ABSTRACT
On a gloomy day in 1946 a handful of former members of the youth movement gathered in Hesse to exchange wistful memories of the good old days and to ask one another what had become of whom; for in the general state of dislocation, each knew the fate of only a few others. They decided to invite as many old comrades as they could reach to a convention at the Altenburg convent in Hesse, at Whitsun 1947. A surprisingly large number of former leaders and members of the Wandervogel and the BiXnde turned up : all previous differences and distinctions between the various groups had now become meaningless; they sat together as in the old days, telling one another with considerable candour how they had lived through the Third Reich. It was rather like the meetings of the Freideutsche after the First World War, but graver and more chastened in mood: there were no Communists or National Socialists among them; these were all sadder and wiser men than the Wandervogel lieutenants of 1919.
