Session Information
ERG SES H 10, Education systems
Parallel Paper Session
Contribution
In this paper, I will examined the case of “Blue-White, League for Jewish Youth Excursions” under an educational perspective. In analysing historical documents, I will scrutinize the educational aims on the one hand and the experience of educational acts on the other hand. Comparing aims and experiences, I theorize the relation between socially defined objectives of education and experienced educational reality.
Education is one way to ensure that the younger generation meets the challenges of living within the society they are born into. In different times and with different social, cultural and political requirements the educational programme must be adjusted. At the beginning of the 20th century, the world changed enormously due to economical and political developments. First, industrialisation changed to way of production and processing of goods. As the alteration of production allowed another kind of work, it also allowed a different time setting for work and leisure time. At the same time, the idea of worthy living became more important and people enjoyed leisure time in various ways. Both processes industrialization and socio-cultural change affected educational aims and the process of education.
Within the “Blue-White, League for Jewish Youth Excursions”, one educational objective among others was a strong, muscled adult who was aware of his/her Jewish heritage. The leadership of “Blue-White” declared the educational aims according to other Youth Movements of the time (strong) and accordingly to Zionist aspirations (awareness of Jewishness). This double-bound declaration of educational aims can be seen as an statement of the situation, (potential) members of the league had to face: As Jews were not allowed in a wider range of non-Jewish youth groups, being a member of “Blue-White” made possible similar experiences of community and solidarity, nature and body. Shared experiences and knowledge created a common sense between Jewish and non-Jewish adolescents even if they were not part of the same group or league. The part of Jewish people, I speak about, desperately wanted to be a part of the German, non-Jewish middle class. The building of a German nation, which was an important point in political discussions of the time, affected the self-awareness of Jews too. In social climbing and acculturation, the Jewish middle class wanted to take the chance of being accepted within the society. The discussion of educational aims and objectives within “Blue-White” demonstrates that ambivalent standpoint, the conflict of Jewishness and hope for acceptance.
In analysing the monthly paper of “Blue-White” and some excursion diaries, I am able to scrutinize not only the conflict of educational objectives; I also can draw a picture on the all-day reality and experiences within the league.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Blau-Weiß-Blaetter: www.compactmemory.com Kindt, Werner (Hrsg.): Dokumentation der Jugendbewegung. [1]. Grundschriften der deutschen Jugendbewegung. 1963. Laqueur, Walter: Young Germany: A History of the German Youth Movement. 1984. Laqueur, Walter: A History of Zionism: From the French Revolution to the Establishment of the State of Israel. 2003. Hetkamp, Jutta: Ausgewählte Interviews von Ehemaligen der Jüdischen Jugendbewegung in Deutschland von 1913-1933. 1994. Hotam, Yotam: Deutsch-Jüdische Jugendliche im »Zeitalter der Jugend« (Formen der Erinnerung). 2009.
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