The Only True Antifascists: The Competition between Socialist and Religious Youth and Women's Organizations in Berlin-Bradenburg, 1945–49

At the beginning of the Soviet Occupation of Germany, the Soviet military authorities and their German allies in the Socialist Unity Party formed the “official” youth and women’s organizations, the Free German Youth (FDJ-Freie Deutsche Jugend) and the Democratic Women’s Federation (DFD-Demokratischer Frauenbund Deutschlands).  The purpose of these organizations was twofold, to eliminate the Nazi’s racist and militarist indoctrination among German youth and women and, more importantly, to recruit new members to rebuild Germany on “democratic-antifascist lines”, which in reality meant the construction of Stalinist socialism in the Soviet zone.

The chief rivals for the allegiance of women and youths in the Soviet zone were Catholic and Evangelical women’s and youth organizations, which were viewed by both the Soviet authorities and their German allies as a major threat, not only because they were initially more successful in recruiting members but also because they provided an alternative concept of “true antifascism”, rooted in the revival of Christian faith as central to Germany’s recovery from the effects of Nazism.  This essay examines the rivalry between the FDJ and the DFD and religious youth and women’s organizations during the Soviet occupation from 1945 to 1949.  In addition, it also analyzes how the Soviet authorities dealt with this rivalry, and argues the inability of the FDJ and DFD to decisively win over the majority of German youth and women to their cause forced the Soviet authorities to take more drastic measures to prohibit the activities of religious youth and women’s organizations during the later period of the Soviet occupation. This in turn demonstrated the failure of the FDJ and DFD to present themselves as the only “true antifascist” women’s and youth organizations in the Soviet zone.