Located at Gendarmenmarkt, 10117 Berlin, the Gendarmenmarkt has often been described as the most beautiful public square in Berlin, but its relationship with the city is complex and fluid, and goes far beyond simply the aesthetic of the buildings, which were designed by famed architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel. Gendarmenmarkt square dates back to the eighteenth-century, and was conceptualized as part of King Friedrick I's (r. 1701-1713) plan for Friedrickstadt, a new quarter of Berlin that housed French Huguenot refugees who settled in Berlin after the Edict of Postdam in 1685.[1] The name Gendarmenmarkt derives from the cavalry regiment Gens d'Armes, who maintained stables at the location until 1773.[2] Since the eighteenth-century, the Gendarmenmarkt existed as a prominent focal point in Berlin, and served as a cultural hub to the city. Located within the Gendarmenmarkt was Gustaf Gründgens's Staatstheater, which was known as the Schauspielhaus, and later two additional stages as well as the German State Opera.[3] During the Third Reich, German theatre fell under the control of Hermann Göring, who is best known as the chief of the Nazi Air Force. Göring ensured that the square became a centre of pro-Nazi, German-nationalist, and anti-Semitic propaganda under the power of the Third Reich.[4] The Gendarmenmarkt catered to the masses, providing light entertainment and distraction in a tempestuous political period. However, in devastation of the Second World War the churches and theatre were badly destroyed. In the immediate aftermath of World War II, the Gendarmenmarkt was put under French Occupation while Germany re-established itself as a democracy. During the divide created by the Berlin Wall, Gendarmenmarkt was absorbed into East Berlin, yet remained recognized as a piece of proud Prussian heritage rather than a symbol of German excess and luxury and even underwent restoration in the early 1980s.[5] Today the Gendarmenmarkt is a popular tourist location, hosting one of Berlin's most popular Christmas Markets annually. However, the square has also become a popular location for protests, including most recently a protest in favour of retaining the European Union.[6] The Gendarmenmarkt is public space shaped by the culture that surrounds it and acts as a mirror to the society that interacted with it, and what it valued.

This destination is the third stop on the Cruel Childhood: the Experiences of Youth Minorities in Nazi Berlin Walking Tour.

While the Gendarmenmarkt was not necessarily the location of any major activism against the Nazi Party, its central location in Berlin, and relative openness makes it a fair location to discuss resistance against the Nazi Party and youth counter culture. Finding a location to discuss these topics is extremely difficult as the majority of the events connected to resistance remained well hidden or underground in order to protect those participating in them. By the In early 1944, the Reich Ministry of Justice released a report on the 'Emergence of Youth Cliques and Gangs', claiming that "since the beginning of the war, and above all since the start of the terror air raids, there has been an increasing number of reports about combinations of young people who are pursuing partly criminal, but also to some extent political and ideological, goals."[7] In other words, youths that did not prescribe to the Nazi ideals of how children, and particularly Aryan children, should behave. The document goes on to describe how these gangs were engaging in sexual relations, staying out past curfew, drinking alcohol and generally disobey the commands of the Nazi Party. Essentially, the Nazi Party feared what it could not control, and responded harshly to these youth gangs, often arresting the more prominent members.[8] While these types of small aggravations against the Nazi Party may not have been considered resistance in the past, In John M. Cox's 2009 monograph, Circles of Resistance: Jewish, Leftist, and Youth Dissidence in Nazi Germany, Cox argues that "any action aimed countering the ideology and policies of National Socialism could be deemed resistance, including those that even without the intention, were nonetheless directed against Nazism."[9] Youth groups did also actively oppose the Nazi Party, such as in the case of the Munich based The White Rose, which openly resisted using posters that called for action. For example, in their last broadsheet they declared: "Germans! Do you and your children want to suffer the same fate that befell the Jews? Do you want to be judged by the same standards as your traducers? Are we to be forever the nation which is hated and rejected by all mankind? No. Dissociate yourselves from National Socialist gangsterism. Prove by your deeds that you think otherwise. A new war of liberation is about to begin."[10] The three leaders of The White Rose were caught in 1943 and symbolically beheaded by the German Gestapo. In Berlin itself, resistance groups responded aggressively and acted violently towards the state, often attacking leaders of the Hitler Youth Organization.[11] Resistance within Nazi Berlin came in different forms, and could range from small actions, to larger forms of protest, which were all equally dangerous to undertake, but undoubtedly shaped the experiences of youth in Berlin.

Additional note: If members of the tour group are interested in further education about youth resistance groups, we recommend they visit the German Resistance Memorial Center at Stauffenbergstraße 13, 10785 Berlin, which was unfortunately too distant to include in route of this walking tour.

Horn, David. 1973. "Youth Resistance in the Third Reich: A Social Portrait," Journal of Social History 7, no. 1 (1973): 26-50

McGrane, Sally. April 2017. "Unite, Unite Europe! A Protest in Favor of the European Union." The New Yorker.

Scholl, Inge. 1955. Die Weiße Rose. Frankfurt am Main and Hamburg: Fischer Bücherei.

Vale, Michel & Hans Heinrich Mahnke. 1982. "The Problem of East Berlin as Capital of GDR." International Journal of Politics 11, no. 4 (1982): 67-96.

[1] "Gendarmenmarkt." The Official Website of Berlin. Last Modified 2019. https://www.berlin.de/en/attractions-and-sights/35...

[2] Ibid.

[3] Peter Conolly-Smith, "'Running with the Hounds': The Nazi Pygmalion." Shaw 35, no. 2 (2015): 195

[4] Peter Conolly-Smith, "'Running with the Hounds': The Nazi Pygmalion," 198.

[5] Michel Vale & Hans Heinrich Mahnke. "The Problem of East Berlin as Capital of GDR." International Journal of Politics 11, no. 4 (1982): 71.

[6] Sally McGrane. "Unite, Unite Europe! A Protest in Favor of the European Union." The New Yorker, April 2017.

[7] Jeremy Noakes, ed., Nazism, 1919-1945, Vol. 4: The German Home Front in World War II. (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1998), 450.

[8] Ibid, 455.

[9] John M. Cox, Circles of Resistance: Jewish, Leftist, and Youth Dissidence in Nazi Germany, (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 2009), 5

[10] Inge Scholl, Die Weiße Rose, (Frankfurt am Main and Hamburg: Fischer Bücherei, 1955), 147.

[11] David Horn, "Youth Resistance in the Third: A Social Portrait," Journal of Social History 7, no. 1 (1973), 37