Nazi Germany saw links between English school prefects and Hitler Youth

Research published in November 2021 showed that the Nazis in Germany were greatly impressed by the prefect system in England’s elite public schools and saw parallels between it and the Hitler Youth. News of the research was covered in many newspapers in Britain, this is from the Daily Telegraph.

Pupils at Eton take part in a traditional military parade in 1932 Credit: Keystone-France

Nazis took inspiration from ‘Fuhrer-like’ public school headmasters

Nazis modelled elite academies on British public schools after being impressed by the “Fuhrer-like” power of headmasters, research has revealed.

SS commander August Heißmeyer was inspired by the hierarchy in Britain’s public schools, and wanted to adopt the model for the “National Political Institutes of Education (NPEA)” he oversaw in the Third Reich.

Exchange trips to the UK left Nazi officials impressed with the “character-training” in schools such as Eton and Harrow, research has revealed, and the “Fuhrer-like” control of headmasters.

The academic position was seen by Heißmeyer as the embodiment of the “Führerprinzip”, a philosophy endorsing Adolf Hitler’s total control on the basis that “the Führer is always right”.

Durham professor Dr Helen Roche, author of The Third Reich’s Elite Schools, said “the public schools’ hierarchical structure” was admired as a model.

She added: “Their training in character-building and heavy emphasis on physical education, above all, their ability to train generations of imperial administrators and leaders, were all seen as potential paradigms for training the future leaders of the Third Reich.”

Between 1935 and 1938 there were exchanges between schools in the Third Reich and public schools, including Westminster, St Paul’s, Tonbridge School, Dauntsey’s School in Wiltshire, and Bingley School in Yorkshire, as well as Eton and Harrow.

Heißmeyer was so impressed with the role of headmaster in these schools that he adopted the title, Anstaltsleiter, rather than use its usual German equivalents Direktor or Rektor.

Dr Roche’s research found that Nazi officials were equally impressed with the system of prefects which accorded with their principle, deployed in the Hitler Youth, that “youth must be led by youth”.

There was also great admiration for the pride that pupils had in their schools and houses, which they carried through in adulthood.  

In a document unearthed by Dr Roche, SS Obergruppenführer Heißmeyer praised the public schools for having “actually managed to educate a consistent type”.

He added: “Even as famous, prominent leaders in public life, these men confess their pride in their Anstalt (institution), [and] appear whenever possible at the annual reunions.”

The admiration went both ways, with George Olive, Dauntsey’s School headmaster, writing in the Thirties: “I found the headmasters of [the NPEA] to be men of wide vision and great practical ability.”

The British, Dr Roche said, were impressed by the “preternatural physical development” of German pupils who managed to match the British on the football field.

However, admiration was not universal, Dr Roche has found, with the Nazis critical of public schools’ “aristocratic exclusivity”, which contrasted with the NPEA’s aim to educate “boys from any background, be they the sons of labourers, farmers, or the lowliest officials”.

Research has shown that the British schoolboys were disturbed by the secular devotion of their German counterparts for the Fatherland, which they praised in “song and recitation” and “salut[ing] the flag with ‘Heil Hitler’ [...] very smart with heels clicking etc”.

British pupils were critical of the Germans taking their singing “so seriously and patriotically” without the “fun and rioting” they were used to.

Dr Roche has written that both sides hoped building friendly relations between their elite youngsters would help both nations in future.

There were eventually 40 NPEA schools across the Reich by 1945.  

The Third Reich’s Elite Schools – a History of the Napolas, is published by Oxford University Press

As published in the Daily Telegraph, 17 November 2021

For more items including Prefects, click here

Traditional School Discipline

Traditionalschooldiscipline@gmail.com