THE YOUTH MOVEMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20958, 22 August 1931, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE YOUTH MOVEMENT.

YOUNG GERMANY.

BY K OTA TIE.

The German Youth Movement was a spontaneous unorganised protest on the part of the young men and women of Germany against the mechanisation and materialisation of life apparently inseparable from the conditions of modern industry. No one seems to havo started it; it rose of its own accord hero and there throughout the Fatherland, an instinctive expression of values embedded deep in the German character. Once again the ancient word of wisdom justified itself—" man shall not live by bread alone." Germany was organised throughout with an almost desolating efficiency, means being perfectly adjusted to tho desired ends; and she 'was reaping in those pre-war days the reward of her efficiency in an unexampled prosperity. But the more serious of the German youth were not satisfied. There was something vital being omitted. They were not quite sure what it was, but they were sure it was important. Man could easily become 100 civilised. He could rely so much on what the social organisation could give him that he would lose the power to stand alone. Ho would be so dependent on the stays and props of industrialised society that the natural and finest reactions to the wonderful world around him would be weakened and ultimately lost. He would count less and less as an individual and more and more as a mere cog in the wheel of a vast mechanism. A Protest. Germany was in particular danger of such a development. In the year of the Franco-Prussian War ninety-five per cent, of the population of Germany lived outside the great cities. The twentieth century opened with twenty per cent, of the people living in the great industrial centres, and the flow of population was steadily from the fields to the factory. Besides, the German Kultur emphasised the claims of the State against individual self-assertion. The development of industry and the official aims and attitudes of mind reinforced each other. Both insisted on the suppression of individuality, and ou efficiency through mechanisation. ' But there came to many of the young men the conviction that the highest values for man could not be achieved without a constant return to nature and the soil. Civilisation could do much, but nothing could make up to man the loss inevitably caused by his divorce from lake and river and mountain and green I field. The city streets, the crowded tenement, the clamorous demands of office and factory and lecture room, met and satisfied only one side of man's rich nature, and that the manufactured side, the artificial side. There were deeps In him that only the open spaces could satisfy. Man must adjust bis standards by continual contact with nature. So they sot out in small groups, these young men and women, to feel the thrill of the open road, and the wind on the heath, and the wide sky above them, and the mystery of a night of stars. " Wandcrvogel " they called themselves; migratory birds, if you will. They bad not any clear idea, perhaps, of what they were seeking a remedy for, and they were not very definite if you asked them what they thought this contact with nature would give them. But they set on foot a movement that has done much to pour new ideals into post-war Germany, and even to mould many of her most characteristic institutions. The Open Road. That man can restore his soul in intimate touch with nature has been a commonplace with English poets since Coleridge and Wordsworth raised in their characteristically English way the Rousseau slogan, " Back to Nature." Dip anywhere into our poetry and you will find it. Take Stevenson fighting his losing battle with disease but seeing all the clearer for that: Give to me the life I love. Let the lave g<p by me, Givo the jolly heaven above, And the byway nigh me. Bed in tho bush with stars to see. Bread I dip in the river— That's the life for a man like me, That's the life for ever. And Walt Whitman bad bugled the same note incessantly across the Atlantic: Allons! "Whoever you are, come travel with me! Travelling with me you find what never tires. The earth never tires, The earth is rude, silent, incomprehensible at first. Nature is rude and incomprehensible at first. Be not discouraged, keep on, there aro divine things well enveloped, I swear to you there aro divine things more beautiful than words can toll. Allons! We must not stop here.

However sweet these laid-up stores, however convenient this dwelling, we cannot remain here. However sheltered t.hib port and however caltn these waters, we must not anchor hero, . However welcome the hospitality that surrounds us, we are permitted to receive it but a little while. There is something in man that makes him want to break the hard and fast patterns which the conditions of modern life tend to fix upon hiin. Deep down we loathe patterned living. The highway gives an escape. Perhaps something still remains from nomadic ancestors who in the days before history had dawned folded their tents at their own sweet will and moved ori to the far horizon. Results.

So in increasing numbers (lie youth of Germany shouldered knapsacks and took to the road. They found to their infinite delight that the old Germany of song and legend still lived in forest and mountain. They joined in the old folk songs and dances. They bathed their spirits and took new strength and vision in the atmosphere of a simpler, happier Germany. They came back renewed in mind and soul. They had come close to reality, or so it seemed to them, as they could never have come in study or office or factory. Mountain and meadow and forest had ministered to them.

A young New Zealander paying his first visit "to Germany a few months ago writes that the Youth Movement is the most hopeful thing he has seen there, and this though it is not an organisation but a spirit. In England and Scotland it has by its inspiration led to the formation on a steadily increasing scale of hiking parties. The latest Scottish papers report the opening of several hostels in different parts of the country for the cheap accommodation of trampers who are finding health and poise and a great comfort in hard times in copying the German example. Tn Germany the young people themselves, sometimes assisted by the Government, have built and equipped Youth Shelters all over the country where a bed can be had for from twopence halfpenny to fourpence halfpenny a night. Tramping under these conditions can be financed on an outlay of less than a shilling a day. Hiking has become a national enthusiasm. The schools of Germany must organise one hiking expedition a month for all pupils. The smaller children are not taken far, but the secondary pupils must go for a tramp that will cover anything up to a fortnight. The universities have also taken up the movement as a recognised part of their college course. " The results of the Youth Movement in our national life have been enormous " that was the considered opinion of Dr. Ludwig Mueller in his report to the Educational Conference at Vancouver.