139 vii 7 Raging against the Republics: ‘Spartan’ self-definition in the cadet-school Traditionsgemeinschaft, 1920–1995 157 Spartan Youth versus the Spartacists: The contested nature of Cadet-Corps Spartanertum during the Weimar Republic 157 The afterlife of the topos: ‘Spartan’ self-definition and nostalgia in the cadet school Traditionsgemeinschaft post-1945 167 Conclusions 173 8 Personal and Political Appropriations of Sparta at the Nationalpolitische Erziehungsanstalten: Historical context 179 ‘Cadet Schools of the Third Reich’? The aims and ethos of the Nationalpolitische Erziehungsanstalten (1933–1945) 179 Sparta and the creators of the NPEA 188 9 ‘Sparta’s Spirit Lives!’ Sparta’s role in ideology and everyday life at the Napolas 203 ‘We demand firm, Spartan discipline!’ Racial ideology, textbooks, and the Napolas’ nazified view of Sparta 203 Role-models of heroism and self-sacrificial death: Memories of Spartan teaching at the Napolas 213 ‘Spartas Geist lebt! ’: Napola pupils’ personal identifications with Sparta 222 Conclusions 231 10 Conclusion 239 Appendix: Instances of the Spartan topos relating to the Prussian Cadet Schools, arranged chronologically 249 Glossary 261 Archival sources 263 Bibliography 265 List of former Napola pupils who have provided eyewitness testimony 299 Index 301 viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am deeply indebted to my supervisors, Paul Cartledge and Robin Osborne, and to my advisors, Anton Powell and Brendan Simms, for their invaluable support and advice. I am also most grateful to my PhD examiners, Stephen Hodkinson and Paul Millett, for their helpful comments and criticisms, which have assuredly improved the finished product to an extensive degree; the remaining flaws in the work are entirely my own responsibility. Georg Gerleigner deserves especial praise and gratitude for his tireless and wonderfully generous help with German correspondence, without which my attempts to get in touch with the Zeitzeugen in the first place might well have foundered. Many thanks are also due to Benjamin Keim and Damian Valdez for their comments and encouragement. I would also like to express my gratitude to all the Zeitzeugen who contributed to the project, without whose help and generosity this book could not have existed in its present form. Research scholarships from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) and the Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz (Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz ), as well as funding from the AHRC, the Faculty of Classics, and Gonville and Caius College all made it possible for me to do the requisite amount of research in archives and libraries in Germany; I am therefore grateful to these institutions for their financial support. During my research-trips to Germany, the support of various individuals was invaluable. Sven Devantier helped me immeasurably – both in terms of negotiating the bureaucracy at the Bundesarchiv, and with regard to numerous other matters, practical or otherwise. I am also very grateful to Dr. Andreas Kunz of the Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv, Dr. Reinhart Strecke of the Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Andrea Ribbschläger of the Bibliothek für Bildungsgeschichtlicher Forschung, and Petra Dorfmüller, the archivist at Schulpforta, for their help and advice. During my stay in Freiburg im Breisgau, Prof. Dr. Sitta von Reden, Dr. Astrid Möller, and Benjamin Grünert of the Seminar für alte Geschichte at the Albert-Ludwigs- Universität also made me wonderfully welcome. Additionally, I would like to thank Pierre Dechant for help with deciphering some of my correspondents’ more esoteric handwriting; Raffaella Smith and Christine Enßle for sending on parcels of German books, and Professor Mary Fulbrook, Dr. Arnulf Moser and Dr. Matthias Paustian, among others, for supplying me with useful information. ix Acknowledgements Last – but never least! – all my love and thanks must go to my mother and Oliver, without whose loving support, intellectual stimulation, and copy-editing this monograph could never have come into being. The work is dedicated, however, to the memory of my late father Jerome Roche, in the hope that – despite its topic being un-musicological – he would have heartily approved of its substance. x LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Page Fig. 1 Frontispiece from Adolf von Crousaz’s Geschichte des 32 Königlich Preußischen Kadetten-Corps, nach seiner Entstehung, seinem Entwicklungsgange und seinen Resultaten, Berlin: Schindler, 1857 (Historischer Bilderdienst). Fig. 2 Map showing locations of the cadet schools and their 38 dates of foundation. Fig. 3 Cadets on parade at the Hauptkadettenanstalt in Berlin- 40 Lichterfelde, c.1910 (Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R22695). Fig. 4 Cadets performing their duties as pages at the Prussian 41 Court, by ‘Othello’ (Dewall 1878, p. 210). Fig. 5 Am Krankenbett Gaisbergs, by Oskar Larsen (Borcke 1940, 48 plate 14). Fig. 6 Stealing pears at Voranstalt Culm, as imagined by 57 Fritz Buchholz (Szczepan´ski n.d., b, frontispiece). Fig. 7 Sendrecki Major throttling his brother Sendrecki 58 Minimus, by Fritz Buchholz (Szczepan´ski n.d., b., p. 39). Fig. 8 Speckschlucken, by Fritz Buchholz (Szczepan´ski n.d., b., p. 9). 58 Fig. 9 Farewell to Minden, by ‘Othello’ (Dewall 1884, p. 8). 60 Fig. 10 The baiting of Thilo, by ‘Othello’ (Dewall 1884, p. 52). 61 Fig. 11 Thilo in the ‘Spanish Rack’, by ‘Othello’ (Dewall 1884, 62 p. 55). Fig. 12 Lehrer Schröder im Unterricht, by Oskar Larsen (Borcke 1940, 82 plate 5). Fig. 13 The Zuckermäulchen, by ‘Othello’ (Dewall 1878, p. 75). 84 Fig. 14 Snowball fights at Bensberg, by ‘Othello’ (Dewall 1884, 91 p. 69). Fig. 15 A Geography lesson at the HKA, c.1910 (Bundesarchiv 95 Bild 146-2007-0133). xi List of illustrations Fig. 16 Die Beichte vor der Konfirmation, by Oskar Larsen 102 (Borcke 1940, plate 11). Fig. 17 Cadets revising for their final exams, by ‘Othello’ 103 (Dewall 1878, p. 219). Fig. 18 “Am Grabes Rand ”: Einweihung, by Oskar Larsen 116 (Borcke 1940, plate 3). Fig. 19 Front cover of Hans-Joachim Freiherr von Reitzenstein’s 143 Vergitterte Jugend. Geschichten aus dem Kadettenkorps, Berlin: Eysler, 1920. Fig. 20 Locations of the Napolas for boys, and their dates 179 of foundation. Fig. 21 Pupils at Napola Rügen attend a biology lesson 184 (photograph courtesy of Dietrich Schulz). Figs. 22 and 23 Extracurricular activities