The cultural politics of Baldur von Schirach, 1925-1940 / by Christopher N. Koontz

This thesis examines the career of Baldur von Schirach, who headed the National Socialist Students' Union from 1928 to 1931 and the Hitler Youth from 1931 until 1940. As the leader of these Nazi youth groups, Schirach engendered a perception of National Socialism in which he saw the rise of the Nazi state as the culmination of German cultural progress. He attempted to encourage the youth of Germany to accept his idea of cultural struggle through his poetry, speeches, and ideological writings. These works reveal his conviction in National Socialist ideas such as Hitler's personality cult, the abstract idealization of youth as a political force, racism, militant nationalism, and a nihilistic conception of self-annihilating patriotism.