ABSTRACT
Some youth groups in the modern period have done much good, while others have caused a great deal of harm. The idealism, spirit of sacrifice, devotion to one's people, and revolutionary fervor that marked the Burschenschaft have been an inherent part of all youth movements over the last hundred years. It is a mistake to assume that the Fascist youth movements were an exception to this rule and that their members were mainly sadistic, blindly destructive young thugs. The tactics adopted by these youth groups vis-a-vis the universities were the tactics of agitation. Youth movements have always been extreme, emotional, and enthusiastic; they have never been moderate or rational. Youth movements have never been willing to accept the lessons of the past; each generation is always regarded as the first in history, and the young have always found admiring adults to confirm them in their beliefs.
