page_title: Free German Youth
section_title: Establishment in 1946 in the Soviet Occupation Zone
hierarchical_section_title: Free German Youth / History / Establishment in 1946 in the Soviet Occupation Zone
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Meliorationsarbeiten durch FDJ Zentrabild-Köhne 14.5.1959 Unsere Wische ist der Moorgrund - Jugend des Kreises Bad Salzungen melioriert 200 Hektar Wiesen. 200 Hektar versauerte und mit Leberegeln verseuchte Wiesen des sogenannten Moorgrundes im Kreis Bad Salzungen als Objekt der Jugend innerhalb von drei Jahren zu meliorieren, hat sich der Kreisverband der FDJ vorgenommen. Seit fast einem Monat sind junge Arbeiter und Angestellte aus Betrieben des Kreises in Einsätzen von jeweils 2 Wochen dabei, Gräben zu räumen und die vom Grabenräumpflug der MTS Stadtlengefeld gezogenen Gräben fertigzustellen. In diesem Jahr will die Jugend zwölf Kilometer Gräben in Ordnung bringen. UBz: Blick auf die Arbeitsstelle der 10 Jugendfreunde aus verschiedenen Betrieben des Kreises Bad Salzungen.
context_page_description: The Free German Youth, also known as the FDJ, is a youth movement in Germany. Formerly it was the official youth movement of the German Democratic Republic and the Socialist Unity Party of Germany.
  The organization was meant for young people, both male and female, between the ages of 14 and 25 and comprised about 75% of the young population of former East Germany. In 1981–1982, this meant 2.3 million members. After being a member of the Thälmann Pioneers, which was for schoolchildren ages 6 to 14, East German youths would usually join the FDJ.
  The FDJ was intended to be the "reliable assistant and fighting reserve of the Worker's Party", or Socialist Unity Party of Germany, was a member of the National Front and had representatives in the People's Chamber. The political and ideological goal of the FDJ was to influence every aspect of life of young people in the GDR, distribution of Marxism–Leninism and the promotion of communist behavior. Membership in the FDJ was nominally voluntary. However, those who did not join lost access to organized holidays, and found it difficult to be admitted to universities, pursue chosen careers etc.
context_section_description: The FDJ had its origins in the months immediately following the end of the Second World War and was formally founded on 7 March 1946 under the leadership of a youthful Erich Honecker. The FDJ was initially developed by the communists as ostensibly a non-political, ‘national’ youth organisation which would function in all four zones of occupied Germany. The FDJ was conceived to be a ‘free’ and ‘democratic’ united youth organisation where young antifascists would cooperate in order to rebuild their homeland under the name of the ‘Free German Youth’ (Freie Deutsche Jugend). The name of the organisation itself was inspired by the ‘Free German Youth’ movements formed by young German antifascists in Prague, Paris and London before the Second World War. Talk of socialism or that the FDJ was to be disproportionately composed of German communists were absent from the FDJ's initial conception.
  Open to all those between the ages of 14 and 25, the FDJ was crucial to preparing young East Germans for adult life along an officially approved route of school, vocational training, and entry into the party and officeholding. The FDJ was responsible for the socialist education of the rising generation of young East Germans. FDJ members were expected to participate in the ‘school year’, an ideological programme which aimed to develop a significant group of well-trained cadres suitable for future employment in the SED apparatus. The FDJ were willing to overlook previous allegiance to Nazism and offer opportunities for career and social advancement to young people in exchange for genuine commitment to the FDJ and its ideals on political, working, educational and leisure rights. Additionally, the FDJ aimed to increase the productivity of young East German workers through sponsored ‘youth brigades’ during the 1940s.
  As the sole official representative of East German youth, the FDJ's main objective was to win over the hearts and minds of young East Germans to socialism through the Marxist–Leninist ideals of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). During the 1940s an emphasis on providing a ‘happy youth life’ for young East Germans increasingly made the FDJ attractive to the youth. Organised activities, including sports and dance events, ‘social evenings’ (Heimabende), concerts, hikes and trips to the cinema, among other activities, aimed to provide leisure for young East Germans without the means to otherwise engage in pastimes. In 1946 and 1947 the responsibility of organising leisure activities predominantly rested with local FDJ groups existing in towns and villages.
  The FDJ also possessed its own publishing house (Verlag Neues Leben) and ran a number of newspapers; a daily newspaper (Junge Welt), a journal for FDJ functionaries (Junge Generation) and a student newspaper (FORUM).
caption: FDJ members digging ditches in May 1959
exif: {}