They never take no for an answer.' ДЄlthough they rejected the Nazis' authoritarianism, the EdelweiГџpiraten 's nonconformist behaviour tended to be restricted to petty provocations. They are everywhere there are more of them than there are Hitler Youth. According to one Nazi official in 1941, 'Every child knows who the Kittelbach Pirates are. Subgroups of the EdelweiГџpiraten included the Navajos, centered on Cologne, the Kittelbach Pirates of Oberhausen and DГјsseldorf, and the Roving Dudes of Essen. Individual groups were closely associated with different regions but were identifiable by a common style of dress with their own edelweiss badge and by their opposition to what they saw as the paramilitary nature of the Hitler Youth. The first EdelweiГџpiraten appeared in the late 1930s in western Germany, comprising mostly young people between 14 and 18. The EdelweiГџpiraten used many symbols of the outlawed German Youth Movement, including their tent (the Kohte), their style of clothing (the Jungenschaftsjacke), and their songs. Although predominantly male, the EdelweiГџpiraten consisted of both male and female members. This was unlike Nazi youth movements, which were strictly segregated by sex, the Hitler Youth being for boys and the League of German Girls ( Bund Deutscher MГ¤del) for girls. In contrast, the EdelweiГџpiraten offered young people considerable freedom to express themselves and to mingle with members of the opposite sex.

This tension was exacerbated once the war began and youth leaders were conscripted. The origins of the EdelweiГџpiraten can be traced to the period immediately prior to World War II, as the state-controlled Hitler Youth ( Hitler-Jugend) was mobilized to indoctrinate young people, at the expense of the leisure activities previously offered to them.

Pirates 2005 free