A Study On The Wandervogel Movement In Germany

Culture is the foundation and soul in a country,reflecting the material and spiritual lifestyle.Youth is seen as the hope for the whole country and nation.Attention to the youth can help them to develop and promote social progress.This study is based on a special group,combing the history of the wandervogel movement and understanding the values,outlook and lifestyle about youth,in order to have a reference to the Chinese youth subculture in the period of social transition.It means to be led by young people in the end of nineteenth Century and beginning of the twentieth Century in Germany.Wandervogel movement subverted the social orders,the main forms were pedestrianism,hike,folk music,simple clothes and so on.It is characterized by its marginality,subversion and criticism on the mainstream culture to capitalism at that time.The birth of wandervogel in Germany was mainly influenced by three aspects:social and historical background,ideological and culture background,and educational system.At the end of the nineteenth Century,the way of the German economic,the skill and achievement oriented education laid dangers for the development of German society.Nietzsche's anti-rationalism and the worship to forest made youth want to return to the Middle Ages,and quickly away from the cold and uncertain society.It is the experience of equality,interaction and comfort.The wandervogel movement originated in the medieval wandering handicraft.They trained themselves in practice and found their favorite jobs in the process.The development of wandervogel has experienced the initial,differentiation,decline,restarting stage and so on.The initial stage was mild and not aggressive,young people used romantic lifestyle to show their special style.With the outbreak of World War I,it entered the differentiation stage.At this stage,youth are enthusiastic and radical.German youth are dissatisfied with bourgeois mainstream culture,which was governed by rationalism and technical.They want to vent their discontent through sexual-liberation,alcohol and nudism.However,with the end of the war,the wandervogel movement entered the decline and restarting stage,the hope of the youth was disillusioned,the remnants was integrated into mainstream culture,or the initiative to compromise and quit.The new type of wandervogel movement was retained in romantical,leisure and recreational forms.The subculture phenomenon not only caused great repercussions,but also had a huge impact on the values.From the relationship between the mainstream culture and subculture,this paper analyzes the game between wandervogel movement and mainstream culture at that time,that is,the alienation of the subculture and mainstream culture,and the counter culture which is opposite to the mainstream culture.In this process,the mainstream culture will incorporte subculture with different forms,but the relationship between subculture and mainstream culture are not only incorporation but also compromise.Finally,the article analyzes the enlightenment about wandervogel movement,and points out the development of the youth subculture in China should advocate a new model that is "One principal part guides,the others coexist".In addition,the study calls on that we should pay more attention to the alternative style of youth,and mainstream culture how to coexist with subculture.