Plum - Antifascism After Hitler

In the summer of 1961, the cruise ship Thlmann Pioneer set sail, introducing East German children to foreign lands. Young Pioneers all over the GDR who read the magazine ABC Zeitung ( ABC Newspaper ) may have been surprised to learn that their youth organization possessed its very own cruise ship, purchased from the proceeds of recycling drives and childrens allowance money. Unsurprisingly, the cruise ship bore the name of Ernst Thlmann, the most famous German communist who fought against fascism. Thlmann, also known as Teddy, was not a stranger to them. Young readers knew that Thl-mann had died under Nazi captivity for his socialist beliefs and resistance efforts. On more than one occasion, articles in the ABC Zeitung emphasize that numerous ships, schools, factories and streets at home and abroad share the name of Ernst Thlmann, the patron of their own youth organization.

The magazine commissioned readers to send a postcard to the editors of the ABC Zeitung by the anniversary of Thlmanns death on 16 August, recording where they had seen Thlmanns name over the summer. In honor of Thlmanns birthday in April 1962, the ABC Zeitung published some of the replies they received from readers. A student named Katrin from Frstenwalde writes that when she became a Young Pioneer, her mother gave her a book on Ernst Thlmann as a present. One ABC reader, Eveline, notes that while she was on vacation in Auerbach, she found a street sign bearing the name Ernst Thlmann. In a third example Robert from Berlin writes,

I have often heard of the name Ernst Thlmann. In 1936 the international brigades fought against the fascist Franco in Spain. A German battalion carried the name Ernst Thlmann. I also know a song about that, The skies over Spain open up to the stars. There is a Thlmann brigade at the factory where my grandmother works. At home we have a Thlmann picture ( Thlmannbild ).

These examples suggest that students did in fact learn about Ernst Thlmann and other antifascist figures in a variety of settings, on city streets and factory signs, in their music classes at school, and in books and pictures found in their own homes in some cases. The regime called on administrators and youth mentors in a variety of settings to pass on to students a sense of ownership and commitment to antifascist traditions and the official narrative of antifascism.

A thorough study of antifascist education and commemoration requires a comprehensive analysis of students experiences at school and on fieldtrips to historical sites, within the youth group setting and while engaged in extracurricular activities, in their hometowns and at summer camp. The success of antifascist education and youth commemoration was dependent on the variety of institutions, sites and rituals, both concrete and metaphorical, which formed the youth memory landscape. This chapter introduces the memory sites and explores each sites specific role and history in the broader campaign to promote antifascism within the school-age population. The Zusammenarbeit , or cooperation, between institutions and their staff was essential for the comprehensive and coordinated approach to antifascism that the regime demanded increasingly over time.