GHDI logo

Political Guidelines for Party Organizations on Preparing and Implementing the Jugendweihe (1957)

page 3 of 4    print version    return to list previous document      next document


III. Tasks of the party

The leadership of the basic organizations of our party is responsible for the political guidance of the Jugendweihe. That applies especially to the party organizations in schools.

Active help from the offices of the district and county leadership has had a favorable effect on the development of the Jugendweihe in the past few years. For the planning and implementation of the Jugendweihe in 1958, it is recommended that the district and county leadership thoroughly assess the work of the committee for the Jugendweihe, hear reports in their office meetings about the state of the preparatory work by the end of November 1957, and pass the appropriate decrees to improve the political-ideological work for the Jugendweihe. Special help is to be rendered to the committees of the counties, the rural communities, and the activist groups for the Jugendweihe in the enterprises. In many committees for the Jugendweihe, the one-man-job, where it still exists, is to be eliminated, and a collective way of working is to be assured. Through the comrades in the committee for the Jugendweihe, it is to be guaranteed that the celebrations for the Jugendweihe generally take place within the stipulated period, on the last Sunday in March and the Sundays in April. Ideas about only holding the Jugendweihe celebrations after confirmation must be opposed. For participants in the Jugendweihe from places where only a few children currently participate in the Jugendweihe, greater efforts must be made to hold interesting youth lectures and impressive festivities for the day of the Jugendweihe in the MTS sections.

We must succeed this year in forming effective activist groups for the Jugendweihe in all enterprises, especially in the MTS, VEGs [state-owned farms], and LPGs [collective farms]. These activist groups in the workplace are to be given special attention. All districts and counties, following the examples of the districts of Gera and Erfurt, shall carry out enterprise-based conferences of the committees for the Jugendweihe. The party organizations within enterprises, in conjunction with the activist groups, shall recruit experienced and conscious members of the workforce who will provide active help in preparing and carrying out the Jugendweihe, who will make themselves available for designing the youth lectures, and who will be active as youth lecture leaders. In this context, close systematic collaboration is also necessary between the party organizations of the sponsoring enterprises and the sponsored schools. Qualified comrades who are suited for participation in the committees for the Jugendweihe shall be relieved of their social function and freed up to work in the committees.

Proven old comrades should pass on their experiences with the struggle in the youth lectures more vigorously than before, and in this way, they should work on behalf of the Socialist education of our youth. We recommend that the leading party organs of the districts and counties, and the basic organizations, systematically advance – especially in the member meetings of the basic organizations – the previously initiated debates about the problems of the Jugendweihe.

The work of persuasion is to be intensified especially among the leading comrades from the state and economic apparatus, as well as in the social organizations. The district and county leaderships shall see to it that the problems of the Jugendweihe are addressed in the party press, in the district and village papers, and with the help of the radio. Persuasive and educational work is to be supported through lessons from the party cabinets as well as through the relevant treatment during the party study year. In the directives to the party secretaries from the county leadership and in the activist groups within the party, the questions of the Jugendweihe are to be thoroughly debated.

first page < previous   |   next > last page