ABSTRACT
IN June 1904 the body of a boy was found in Berlin Grunewald, and proved, on investigation, to be that of an apprentice who had committed suicide after being maltreated by his master. The case found its way into the Press and provoked a wave of indignation among the organized workers; it was this incident that gave birth to the first apprentices’ and young workers’ association in Germany. The idea of a Socialist youth movement had been in the air for some time; in Vienna there was a fairly sizeable group already in existence; and in Mannheim in South-west Germany, an association of young workers was founded in September 1904 without any such dramatic and tragic stimulus as that which prompted similar action in Berlin.
