Kult der Jugend - Kult des Opfers : der Langemarck-Mythos in der Zwischenkriegszeit

Abstract

Youth and Sacrifice. The Langemarck Legend in the Interwar Years?. During the Interwar Period the myth of sacrifice gradually permeated German youth culture, thus transcending the social-cultural barriers of German society. The pervasive heroization of the war dead can be interpreted as a col lective attempt to come to terms with the unprecedented mass killing on the battlefields of World War I, that appeared all the more vain after the German military defeat. The example of the catholic youth organization KJMV illus trates, how committing of - mainly male - youths to the sacrifice of the fallen soldiers became the leitmotif of the organization's youth work. This concomi tantly led to the stabilization and radicalization of heroic and soldierly mascu linity. In this context, central elements of the primarily bourgeois Langemarck