labor,truancy,and vagrancy laws and to relyonthe youth welfare system as an
instrument of social control (e.g., through state homes andyouth prisons).⁵
Theyoungdemocracies formed after the cataclysm ofWorld WarIoffered
manynew opportunities for translating psychological insights into pedagogical
practicesgeared towardthe children of the workingclass. On 13 November 1923,
the Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft der Kinderfreunde (RAG,Friends of Proletarian
Children) was founded inBerlin as an associationcommitted to the program
of education for democracy.Their goal, in the words of founderKurt Löwenstein
(1885–1939), was the institutionalization of what he called“collective self-con-
fidence”⁶in preparation foraproletarianrevolution. Under his leadership, the
Kinderfreunde became part of an elaborate networkofSPD-affiliated organiza-
tions and publications thatincluded the Sozialistische Arbeiterjugend and the
Vienna-based journalDie sozialistische Erziehung(1921–1934) edited by Otto
Felix Kanitz (1894–1940). Envisioningabetter futurefor working-classyouth
in opposition to bourgeois society and commercial culture, these educators re-
mainedfullyaware of the powerful influenceofold religious traditions and
new massdiversions.To offer an attractive alternative to the Christian rite of Con-
firmation, for instance,the socialists conceivedoftheJugendweiheas asecular
initiation ritual completewith poems, songs, andSprechchöre.⁷As for more
mundaneamusements, socialist educational primers andyouth group manuals
provided detailed suggestions for child-appropriateballgames,singinggames,
and dancing games,published sample programs for successful group events
with enticing lectures and musicalperformances,and gave practical advice on
everything from buildingmaypoles, pennants, and garlands to sewingspecial
banners and uniforms and decoratingyouth club houses.
By the end of the 1920s, more thanone hundred thousand children had
joined Kinderfreunde groups in Germany alone.Theirrecreational activities nur-
tured children’spersonalities in nonhierarchical, antiauthoritarian settingsand
emphasized the experiential quality of socialism asapolitical commitment.Fol-
lowing the model of theirAustrian comrades, the German Kinderfreunde divided
children into different agegroups calledJungfalken (YoungFalcons) und Rot-
falken (RedFalcons); some camps even included toddler groups known as Nest-
falken (NestFalcons).Beginning with the legendary 1927 Children’sRepublic
Forahistorical overview,see Sven Steinacker,Der Staat als Erzieher.Jugendpolitik undJugend-
fürsorgeimRheinland vomKaiserreich biszumEnde des Nazismus(Stuttgart: Ibidem,2007).
Kurt Löwenstein,DieAufgaben der Kinderfreunde(Berlin: Arbeiterjugend-Verlag,1931), 8.
See SiegfriedWolf,“Revolutionär-proletarischeJugendweihen undVorbereitungskurse in den
erstenJahrender Weimarer Republik.Ein Beitrag zurweltanschaulichen Bildung und Erziehung
der proletarischenJugend”(PhD diss., Pädagogische Hochschule Zwickau,1984).
The EmotionalEducation of the ProletarianChild 273