The Reich Academy for Youth Leadership (Reichsakademie für Jugendführung) was a Nazi training institution established in Braunschweig, Germany, to educate and train leaders of the Hitler Youth (Hitlerjugend). The institution is also referred to as Adolf Hitler School for Hitler Youth Leaders.
The academy was built between 1936 and 1939, designed in classical style by architect Erich zu Putlitz. It officially began its activities in August 1939, shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. The academy was intended to professionalize the leadership of the Hitler Youth and strengthen the regime’s influence over young people. However, the outbreak of war in September 1939 disrupted its initial training activities, and the institution’s operations were affected by wartime conditions.
Its main purpose was to prepare full-time leaders for the Hitler Youth organization, and a elite school to train future leaders of the Third Reich, which played a central role in the Nazi regime’s efforts to indoctrinate German children and adolescents. Training combined leadership instruction, physical education, organizational skills, and ideological education based on National Socialist principles, including racial ideology, militarism, and unconditional loyalty to Adolf Hitler. It was used during the war as a training school for the female labor service and Hitler Jugend (BDM), as a Luftwaffe hospital, and finally as a school for disabled soldiers.
The academy building remains an important historical landmark in Braunschweig. Today, the complex houses the Braunschweig-Kolleg and the Abendgymnasium Braunschweig, educational institutions serving adult learners.
Hitlerjugend
The Hitler Youth (Hitlerjugend) was the official youth organization of the Nazi Party in Germany. It was founded in 1926 to indoctrinate young people with Nazi ideology and prepare them to serve Adolf Hitler and the German state. Hitlerjugend was under control of the Reichsjugendführer (“National Youth Leader”). This was the highest paramilitary rank of Hitlerjugend. Reichsjugendführer Baldur von Schirach took office on 30 October 1931 and left on 8 August 1940, he was the longest-serving member of the organization. The second Reichsjugendführer was Reichsjugendführer Artur Axmann, he served from 8 August 1940 until 8 May 1945, he left office when Germany surrendered.
After Hitler came to power in 1933, the organization expanded rapidly. Other youth groups were suppressed or absorbed, and membership became effectively compulsory for many German children and teenagers. In 1936, the Hitler Youth was declared the official youth organization of Nazi Germany and in 1940 had 8 million members.
Boys received physical training, military preparation, and ideological instruction, while girls joined the League of German Girls (Bund Deutscher Mädel), which emphasized physical fitness, domestic skills, motherhood, and preparation for their expected role in Nazi society. During the Second World War, members increasingly supported the war effort through auxiliary duties. Older boys were eventually deployed in military roles, including anti-aircraft units and, in some cases, combat.
The organization collapsed with Nazi Germany’s defeat in 1945 and was subsequently banned by the Allied authorities.
Visit
As previously mentioned, the building is in use and cannot be entered. However, you are free to walk around it and enjoy the architecture.
Sources
- Stadt Braunschweig
- Third Reich in Ruins
- Wikipedia
