Jungsturm Adolf Hitler 1921 1923

[Kyle Harrington]

I have just acquired one of these badges , I believe the Jungsturm AH were a precursor of the HJ. I believe the
badge was a commemorative pin, it is aluminium with
the standard Ges.Gesch marking. I would apppreciate
any additional comments on this seemingly rare pin.
Unfortunately I am in no position to post pictures at
present but my pin is identical to a piece Helmut Weitze
is selling currently , I think the item number is 195544.
Probabaly Mike Pinkus may well be able to enlighten me here.
Thanks in anticipation.

[VerKuilen Ager]

While these badges (there are two different designs) have been lumped into a couple of postwar awards books and the design makes it a natural "award for the early HJ", there's very good reason to believe that it was neither created nor sanctioned by the NSDAP or Hitler Youth. It's a very, very long story of failed ambitions, purloined postage stamps, the illegal wearing of the Blood Order, and politically correct Nazi history versus actual Nazi history. Since there has been no interest in this thread I won't drag out all the details. However, suffice it to say that these pins were almost certainly no more than sexy tinnies created for Jugendbund veteran's reunions.

[James Noble]

Here's a piture of the badge in question taken from Helmut Weitze
website #19554. I haven't seen this one before. Maybe now this well get others to comment on this pin.

[R v Kempen]

Hello James

I've been searching for information on this badge too,but i can't find any.

One thing i find strange is the year 1921, I thought the Jungsturm was formed in 1922.
what i could find was this,in 1921 Gustav Adolf Lenk saw a speech from Adolf Hitler in Munich
He became a fanatic follower of the NSDAP and wanted to join ,but he was to young to apply (17).
Then Lenk asked if there was a youth department he could join, there wasn't.
The NSDAP told him that he could orginize a youth department.

On 13 May 1922 the party hired a big bierhalle in Munich , the Burgerbrau Keller,a public meeting where the youthliga was to be instituted (SP and i don't know if thats the right word).
There was a big turn up of people who wanted to hear Hitler's speech,with them was the leader of the SA Johann Ulrich lintzch and Gustav Lenk plus 17 other teensagers.

Lenk was formally appointed "leader of the youthliga" in 1922

Maybe this badge was one to commemorate the founders or the very first HJ members.

Richard

[Mike Pinkus]

Kyle

I like this badge...very unique, i have never seen one before but it is similiar to one pictured in heering-Husken's catalog...number 9302b....
i like the Swaz with the rays, this is a common motif for HJ pins.
very nice...
what is Weitze asking for his???
mike

ps...wouldnt worry about the dates..i have seen others including the one mentioned in the Husken book that show 1921.

[James Noble]

Mike, Weitze is asking E 400.00 for his badge.

[Kyle Harrington]

Jungsturm AH

Mike,

Yes I agree the badge is very rare and I have had it ok'd by several people who know their onions.Weitze's piece is identical to mine, presumably these were, as mentioned, commemorative pieces to early "young bloods" around about the time of the battle of Coburg.It is aluminium so one gets the tinny feel,
yet it positively exudes history.Currently I am thinking of unloading it as I do not wish to veer into HJ...I have enough
on my plate with poitical !! If you wish to mail me:
k.harrington3@ntlworld.com

[VerKuilen Ager]

Weitze is also offering the version shown by Littlejohn and Hüsken, for anybody who wants to take a look at the one usually referred to as the "award."

As mentioned earlier, no good case can be made for the Jungsturm pins being NSDAP/HJ sanctioned items. Quite the opposite. (For a detailed analysis of the genesis of the HJ, I heartily recommend Nazi Youth in the Weimer Republic by Peter Stachura. American Bibliographical Center -CLIO Press, 1975). For the high points relevant to this discussion, I submit this summary.

12 Sept. 1920 - Gustav Adolf Lenk attends a meeting of the Nazi Party at the Munich Stadtkeller with his father. Under 18, Lenk is too young to join the party, and finding that the NSDAP has no youth group, he gets permission to form one from party chairman Drexler.

1921 - Hitler vaguely refers to a youth group at a rally. Lenk, a party member since 16 February has actually failed to make any progress forming any such organization

1922 - In February, Hitler takes the initiative and a proclamation is printed in the March 8 Völkischer Beobachter, which calls German youth to the Jugendbund der NSDAP. The Jugendbund is organized into three sections; Jungmannschaften for boys from 14 to 16; Jungsturm Adolf Hitler for those 16 to 18; and a girl's section.

May, 1922 - Lenk is formally appointed leader of the Jugendbund, responsible to SA commander Johann Ulrich Klintsch. This is Lenk's second failure. He wanted an independent youth movement, the Nazi leadership wants a stream of recruits for the SA.

13-17 May 1923 - The Jugendbund holds its first national congress in the Hackerbräukeller in Munich.

2 Sept. 1923 - The Jugendbund makes its last public appearance, fielding 900 members, at the Sedan Day rally in Nuremberg.

8-9 November 1923 - Putsch! The Jugendbund does not participate, but Lenk and his brothers Karl and Walter act as messengers and demonstrators. Jugendbund member Kurt Neubauer becomes one of the 16 national socialist martyrs. Hitler is jailed. The NSDAP, SA, and Jugendbund are all outlawed.

15 Nov. 1923 - Lenk tries a new beginning, forming the Vaterländischer Jugendverband Grossdeutschlands. In December, the government recognizes it as an illegal cover group, bans it, and sends Lenk to prison.

April- Dec.1924 - Released from prison, Lenk tries again, forming the Grossdeutsche Jugendbewegung. He's arrested again and sent to Landsberg. He's freed on the same day as Hitler.

1925 - Independent of the NSDAP, Lenk tries once again, forming the Deutsche Wehrjugend. It fails. He becomes ill and dispirited. Caught embezzling stamps from the Nazi printing house Eher-Verlag, he's convicted and fined. He retires from the German youth movement completely.

March 1932 - Seven years have past. Lenk becomes a member of the NSDAP, #1011998.

May 1933 - Lenk becomes an SA troop leader in SA Gruppe Hochland. He'll later serve as a staff member of the NSDAP Reichsleitung, quartermaster and organization division.

1936 - Lenk sends invitations to leaders of the Hitler Youth for a Kamaradschaftsabend (Comrad's Social) of the Jungsturm Adolf Hitler on November 9, 1936. Reichsjugendführung Hartmann Lauterbacher responded to Lenk: "From a historical viewpoint, the Hitler Youth has not developed from your association. The Reichsjugendführer has therefore refrained from recognizing your association." Luterbacher followed this up with an even stronger message to the HJ membership: "A certain Adolf Lenk of Munich has sent invitations . . . of the so-called 'Jungsturm Adolf Hitler' . . . The leadership corps of the Hitler Youth is not to participate in this meeting. I stress that the Hitler Youth does not on principle recognize this Jungsturm as a forerunner. 1926 was the year when the Hitler Youth was founded."

1936 - The Hitler Youth gains the status of Staatsjugend (state youth organization), moving from a branch of an individual political party to that of the national youth sponsor. As Stachura notes: "Forerunners who might impinge on this exalted position were therefore unwelcome."

1937 - Lenk doesn't give up and complains to Rudolf Hess. Von Schirach confirms that the Hitler Youth will not extend recognition to the Jugendbund. Concern was expressed that any such recognition would open up all kinds of claims by other youth groups. The Youth Movement Department of the NSDAP archives then piled on by issuing a report that suggested that because Lenk had been inactive during the kampfzeit period he was clearly just an opportunist looking to benefit from the success of the NSDAP.

1040 - Lenk receives the 15 year NSDAP medal.

1941 - Lenk is thrown out of the NSDAP for wearing the Blutorden when not entitled to it and for misappropriating a quantity of paper while working at the SA Reichsleitung (a rerun of the postage stamp episode?)

1943 - Lenk reapplies for Nazi Party membership and is rejected.

So, what's the origin of the badges? Imagine a man who had been a runner between the putsch units on 8 and 9 November 1923; a man who had one of his subordinates killed. Imagine a man, who remained so proud of this date nearly twenty years later that he took to wearing the commemorative medal for the event even though he hadn't officially been granted it. Might he have been a person who designed, or had designed, a commemorative pin/s that highlighted the dates of those early Nazi years for distribution at the reunions of his old Jugendbund comrades in 1934 or 1936?

Whether the Jungsturm AH pieces were unofficial pieces created for the 1930s meetings or some other purpose, there's absolutely no evidence to suggest that they were accorded any kind of honor by the NSDAP/HJ. On the contrary; it's clear that the NSDAP – which wouldn't even let their members go to the old comrades reunion in 1936 – would certainly not have designed, instituted, nor sanctioned the wear of any Jungsturm Adolf Hitler badge, let alone one with "1921-1923" on it. 1926 was the official year the HJ was founded and anybody claiming otherwise was looking to have the door slammed in their face.

[R v Kempen]

Thank you for that information Histaria.

Gonna look for that book right away. do you by any chance have an ISBN number?


Richard van Kempen

[VerKuilen Ager]

0-87436-199-0

[Robert H]

I show soon one original Jungsturm AH 1921-1923 9th Nov. badge. When somebody else has any pictures of this badge or pictures to show about their variation (in case there are variations) I would be thankful for it.

[Erich B.]

Jungsturm

There must have been other Jungsturm members involved in the attempted 1923 Putsch, as well as at Coburg, though, because a handful of Blood Order recipients are noted as being members of the Jungsturm.
Erich

[James Noble]

Here is another good book on the HJ.
HITLER YOUTH, The Hitlerjugend in War and Peace 1933-1945
MBI Publishing Comp. Author, Brenda Ralph Lewis
ISBN: 0-7603-0946-9

[XEN]

.

[XEN]

.