Sinnsuche im Spiegel der Gruppenbücher im Archiv der deutschen Jugendbewegung. Literaturzitate zwischen 1945 und 1949

[Autom. eng. transl.] After the Second World War, a youth cult developed in Germany that was closely linked to the belief that the future could be shaped through group activities. A similar cult had already developed in the first half of the 20th century. The underlying idea of community, however, was different: in the post-war period, youth organizations no longer formed (or reorganized) in isolation from contemporary society, but as a constructive part of it, with the intention of making their contribution to the rebirth of the country. This resolution finds particularly clear expression in one issue of the Jungeleben sheet. Magazine of the Association of German Boy Scouts from 1954: "Anyone who is not willing to integrate themselves into a community at a young age, to bow to its decisions with complete freedom, is incapable of working within the association to build our Germany". The above-mentioned scout movement represents - together with the re-established Wandervogel and the Bundische Freischar - one of the main directions of Bunden youth who were active in Germany in the early post-war years. The article examines the role of literary quotations in the group books of the scout movement between 1945 and 1959 that are available in the archive of the German youth movement.