ABSTRACT
New forms of activity and new ideas were developed which were to have a decisive influence upon the whole German youth movement and, in effect, to shape the whole course of its development between 1919 and 1933. Illogically many of the Bunde included separate girls' groups, but these were merely subsidiaries and played no great part in the movement; there was too much talk about fighting, struggle, and battle, and was difficult to imagine a female knight. Life in the youth movement was almost always richer, fuller, and more rewarding than the ideas, speeches, and publications of its leaders. It is necessary to repeat this caution before discussing Martin Voelkel and the other leading spokesmen of the White Knight circle. The heart-searching of the White Knight circle closely reflected the attitudes of the German middle classes in nineteen-twenties. The era of 'White Knight' is likely to be seen as a negative phase in the history of the German youth movement.
