Youth Hostel: Headquarters of the Hitler Youth

The building of today's Jugendherberge (youth hostel) was built in 1934 as the Haus der Jugend ("house for the youth") and as the Tübingen headquarters of the Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth, HJ). The HJ's task was to educate children and teenagers according to National Socialist ideology.

In 1930, the first Hitler Youth group was founded in Tübingen, followed by an Ortsgruppe (local branch) of the Bund Deutscher Mädel (League of German Girls) in 1931. The number of HJ members rose quickly. In 1934, 50 per cent of all girls and boys from the age of ten were part of the HJ in Tübingen; in 1939, after the introduction of the Jugenddienstpflicht (youth mandatory obligation), almost all girls and boys were in the HJ. In 1933, the HJ had 2.3 million members in the German Reich; in 1939, the number was 8.7 million.

The Kreisleitung (district leadership) of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers' Party, NSDAP) and the HJ soon demanded a house for the youth. The city willingly allocated a site on the Neckar and 40,000 Reichsmark (today about 500,000 Euro). In October 1935, the Haus der Jugend was inaugurated. Due to its nice location on the Neckar, it was used both as a youth hostel and as a HJ youth center. During “Heimabende“  (social evenings), youths were educated in the Weltanschauung of National Socialism.

Youths especially liked tent camps. Here, they practiced the National Socialist "Volksgemeinschaft" ("people's community"). Among other things, it was communal singing that got them in the right mood for National Socialist ideology: "In die Zukunft ziehen wir Mann für Mann/ Wir marschieren für Hitler" ("Man by man, we move into the future/ We march for Hitler" from the Hitler Youth's marching song Unsere Fahne flattert uns voran, "Our Flag Flutters Before Us"). Boys were prepared for military service and girls for their role as mothers.

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