The Free German Youth (Freie Deutsche Jugend or FDJ) was a youth movement in Germany, founded in 1936 to oppose Hitler's rule. An underground movement, it was proscribed from its inception, and had its headquarters in exile in various cities—firstly Paris in 1936, then Prague in 1938. After Hitler's conquest of much of Europe, the FDJ was forced, like many other anti-fascist movements, to move to Great Britain, and settled in London.

After the defeat of Hitler in 1945, the FDJ once again became active in German politics. When Germany was partioned into the eastern German Democratic Republic and the western Federal Republic of Germany, supported by the Soviet Union and the United States respectively, the FDJ became the main movement for youths. Because of its prominence in the DDR, the FDJ was constantly harassed by the West German government. In 1951, the government of Konrad Adenauer in the West proscribed the FDJ along with the KPD. In 1952, Phillip Muller, a member of the FDJ, was shot by the West German armed forces in a peace demonstration. Large swathes of the FDJ's membership were imprisoned.

In the DDR, however, the FDJ continued to be a strong movement. After being a member of the Young Pioneers or the Thälmann pioneers, German youths living in the DDR would inevitably join the FDJ.

The movement had as an aim education of the young into Marxism-Leninism, but did not concentrate on this to the exclusion of other activities. It arranged thousands of holidays for young people through its Jugendtourist agency, and even ran discos.

It was a member of the National Front and had representatives in the Volkskammer.

After German reunification under the BRD the organisation lost nearly all its membership, and today exists only in a rump form, sharing a building with the PDS, although not recognised as its youth movement. Legally, the statutes declaring the FDJ an illegal organisation are still in place, although the organisation operates openly.

External link

• Free German Youth (http://www.fdj.de)