From its negative stand, as represented by the impetus behind the antisemitic movement, the students immediately proceeded to positive goals, as the January 18th celebration and their profession of loyalty to Bismarck clearly proved. On account of this, they were in full agreement with the professorial staff of the university. During the first summer semester, the soul of the association was Diederich Hahn, a student of Frisian-Hanoverian descent who had already fulfilled his compulsory military service at the age of 18, and who now, at age 20, was in his fourth semester. Students from all faculties joined the association, predominantly law and history students, but soon theologians joined as well – and in particularly large numbers, at that. Among them, the Christian Socialist Friedrich Naumann stood out. German-Russians, especially Kurlanders, and Schleswig-Holsteiners also adhered particularly closely to the association, which was 116 members strong during the first summer semester. It made its public debut on May 15th on the occasion of the Reading Hall elections, where it managed to get all its candidates elected. On June 17th, at the suggestion of Hahn and Naumann, it organized its first academic lecture evening with Court Preacher Stoecker, who spoke on “Great Times, Great Tasks” in front of more than 1,000 students. When word spread of the Czech riots against German students in Prague, the association convened a general student meeting chaired by Hahn, who pointed out that, as one of Prague’s affiliated universities, Leipzig should devote twice as much interest to the events happening there. Thus, a sense of national solidarity with Germans living in what was then Austria was also part of the Leipzig group’s world of ideas and emotions. At the final Kommers on August 1, 1881, Hahn spoke of the ideals of the young students: “They are Germandom [Deutschtum] and Christianity. They are the powerful roots of our strength.” In response to the greetings conveyed in that day’s telegram, Bismarck wired the encouraging words quoted at the outset of this essay.
Thus, the goals and tasks of the Leipzig Association of German Students in its founding year emerge clearly for us: the German Reich and, additionally, a connection to German popular customs and traditions that transcended borders in the East and the South, Germandom without state borders, Christianity as the innermost refuge, and the social question as a task whose solution stood to influence the welfare of Germans in the future, as did the insights gained along the way.
Hahn had concentrated most of his energy on preparing the first Kyffhäuser Festival, which was a complete success, and which ushered in a new chapter in the history of the entire German student body. It was held from August 6th-9th, 1881. Students from all German universities flocked to the festival. Led by the complete band of the 134th Infantry Regiment, a procession of 800 festival participants made its way from the small town of Roßla up to the Kyffhäuser.* In terms of participation, it even exceeded the Wartburg Festival, which had attracted 468 participants back in 1817. High in front of the old castle ruin, Diederich Hahn welcomed festival guests, planting a simple black, white, and red flag firmly in the ground and holding a shiny epée in his right hand. This old Kyffhäuser flag, with its simple bunting and lack of both ornamentation and embroidery, was attached to a rough, black wooden flagpole whose wooden tip had been coated in golden bronze – an appropriate emblem of the plain greatness and serious desire of the founders of our association. It is stored in the V. D. St. as a sacred symbol of the national consciousness that was reawakened among the student body and is carried to every association meeting. At a meeting chaired by Hahn on August 8th, the official representatives of the Associations of German Students formed a cartel at Rothenburg Castle. The Kyffhäuser League of the Association of German Students had come into being.
* The mountain ridge south of the Harz Mountains in Thuringia, where legend places the sleeping Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa – trans.
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