1430094

German Studies Association
Gender Identity in the Wandervogel Movement

Author(s): Elizabeth Heineman
Source: German Studies Review, Vol. 12, No. 2 (May, 1989), pp. 249-270
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press on behalf of the German Studies
Association
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Gender Identit in the
WVandervogel MWovement
Elizabeth Heineman
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
"The current generation of girls, which has gone through the Wandervoge
and the Free German communities, is relatively unaware of its extraordinary

position in bourgeois society.... They, who have grown up without struggle in
these new forms of young society, take for granted their common experienc
with men." Elizabeth Busse-Wilson based these 1920 observations on her first-
hand experience with the Free German Youth, a coalition of Wandervogel and
university-level youth groups formed in 1913.1 At the time of the founding
convention of the Free German Youth, often considered the high point of the
pre-World Wan youth movement, girls and boys indeed shared the Wandervogel
experience. Over 14,000 youth belonged to the fully intergrated Wandervogel,
Bundfiir deutsches Jugendwandern, eV (WVeV), which not only admitted girls
but also permitted mixed-sex camping trips. In the 5,300-member AltWandervogel, which identified itself as a conservative group, boys and girls did
not wander together but did participate jointly in local meetings and in regional
conventions. Even the notoriously male-centered Jung- Wandervogel, 2,300
members strong, had a separate girls' organization.2
Yet historians have consistently characterized the Wandervogel
movement as a masculine phenomenon. American scholars of the earliest
decades after the Second World War, seeking foreshadows of Nazism, described
the romantic masculine ideology the movement offered in response to a
modernizing society.' Former Wandervogel boys and their sympathizers, in an
attempt to recapture a happier time, wrote fondly of groups of male friends
seeking a meaningful existence in their wanderings and talkS.4 Later studies
attained a greater distance from both Nazism and wandering but did not
challenge this assumption of an essentially male Wandervogel.5 In recent years,
as the history of sexuality has gained vitality, male homoeroticism in the
Wandervogel movement has attracted far more attention than has female
sexuality or, for that matter, male heterosexuality.6
250 GERMAN STUDIES REVIEW
One important exception to this

Germany, which devotes space to "Th
But institutional strife rather than

Laqueur's work. Discussions of gend
change are thus dismissed as somewhat hollow.' In fact, however, these
discussions often revealed vital questions of self-definition.
The youth movement's most immediate attraction to its members was
that it claimed an identity for youth as such, independent of childhood and
adulthood. The question of how this identity depended on gender is central to
an understanding of the Wandervogel experiment. Girls' mere existence as
Wandervdigelwas inseparable from the gender issue, and definitions of maleness
were central for boys in the movement.
At the same time, Busse-Wilson's suggestion that a new type of woman
- and presumably also a new type of man - may have come out of the
Wandervogel movement reminds us of the Wandervogel's place in larger
bourgeois society. In the end, the relationship between gender and Wandervogel
identity on the one hand and the movement's social mission on the other hand
were intricately connected. It is this relationship among gender, identity, and
social purpose that this paper will explore.
The following pages will consider the Wandervogel movement from its
turn-of-the-century origins until shortly after the First World War, when the
Wandervogel ceased to be the heart of the independent youth movement (that
is, those groups not associated with adult organizations such as churches or
political parties). Whether to include girls was one major issue, but there were
others. Did the movement serve the same purpose for girls and for boys? Should
all activities, some, or none be integrated? If it spurned strict segregation, how
would the movement cope with adolescent sexuality? What part was gender to
play in defining the new youth that the movement hoped to create? Both
organizational policies and Wanderv5gel's discussions of these issues reveal
much about members' aspirations for and impressions of the movement. An
understanding of the many ways the Wandervogel experiment was informed by
gender might aid our analysis of the multi-layered influence of gender on

individuals, on society, and on efforts at social change.
I
Starting in 1896 in Steglitz, a Berlin suburb, groups of informally

attired teenaged boys led by one perhaps three to six years their senior trekked
through the woods, cooking their own simple fare and camping out in barns or
in the open air. Not only did they leave parental and educational authority
Elizabeth
Heineman
251
behind, they escaped what they saw as the banalities and conventions of
bourgeois, urban society. When wandering, the boys felt deeper ties with both
nature and each other than seemed possible with anything in the mechanistic,
achievement-oriented atmosphere of their homes. The urban environment, the
future workplace, and the school all operated on coldly rational values.
Wandering was an experience of the soul.
In 1901 these informal groups coalesced into the Wandervogel, AusschuJ3
fair Schiiletfahrten (WVAfS, or Wandervogel, Organization for Schoolboys'
Excursions). In 1904, Karl Fischer, the charismatic leader of the WVAfS, left
the group and formed the Alt-Wandervogel. The Alt-Wandervogel made the
Wandervogel a national movement; by 1908 there were forty-four and in 1909
eighty-six local Alt-Wandervogel groups scattered across Germany.'
The story and reputation of the WVAfS and the infant A lt- Wandervogel
have provided historians with the stereotypical romantic view of the Wandervogel
movement. How gender really fit into the early Wandervogel experience,
however, warrants reexamination.
If any of the original Wanderv6igel had been asked at the time what they
were doing and why, gender would probably not have come up at all. To be sure,
they assumed only male participation - but an informal group of friends from
an all-male Gymnasium would quite naturally consist entirely of boys. They
talked about growing into men, but boys' talk of growing into men was hardly
limited to the Wanidervogel. In any case, in an all-male society, this was

synonymous with growing into adults.
The next few years, however, brought some surprises. The synonymity
of human and male had already been weakened by the turn of the century, and
as many Wanderv& gel broke out of the intellectual vise that equated Wanderv6 gel
with boys, adults with men, they dropped the assumption of an all-male
WandervogeL. But as some Wandervogeidropped this assumption, others declared
that the Wandervogel was in fact a specifically male, not a human, experience.
In other words, once the non-equivalence of male and human became clear,
Wandervilgel had to figure out what, exactly, they actually had in mind for the
Wandervogel. Thus began the process of formulating gender ideology: fitting the
sexes into one's images of the movement and its purposes and perhaps adapting
one' s ideas of the movement itself.
The masculinist romantics' idea was that the Wandervogel movement

would help them to escape the fate of the men who populated their bourgeois
world, whom many young Wandervigel perceived as weak and pathetic. The
romatics' alternative model was the medieval itinerant scholar, whom they
pictured as a young man, isolated from his society, with an independent intellect
and tormented, exalted spirit.
252
one
GERMAN
STUDIES
REVIEW
Sometimes an extraordinary thi

another. The Wandervogel mov
recognized,
admired,
challenged,
hardened their bodies and spirits ag

wanderings, they sustained the pote
with each other.
Hans Bi1iher, the first historian of the Wandervogel and the main voice
of the romantics, considered such groups of exceptional young men, called

Mdnnerbiinde, to be the heart of the movement. In the 19 1 Os, Bliiher opened up
a heated discussion of attachments among members of the Mdnnerbund by

explaining that they were erotic in nature.
Bliiher described eros as a sexual force, not physically expressed, that
attracts and binds men. The members of the only Wandervogel groups Bliiher
considered to be worth discussing - those that were all-male and romantically
insp ired - directed their strongest affection and loyalty toward other young
men and thus experienced the richest, most fruitful type of relationship to be
found. Their energies, unspent on sexual relations with women, were a highly
creative, productive power when reserved for like-minded men.10 Female

intrusion into the Munnerbund was dangerous: women distracted men's attention
and sapped their energies. Although most of these young men would marry,
their most emotionally intimate relationships would continue to be with men.'11
The Mdnnerbund theory neatly tied together youthful discontent with
society and frustration with the family. Bluiher picked up the term Mdnnerbund
from a 1902 book concerning primitive cultures; the author had described the
Miinnerbund as a form of social organization far superior to the family, since
the family was dominated by women. 12 The family, BlUher painfully observed,
was the building block of modern society. And in fact, when romantics spoke
of the battle of the son against the father, they pictured as the father a man
emasculated by domestic, urban society, and forcing his son to follow in his
footsteps.
To youth who had found modern society to be lacking in spirit and
depth, the Miinnerbunid represented not just a group of friends, even an

extraordinary group, but the basis for a whole new society. Romantic Wandervogel
thought often transformed the Miinnerbund from a group of friends whose

heightened spirits elevated them above the banal bourgeois world into an
alternative form of social oranization - perhaps one that would take hold even
outside their own circles.'3 The romantic understanding of the family and
bourgeois society was thus closely intertwined with ideas about masculinity.
Bliiher's account is lent credence by writings and artwork from the
early years of the movement. His books on the Wandervogel movement
provoked much discussion, were reprinted several times within a few years, and
Elizabeth
Heineman
253
were by far the most wide

Not only do they make us
they provide some of the
Later developments, howe

Bliiher's account credibilit
after the First World War (see below), and because certain Nazi rhetoric
resembled Bijiher's, historians have been tempted to define as central those
elements of the Wandervogel movement that had such a striking future.
The publication of Bl1iher's books, however, was actually associated
with a decline in the force of the very romantic masculine ideology it presented.
Bl1iher, who wrote on the subject starting only in 1912, was fighting to save the
Wandervogel he had known at the turn of the century; he was not describing the
Wandervogel of the 19 1 Os or even of the late 1 900s. The public had paid little
close attention to the movement in its earliest days; it now became alarmed by
a description of the Wandervogel that was largely obsolete. Because of the

widespread response to the scandalous contents of Blaiher's books - Bliiher
discussed homosexuality as well as homoeroticism in the movement (see
below) - the author ironically contributed to the flight away from the romantic
masculine ideology that he strove to preserve. Thus while historians have been
most interested in the rise of romantic masculine ideology, we must also study
its fall as well as other trends and opposing ideologies in the movement.
II
Romantic masculine thought was never hegemonous in the Wandervogel.

The Alt- Wandervogel left the WVAfS in 1904 specifically because the WVAfS
was tiring of Fischer's romantic and anti-cultural ideals. The remaining
WVAfS, renamed the Steglitzer Wandervogel eV, enjoyed its rambling while
conforming fairly readily to the world around it. Within the Alt- Wandervogel,
pressure for change soon arose. In 1905, Fischer denied the short-lived Bund
der Wanderschwestern (League of Wandering Sisters) any formal connection

with the Alt- Wandervogel, but many members considered exclusion of girls to
be incompatible with the spirit of the movement. They felt the artificial
segregation of the sexes to be one of society's worst ills - one that the
Wandervogel should revolt against rather than uphold. When a local AltWandervogel group was founded in Jena in March 1906, it admitted girls, who
"harmlessly and cheerfully rambled with our boys, happily sang and played with
us."'1~4 In 1907, the Jena group led the formation of the Wandervogel deutscher
Bund (WVdB) with one of its grounding tenets the equal admission of girls and
boys. Within a couple of years, the WVdB had dozens of groups across
Germany.
254
GERMAN
The
to
the
STUDIES
history
of
REVIEW
the
Wandervogel
is that of th
decline of romantic masculinity. Th
had by 1907 lost whatever illusions
unanimous constituency. During the
attracted an ever-increasing number
certain reformed policies. At the sa
groups with homosexuality resulted
at least cloak romantic masculine
In
First
World
War
1906
leadership
of
the
Alt-
Fischer to Willie Jansen. Jansen, bo

rights movement. Particularly contr
was
his
advocacy
of
"the
Hellenic
younger men.'5 Male homosexuality

of sexuality, the emergence of a hom
scandal.'16
included
The
Alt-
admiration
magnetic
Wandervogel
of
attraction
male
of
beauty,
the
leader.
however, male eroticism seemed to t

and the press began to nickname th
19
10,
after
making
Wandervogel,
to
Jansen
public
had
to
remar
resign.
establish girls' groups, although

Jansen founded the Jung- Wand
Mannerbund
internally
element
about
the
of
romantic
centrality
of
bo
between leader and member. For thi

Wandervogel, and the organization w
groups.
Beginning
in
1912,
Bltiher
publi
Wandervogel in which he described

eros as the glue that bound the Main
had been the real moving force beh
BliJiher, the movement would have
who had been the founders and early

the greatest inspiration for youth.'9
had a sublimated sexual attraction f
the youth movement, since they w

heterosexuals had "no creative or or
No amount of admiration for m
stigma of homosexuality. The publication of Bliiher's books ignited the
Elizabeth
Heineman
undercurrents
changed
of
nature
255
fear
of
that
romantic
acknowledged erotic bonds b

Wandervogel, the A lt- Wand
its romaticism was not "of t
downplaying
close
relationsh
men were no longer centr

through. Segregation acco
towards integration in the A

The Wandervogel moveme
of
homosexuality.
The
sup
increasingly a
The reformed
reformed soc
WVdB had gr
Wandervogel
was
struggli
moderation of Alt- Wanderv

Wandervogel was not enough
Alt-
Wandervdgel
1912-1913,
Wandervogel
eVjoined
Jugendwandern
abstinence
were
two-thirds
from
eV
genu
of
the
(WVeV
adm
and the local option of mixe
Alt- Wandervogel was much
romanticism, but now a refo
membership
public
image
of
of
alcohol,
girls
the
was
the
Wanderv
Some three thousand rep

groups met under the b
level
The
Free
German
movement
interest of
Youth
and reformism.
adults, including
their distance. While the W

formally joined in April 1
tentatively with the Free Ge

to attend the convention. But the half-hearted involvement of important
Wandervogel groups did not prevent the Free German Youth Day, with all its
reformist themes, from being perceived by contemporaries and historians alike
as the crowning glory of the independent youth movement.
III
Wandervdigel and their contemporaries saw a clear move away from

romanticism and towards reform in the movement. But what exactly did reform
mean to Wandervdigel? The relationship between ideology and policy was not
the same for the reformers and the romantics. The romantic masculinists'
Mcdnnerbund ideology was more remarkable than was their rather ordinary
policy of excluding girls. The reformers, by contrast, were more noteworthy for
their unusual policy of promoting mixed-sex organization than for their

ideology, which was ill-expressed and which varied from reformer to reformer.
The reformed policy of including girls was supported by Wandervdigel who held
a wide variety of ideas about the sexes, including some who preferred the
Mdnnerbund when they turned their attention to the male WandervogeL But
although reformers shared no single, well-expressed ideology, the policy of
including girls went hand-in-hand with distinct visions of the Wandervogel, the
sexes, and social change.
In their impulse to reform society, many Wanderv5gel reflected the
broader Lebensrefornn (Lifestyle Reform) movement, which included such

varied objectives as vegetarianism, nudism, and abstinence from alcohol and
tobacco. Lifestyle reformers held strict conventions concerning relationships
between the sexes responsible for such corruptions as promiscuity and prostitution.
Normal romance could not develop, and healthy, platonic friendships between
the sexes were made absolutely impossible. Wandervogel reformers further
objected to the myriad of restrictions placed on girls and women, although their
concern was less for political, legal, or economic inequality than for the limited
lifestyle permitted girls. A reformed society would require a new type of woman
as well as a new type of man.
A smaller number of reformist Wandervilgel expressed a liberalfeminist bent. Their concerns were equal access of girls and women to various
institutions, in this case the Wandervogel organizations. Girls and young women
in the Wandervogel (or trying to get in) were inspired less by fear of corruption
than by sheer frustration at their limited opportunities. Lifestyle reformers' and
feminists' concerns may have differed, but for both groups one step towards
solving the problems they perceived was admission of girls to the WandervogeL.
Advocacy of female participation in the movement was enough to

identify one as a reformer, no matter what one's other views - about the sexes
or about anything else. The basic liberal impulse for equal access also expressed
itself in the opening of some groups to students outside the Gymnnasien. It did
not imply any unanimity of belief in the intrinsic equality or appropriate roles
of the sexes, nor did it mean that policies concerning boys and girls would be
uniform.
Elizabeth
Heineman
number
of
257
ideas
regar
person of Hans Breuer.

became a founder of the WVdB in 1907 and its national leader in 19 10. Breuer
One
was both romantic and reformist. He believed that the Mcdnnerbund was the
male Wandervogel experience, but he also favored equal access for girls since
girls too might enjoy membership, and he encouraged certain mixed activities
to promote greater comfort between the sexes. But if male Wanderv6gel formed
a Mcdnnerbund, girls benefited not from a new type of community but from the
practice for womanhood they received in the Wandervogel. In contrast to the

boys, who honed their "strength of deed" (Tatkraft) and built their will and
character in the open air, girls learned household skills and economy in their
little homes in the woods and developed grace from dancing and games. Thus
separate trips were the ideal. Breuer's compromise among the various options
for Wandervogel practice - mixed groups with separate wandering and an

understanding of a somewhat different purpose for boys and girl S22 - became
the most common Wandervogel practice.
Certain lifestyle reform and feminist goals, however, required a more
thoroughgoing mingling of the sexes, and mixed wandering would be the way
to achieve this in the Wandervogel. Many lifestyle reformers' vision of reformed
relations among young people of both sexes was comradeship (Kameradschaft):
friendship between equals that was based on common experience and was free
of sexual overtones. Many hailed comradeship as a new type of relationship that
paid girls and boys a good deal of respect, allowed both sexes to enjoy each
other's company and learn from each other without inhibition, and refused to
accept society's obsession with sex. Critics within the reform movement
contended that support for comradeship necessitated burying one's head in the
sand and pretending that sexuality not only did not exist but was not in fact at
the top of every adolescent's mind.
Thanks to the asexual notion of comradeship, the daring idea of mixed
activities proved far from scandalous in practice. In fact, many outsiders

worried that the reformist notion of comradeship harmed Wandervdgel by
failing to prepare them for their later sexual liveS.23 Male Wandervdigel, even
from mixed groups, had a reputation of being shy and uncomfortable with
young women and for failing to develop romantic relationships with women
until rather late.2 At the same time, all-ml ruswr fe hne

because of their association with homosexuality. Oddly enough, then, all-male
groups were too sexual while mixed groups were not sexual enough. Not only
was the fomerly unthinkable - mixed activities - now thinkable, it was in fact
preferable to all-male organizations. The history of the Wandervogel movement
suggests a relationship between growing fears of homosexuality and diminishing
fears of heterosexuality.
258
GERMAN
STUDIES
REVIEW
Despite comradeship's limitations, many considered it to be a

tremendous advance, especially for women. For the first time, young women
and young men could interact in something other than a sexual way. Also for
the first time,, women had a role in society other than that of a sexual being.2
The youth movement was a refuge for those young women who found it
necessary to flee a primarily sexual identity because they hoped to make
professional lives for themselveS.26 Elizabeth Busse-Wilson, quoted at the

beginning of this paper, felt that the youth movement, and not the feminist
movement', would bring the emancipation of women. Feminists' efforts for
greater female employment were limited as long as they failed to tackle the
social and psychological issues that lay at the heart of the youth movement.7
As Wandervogel reform matured over the years, then, internal differences
about goals and policies crystallized. A great many reformers and feminists
were devoted t'o the principle of equal access: girls should have the opportunity
to participate in the Wandervogel. An entirely separate organization, such as
that shunned by Fischer in 1905, would have been a step in the right direction;
certainly separate groups within one national organization provided access.

Feminists and lifestyle reformers who wanted to nurture girls' independence
from the family could also find a great deal of satisfaction in such groups.
For other reformist goals, mixed activities were necessary. Lifestyle
reformers who wanted to nurture a new kind of relationship between the sexes
considered mixed groups to be mandatory. Girls and boys would not become
more comfortable with each other just because they belonged to the same
organization; they had to do things together. Many feminists felt that emancipation
would come only when women were personally known to men in some way
other than as a sexual or domestic being. Equal access - to the Wandervogel

or to the workplace - would not do it. For these feminists, too, mixed activities
were the key to reform.
In the groups themselves, however, there was one important difference
between girls and boys: males were the norm and females the exception. This
was not just a matter of numerical proportion; it was a matter of definition.
These were male groups with membership privileges extended to females.
Sometimes girls participated fully with boys, sometimes not. Despite feminists'
involvement in Wandervogel debates and their role in gaining admission for
girls, groups that included girls adopted the policy that contributed best to the
currently preferred male experience. If that experience was the Mannerbund, it
was preserved via segregated groups or activities; if it was moderate interaction
with girls, the groups adopted certain mixed activities; if it was radically
changed relations with girls, boys and girls might camp together. Romantics'
fears to the contrary, the female presence could not shatter a particular male
experience against male wishes.
Elizabeth
Heineman
259
Girls
in reformist Wander
by their elders, but
about maleness nearly always
Wandervogel identity. In his
wandering, Hans Breuer contr
girls learned household skills
deed" as well as their wills an
definition
a girls' leader, opposed Breuer

the development of will and c
if boys wanted to create a ne
female wandering.9 In the atm

war, girls typically defended
that they were every bit as ro
same need to go out to the m
Girls' purpose in the Wande
boys';
female
their
social
impossible
The
to
notion
depended
Only
female
explain,
of
on
in
to
or
mi
girl
independe
unique
female
assimilation.2
groups
Wanderv&gel
movement
first
participation
mission;
for
enjoy
where
ac
really
try
themselves.
groups
in
Pre
which
practiced complete segregatio

wander together, but beginnin
trips,
not
at
group
meetings,
was that girls would not inter

well have succeeded..In the m
which
female
members
wou
practical assistance. Girls in f

high degree of organizational
unique feminine style.33 Obse
the girls' groups, remarking t
natural feel to the relationsh
groups.3
In
the
meantime,
expended much energy in obt

mixed-sex surroundings, gain
The Deutscher Mddchei- Wanderbunid (DMW), founded in 1914,
accomplished intentionally what female Jung- WandervZigel had received

somewhat by default. The DMW strove, quite purposefully, to offer a richer
community, based on unique bonds among members of one sex, than one could
presently find in mixed society.35 Th
to the Mannerbund. Although the DM
did not theorize at length about them o
At the same time, the DMW enjoy

than did the female Jung- Wandervo
autonomy was felt within the local g
leaders still had to argue for such act
national leadership thought risky or
women.36 Perhaps even more suggesti
connection whatsoever to the male Wa
to different subjects entirely. While
and taken for granted, an increasing a
as the value of housework and women
The Wandervogel, then, could serve a

IV
The war-time Wandervogel saw an

had begun before the war. As male W
places were filled by young women

Female Wandervilgel increased not
visiblity and their power as they too
level. The nature of Wandervogel act
Wandervogel groups turned their atten
scrap materials, and at-home paramil
useful activities as relatively tame;
increased female presence, but all the

front" (Heimatfront): literally domes
the area in which it was safe to trav
had been favorite destinations) contrib

but disgruntled members often point
relative inexperience in wandering.38
precisely the domestic society Wander
to escape. For all romantics' disconten

now gained a genuine power of defini
was associated with them. Female me
were growing but also that their Wa
Wandervogel, where girls had been e
By the end of the war, the Wand

dramatic changes. In January 1920, 1
female.39 The new demography of th
Elizabeth
Heineman
261
women in the Wandervog

returning from war. The
along quite a different path
Most Wanderv6gel had g
movement largely dropped
it still retained in early 19
been
intensely
patriotic
Patriotism aside, a great E

banality and seeming aiml
romantic Wanderv5igel. Ge
previously had to lavish o
Male
Wandervdigel
Mannerbund.
Before
ex
the
wa
had been able to experienc
wilderness; now all German men would be brothers in the equally intense
experience of battle. Some Wandervdigel were disappointed in their German
brothers; the behavior of the average soldier disturbed their sense of propriety.
They had expected war to be a noble experience, but it now seemed that their
lower-class compatriots were somehow defiling it. To be fair, many came to the
conclusion that it was war itself that was not all they had hoped, but even those
who came to abhor war longed for a feeling of closeness to those around them.
In a way, the trench experience confirmed many Wandervo gel's

feelings of alienation from mundane society. The Wandervogel made its first
literary appearance in the war-time book Der Wandererzwischen beiden Welten:
Ein Kriegserlebnis (The Wanderer Between Two Worlds: A Tale of War).40 Ernst,
the Wandervogel character, is different from other soldiers. His battle experiences
are somehow vague; he shows up in far sharper relief when he reads (the New
Testament, Goethe, and Nietzsche), recites poetry (which he memorized to
prepare himself for tough times) and bathes (he has an admirable physique). But
he is not just a dreamer; he is a leader. He commands his platoon and is killed
in battle.
Now the young man elevating himself above the common folk was an
isolated, heroic soldier rather than a medieval vagrant scholar. Post-war
Wanzdervogel legendry largely forgot disillusionment with other soldiers and
with war. Instead it recalled the masculinity and daring of the soldier.
War thus gave masculine romanticism a new lease on life while at
home it accelerated the changes associated with reform that had begun before
the war. Glorification of soldiering, regret for the lost pre-war world, and
disappointment with the republic often meant a desire for the old romantic
Wandervogel - the Wandervogel of myth, if not of memory. In the meantime,
the absence of men during wartime and the shattering of any ideas of a pristine
women's world made mixed-sex W
women preparing for an expanded so

war thus saw the battle over female
After the war, the Alt- Wandervog
the WVeV fell apart, largely over th

would be incorrect, however, to inter
the "true" Wandervogel was the roma
the century. Antipathy towards fem
from the misogyny of 1900.
The Alt- Wandervogel moved quic
"domesticating" influence of the war
redefine itself as an organization for i
Wandervogel had rid itself of older v
and had chosen a new, strong leader.
female membership.
The dynamic new leader of the Al
a mixed-sex university organization d
male Alt- Wandervogel. It is possible t
boys and girls a different matter f
university level; or perhaps he, like m
organization after the war where he h
the Alt- Wandervogel, however, oppo
Buske apparently felt some appreh
leaders on the issue, scheduled for A

Early in 1920, the Alt- Wandervog
had voted to merge and join the nation
on removing girls before the Rhinela
a mixed-sex Alt- Wandervogel, cou

girls' leader was ill and absent from
country did not know what was goin

were sequestered in a room several da
the division, and given arguments th
they returned home to their groUpS.4
continue as leader if the vote went
Wanderv& gel were all too aware of th

WVeV (see below).44 Immediately bef
it be postponed until the girls' groups
division.45 The delay was rejected, th

were given two months to decide wh
female members or to leave the nation
Elizabeth
Heineman
263
leave, including seven from

his way, but it is hardl
the general sentiment of t
got
The demise of the WVeV after the war had as much to do with
administrative confusion as with the issue of female membership, which on th

surface seemed to be a revival of the classic divisive issue. While several local
groups pressured for an all-male WVeV, the national leadership was tied up
with critical organizational issues. Among these was the question of the proper
reformed way to deal with such a dissenting minority. Although the national
leaders favored female participation, commitment to the important reform
principle of local autonomy led them to permit local groups to make their own
decisions on the matter.48 Local groups that desired an all-male Wandervogel,
however, no longer felt that such an organization demonstrated the true
Wandervogel spirit, and they withdrew in October 1 920.49 The leaders of the
remaining WVeV spent the next two years trying to agree on some form of
government and on what the relationship between local groups and the national
organization should be. Finally they decided that the best relationship was none
at all , and in 1922 they dissolved the national WVeVi50The 1920-1922 WVeV
had assumed a mixed membership, and after 1922 local groups continued their
activities with or without female members, but the demise of the WVeV as a
national organization left the now all-male Alt-Wandervogel as the largest and
apparently representative expression of the Wandervogel spirit. The new youth
groups that overshadowed the Wandervogel in the 1 920s inherited the mantle
of the youth movement but failed to intergrate girls with even the limited
success of the WandervogeL.
V
The bumpy history of female membership in the Wandervogel raises

several questions. How did these youth, with their great concern for selfdefinition, define themselves as male and female? What sense can we make of
the path the Wandervogel took on gender: the early emergence of romantic
rhetoric, the growth of reformism before the war, and its sudden crash
afterwards? And finally, did the movment's discussion of gender have any
significance outside the movement itself?
The first Wandervogel felt little need to establish a gender identity:
youth were male; Wanderve5gelwere boys. When girls tried tojoin the Wandervo gel,
they disturbed the boys' new-found sense of lofty uniqueness. Male Wanderv6rgel,
whose activities announced their difference from children and adults, turned to
ideology to declare their difference from females. Indeed, the Mdnnerbund
264
GERMAN
STUDIES
REVIEW
theory was intensely defensive. It d

females, thus illustrating a very re
fear of adolescent girls and many m
Misogynist
them.
would
romantics
holding
be
high
hard
made
for
office,
girls
it
i
based on age (and nationality) alone
aim at a more gender-neutral society
the movement and identify themsel
gender. Nevertheless, androcentric v
wanderings and different activities
meant that even reform was imple
Female Wanderv6igeI could attai
in two ways. Separate female group
female Wandervogel, whether the s
First World War, girls acquired a ge
Female Wandervdgel gained visibilit
by
It
and
to
ident
Wandervogel style.
After the war, the difference bet
male groups and female'power in tr

would a resurgent romanticism obj
felt threatened. Reformers may not have defined maleness as carefully as
romantics did, but hidden in reformist practice was a male privilege of

definition. This was particularly the case for the Alt- Wandervogel, which and a
tradition of male definition rooted in its romantic all-male days. Even though
many members of both major groups continued to support the principle of equal
access, then, those for whom control was an essential part of maleness had
reason to put up a much tougher fight after the war.

If we expand our view to include German bourgeois society as a whole,
we can see the Wandervogel experience as a test- case of reform. The Wandervogel
was a mixed-sex group that agreed on the need for change and tried reform in
a practical manner in a forum in which they were more-or-less autonomous. We
have few such groups to observe. The history of the Wandervogel can partially
answer the questions: What might have been the practical results of reform if
reformers had had the opportunity to try out their reform with a sympathetic
population, and how would reformers themselves have felt once they saw some
of their ideals put into practice?
We see several simultaneous impulses: the development of new gender
roles, the liberation of girls and women from the family, the dedication to liberal
principles of equal access, the discovery of self-definition for girls, the defensive
strengthening of a powerful male identity, the desire for male control even
within new gender definitions. All of these impulses had their origins in
Elizabeth
Heineman
265
Wandervdigel's larger societ

faded. This vast array of id
minds of young Wanderv&g
which members could agree
This wealth of possibili

itself a lesson leamned.
gender a fixed and persona
was
them
that gender was malle

and highly political. This w
proponents of newer ideas
regarding the sexes had soci
favored
schema
eventually
find
was
only
language
fo
gender: feminine." Elizabe

when she declared that the
women,
youth
but her evaluation o

movement discussed
would like to express my than

especially Konrad Jarausch, al
Research Grant from the Depar
Chapel Hill supported a portion
I Elizabeth Busse-Wilson, Die

Jugendverlag Adolf Saal, 192
2Membership
figures from We
Die Wandervogelzeit(Dfisseldo
2"), pp. 231, 1075-1076; Rudo
Jugendverbdnde (Frankfurt: d
Wandervogel und Freideutsche
247.
3Howard
George
Becker,
Mosse,
Grosset
and
se-
an
it
is
German
The
Crisis
Dunlap,
attempt
1964).
to
You
of
Ge
Mos
locate
po
He is thus perhaps justified i

Nevertheless, his partial exam
for many English-language re
4Harry Pross, Jugend Eros Po
blaue Blume des Wandervogels
(reprint ed. Heidenheim an de
Wolf.
5Jakob
Muiller,
(Zulrich:
Die
Europa
Jugendbew
Verlag,
1971
266
GERMAN
STUDIES
REVIEW
1945 (NY: St. Martin's Press, 198 1). Many books in this and the previous group
acknowledge the admission of girls without allowing this to interfere with their portrayal
of an essentially male experience.

6George Mosse, Nationalism and Sexuality: Respectability and Abnormal Sexuality in
Modern Europe (NY: Howard Fertig, 19 85). Ulrich Linse does examine male and female
sexual reform in the movement. Ulrich Linse, "'Geschlechtsnot der Jugend.' UJber
Jugendbewegung und Sexualitdit," in "Mit uns zieht die neue Zeit "Der Mythos Jugend, ed.
Thomas Koebner, Rolf-Peter Janz, Frank Trommler (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag,
1985), pp. 245-309.

'Walter Laqueur, Young Germany:- A History of the German Youth Movement (NY: Basic
Books, 1962). Two recent dissertations that consider girls in the Wandervogel movement
are Magdalena Musial ,Jugendbewegung undEmanzipation der Frau. Ein Beitrag zurRolle
der weiblichen Jugend in der Jugendbewegung (Essen, 1982) and Marion E.P. de Ras,
Kdrper, Eros und Weibliche Kultur: Madchen im Wandervogel und in der BI3ndischen
Jugend 1900- 1933 (Pfaffenweiler: C entaurus, 19 88). Rosemarie McWhorter-Schade at
the University of Victoria is engaged in a similar project at the time of this writing. None
of these dissertations were available to me during my research. See also Elizabeth

Heineman, "Gender Identity in the Wandervogel Movement" (Master's Thesis, University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1988).

8Se for example Laqueur, p. 95.
9Kindt vol. 2, p. 1075.
'0Hans Bliiher, Die deutsche Wandervogelbewegung als erotisches Phdnomen (Berlin:
Bernhard Weise, 1914; reprint ed., Frankfurt: dipa Verlag, 1976) (hereafter "Bliiher,
Erotisches Phdnomnen"), p. 53.
" 1Bliiher, Erotisches Phanoinen, p. 1 01.
1 2Heinrich Schurtz, Altersklassen und Mannerbiinde:- Eine Darstellung der Grundfonrnen
der Gesellschaft (Berlin: Georg Reimer, 1902); Hans Bliiher, Die Rolle der Erotik in der
Mdnnlichen Gesellschaft, 2 vols. (Jena: Eugen Diederichs, 1919-1920) (hereafter

"Bliiher, Rolle") vol. 2, pp. 91-92.
' 3Bliiher's writings enjoyed a renaissance in the movement shortly after the war. At that
time, the new structure of the German state and the need to reconstruct the youth
movement in a radically different environment lent particular urgency to the question
of meaningful social structures. It was in this context that Bliiher published a two-volume
work that drew the connection explicitly between the Mdnnerbund and "human state
building" (menschliche Staatsbildung). Bliiher, Rolle.
14 Ferdinand Vetter, "Aufruf an die Alkoholgegner" in Kindt vol. 2, p. 148.
1 'James D. Steakley, The Homosexual Emancipation Movement in Germany (NY: Arno
Press, 1975), p. 43.

1 6Phillip Eulenberg, the Kaiser's closest advisor, was publicly accused as a homosexual
by j'ournalist Maximillian Harden in 1907. Two well-publicized trials followed in late
1907 and early 1909. See especially Isabel Hull, The Entourage of Kaiser Wilhelm HI,
1888-19 18 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), esp. pp. 129-145; for the
homosexual emancipation movement see Steakley.
I 'Becker, p. 66; Stachura, p. 2 8.
1 8Hans Bliiher, Wandervogei Geschichte einerJugendbewegunig (4th ed., Berlin: Bernhard
Weise, 1919) (hereafter "Bliiher, Wandervoger"); Bliiher, Erotisches Phdnomen.
Elizabeth
Heineman
267
19Bliiher, Erotisches Phanom

20Bliiher, Erotisches Phdnom
2'In 1913, the WVeV had 14,2
Wandervogelrs
national
in
be
the
groups
debates
noted
that
2,300.
were
about
See
Ap
much
the
young
sexes
people
the basis of groups' ideologies

among the groups that had lo
town
as a well-known region
Boys and girls often jo
group.
22
Hans
Breuer,
(February
23Some
exactly
191
within
the
the
same
Wandervogel
end
not
"Teegesprdich,
1),
in
Kindt
youth
reason.
movement,
mov
Alt
they
of the war and in the ye

able to alter the directio
Geschlechterfrage derJugen
Laqueur; Linse.
24 Richard Hammer, "Formen
University of Heidelberg, 1924), pp. 7-8; Otto Neuloh and Wilhelm Zilius, Die
WandervogeL Eine empirisch-soziologische Untersuchung der fra hen deutschen

Jugendbewegung (Gdttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 19 82), p. 95; Laqueur, p. 5 8.
25Busse-Wilson, p. 9. The notion that the Wandervogel movement was thus a groundbreaker indicates its class-specificity; working-class girls, for example, could certainly
expect a period of paid labor. This does not, however, lessen the importance of the
experience for bourgeois girls.
26 Busse-Wilson, pp. 86-87.
2'Busse-Wilson, p. 79.
28 Hans Breuer, "Teegesprdich," in Wandervoge4 MonatsschriftfuirdeutschesJugendwandemn,
(February 191 1), in Kindt vol. 2, P. 160.

29Hildegard Wegscheider, "Zum Teegesprdich," in Wandervogel, Monatsschnift fdir
deutsches Jugendwandern (April 191 1) in Kindt vol. 2, pp. 166-167.
30Margret Hahlo, "Die Berechtigung der Mdidels im Wandervogel," in Wandervogel
(1918:1/2), P. 26.
3'B the mid-i 1920s, when it was really too late to matter, female leaders began to
express concern over girls' failure to find their own meaning in the Wandervogel. See for
example Josi von Maydell, "Miidchentreffen des Buindnisses freier Wandervogelgaue

auf dem Ludwigstein," in Derjunge Wandervogel (November 1924), in Werner Kindt,
Dokumentation derJugendbewegung,vol. 3: DiedeutscheJugendbewegung 1920 bis 1933.
Die buindische Zeit (Duisseldorf:- Eugen Diederichs Verlag, 1974) (hereafter "Kindt vol.
3"), p. 144.
12 Heinrich Ahrens and Siegfried Copalle, Chronik der Freien deutschen Jugendbewegung,
vol. 1: Die Wandervogelbiinde von der GriWndung bis zum 1. Weltkrieg (Bad Godesberg:
Voggenreiter Verlag, 1954), p. 52.
33 Kindt vol. 2, p. 186; Else Erig, "Gemeins
(1 916), in Ziemer and Wolf, p. 365.

34 Ziemer and Wolf, pp. 265-266; Otto
Geschichte des Jung-Wandervogels" in
3'See for example Irmgard Schrotel, "M
1919) in Kindt vol. 2, p. 718.
36 See for example Bertha Erdlen, "Vom
Zeitschnift des BundesfiirJugendwandern
Kindt vol. 2, p. 192.

3'Kindt vol. 2, pp. 716-72 1. The DMB
organizations, but it was not insignifica
3 8See for example Henniges- Duve, "An
39Kneip, p. 29. In 1912,28 of 220 local Al

vol. 2, p. 108 1.
40Walter Flex, Der Wanderer zwischen

Gesammelte Werke (9th ed. Munich: C.
41' Der Alt-Wandervogel schrumpft weit
vol. 3, p. 50.
42 Ernst Buske, (no title), in Bundesmitt
43 Lydia Neubauer, "RUickschau auf Bad

44Neubauer, in Kindt vol. 3, p. 52.
4'Ernst Buske, "Bundeswoche in Bad Sac
vol. 3, p. 47.
46 Ernst Buske, (no title), in Bundesmitteilung (May 1920), in Kindt vol. 3, p. 50.
47 Ernst Buske, "Emn Jahr nach Lauenstein," in Bundesmitteilung (July 1920), in Kindt vol.
3, p. 5 1; "Der Alt-Wandervogel schrumpft weiter," in Bundesmitteilung (July 192 1), in

Kindt vol. 3, p. 54.
48Werner Kindt, "Ludwigslust: Kleymann will den 'Freundschaftsbund,"' in Unser

Wollen (October 1920), in Kindt vol. 3, pp. 93-94; Kindt vol. 3, p. 88; "Beschliisse einer
Fuihrerbesprechung auf dem Bremer Jugendtag," in Unser Wollen (October 1920), in
Kindt vol. 3, pp. 95-96.
49Hermann KUigler and Horst Mehnert, "An die Fuihrer und Scholaren in Sachsengau,"
in Sachsenspiegel (November 1920), in Kindt vol. 3, pp. 96-97.
50Unofficial protocol of the meeting for the dissolution of the WVeV, "Bundesversammlung
zu Merseburg" (1 922), in Kindt vol. 3, p. 107.
Appendix I:
Evolution of Wandervogel Groups
HansdBrvoelAuerch(1910) Ectlrartns WAnkam (109
StgizrWandervogel eV (VV Alt-Wandervogel AV

Edmund Neuendisrffr(1913)
Wandrvoel,deutscher Mundce (WdAtW
Hans reuer(1 9 14-1918)Aklm 199
Wandervoglt eV devoAltun-Wandervogel JV
Committe includngMehnkert ErstBuke(119
Disluind intoglocl groupseV Alt-Wandervogel lclgop

(1922)dErnstnBuske (1920) (11920
Appendix HI:
Membership of Wandervogel Groups
Alt-Wandervogel:
December
1909
4,141
members
October 1912 15,000 members

1913
5,300
members
January 1920 3,000 members

1,1I00 girls
1,900 boys
Wandervogel, deutscher Bund (WVdB):

December
1911
8,136
members
Jung-Wandervogel:
April
191
1,076
members
April 1912 1,937 members ? leaders*

1913 2,300 members ? leaders*
Wandervogel, (WVeV):
1913
*"Leaders"
1912
and
14,200
are
1913
the
members
leaders
figures
for
of
the
are included in the counts.
Sources: Kindt vol. 2, pp. 231, 1075-1076; Kneip, p. 29; Ziemer & Wolf, p. 247.
ind
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German Studies Association

Gender Identity in the Wandervogel Movement

Gender Identit in the

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

and the Free German communities, is relatively unaware of its extraordinary

250 GERMAN STUDIES REVIEW

One important exception to this

But institutional strife rather than

gender might aid our analysis of the multi-layered influence of gender on

Starting in 1896 in Steglitz, a Berlin suburb, groups of informally

limited to the Wanidervogel. In any case, in an all-male society, this was

The masculinist romantics' idea was that the Wandervogel movement

and tormented, exalted spirit.

Sometimes an extraordinary thi

hardened their bodies and spirits ag

of the romantics, considered such groups of exceptional young men, called

a heated discussion of attachments among members of the Mdnnerbund by

creative, productive power when reserved for like-minded men.10 Female

depth, the Miinnerbunid represented not just a group of friends, even an

thought often transformed the Miinnerbund from a group of friends whose

were by far the most wide

Later developments, howe

a description of the Wandervogel that was largely obsolete. Because of the

Romantic masculine thought was never hegemonous in the Wandervogel.

der Wanderschwestern (League of Wandering Sisters) any formal connection

Fischer to Willie Jansen. Jansen, bo

younger men.'5 Male homosexuality

however, male eroticism seemed to t

establish girls' groups, although

between leader and member. For thi

Wandervogel in which he described

who had been the founders and early

the youth movement, since they w

acknowledged erotic bonds b

men were no longer centr

towards integration in the A

moderation of Alt- Wanderv

Some three thousand rep

their distance. While the W

tentatively with the Free Ge

256 GERMAN STUDIES REVIEW

Wandervdigel and their contemporaries saw a clear move away from

their unusual policy of promoting mixed-sex organization than for their

broader Lebensrefornn (Lifestyle Reform) movement, which included such

Advocacy of female participation in the movement was enough to

person of Hans Breuer.

practice for womanhood they received in the Wandervogel. In contrast to the

for Wandervogel practice - mixed groups with separate wandering and an

activities proved far from scandalous in practice. In fact, many outsiders

until rather late.2 At the same time, all-ml ruswr fe hne

Despite comradeship's limitations, many considered it to be a

professional lives for themselveS.26 Elizabeth Busse-Wilson, quoted at the

certainly separate groups within one national organization provided access.

other than as a sexual or domestic being. Equal access - to the Wandervogel

a girls' leader, opposed Breuer

female wandering.9 In the atm

practiced complete segregatio

was that girls would not inter

practical assistance. Girls in f

expended much energy in obt

accomplished intentionally what female Jung- WandervZigel had received

260 GERMAN STUDIES REVIEW

presently find in mixed society.35 Th

to the Mannerbund. Although the DM