Teenage Rebellion: The Swing Youth In Nazi Germany

Teenage rebellion is an idea that is not foreign to modern-day society today. But, this is not a new idea; teenagers have had a burning desire to go against conformity and use their “angst” to make a change for quite some time. The Swing Youth in Nazi Germany is a great example of adolescent defiance. It began in Hamburg, Germany in the mid 1930s, and they called themselves the “Swingjugend” making fun of the name for the Hitler Youth, “Hitlerjugend” (“Music and the Holocaust”). These teenagers described themselves as “lottern” which means that they consider themselves as a mixture between happy-go-lucky and sleazy. This idea of rebellion appealed to many teens and thousands joined the swing movement. The Swing Youth wanted to defy Nazi Ideology
The Swing Youth wore American and British fashion instead of traditional German garments. The boys wore double-breasted suits with baggy trousers that had turned-up cuffs, and a fedora to top it off. In the winter, these teenage boys had elaborate overcoats such as civilian trench-coats, camel-hair coats, and even “teddy bear” fur coats. They would also usually be spotted with an umbrella; even if it was not raining, they were more of a status symbol than a functional piece (“Swing Kids”). The girls of the Swing Youth also had a specific style that they wore. Instead of wearing the traditional modest German girl’s fashion, these girls wore “short” skirts or dresses, which were actually just right about the knee, but this was seen as quite scandalous at the time. They would also flaunt fur coats in the winter, that were very Hollywood glamour-esque ("Swingjugend: The Real Swing Kids"). These bold fashion statements were all made to differentiate themselves from the german Hitler Youth. Along with their clothing, the swing kids had untraditional hair and makeup trends that they wore to defy the German government. The boys kept their hair long in the front to blatantly defy the Nazi youth who were forced to buzz the sides of their heads and have very short neat hair. The girls wore their hair in a curled 30s Hollywood style. The traditional German style at the
Hitler referred to jazz music as “jungle music” or “alien music” because is was not German and would disrupt the purity of German society; Hitler said that this music should be eradicated ("Music and the Holocaust"). There was a famous poster/brochure for a Nazi exhibit created in 1938 that said “Entartete Musik” which translates to “Degenerate Music”, referring to jazz (Haas). On the poster, there is a drawing of a black saxophone player who is quite animalistic looking, which greatly shows the social darwinism of the time. Many Germans who were influenced by Hitler actually believed that the Aryan race was far superior to other races; other races were uncivilized and barbaric. The saxophone player is also wearing a star of david on his suit to show that he is Jewish, so that people identify jazz music with Judaism, though many jazz instrumentalists were not Jewish (Entartete Musik Poster). This forbiddance did not hinder the Swing Youth though. They continued to listen to and promote this music even when the government was putting out all of this anti-jazz propaganda; in fact, the propaganda made them have even more of a burning desire to keep jazz alive in Germany. These teens wanted to make sure that they differentiated themselves from the Hitler Youth and jazz/swing music was a very important part of the Swing Youth culture. They would