Edelweiss Pirates

The Edelweiss Pirates ("Edelweißpiraten") were a loose group of youth culture in Nazi Germany. They emerged in western Germany out of the German Youth Movement of the late 1930s in response to the strict regimentation of the Hitler Youth. Similar in many ways to the Leipzig "Meuten", they consisted of young people, mainly between the ages of 14 and 18, who had either evaded the Hitler Youth by leaving school (which was allowed at 14) or avoiding the Reich Labour Service and military service.

Origins

The origins of the "Edelweißpiraten" can be traced to the period immediately prior to World War II, as the state-controlled Hitler Youth was mobilized to serve the state, at the expense of the leisure activities it had previously offered young people. This tension was exacerbated once the war began and youth leaders were conscripted. In contrast, the Edelweißpiraten offered young people considerable freedom to express themselves and to mingle with members of the opposite sex, whereas Nazi youth movements were strictly segregated by sex, the "Hitler-Jugend" (boys) and "Bund Deutscher Mädel" (girls). Though predominantly male, the casual meetings of the "Edelweißpiraten" even offered German adolescents an opportunity for sexual experimentation with the girls that tagged along with every group. The "Edelweißpiraten" used many forms and symbols of the organisations of the German Youth Movement, which were outlawed earlier. They used their tent (the Kohte), their style of clothing (the Jungschaftsjacke), and sang songs, all of which were prohibited symbols of the German Youth Movement. These symbols and also the traditions such as hiking came from members, who were previously in the groups of the German Youth Movement.

The first "Edelweißpiraten" appeared in the late 1930s in western Germany, comprising mostly young people between the ages of 14 and 18. Individual groups were closely associated with different regions but identifiable by a common style of dress with their own edelweiss badge and by their opposition to what they saw as the paramilitary nature of the Hitler Youth.cite book | last = Welch | first = David | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = The Third Reich: Politics and Propaganda | publisher = Routledge | date = 1993 | location = | pages = pp. 62-63 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 0415090334] Subgroups of the "Edelweißpiraten" included the "Navajos", centred on Cologne, the "Kittelbach Pirates" of Oberhausen and Düsseldorf, and the "Roving Dudes" of Essen.cite book | last = Lee | first = Stephen J. | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = Hitler and Nazi Germany | publisher = Routledge | date = 1998 | location = | pages = p. 58 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 0415179882]

Although they rejected the Nazis' authoritarianism, the "Edelweißpiraten's" nonconformist behaviour tended to be restricted to petty provocations. Despite this they represent a group of youth who rebelled against the regime's regimentation of leisure and were unimpressed by the propaganda touting Volksgemeinschaft. They were highly antagonistic to the Hitler Youth, ambushing their patrols and beating them up. One of their slogans was "Eternal War on the Hitler Youth".

During World War II, many Edelweißpiraten supported the Allies and assisted deserters from the German army. Some groups also collected propaganda leaflets dropped by Allied aircraft and pushed it through letterboxes.

Culture

Apart from gatherings on street corners, the "Edelweißpiraten" engaged in hiking and camping trips, defying the Nazi's regime's restrictions on free movement, which kept them away from the prying eyes of the totalitarian regime. They often engaged in fights with the Hitler Youth and took great pride in attacking them. As one group, the "Navajos", sang:::"Des Hitlers Zwang, der macht uns klein,"::::(Hitler's compulsion, it makes us small)::"noch liegen wir in Ketten."::::(still, we're bound in chains)::"Doch einmal werden wir wieder frei,"::::(But one day we'll be free again)::"wir werden die Ketten schon brechen."::::(We'll smash through the chains)::"Denn unsere Fäuste, die sind hart,"::::(For our fists, they are hard)::"ja--und die Messer sitzen los,"::::(Yes, and the knives are attached loosely)::"für die Freiheit der Jugend,"::::(For the freedom of Youth)::"kämpfen Navajos."::::(Navajos are struggling)

Nazi response

The Nazi response to the "Edelweißpiraten" was typically harsh. Individuals identified by the Gestapo as belonging to the various gangs were often rounded up and released with their heads shaved to shame them. In some cases, young people were sent to concentration camps or prison. On October 25, 1944 Heinrich Himmler ordered a crackdown on the group and in November of that year a group of thirteen people, the heads of the Ehrenfelder Gruppe, were publicly hanged in Cologne. Some of those hanged were former "Edelweißpiraten". The "Edelweißpiraten" hanged were six teenagers, amongst them Bartholomäus Schink, called Barthel, former member of the local "Navajos." Fritz Theilen survived.

Nevertheless, government repression never managed to break the spirit of most groups, which constituted a subculture that rejected the norms of Nazi society. While the Edelweiss Pirates assisted army deserters and others hiding from the Third Reich, they have yet to receive recognition as a resistance movement (partly because they were viewed with contempt because of their 'proletarian' background and 'criminal' activities by many of their former Youth Movement comrades, who survived the war) and the families of victims killed by the Nazis have as yet received no reparations.

Postwar

Contrary to what the Allies had hoped, the Edelweiss Pirates were not pro-British or pro-American. In the early days of the Allied Occupation they sought contact with the Occupying Authority to intervene in the case of the friends and even to propose that they might go on patrol, as did the Wuppertal "Edelweißpiraten".cite journal | last = Biddiscombe | first = Perry | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = 'The Enemy of our Enemy' - A View of the Edelweiss Piraten from the British and American Archives | journal = Journal of Contemporary History | volume = 30 | issue = | pages = pp. 37-63 | publisher = | location = | date = 1995 | url = | doi = | id = | accessdate = ] They were taken seriously and courted by various factions; the first known pamphlets of the KPD (Cologne Communist Party) in July 1945 were directed at them. [cite book | last = Billstein| first = R. | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = Das entscheidende Jahr. Sozialdemokratie und Kommunistische Partei in Köln 1945/46| publisher = | date = 1988 | location = Cologne | pages = p. 143 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = ]

While a small number of "Edelweißpiraten" remained in the Antifascist Youth and the FDJ (Free German Youth) organizations, the majority turned their back on these bodies as soon as they realized that, in the words of one member, "politics were taking centre stage again". For example, a group in Bergisch Gladbach disbanded when young people of Communist orientation tried to form a majority in the group.

The "Edelweißpiraten's" turning away from the re-authorized political youth groups forced them into the role of social outcasts and brought them into conflict with the Allies. The headquarters of the American Counter-Intelligence Corps in Frankfurt reported in May 1946 that Edelweiss activities were known throughout the British and American Zones.

Groups identifying themselves as "Edelweißpiraten" conducted many violent attacks against Soviet Russian and Polish Displaced Persons. Author Peter Schult witnessed such an attack, against a Polish black marketeer. [cite book | last = Schult | first = Peter | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = Besuche in Sackgassen. Aufzeichnungen eines homosexuellen Anarchisten | publisher = Trikont Verlag | date = 1978 | location = Munich | pages = p. 46 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = ] There were also attacks against German women who were known to have been friends or been intimate with British soldiers. [cite book | last = Henke | first = Klaus-Dietmar | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = Die amerikanische Besetzung Deutschlands | publisher = Oldenbourg | date = 1995 | location = Munich | pages = pp. 198-200 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = ]

In a trial held by a military court at Uelzen in April 1946 a juvenile named as Heinz D. was initially sentenced to death, the reason for this sentence being given as his "...very active part in carrying out the nefarious schemes of the E. Piraten. An organization such as this might well threaten the peace of Europe." The sentence was commuted the following month to a prison sentence. In the Soviet Zone, young people suspected of being "Edelweißpiraten" were sentenced to a virtually obligatory 25 years in prison. [cite book | last = Schildt | first = Axel | authorlink = | coauthors = Detlef Siegfried | title = European Cities, Youth and the Public Sphere in the Twentieth Century | publisher = Ashgate Publishing | date = 2005 | location = Munich | pages = p. 48 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 0754651738]

From 1946 onward Intelligence officials noted resistance activities by an orgnaization which had appropriated the name of the "Edelweißpiraten"; this group was reported to be mainly comprised of former members and officers of Hitler Youth units, ex-soldiers and drifters, and was described by an intelligence report as "a sentimental, adventurous, and romantically anti-social [movement] ". It was regarded as a serious menace by US officials.cite book | last = Fritz| first = Stephen G. | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = Endkampf: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Death of the Third Reich | publisher = University Press of Kentucky | date = 2004 | location = | pages = pp. 218 – 219 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 0813123259]

Cultural References

Several bands have used the Edelweiss Pirates name, most notably the London based multi-instrumental indie group fronted by Jimmy Loew or the Edinburgh based funk rockers. Cambridge punk band The Edelweiss Pirates also adopted the name as a protest against fascism on the punk and skinhead scene. The roots and background of the Edelweiss Pirates movement where broached in the 2004 film "Edelweiss Pirates" directed by Niko von Glasow.

ee also

* White Rose
* Swing Kids
* German Youth Movement
* Edelweiss Pirates (film)

Notes

External links

* [http://www.libcom.org/history/articles/edelweiss-pirates The Edelweiss Pirates, 1939-1945 on libcom.org history]
* The [http://www.edelweisspiraten.com/ official website] of a film on the "Edelweiss Pirates" .
*
* [http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/mar2005/ber3-m05.shtml An increasingly complex portrayal of German anti-fascism] , an article discussing the films "Edelweißpiraten" and "Sophie Scholl: The Final Days"
* [http://libcom.org/library/edelweiss-pirate-interview Short interview with Walter Mayer, an Edelweiss Pirate]
* [http://www.shoahproject.org/widerstand/kids/shkids4.htm Edelweiss Pirates described in ShoahProject.org.] The article titled "Kids im Nazi-Regime. Widerstand Jugendlicher gegen den Nationalsozialismus." Written by Michael Lichte (in German)
* [http://www.museenkoeln.de/ausstellungen/nsd_0404_edelweiss/ museenkoeln.de] : valuable resources on Edelweiss Pirates' history, actions, customs, songs (incl. lyrics), and so on (in German)
* [http://www.myspace.com/theedelweisspirates1 the official myspace of the REAL edelweiss pirates!]