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East Germany Young People and the Free German Youth
East Germany considers its young people its most important
asset. As a result, the party and government have expended a
great amount of attention and resources on socialization of youth
through schools and youth groups. Since the inception of the
regime, youth activities have been strictly controlled and
monitored by SED party officials. Youth organizations outside of
those officially sanctioned by the regime have not been
permitted. By far the most important youth organization has been
the FDJ, founded in 1946 and subsequently brought under the
control of the SED. As of 1984, the FDJ had a membership of
approximately 2.3 million, or 83 percent of all youth in the
eligible age group (fourteen through twenty-five). Membership was
voluntary, but for anyone who wanted to advance politically or
professionally, membership was a practical necessity. Strong
pressures were exerted on young people through the schools and
peer groups to join the FDJ, and the organization's near total
control over recreational facilities, resort areas, and
entertainment ensured a high membership. Perhaps more important,
the FDJ handled university entrance examinations and scholarship
programs. The most active members, therefore, were found among
students and soldiers; nearly 80 percent of each group belonged
to the FDJ. Participation of young industrial workers and farm
youth was considerably lower. In the case of the industrial
workers, the trade unions provided an alternative to FDJ
membership.
The organization of the FDJ is patterned after that of the
SED. The Youth Parliament is convened periodically, and the
Central Council is elected to coordinate activities between
parliament sessions. As in the SED, the real center of power lies
in the FDJ bureau and secretariat. Most often the leadership
positions are held by loyal SED members who might be considerably
older than the rank-and-file membership. In 1985 the FDJ held
thirty-seven seats in the People's Chamber and was well
represented at the local and district government levels. The FDJ
is an important ground for the recruitment of SED party cadres,
and many key party officials have received their initial training
in the FDJ. The FDJ is a member of the World Federation of
Democratic Youth and cooperates with its counterparts in other
communist countries through youth congresses and youth friendship
projects. Such cooperation is an important way of developing an
international socialist outlook.
The Ernst Thälmann Pioneers Organization, known as the Young
Pioneers (Junge Pioniere--JP), is an auxiliary of the FDJ. In the
mid-1980s, membership in the JP began with entry into school at
around age six and continued through age fourteen. In 1985 the JP
had approximately 1.3 million members. This figure represented
roughly 85 percent of all eligible children.
The regime has used the JP to reinforce the political values
and social behavior taught in the schools. The SED considers the
JP to be especially instrumental in developing the collective
spirit that is considered such an important part of the
"socialist personality." The groups are headed by teachers and JP
leaders (normally FDJ recruits), who teach the children to work
toward and identify with collective goals. Ultimately the JP
provides an effective, but controlled, source of peer pressure.
Norms, values, and standards of behavior are shaped and guided by
group leaders. The JP also provides educational, cultural, and
sports programs for the young.
Two other youth-oriented organizations deserve mention. The
Society for Sport and Technology (Gesellschaft für Sport und
Technik--GST) was established in 1952. In the mid-1980s, the GST
provided paramilitary training through sports activities such as
parachuting, marksmanship, and other skill-oriented programs. The
GST also held military sports games (Wehrspartakiade). In
the 1985 games, over 8,000 contestants competed in 280
"premilitary" and "military sporting" events, which included
stripping machine guns, hand grenade target practice, and
sharpshooting. A second group, the German Gymnastics and Sports
Federation (Deutscher Turn-und Sportbund der DDR), has trained
athletes for sporting competition and has been the organization
responsible for producing Olympic competitors. In 1985 this
organization claimed over 3.5 million members. A total of 10,249
sports clubs catered to the group's members.
Despite the near total integration of youth into the
political and party organizational network, a sizable minority of
young people, particularly those in their teens and early
twenties, have elected not to join official youth organizations.
Many resent the system of controls and monitoring of youth
activities that are evident in the schools and elsewhere. FDJ
members, for example, are selected to monitor classes and youth
activities. In addition young people in East Germany, regardless
of their involvement in youth groups, have been affected by some
of the same pressures as youths in other industrialized
countries. Thus reports of juvenile delinquency and alcohol abuse
in the larger urban areas have grown more common, and there has
been some indication that crime has increased in the 1980s
(see Crime and Punishment
, ch. 5).
Officials have complained that the current generation of
youths tends to be spoiled. Because they did not live through the
troubled years of the war and postwar period, they allegedly do
not understand what serious hardship really means. Party leaders,
on occasion, have chided young people for lack of political
enthusiasm and their growing preoccupation with the acquisition
of material goods. For their part, young people have frequently
complained about the restrictions placed on travel abroad and the
artificiality and lack of creativity in society. The New
Sorrows of Young W, a play produced in 1973 based on Goethe's
famous novel The Sorrows of Young Weather, was an enormous
success among the young. It tells the story of a young dropout
who experiences a sense of alienation and despair that eventually
leads to his suicide. Seemingly, young people want the
opportunity to use the skills they have learned in school and to
be challenged in their work.
In general Western observers have noted that youths in the
1970s and 1980s tended to be more critical and willing to
question government policies within limits than had young people
in preceding decades. Some evidence suggests that party leaders
had allowed those limits to expand. The FDJ, which had always
been an instrument of party control, was also allegedly becoming
a forum for the discussion of youth problems and concerns. The
limits of permissible criticism, however, seemed likely to remain
narrow.
Data as of July 1987
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