Use your own knowledge to assess how far the sources support the interpretation that the Nazis and the German Democratic Republic pursued the same aims towards youth and education. 70 marks

From the provenance of the two sources you can see that both sources have certain limitations to there usefulness. Source B  was written by a former German league of maidens leader in here post war memoirs. This suggests that the source has come from a reliable eye witness account and the evidence of the successes and failures of the youth policy can be deemed to be reliably accounted, however this is only the account of one person which suggests that there are limitations to the overall picture of the successes of Nazi youth policy from across the country. Source D also has similar limitations with it’s provenance. The source is from a confidential stasi report in 1962, that was kept secret. This suggests that the evidence from within the source is a truthful and reliable account of what was happening at the time, however the source is only about one school in Dresden and this suggests that there are limitations to the overall evidence that the source gives as it only provides a representation of a tiny proportion of the people effected.

To conclude the sources suggest the Nazi youth policies had more success than the Soviet policies from the evidence in the sources.

(B) Study all the Sources

Use your own knowledge to assess how far the sources support the interpretation that the Nazis and the German Democratic Republic pursued the same aims towards youth and education.

For this question I’m grouping the sources into two groups, A and B being one grouping and C, D and E the second grouping. I have grouped them in this way to separate the Nazi period sources and the German democratic republic period sources to see that aims the two different groups of sources represent.

Sources A and B are both from the Nazi period and suggest similar evidence of the aims of the Nazi party towards youth and education. Source A, a speech by Hitler to the German Boys, suggested that the wanted to implement strong physical youth (which they did by making one third of the curriculum physical education). This is shown by the quote “A violently, dominating, brutal youth is what I am after”, he also went on to talk about creating young Germans ‘ready to serve the state and the community and to fight class and social barriers’. This suggests that he wanted the German youth to be devoid of creativity and work just in the interest of the state. This is backed up by source B, a source by a leader of the BDM, which suggests that the ‘creative imagination was stifled’. This shows that Hitler was able to implement this youth policy through the BDM and the Hitler youth.

These policies and aims compare well with the GDR’s aims and policies towards youth. Source C, a Youth law implemented by the GDR in 1950, states that the GDR wanted to create a ‘younger generation that was educated, physically sound, strong and progressive’. This is similar to the Nazi’s aims to create a ‘dominating’ youth and this can be seen as the Nazis and the GDR pursuing similar youth policies. Source C also goes on to talk about ‘participation in the life of the state and society’. This suggests similarities to the Nazi aims in source A suggesting they both want the youth to be obedient and ready to serve the state and the community in their respective periods. This idea is further backed up by source E which suggests that the GDR’s governments aim was ‘to produce obedient subjects rather than intellectually active citizens’ this suggests that creative freedom and though was stifled, again showing similarities to Source B  with talked about the Nazis stifling creativity.

There are also similarities in the way youth and education is controlled and regulated in the two different states. In the GDR they used the Stasi, as shown by source D which is a Stasi report about the problems with the youth in the GDR. From my own knowledge I also know that the Nazi’s used the gestapo to spy on people during this period and to break up groups like the Edelweiss Pirates and this shows similarities towards the aims towards youth and education in the two states.

The only real difference that can be found between the GDR and the Nazi aims towards youth and education is the ideologies behind the two. From my own knowledge I know that the Nazi party were trying to create volksgemeinschaft meaning a classless, racially pure community and this is what the Nazi party meant by serving the state and community in source A. The GDR on the other hand were trying to create a youth that was class conscious and ready for class warfare, due to the on-going cold war. This is shown Source D when calling the west the ‘enemy’.

For the provenance of sources A and B, you can see similarities in both the sources. Source A is a Speech by Hitler commenting on this youth and education policies. This can be seen as useful evidence in interpreting the Nazi aims as it has come from the top of the Nazi party so it represents there fundamental ideas on youth and education policy. Source B also further backs up the usefulness of source A as it is from a leader of the BDM who would be implementing the policies of the Nazi party and the two sources can be seen to be backing each other up which makes the sources together very useful for interpreting the Nazi aims during the time.

The Source C, D and E can also be seen as useful for establishing the aims of the GDR towards youth and education. Source C is a law called the youth law that was brought in on 1950 in the GDR. This source can be seen as an extremely reliable and useful piece of evidence of the aims of the GDR towards youth and education as it shows what the GDR have implemented for the youth and as it was a law in the state it is a reliable and true piece of evidence. The provenance of Source D is also similar coming from a reliable source in a confidential Stasi report which was kept secret, this can be seen as a reliable account as it was for the GDR government to see only, which suggests that it will be a truthful account on the policy of the GDR towards youth and education. The final source, which is source E, comes from a modern historian. This suggests that the source can be seen to give a reliable balanced assessment of the policy of the GDR towards youth and education as they have been able to evaluate all the evidence and come to a conclusion on the facts.  

To conclude, on balance the sources suggest and overwhelming similarity in the aims of the two governments in their aims towards education and youth. Both governments were one party dictatorships which controlled the youth through police states, the Gestapo and the Stasi (as shown in source D), and pursued the same aims of creating a physically strong, obedient youth ready to work in the interest of the state. The only real difference between the two different governments was the ideology behind the youth and education movements. With the Nazi’s focusing on a racially pure classless community (volksgemeinschaft) while the GDR were aiming to create a youth with class warfare, with the event of the cold war during the period.