ABSTRACT
They regarded themselves as the prophets of the third (‘hellenistic’) age of the youth movement-after the pre-war Wandervogel and the post-war Btinde. For a short but eventful day the figure of Tusk dominated the scene; some called him the only man of genius the youth movement ever produced, others considered him its evil genius, a charlatan engaged in feverish and purposeless activities. He left Germany shortly after Hitler took over and died in East Berlin in 1955, a lonely and forgotten man. Yet the image of the Tusk of 1930 fives on, and passionate disputes about the man and his place in the history of the movement have by no means come to an end even now.
