YOUTH MOVEMENT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 21 January 1931, Page 2

YOUTH MOVEMENT

GERMANY’S EXPERIMENT NEW STANDARDS OF FREEDOM The Youth Movement in Germany was described as one of the most important social and educational developments in post-war Germany by Professor ,|. L. Wrigley, of the University of Melbourne, when lecturing to teachers of the Summer School at Christchurch (reports the “Press”). Professor Wrigley explained how, after the war, the Germans had paid special attention to nutrition and physical development. The discontinuance of compulsory physical training and the desire to’restore German prestige in the international athletic field were also the causes of more attention being given the question. SEMI -Ml LIT ARY ATMOSPHERE The pre-war training had been of a rigid type carried out in the secondary schools with apparatus in a semi-mili-tary atmosphere. Games such as tennis had been the privilege of the richer and wealthier classes. During the past decade, however, there had been a great development in physical training. In the elementary schools existed systems of freer exercises and games in the open air, while swimming was made compulsory in all those schools where facilities for it existed. Two years’ physical training was compulsory at the universities, and anti-alcohol and anti-tobacco piopaganda was carried on. There was an immense popular enthusiasm for “hiking.” Opportunity was taken at least one day a month" for parties to make field excursions which brought them in contact with the world of Nature, and visits were paid to historic spots and to places of architectural interest. “Thy whole movement is excellent,” he said, “but some observers deplore the prevalence of a feature which is in strange contrast with democratic ideas —political and religious parties from clubs along sectional lines. Outside the schools', as one writer puts it, boys and girls seldom play together as comrades and Germans, but they play as Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, or Freethinking groups.” This impetus to physical development was greatly helped on by the Youth Movement. RISE OF THE MOVEMENT “In the latter part of the nineteenth century there were many indications of n growing spirit of revolt against militarism, the rigid social conditions and the lack of educational opportunity for the great bulk of the population,” said the Professor. “This unrest was increased in tho early twentieth century by the spread of associations for games and athletics and other clubs for recreational and social purposes. But the leaders of the Youth Movement desired above all to set up their own standards of freedom, and formed their own forms of grouping and of associations for the promotion of Hie interests of youth.

“This desire found definite expression in Hie bands of boys and youths who, under the leadership of Karl Fischer, roamed through the country around Berlin and were pioneers of the celebrated Wandervogel or Wander Birds. They tramped the countryside in search of health and of nature and in the exercise of the right to find out for themselves. The Wandervogel took iqi a definite position on moral questions of the day, and almost universally condemned the use of alcohol and tobacco.

“The Great War intervened, but the movement was reborn with redoubled vitality, and is to-day one of the most important developments of German social and educational life. It makes for the closer association of all classes and a better understanding. The movement is undoubtedly an influential factor in the development of modern Germany. Its weight is felt in school reform, in political adjustment, in discussions on the religious question, in reactions against the dead hand of industrialism and in schemes of humanitarian reconstruction.” The lecture concluded with a brief reference to the manner in which this new spirit had found expression in the schools in several directions.