Wandervogel
Wandervogel (plural: Wandervögel; English: "Wandering Bird") is the name adopted by a popular movement of German youth groups from 1896 to 1933, who protested against industrialization by going to hike in the country and commune with nature in the woods. Drawing influence from medieval wandering scholars, their ethos was to revive old Teutonic values, with a strong emphasis on German nationalism.[1][2] According to historians, a major contribution of the Wandervögel was the revival of folk songs in wider German society.[2]
The movement was divided into three main national groups: the Alt-Wandervogel, the Wandervogel eingetragener Verein (WVEV) and the Jung-Wandervogel. While the two first ones were generally respectful of traditions (family, the military, the school), the Jung-Wandervogel was more defiant and closer to revolutionary ideas.[3] Contrary to scouting organizations, Wandervögel had spontaneously emerged outside of authority controls, and recruited their members through selection and co-option.[4]
Wandervogel was the dominant trend in the German Youth Movement between 1901 and 1913.[5] From 100 members in 1901, they numbered 25,000 to 40,000 adherents in 1914.[1][6][7] At its height, the movement had 60,000–80,000 members, with 45,000 in the WVEV alone.[5][2] The name, referring to a magical, free and weightless bird, can be translated either as a "bird of passage",[8] or as a "wandering bird",[2]—slightly different in meaning from the Zugvogel ("migratory bird").[9]
History[edit]
Origin (1895–1900)[edit]
In the autumn of 1895, a law student named Herman Hoffmann-Fölkersamb (1875–1955) obtained from the director of the Gymnasium of Steglitz the authorization to organize free classes of stenography. In 1896, the classes involved walks around Steglitz, and in 1897 a 15-day hike in the Harz highlands. The small group began to grow in importance, and a trek in the Rhine region was organized in 1898 with 11 participants, followed in 1899 by a long 4-week hike with around 20 schoolboys set up in Bohemia. The particular elements of the future Wandervogel were already present in these first excursions: an emphasis on group independence and the frugal way of life, an absence of traditional authority, a disdain for touristic and marked paths, and contempt for the comfort of youth hostels.[10]
First Wandervogel (1901–1904)[edit]
The Wandervogel was officially established on 4 November 1901 by Karl Fischer (1881–1941) in Steglitz, a suburb of Berlin, under the name "Wandervogel Committee for Schoolboy Excursions" (Wandervogel, Ausschuß für Schülerfahrten), with four of his friends, along with four writers from the city and a medical doctor.[6] This group served as a juridical and financial patronage, and they were not involved in the movement activities, which were led by Fischer under the title of Oberbachant.[4] Prussian law did not allow young people to establish their own clubs or join extracurricular ones. The association was therefore presented by Fischer as a respectable hiking club to parents and Prussian citizens. A former teacher of the Steglitz Gymnasium, the reform pedagogue Ludwig Gurlitt (1855–1931) helped the movement get officially recognition by the Prussian Ministry of Culture by leaving a favorable report. Fischer had been a fervent follower of Hoffmann-Fölkersamb, his right-hand-man during various treks, and eventually took over the leadership when Hoffmann-Fölkersamb left Berlin at the end of 1899 for a diplomatic career in Constantinople.[11] As Fischer failed his Abitur twice, he had to wait until 1901 to completely focus on the movement, to the detriment of his studies in law and sinology. By 1903, there were already groups in Berlin, Posen, Munich, Hamburg and Lüneburg, organizing regular hikes.[4]
The Wandervögel soon became the prominent German youth movement. It was a back-to-nature youth organization emphasizing freedom, self-responsibility, and the spirit of adventure. It quickly took a nationalistic approach, stressing Germany's Teutonic roots.[1] Walter Laqueur indicates that the name was discovered by one of the founders—Wolf Meyen—in an inscription on a tombstone: "Wer hat euch Wandervögeln / die Wissenschaft geschenkt / dass ihr auf Land und Meeren / die Flügel sicher lenkt".[6][11] Drawing influence from medieval wandering students,[2] the newcomers were named "Scholars" and the proven ones "Bachant". Fischer introduced new manners such as the greeting "Heil", inspired by Austrian German students; musical instruments were carried out during hikes, especially the lute guitar, alongside clothing, food, and a "hiking stick".[11]
Sociology[edit]
The movement was mostly based on the German Protestant middle class, attracting only a few working-class and aristocrat members. Boys and girls were allowed to join, although this caused some controversy among leaders, and the introduction of Sex segregation in the movement activities.[5] Members were between 12 and 18 years old.[18]
The regions with the largest concentration of Wandervögel were Silesia, Saxony, Thuringia, Hesse, Westphalia, Rhineland; and to a lesser extent Baden. They were largely present in Protestant regions; nearly 80% of the cities hosting a Wandervogel group in 1912 had a strong Protestant majority. Most of those locations were not densely populated and industrialized centres of life, but rather belonged to the rural and traditional part of Germany, with small and medium cities, residential suburbs, university cities, and capitals of small principalities.[19]
The Wandervögel seem to have started an anti-authoritarian rebellion against German society at large, with their focus on the youth values in opposition to the adult ones.[2] The movement was born in Steglitz, a middle-class residential neighbourhood of Berlin. Far from the agitation of the city centre and the working-class districts, young students wanted to escape the social constraints of their environment, which was built on traditional and hierarchical social ranks influencing relations with their parents and the adult society, rather than on poor material conditions.[4] However, the Wandervogel was not a revolutionary movement in the real sense of the term, as they simply withdrew from society in order to carry out their activities in isolation during a few days or a whole summer, before returning to their usual life during the remaining part of the year. Although it could promote anarchist or nihilistic ideas at the margins, especially in the Jung-Wandervogel,[3] most of the Wandervögel essentially sought to be seen as a respectable movement in wider society.[4]
Modern aspects[edit]
The Wandervogel movement was refounded after World War II and exists in Germany to this day with around 5,000 members in many different associations, as well as in neighboring countries.
In Japan, it is now a fairly renowned student club with activities like mountaineering, sawanobori and ski touring.